Technique Question

[ChiSoxKeith]

I recently attended a wedding at WDW (that was definitely a fun experience). My daughter was one of the flower girls so I got to be there for all of the photo shoots. Besides shooting myself, I was spending a lot of times watching the primary and secondary shooters work.

Originally I was going to shoot very, very little but both pros invited me to shoot whatever I wanted as long as I didn't get in there way. I stayed out of there hair, so I didn't get to ask the primary photographer about his technique. There are a lot of good photographers here on this board so maybe someone here has an idea of what the guy was doing.

Primary shooter had a Canon 1D model of some kind with a 24-70 F/2.8. It was an outdoor affair early in the morning so there was plenty of sunlight (wedding was in the France Pavillion at EPCOT).

Whenever he would go to shoot, he would aim high on the subject. Almost like he was aiming at their forehead or possibly just over their head. He would press the shutter down half way, then he would lower his aiming point down several degrees (so he was pointed more at the couple's nose / mouth).

Was he metering for the background (just over their heads) and then coming back in to focus and shoot?

He did it on every single shot he took.

 

[ukstitch]

Could he have been aiming at the eyes?

A lot of people believe that the best picture has the eyes perfectly sharp, so it may well be that he was focusing there and then moving down to frame the picture as he wanted it...

 

[disneyboy2003]

Yes, it's called the “focus and recompose” technique. He probably has his focus point set at the center focus point. Every time he wanted to focus, he'd point the center focus point on his subject's head or eyes, press the shutter half-way down to lock the focus, then move the camera to recompose the shot with the shutter still pressed half-way.

This is a very common focusing technique. My wife thought I was crazy the first several months I was doing this.

 

[HPS3]

I understand the concept of focus and recompose, but what happens when your plane of focus shifts? I have this happen to me before. I had to do this when I borrowed my brothers D60 with only three focus points. I just know when shooting at f1.8-2.8 your DOF is so narrow. I like to keep the eyes in focus.

 

[WDWFigment]

I understand the concept of focus and recompose, but what happens when your plane of focus shifts? I have this happen to me before. I had to do this when I borrowed my brothers D60 with only three focus points. I just know when shooting at f1.8-2.8 your DOF is so narrow. I like to keep the eyes in focus.

This is exactly why focus-recompose is a terrible idea.

 

[disneyboy2003]

I understand the concept of focus and recompose, but what happens when your plane of focus shifts? I have this happen to me before. I had to do this when I borrowed my brothers D60 with only three focus points. I just know when shooting at f1.8-2.8 your DOF is so narrow. I like to keep the eyes in focus.

A better focusing technique, especially when you use large apertures (small f-numbers such as f/1.8) would be to select the focus point that is closest to your subject's face or eyes. For example, if your subject's head is located in the upper right part of the photo, you would choose the focus point that is closest to the upper right part of the viewfinder, and use that focus point to focus your subject.

This technique is much better than always using your center focus point and always focusing and recomposing.

 

[GrumpyGoat]

A better focusing technique, especially when you use large apertures (small f-numbers such as f/1.8) would be to select the focus point that is closest to your subject's face or eyes. For example, if your subject's head is located in the upper right part of the photo, you would choose the focus point that is closest to the upper right part of the viewfinder, and use that focus point to focus your subject.

This technique is much better than always using your center focus point and always focusing and recomposing.

This isn't always easy to do, especially with the older cameras like the D60. It takes a button press and then spinning the back dial to get the focus point where you want it. From the 20D on, Canon added the joystick to the back of the camera and it's possible to set this to instantly change the focus point. It's much faster.

 

[photo_chick]

I agree with WDWFigment. Focus and recompose is a terrible idea.

It rarely truly nails the focus. It can get close, but it won't put it spot on and for this reason it just makes me scratch my head and wonder why when professional photographers use it. If the focus points won't work for you, manually focus. It's that simple.

 

[pgowder]

This is exactly why focus-recompose is a terrible idea.

Exactly! Camera manufacturers gave us the ability to move the focus point around. Just move the point to the eyes and keep your composition.

If he was shooting f5.6-f8 he has more "wiggle" room with the dof. But when you start moving to f2.8-1.4, you can't recompose! The dof is so shallow the move of the camera will change the plane of focus.

This is true in portraits and in any work with large apertures!

It took me some practice, but I can move my focus point around very quickly now.

 

[WDWFigment]

This isn't always easy to do, especially with the older cameras like the D60. It takes a button press and then spinning the back dial to get the focus point where you want it. From the 20D on, Canon added the joystick to the back of the camera and it's possible to set this to instantly change the focus point. It's much faster.

A lot of people use this method (including almost every Disney Photo Imaging "pro" I've encountered) who have much newer cameras with the easy-ability to quickly change focus points. The photographer in question here was using a Canon 1D series camera. There's no reason that these people should be using the focus-recompose method. If forced to use it because of equipment limitations, I can see using it. Such was not the case here--in this case, it's poor practice.

Exactly! Camera manufacturers gave us the ability to move the focus point around. Just move the point to the eyes and keep your composition.

If he was shooting f5.6-f8 he has more "wiggle" room with the dof. But when you start moving to f2.8-1.4, you can't recompose! The dof is so shallow the move of the camera will change the plane of focus.

This is true in portraits and in any work with large apertures!

It took me some practice, but I can move my focus point around very quickly now.

Likewise. When I'm shooting, I always have one finger on the focus point navigator. I can now move the focus point MUCH more quickly than I could focus and recompose. It boggles my mind that pros use this method. It's antiquated.

 

[cpbjgc]

Instead of suggesting the person is a clueless, lazy, antiquated and bad photographer, I will give the photographer the benefit of the doubt that they knew what they were doing and may actually understand concepts like depth of field and such.

My own guess (since I wasn't there) is that they were checking exposure. I will do this to make sure my background is not blown out if metering on the face using spot metering.

 

[ChiSoxKeith]

Instead of suggesting the person is a clueless, lazy, antiquated and bad photographer, I will give the photographer the benefit of the doubt that they knew what they were doing and may actually understand concepts like depth of field and such.

My own guess (since I wasn't there) is that they were checking exposure. I will do this to make sure my background is not blown out if metering on the face using spot metering.

I've seen a small handfull of the shots from the wedding (bride and groom don't see the CD full of shots for another week and a half). What I have seen so far indicate that he knew what he was doing. I was just wondering what he was doing. Should have asked him since he was so personable about everything else, but I was trying not to bug him too much since he was working.

 

[cpbjgc]

Sorry for the cranky response. I guess my coffee had not kicked in yet.

The other question is how did your shots turn out? I like taking wedding photos where you can be behind the scenes like that.

 

[ChiSoxKeith]

No worries.

Some of my shots turned out really well. Others I completely blew. My Canon 300D had died about 6 weeks before the wedding. I picked up a 60D about a week and half before the wedding and I wasn't all that comfortable with it.

It was fun to shoot without the pressure though. Not sure I would want to shoot a wedding for real.

 

[mabas9395]

Was the photographer using a flash outdoors? Its possible that he/she has the shutter button set to control the exposure and the back focus button set for the focus. Then the photographer could point up and exposure for the sky (locking exposure with the shutter button). Then recompose and lock focus on the subjects eyes with the back button focus button. Then the ETTL flash will properly expose the subject (perhaps using HSS?). Resulting in a perfectly exposed background and subject with razor sharp focus.

 

[ChiSoxKeith]

He had a flash with dome diffuser and an octobank flash on a light stand that was being used at times. Because we were there so early (7:45 am) there were some areas of shadow deep in the France pavilion.