Do you use focus-and-recompose?

[New Daddy]

Focus-and-recompose is a very quick way to move your subject away from the focus point for better composition. At the same time, it may result in out-of-focus photo due to the shift in focal plane. (as discussed at http://digital-photography-school.co...compose-method).

Looking at the comments section in the above post, different people have different takes, so I wanted to see some stats. Do you use focus-and-recompose?

[Manfred M]

100% of the time when I am doing non-studio portraits (even when I do street photography). I focus on the eye closest to the camera and then recompose. I often do this with animal images as well. I tend to shoot these types of images at fairly large apertures and the out of focus areas are actually something I am trying for.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Rick,

I think you'll find the centre option is a runaway winner - focus and recompose isn't always possible.
Conversely, some people will shift their single selected focus point so they don't need to recompose.

Cheers,

[DanK]

Depends on the body.

With my 50D, I rely almost entirely on my center point, and if that is not in the right location, I either recompose or crop. With my 5DIII, I can tell the camera which of the 41 cross-type sensors to use, alone or in combinations. In addition, I can set that separately for portrait and landscape orientations. This lessens the need to focus and recompose. For example, I have one of the three custom settings set for candid flash photos. For this, I have the camera set so that in either orientation, it uses a single point that is well above the center, closer to where I would place the eyes. This still leaves a need either to recompose or to shift AF points for certain shots--e.g., in landscape orientation, if the subject is deliberately off-center in horizontal direction.

[Black Pearl]

I tend to chose the option that best suits the photographs I'm taking.

If I'm shooting the boys playing and I want them off centre I might shuffle the focus point across the frame so I can keep them framed as I want while keep them focused over a number of rapid shots. The down side to that is the further from the centre the less likely the AF point will be a cross type one and the lower the keeper rate of sharp shots.

If its a single shot taken quickly I will usually focus and recompose, nine time-out of ten there will be sufficient DoF to cope.

If I'm using a bright prime at or near wide open then I will take a little more care and move the focus point manually around the frame.

Horses for courses in other words and I'd think this will be typical.....watch me be proved wrong

[HaseebM]

I compose first and then focus with BB single point. I don't know perhaps I got used to this. You should add this option in the poll.

[Geoff F]

One word of warning about focus and recompose. Depending on your overall settings, and camera, your exposure may change when you recompose. In which case, I usually note the 'advised settings' then enter them into the manual settings option.

With my camera, using Evaluative Metering holds the exposure settings during a recompose; but other options such as Spot or Centre Weighted exposure will change during the recompose.

[Polar01]

I do not know if any of the posters' have read the article that you linked to, I have looked at it, what he said is true, however it was rigged to fail. Now who in their right mind is going to shoot something 4 feet away, at ISO 250, SS 1/125 at f/1.4 with a 50mm on a Canon 5Dmk11 camera. First thing a lens set at f/1.4 has a razor thin depth of field and a 50mm at that distance is going to fail. Most people who know their photography would use a 35mm or better still a 28mm if shooting that close, Second item most lens's sweet spot is two stops down so why would he not shoot at f/2.8 to get the sharpest focus. I will tell you he wanted it to fail, so he could appear to be teaching you something, it would have been better if he had shown that, then showed you what you should have done.

Cheers: Allan

[RobertsMx]

Only when in a hurry. With manual focus I don't need to. With AF, I generally use "Local Spot" AF mode and will move the AF point to where I need it to be.

[Glenn NK]

. . . . however it was rigged to fail.

I will tell you he wanted it to fail, so he could appear to be teaching you something, it would have been better if he had shown that, then showed you what you should have done.

Cheers: Allan

I agree.

[Inkanyezi]

I generally don't use the recompose raindance, but in the past I sometimes did. I also have a compact camera that has only one focusing point in the centre, and with that camera I do recompose after focusing, making sure that the distance will still be correct after recomposing, i.e. moving a bit back in such an example as in the article.

The reason I don't use any "center spot" on my µ4/3 system is that I can easily put the focusing spot wherever I like and also alter its size, and in the case of portraits, I can leave it to the camera, which focuses for the eye. Many times I use a fully manual lens tilted, and then I always check focus in several places on the screen, to see that the tilt is adequate, that the intended objects are in focus. When using AF, I just point at my desired focus point on the screen and let the camera do the rest. Sometimes I use the touch screen to release the shutter as well, particularly on a tripod. It's very fast, and there is less risk of budging the camera as the touch is very light.

