End of a sunny day in the south of France and returning from secluded pools which can only be reached by walking along a rail track. Unusual location, great composition, lead in lines, colour - all ingredients for a great picture. Ah, well, no actually...
India's expression says it all. The picture is out of focus.
This was taken with all the right building blocks for a sharp picture: great subject with autofocus set on the eyes before re-composing and a Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 lens with vibration reduction (VR first generation). At ISO200 and f9.0 everything was in place to get this shot tack sharp. But the VR was switched off from a recent landscape shoot and the speed was 1/50th sec.
10 Keys to great focus:
1) When buying a new camera or recently changing your eyesight prescription check your camera's diopter if your camera has one (the D700 is to the right of the prism housing).
2) Choose a depth of field that is not going to be challenging if you only have a few seconds to get the shot right. The narrower the depth of field (e.g. f1.4 the more time required to set up correctly).
3) Speed: as a rule of thumb this shouldn't drop below the focal length of the lens
For example: for my 200mm lens it shouldn't drop below 1/200th sec in theory. Vibration reduction is designed to allow the photographer to drop below this by two to three stops and still get tack sharpness (if you remember to turn it on).
4) Focus using autofocus can be overriden by subsequent manual focus on some high end lenses with a little practice. Equally half pressing the shutter button then repeating this exercise may improve the overall focus on some lenses (the higher end lenses usually don't overshoot with their servo mechanisms). The eyes are the principle areas of interest in portrait photography and should be sharp.
5) Focus and recomposing is the way to go - but it has to be done properly. If recomposing allows for camera shake or the photographer to physically move forward or backward slightly with reference to the plane of focus whilst the focus is locked then the overall sharpness will be lost for the point we wish to get tack sharp. At f1.4 we might get a sharp nose and a dreamy soft or blurry eye ball which is only 2-3mm set further back. Rightly or wrongly I don't play around with multiple focal points on the Nikon D700 - only the centre one. If there is time I can place this point off centre which is particularly useful in moving subjects. Which brings me to the next point...
6) Focus modes need to be decided on prior to the shot. A single shot ("single servo" for Nikon) allows for the photographer to press half way down, the lens locks focus (the focus is then fixed) - allowing the picture to be taken by pressing the shutter all the way down. Continuous focusing for example in sports photography where the runner is coming towards you allows the lens to continuously focus until the shot it taken ("continuous servo" on Nikon).
7) Consider pre-focussing on a subject or an object where the subject is likely to pass by - this is useful if you can predict where your moving subject is going to pass by.
8) Stance: Joe McNally in his book "The Hot Shoe Diaries" gives a brilliant description of how to stand and hold a camera when shooting. He shoots with his left eye into the viewfinder which allows him to rest the camera on his left shoulder. The left had supports the lens, the right grips the camera. For my D700 this works better for landscape mode in comparison to portrait. This method almost forces me to adopt a better stance with my left foot forward and an even centre of gravity across the stance: turning my body side-on to the subject.
9) I find tripods are sometimes impractical in portrait photography except where you have more than a few minutes to take the shot - then they can be your friend. For landscape photography all my shots are taken on a sturdy Gitzo systematic and I never set off without it. There is a time and a place...
10) Finally: experimenting may be worthwhile. For example - multi shot modes may help where perhaps one out of 5-6 shots may be in focus: this is useful in situations where the shutter speed has to be slow. Fixing the focus by pressing the shutter halfway down then swaying back and forth over the main centre point of gravity can sometimes help.
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