Help with focusing: I know that I will probably get roasted with this question but here goes. I am shooting a Canon EOS R /w/ Canon RF 85mm 1.2 lens. I get the face in focus but not...

cyberbo60 Loc: Greentown, Indiana

I know that I will probably get roasted with this question but here goes. I am shooting a Canon EOS R /w/ Canon RF 85mm 1.2 lens. I get the face in focus but not the rest of the body. I am an experienced photographer but I am at a loss with this. My 1dx mark II does fine. Any constructive comments would be awesome but please keep sarcastic and mean comments to yourselves.

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RichinSeattle

I would assume it's just a depth of field problem. Shut down the aperture a bit.

Cute kid, BTW. Love the curly, red hair.

cyberbo60 Loc: Greentown, Indiana

Ok thank you

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

A narrow depth of field, angled like this appears to be, could have the effect. ( // )

lowkick Loc: Connecticut

I have that lens. It is a great portrait lens, but wide open the depth of field is razor thin. Your focus on her eyes seems to be good, so my guess is that you were shooting at a near wide open f-stop with little dof. In addition, you were shooting from a level higher than the girl which exacerbated the thin dof. Try getting down to eye level to diminish the angle with the subject and increasing your f-stop.

hassighedgehog Loc: Corona, CA

Depth of field was my thought also.

MtManMD Loc: Beaverton, Oregon

Both photos were shot at f/2.2 and 1/100 which would give a very shallow depth of field. Raise the ISO or add more light to the scene so that you can close down the aperture more.

cyberbo60 Loc: Greentown, Indiana

Thank you all.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

cyberbo60 wrote:

I know that I will probably get roasted with this question but here goes. I am shooting a Canon EOS R /w/ Canon RF 85mm 1.2 lens. I get the face in focus but not the rest of the body. I am an experienced photographer but I am at a loss with this. My 1dx mark II does fine. Any constructive comments would be awesome but please keep sarcastic and mean comments to yourselves.

You used an aperture of F2.2 at a distance of 5.807 ft, and your DoF is .1.08" in front and slightly more in back of the focus plane. You focused on her eyes, so the nose/chin/cheeks/forehead are still in focus, but ears, the entire body, and most of the hair beyond the immediate hairline on the forehead are out of focus. Shooting slightly down makes the head closer to the camera, exaggerating the shallow depth of field.

Nothing unexpected here. . .

Nice shots. I wouldn't change a thing.

Notorious T.O.D. Loc: Harrisburg, North Carolina

I suggest you get a DOF app for your phone and play with the settings to get a better idea of the DOF at various distances to subject and aperture settings. Very fast lenses with longer focal lengths have very shallow DOF at close distances to subject. Many people want very fast primes but get caught up in this issue of very shallow DOF.

With an 85mm on a FF body you would need to shoot at f/5.6 to F/8 to keep a typical head in focus nose through ears. At f/1.2 you can easily have one eye in focus and the other one not. You can also search on Flicker for your body and lens and see what others are shooting with that combination and the results they are getting.

You have great gear and good shooting ahead.

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

cyberbo60 wrote:

I know that I will probably get roasted with this question but here goes. I am shooting a Canon EOS R /w/ Canon RF 85mm 1.2 lens. I get the face in focus but not the rest of the body. I am an experienced photographer but I am at a loss with this. My 1dx mark II does fine. Any constructive comments would be awesome but please keep sarcastic and mean comments to yourselves.

At f1.2 the depth of field is very, very shallow. For me, I would come in closer and almost fill the frame with the face. Single spot focus point on the eyes. I would also stop down at least one or two stops.
F1.2 lenses are nice but wide open they again create a very small window of sharpness, and this is by design.

camerapapi Loc: Miami, Fl.

There is nothing more effective for a sharp image than having a smaller aperture and a subject that is parallel to the camera.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

RichinSeattle wrote:

I would assume it's just a depth of field problem. Shut down the aperture a bit.

Cute kid, BTW. Love the curly, red hair.

I used to have hair like that.

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

Gene51 wrote:

You used an aperture of F2.2 at a distance of 5.80... (show quote)

cyberbo60 Loc: Greentown, Indiana

jerryc41 wrote:

I used to have hair like that.

Haha she is my granddaughter and a cutie.