Putting the fox in with the chickens: focus does NOT need to be at the front

[JBW]

Traditional wisdom has it that the focus must be on the front of the shot. I’ll gladly admit that it’s good to do if it’s possible. But I’ll deny that it is a commandment from the realm of the photography Gods.

Certainly in close-up macro work shot under natural light with living, breathing, active subjects it is going to be a rare shot indeed where front to back is in razor sharp focus.

Brian

[DanK]

Most often in bug macros, the focus point is on the nearest eye. This assumes that the bug is somewhere between facing you and parallel to the sensor


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[xpatUSA]

Traditional wisdom has it that the focus must be on the front of the shot. I’ll gladly admit that it’s good to do if it’s possible. But I’ll deny that it is a commandment from the realm of the photography Gods.

Brian, where does it say that the focus must be on the front of the shot? Did you mean on the front of the subject?

Certainly in close-up macro work shot under natural light with living, breathing, active subjects it is going to be a rare shot indeed where front to back is in razor sharp focus.

Brian

Did you mean the front to back of the shot or the front to back of the subject?

Nice shot but it's legs seem to be out of focus ... ho ho.

[Manfred M]

Brian - rules are made to be broken. There are definitely cases where what you suggest can work but as a generalization, sticking with the rule is generally a good thing. Macro has its own challenges given the shallow depth of field one has to work with, but a good, strong image will be that, regardless of the genre.

1. If the eye is a key feature of the image and where the viewer tends to look at, then following Dan's advice is a good thing and focusing on the eye closest to the camera will be the right thing to do; and

2. One can sometimes get away with a softer foreground if the rest of the composition is strong enough that the soft foreground is not a distraction.

In my view, you would have had a stronger image had you stuck to the rules, especially with respect to the eye not being sharp.

[Geoff F]

Macro tends to be different from other subjects, Brian. If this was a landscape scene I would have said the closest parts need to be in focus, even if the rest gets progressively soft; but I usually agree with keeping insect eyes sharp even if that breaks the 'rules' of other subjects.

Choosing the parts of an insect, or flower etc, that needs to be well focused becomes particularly important when shooting for identification purposes which require specific areas to be well focused and the shallow focus depth of macro lenses needs to be considered.

[JBW]

Brian, where does it say that the focus must be on the front of the shot? Did you mean on the front of the subject?



Did you mean the front to back of the shot or the front to back of the subject?

Nice shot but it's legs seem to be out of focus ... ho ho.

The following quotes come from this thread.

As for selecting the focus point to be forward, I agree 100%. The leading edges (i.e. things in the foreground) need to be sharp and that applies to all images, not just macro work.

My other suggestion is for later tries. If you are going to deliberately limit the portion of the flower in focus (which I assume was your goal, and which is in any case almost inevitable with an image like this if you don't focus stack), it pays to pay a lot of attention to where the focal point is. You seem to have it somewhere behind the center of the flower. The leading edge of the leaf that sticks through the petals and the petal edge in front of it appear to be crisply in focus. I would move the point of focus forward. It often looks better not to have leading (foreground) edges blurred. Moving the focus point a little forward would avoid that and would also make the background even more blurred than it is, which would increase separation.

Neither agreeing with the belief nor wishing to appear to not appreciate differing opinions I thought I'd see how others felt.

B.

[Shadowman]

The rule works best if the subject is in 3/4 view, otherwise in your shot (profile) the entire subject would have to be in focus. Nice shot.