Odd

[akrab]

does anyone else find the focus on this odd? with a 3.2 aperture setting the hair in front should not be out of focus should it? but the hair on the top right and on the left by his ear is in focus... anyone want to explain this to me? Does it have anything to do with me having dynamic focus set?

[dougsmit]

The forehead hair is considerably closer to the lens than the eyes and I'm not terribly certain the eyes are not just a bit too far forward to be in the sharpest part of the image. A crop this tight will have very little depth of field at such a wide aperture. Fans of open apertures are not bothered by soft tips of noses but those who like things a bit sharper would take this crop at at least f/8. On of my favotite shots of my grandson is a similar crop but he is turned a bit off full face so only one eye is really sharp even at f/8. If I wanted that far eye to be sharp, I guess I would have needed f/11 or more? The easy answer might be not to get in so close but I like the up close picture.

[Song4themoon]

Great image, the focus is where it needs to be.. on the eyes.

It looks like the camera correctly focused on everything in the same distance than the eyes. The hair on his forehead is much closer so it throws it OOF.
3.5 is still a fairly wide aperture. But you are right, I would have thought that at 3.5 the hair wouldnt be as much OOF, but hey, thats how we learn

[JohnC]

When you took that photo, were you at eye level with the camera straight on? Or was the camera tilted down a little bit? If tilted down, the plane of focus will be at an angle throwing the hair even more out of focus...

[akrab]

John, I may have been slightly above him... even though I was on a lower stair crouched down,,,

Doug, great shot, beautiful boy

I was at ISO 400 and didnt want to bump it up any higher and didnt want to go lower than 1/60 so I had to settle on the 3.2...... I guess it wouldnt have been so bad to bump up the iso a bit to get a better aperture setting. Just more for me to try

[dougsmit]

Thanks. Mine was at 1/20 (with Image Stabilization). My increasing opinion is that I have been too afraid to go above ISO 400 but I do try to keep that as a maximum unless there is a reason. It is just a decision we all have to make and I am not a wide aperture fan so I rarely shoot wide open with any lens. Looking again at your photo, I suspect the down angle is part of the problem but the worst thing might be that hair shows poor focus before plain skin (like the nose) since there is such obvious detail. I have no knowledge of the workings of your 'dynamic' focus but this shot does seem like one better handled by a single focus and possibly leaning forward and backwards to make a fine adjustment to the sharp plane placing it exactly where it serves you best. I hope your subject is up for reshooting over and over. My subject is only good of a few shots before the mood is gone.

[cyclohexane]

Dynamic focus didn't do anything; unless you have a moving subject with higher contrast around it, it won't deviate from the selected focus point. The image looks like what I'd expect for f/3.2.