Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/04/11

[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]

Subject: [Leica] sharp ears & soft eyes! focusing tips? -
From: bquinn at sgi.com (Barney Quinn)
Date: Tue Apr 11 07:32:34 2006
References: <82c9dd70604100626je894888uc3c26921e81b5852@mail.gmail.com> <6.2.3.4.2.20060410100911.02ba0f88@mail.rhtc.net> <004401c65cf9$1d543db0$73b56c18@ted>



Ted,

Thanks, You are an amazing source of useful and pratical advice.

Barney



Ted Grant wrote:

> Eric asked:
> >I think my brain is edge seeking and the obvious edges are the side of the
> >head compared to background. I find it tough to lock in on eyes. I tried a
> >ground glass screen and that was a minimally helpful.
> >>
> >>I often shoot a 50mm lens at f5.6
> >>
> >>Tips?<<<
>
> Hi Eric,
> Bottom line? Practise, Practise, Practise, Practise, Practise and then do 
> it
> several thousand times more!!
>
> When you're sitting watching the idiot box and a commercial comes up,
> practise focusing on all kinds of "HIGHLIGHT POINTS about the room no 
> matter
> where or what!" As soon as a commercial comes on screen look about the room
> for a highlight, camera comes to eye and you focus, camera down look for
> another highlight point no matter how small. It's a no brainer, see
> highlight, camera up, focus and do this until you're all most sick and 
> tired
> of doing it.
>
> As far as the eyes go? 99% of the time there is a highlight in the eye!
> Surprise!
>
> And all that practising you've been doing between commercials, you did do
> it, didn't you? I mean I'm not telling you this for the good of my health,
> hell I've already done it some many multi-hundreds of thousands of times!
> ;-)...
>
> So now you've practiced and you're as fast as all get out putting those two
> little highlights together in the viewfinder, the eyes become a piece of
> cake. Focus on that highlight! It's that simple and at 5.6 you should have
> enough depth to cover yer sweet buns even if you miss a tiny bit.
>
> HOWEVER! If you practised, you did didn't you? ;-) Yeah I believe you. You
> will rarely miss by going for the highlight in the eyes!.
>
> Focusing on highlights constantly doing it with all kinds of locations and
> situations even when you are not taking a real photograph will improve your
> handling ability and it'll just be "on the eyes, click and sharp!"
>
> ted
>
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information

--
Barney Quinn, Jr.
(301) 688-1982 (O)
(240) 535-3036 (C)
(877) 220-0981 (P)



In reply to: Message from faneuil at gmail.com (Eric Korenman) ([Leica] sharp ears & soft eyes! focusing tips? -)
Message from images at InfoAve.Net (Tina Manley) ([Leica] sharp ears & soft eyes! focusing tips? -)
Message from tedgrant at shaw.ca (Ted Grant) ([Leica] sharp ears & soft eyes! focusing tips? -)