SL2 Portraiture Preferred AF Settings (iAF/AFs/Spot etc)

[kstol23]

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Hello, hope everyone is well! For those of you shooting the SL2 (or maybe the SL2-S also, not sure), what are your preferred AF settings for portraiture? I'm coming from Fuji GFX 100s and before that Sony A7RIII. I've *read* that Leica AF is not the greatest (I'm not expecting Sony level AF), but I haven't had any subjects yet to test AF yet with the SL2, I've only been doing landscapes. I'm referring to people portraits, when the subject is not in motion. 

Q1: iAf or AFs?

From what I've read, most seem to be using AFs and not AFc or iAF. Anyone using iAF? Or should I just stick with AFs? I came across a horse today on my walk and photographed it with AFs and iAF and it appears the AFs worked better, but I may be missing something. 

Q2: Spot or Face/Body Detection?

It seems more are using SPOT from what I read, is anyone using Face/Body Detection?

Many thanks for any thoughts, I really appreciate your opinions. 🙂

[Anakronox]

I’ve found that for portraits, face/body detect on the SL2 misses enough for it to annoy me.  And it’s not by much, often just a bit where I can fix it with Sharpen AI most of the time.  I’d say that AFS is best.  On the Q2 and Q2M I always use AFS field and set it to the smallest size.  Works great. Don’t bother with face detect and  AFC on the Q2 series - they’re not very usable in my experience. 

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[Gavin Cato]

AFS with moving the AF point 70% of the time.

face detect 30% of the time (when the photos are predominately front on)

 

[LocalHero1953]

iAF with face/body detect all the time. I have never had a problem with a single face. The problems I have had have always been with multiple people in the frame. It is possible to select your preferred person out of several, but it is a bit too fragile. 

What do you mean by portraiture? I don't want to get hung up on definitions, but I use the term for when I am photographing someone who knows they are being photographed and we both know that is the purpose of the event. I have zero problems focusing on people in these scenarios. I don't use the term 'portraiture' for photographing someone unawares - that sounds more like street photography to me, or family & social. I know some people use the word differently from me though.

Edited February 20, 2022 by LocalHero1953

[Slender]

For portraits, /i have been most happy with AFS+Face Detect. Unless your subject is jogging or doing some sort of physical activity during the shoot, I prefer the AFS to iAF or AF-C because you keep the highest definition in the EVF, and it has proved very reliable for me. Did a session with 200shots recently, only one was out of focus.

Used with SL2 and 24/90 that has terrific AF speed on its own. That lens is more than ready for future L cameras with different AF methods.

Edited February 20, 2022 by Slender

[kstol23]

On 2/19/2022 at 6:23 PM, Anakronox said:

I’ve found that for portraits, face/body detect on the SL2 misses enough for it to annoy me.  And it’s not by much, often just a bit where I can fix it with Sharpen AI most of the time.  I’d say that AFS is best.  On the Q2 and Q2M I always use AFS field and set it to the smallest size.  Works great. Don’t bother with face detect and  AFC on the Q2 series - they’re not very usable in my experience. 

Thank you for your thoughts @Anakronox, really appreciate it.

[kstol23]

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On 2/19/2022 at 10:52 PM, Gavin Cato said:

AFS with moving the AF point 70% of the time.

face detect 30% of the time (when the photos are predominately front on)

 

Thank you @Gavin Cato. So when you're not using face detect are you in spot?

[kstol23]

On 2/19/2022 at 10:55 PM, LocalHero1953 said:

iAF with face/body detect all the time. I have never had a problem with a single face. The problems I have had have always been with multiple people in the frame. It is possible to select your preferred person out of several, but it is a bit too fragile. 

What do you mean by portraiture? I don't want to get hung up on definitions, but I use the term for when I am photographing someone who knows they are being photographed and we both know that is the purpose of the event. I have zero problems focusing on people in these scenarios. I don't use the term 'portraiture' for photographing someone unawares - that sounds more like street photography to me, or family & social. I know some people use the word differently from me though.

Thank you @LocalHero1953. When I mean portraiture, I just mean pictures of people, not landscapes and not street. I do a lot of surprise proposals, engagements a few weddings, etc. People that pay me for pictures of these events, for lack of a better definition. So you ARE using iAF and face/body all the time, that's interesting. I wasn't sure what I should be using. I'm headed into my 'season' now with spring on its way and I'm nervous because my Leica is new and I've done landscapes and some horses etc but not yet people. I need to practice on a model!

[kstol23]

On 2/20/2022 at 11:20 AM, Slender said:

For portraits, /i have been most happy with AFS+Face Detect. Unless your subject is jogging or doing some sort of physical activity during the shoot, I prefer the AFS to iAF or AF-C because you keep the highest definition in the EVF, and it has proved very reliable for me. Did a session with 200shots recently, only one was out of focus.

Used with SL2 and 24/90 that has terrific AF speed on its own. That lens is more than ready for future L cameras with different AF methods.

Thank you @Slender, appreciate it! I've got the 24-90 now, really like it. Just shot some landscapes over the weekend and trying to test out the AF some random horses I saw, and then I was like, wait a minute, there's this iAF and then there''s spot and face detection--not sure which I should be using. I get nervous because with the Sony's, never worried about AF of course, but I hated using them. Just want to make sure I'm prepared and understand the AF on the SL2 and SL lenses.

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