Advice Time Again - sorry

[p3ryg]

I went for a walk with my daughter today and took some pictures of her - however I am not sure if I have an issue with the AF as when I looked at them it seems her face is out of focus, although the AF point shows it on her eyes.

I am not after advice on the quality as I know they are not the best pictures but more on what could be the cause, if indeed it is a cause, or could it of been just me? I just felt her clothing was more in focus (ie the cat) than her face in some pictures, not so noticeable on the first one but more the one below.

Thanks for anything offered in advance - example below

Same focus point - but the cat is more in focus than face.

 

[Phil V]

The focus points are much larger than the boxes you see, and as you can see in your images, the relatively low contrast face is next to a very high contrast area.

Basically the AF system picked up the high contrast edge and considered its job done.

The lesson here is related to the conditions (and subsequent image quality), make sure that your lighting and composition is emphasising your subject, and your AF system won't trip you up.

 

[p3ryg]

Many thanks Phil - so more a user error

Would it of helped if I took the plunge and tried manual focus ?

 

[Phil V]

Maybe, but I'm not a fan of manual focus on AF cameras, despite what some believe, Manual focus cameras are a completely different beast to AF cameras.

AF cameras have dingy viewfindwers without focussing aids (the cheaper crop cameras are particularly bad). using live view and magnification can work, but that's a tedious process compared to good AF.

For picture 3 the face in the shade has no chance, but on the other 2 a little care and avoiding the contrast so close to the face would have worked better.

 

[p3ryg]

OK, many thanks again for the advice, will take it on board.