I must be going loopy!

[Gilly B]

Sunday I photographed 2 elderly ladies who are sisters and 1 is terminally ill. It was quite moving and they enjoyed the experience. I took some cracking shots in my studio and they were happy with their order for prints.

Right, here is my problem... ....I have shot '000s of portraits to date with relatively no issues, but today using my trusty 85mm 1.8 lens, camera was set to manual, sync speed 125 and f10. Set up was 4 lights - 2 on the white background and 2 at the front, set lower power. 2 ladies sitting on the floor with one slightly behind and to the side (face approx 6-7 inches away from front subject.

The problem is the front lady is OOF! I have checked the focussing point and it is on the cheek of the lady behind. Drat. That has never happened to me before. ...and you guessed it, those are the ones they ordered. They are not completely fuzzy and at the size I viewed them on my laptop, you couldn't tell.

I am open to learn by my mistakes as you guys well know. So can anyone please give me some indication as to where I should have put the focussing point? I wrongly assumed that at f10 the dof would be okay.

It has knocked my confidence a bit and I am now stressing as my first Wedding of the year is on the 21st June. Thanks Gillian

 

[mmcp42]

to get both ladies at maximum focus you should focus 1/3 of the distance between them
so if they are 1 foot apart (i.e. one is 1 ft closer than the other), then focus 4" behind the front lady

 

[DiddyDave]

Standard DoF calculator for my D2Xs (1.5 crop) when foccused at 6ft f10 on an 85mm lens gives

Depth of field
Near limit 5.72 ft
Far limit 6.31 ft
Total 0.59 ft

0.59ft is about 7-8 inches - so you shouldn't have focussed on the rear lady that's all, as only 0.28ft (about 3 inches) in front of her eyes would be sharp

85mm on a crop camera is (IMHO) too powerful for such reasons as this, and many of my shots are at less than 50mm, some even at 18mm; at which the DoF (I shoot at f9 in my studio) is easily enough for two people close together

So, soz, but you shot on either the wrong f-stop or wrong lens, take your pic - sad I know

:shake:

But you won't do it again will you - so a lesson learnt

Sing with me... "Always look on the bright side of life..."

DD

 

[DiddyDave]

to get both ladies at maximum focus you should focus 1/3 of the distance between them
so if they are 1 foot apart (i.e. one is 1 ft closer than the other), then focus 4" behind the front lady

Oh and minor point on this...

The 1/3 in front 2/3rds behind breaks down when you focus close, or in macro work, where it tends to get to 50/50



DD

 

[Gilly B]

Oh and minor point on this...

The 1/3 in front 2/3rds behind breaks down when you focus close, or in macro work, where it tends to get to 50/50



DD

....and mmcp42. Thank you very much for responding and taking the time to explain. I knew there was a distance calculation of 1/3rd in front and 2/3rds behind, but during my panic mode earlier, I just didn't remember. Using my full frame 5D, I usually shoot at f9 in the studio, but Sunday was so bright and the roof of my studio (conservatory) is like a giant softbox with the midday sun shining through making it f10.

Anyway, a good lesson learnt. I think I was distracted so much with these 2 ladies as they were both wearing glasses with anti-glare coatings on, and I was concentrating too much on not getting hot-spots from the flash on the glasses.

Cheers