Tips for focusing on faces

[DKbRS]

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I'm a new rangefinder user and would appreciate some tips on focusing on faces (eyes) with my M9 and 35 mm Summicron - especially when used wide open.

I've discovered that 12 year olds don't respond too patiently when asked to keep their heads vertical so that the photographer can focus on their nose or cheek line - and spontaneity suffers too. Any tips would be most welcome - and I apologize if this is in the wrong forum; I didn't know where was best.

[Bill Allsopp]

Practice helps, it's taken me a while to get to grips with this. As an alternative focus slightly short, slide the switch from single to continuous and just lean in slowly while you fire a short burst?

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[wda]

David, if you cannot easily see the detail in the eye in your rangefinder window, try focusing on the facial boundary and then lean back a distance which approximates to the difference between distance to the eye and the facial boundary (often near the ear when full face on). It is only an approximation and you do need to practice or shoot a short sequence as a burst. It is easier with a 50 or longer lens where you can also have the advantage of a viewfinder magnifier. It is not easy; it is challenging but exhilarating when you succeed! Even with an auto-focusing camera it is challenging and often inaccurate.

[DKbRS]

Thanks Bill and David. These are good tips - and I hadn't considered shooting a short sequence. Will give these a try.

[250swb]

With children use an autofocus camera, or threaten them with something awful if they don't sit still. But don't use an M9 unless they have brandy in their milk.

 

Steve

[Ecar]

With children use an autofocus camera, or threaten them with something awful if they don't sit still. But don't use an M9 unless they have brandy in their milk.

Wish I had thought of the brandy trick some years ago.

Wouldn't have needed a DSLR.

Definitely worth a post in the wiki.

[1JB]

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Wide open with movement is tough. One thing you can also do is get further from the subject to get more DoF and crop later. The files from the M9 are excellent even with a lot of cropping. As others have said you'll get better with practice. I found that I always wanted to tweak the focus back and forth after it initially looked right. Don't do it. Once it looks in focus it is for me 9 times our of 10 so now I move the focus ring and when it looks right I just take the shot. No more back and forth unless I want to take something at a very shallow DoF that's not moving.

[Printmaker]

Wish I had thought of the brandy trick some years ago.

Wouldn't have needed a DSLR.

Definitely worth a post in the wiki.

 

I wish my father had thought of the brandy trick.

[Michael Geschlecht]

Hello david,

 

Welcome to the Forum,

 

Practice.

 

Just practice focussing on everything & everyone (who doesn't mind) while you are watching TV &/or take your camera w/ you when you are walking & practice focussing on everything & everyone (also when no one minds). Learn how to turn the focussing barrel & stop @ the point of focus. No different than shooting @ a target, moving or otherwise, w/ a gun.

 

1 Exposure - 1 Photo

 

Best Regards,

 

Michael

[NZDavid]

Focus on the eyes if possible.

 

It helps to prefocus approximately before even lifting the camera to your eye -- set the distance scale to say 2-3m. Then it's easier to fine tune your focus.

 

Decide on vertical or horizontal. Vertical grips vary. I hold the camera with the viewfinder on the high side with elbows pressed into body and use my thumb to press the shutter, and keep a finger free to tweak the focus ring. Some photographers hold the camera the other way round in the vertical position.

 

Choosing approx. aperture first will help define DOF. If very shallow you will have to obviously focus more carefully, but you can't rely on wider DOF to cover focusing errors -- there is always one point of critical focus.

[GavinM]

The "eyes" have it !

[jaapv]

It depends a bit on the speed of your reflexes. Prefocus on a spot where the kid's face is likely to be and release a split second before the bridge of the nose moves into RF focus. Only drawback: your composition will be centered.

Edited February 25, 2012 by jaapv

[Pedro]

Also be aware that if you focus and then recompose you are tilting the focus pane...

 

Very different from a top SLR where you can choose an off center focus spot to assure focus accuracy even if your target is not in the middle of the frame.

[rramesh]

This is what I am learning. Use only one lens with camera and practice, practice and practice. If you can distance focus intuitively it goes a long way.

[lars_bergquist]

With pre-school children, which are living demonstrations of the principle of perpetual motion, there are only two techniques that work: (1) a complete wrapping with gaffer tape, preferably including the nearest solid and immovable object, and (2) zone focusing.

 

LB

[DKbRS]

Also be aware that if you focus and then recompose you are tilting the focus pane...

 

Very different from a top SLR where you can choose an off center focus spot to assure focus accuracy even if your target is not in the middle of the frame.

 

Pedro (or someone else), please explain.

[hlockwood]

I'm a new rangefinder user and would appreciate some tips on focusing on faces (eyes) with my M9 and 35 mm Summicron - especially when used wide open.

I've discovered that 12 year olds don't respond too patiently when asked to keep their heads vertical so that the photographer can focus on their nose or cheek line - and spontaneity suffers too. Any tips would be most welcome - and I apologize if this is in the wrong forum; I didn't know where was best.

 

They don't have to keep their heads vertical if you tilt your camera, say, at 45 deg. to focus. No matter what angle their head is at, you'll see the displaced image in the rf patch. But wide open is always going to be tough.

 

Harry

[azzo]

.... and, you don't ''have to'' shoot wide open!

[Anguish]

"Originally Posted by PedroHipolito

'Also be aware that if you focus and then recompose you are tilting the focus pane...

 

Very different from a top SLR where you can choose an off center focus spot to assure focus accuracy even if your target is not in the middle of the frame.'

 

'Pedro (or someone else), please explain.'"

 

There was a thread on this with a drawing. Nevertheless, here is my explanation:

 

It is common to focus on the eyes, then reframe to make a desirable composition. The focusing rangefinder double image on the Leica rangefinder is in the center of the viewing frame. The subject's eyes are the crucial focal point.

 

So, after focusing, the subject's eyes are centered.

 

But for composition purposes, photographers frequently seek a subject that is not centered. Given the above, the rangefinder shooter will focus first, then compose.

 

Your plane of focus is parallel to the plane of your sensor (or film). If you recompose by tilting or rotating the camera, which is the natural way to recompose, you can imagine the plane of focus out in front of the camera also tilting or rotating. In such a case, the plane of focus will tilt or rotate so it is either in front or behind the critical eyes.

 

So, if we are using a shallow depth of field as we desire, the eyes will be OF after the tilt or rotated recomposition.

 

Of course, you can recompose by keeping the camera sensor in the exact same plane as it was when the lens was focused. This is somewhat difficult and not natural.

 

You can imagine this in the following scenario. You are in a room with parallel walls. Your Leica back is flush against one wall, focused on the parallel wall opposite. You can move the camera anywhere across the wall against which it is flush and the opposite wall will remain in focus. You can actually move the camera quite a distance and the far wall will remain in focus.

 

But if you tilt or rotate the camera one smidgen, most of the opposite wall will go OF (assuming a shallow DOF). Indeed, now only one line will be sharp.

 

So it takes quite a bit of experience, understanding and practice to take what is a common picture with shallow DOF on a rangefinder. It is likely many so-called focusing problems arise from shooters not understanding this concept.

 

On a DSLR with autofocus, there are commonly several (many) points in the image area that can be selected for the point of autofocus. This is the equivalent of being able to move the rangefinder patch about in the viewfinder frame of a rangefinder camera, a feature that has not yet been invented for the rangefinder.

 

A moveable rangefinder patch, or DSLR autofocus as described above, would allow one to compose, then focus, instead of the other way around.

 

This is my crude understanding and I am open to any input.

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[DKbRS]

Thanks. I had not appreciated that there was more than just distance to consider.