Focus On The Eyes
Posted by sepial at June 20th, 2006
Most modern cameras have a fast and accurate autofocus facility. Usually all you have to do is push the shutter button half way and wait for an audible (beep) and/or visible (red square) confirmation before pushing the release the rest of the way and taking your picture. Many cameras let you lock the focus this way and recompose the whole shot before you commit it to film (or sensor). To stay focused on the same target you started with before you moved the camera, keep the shutter half pressed as you reframe your view.
If a human or animal is the most important element in your photograph then you should choose whichever of its eyes are closer/closest to you and lock the focus on that. People are surprisingly tolerant of blurriness when they look at photos, but just as eyes bisected by picture frames are distracting so are eyes that are out of focus. They make a photograph seem much worse technically than it is.
I’ll explain why you should prefer the nearer of two eyes later, but for now remember:
- Try to focus on the closer eye of the most important subject (and then recompose).
- Try to focus on eyes when they are wide open.
- Try to photograph eyes when light is glinting in them—these glints are called “catch lights”.
My photo above is a doozy (the woman whose hand is reaching back is the child’s mother) and I really can’t think of a way it could have been made better 
, but you are welcome to make suggestions.
Perfect photo! I can’t think of a way you could have made it any better.
Mark Parker
http://www.marksbrides.com