[rpcrowe]

I used focus and compose more often when I was shooting with a 40D. Now that I generally shoot with a 7D, there are so many auto focus options that I seldom need to focus and recompose...

[Stagecoach]

Definitely not with my macro work but otherwise when it's going to provide the results I want. My focus point remains at centre and has never been moved for taking a pic in the five years I have had the camera.

[jcuknz]

One word of warning about focus and recompose. Depending on your overall settings, and camera, your exposure may change when you recompose. In which case, I usually note the 'advised settings' then enter them into the manual settings option.

With my camera, using Evaluative Metering holds the exposure settings during a recompose; but other options such as Spot or Centre Weighted exposure will change during the recompose.

Modern cameras have AE and AF lock to handle this situation

[Brev00]

Another option: I use focus and recompose for hand held, ad hoc quasi-hyperfocal focusing. I use the af to aim at a spot so many feet into the scene and recompose. There is no actual subject in this option so none of the listed options apply. The effort is to get the entire scene nice and clear. I can obviously use manual focus as well to set an exact distance and I sometimes do, but this method works quite well. This is especially helpful when I am shooting close to some obstacle I want included in the frame as clear as the background. Focusing just on the obstacle will lead to a blurry background.

[William W]

Focus-and-recompose is a very quick way to move your subject away from the focus point for better composition. At the same time, it may result in out-of-focus photo due to the shift in focal plane. (as discussed at http://digital-photography-school.co...compose-method).
Looking at the comments section in the above post, different people have different takes, so I wanted to see some stats. Do you use focus-and-recompose?

Yes I do.

I use F&R almost all the time for Portraiture and the like (NOT Macro) where the Subject / Object is not moving.

However for this type of work, I note that I almost never would use a 50mm lens at 4 feet from the Subject; using that lens at F/1.4 and then consider recomposing from the eyes to the chest of the subject.*(1)

Focus and recompose in such a tight framing would almost always be much more subtle, for example here, where the focus was on the bridge of the nose and the recompose was a minor movement to offset the Subject to camera right:

Candid Portrait 504468v06
EOS 5D + EF 85 F/1.8
F/1.8 @ 1/80s @ ISO400 HH Manual


In any case using such large apertures and very tight framing any movement in or out (by the Photographer or Subject) can render poor focus in the final image.

The article that is referenced loses touch with Real World Photography and in so doing provides a general message which is poor practical advice, in my opinion.

*

For action work I still tend to mostly use centre point (or centre area on some advanced cameras) and crop later.

WW


REF *(1)

EXTRACT from Article linked to:
“If you stand 4 feet from your subject and point the camera up at the subjects face, then you are no longer 4 feet away from what you’re focusing on. If the length from your camera to your subjects chest is 4 feet and the length from your subjects chest to their eye is 2 feet, then the length from your subjects eye to your camera is 4.5 feet. Are you getting this!? That means that if you focus on your subjects eye, move the camera down to their chest to recompose, then your focal plane is now half a foot behind your subject! . . .
if we are 4 feet from our subject with a 50mm prime wide open at f/1.4, then our depth of field is only 0.16 inches. In other words, our focal plane will begin at 3.92 feet away from the subject and focal will end at 4.06 feet. Now if you remember from the diagram above, if we focus on the eye and recompose to where the center of the camera is pointed at the subjects chest with their head in the top third, then our 0.16 ft plane of focus is actually 4.5 feet behind our subject. Therefore, we have an out of focus image.”

[Geoff F]

Modern cameras have AE and AF lock to handle this situation

Yes, providing you can remember which buttons to use. By the time I have worked that out the scene has changed!

[RustBeltRaw]

Yes, providing you can remember which buttons to use. By the time I have worked that out the scene has changed!

Come to the back-button focus side. No longer a problem.

I use focus and recompose with static subjects, and only at or above f3.2. Below that, I will change my composition to place an autofocus point on the subject, then burst drive while moving very slowly toward them. Just 2-4in (5-9cm) by bending at the waist, enough to force the autofocus system to wander around the focal point a little. Or I'll manually focus, either in the traditional, one-shot-and-nail it way, with burst mode while slowly pushing the focal plane back, or with Magic Lantern's focus peaking.