Hi

I am shooting in low light situ's with my flash and generally f8 or so. Head and shoulders I've noticed come a bit soft when focusing on eyes.

Is it me or just the Dof so narrow on 120mm?

I have a wedding so plan on running a test roll with a close up and plaster someone with teeny clips of newspaper text making note of where I am focusing when shooting.

Also plan on getting an off camera extension arm thing so I can get the flash up higher.

Cheers

M

On 8/9/2012 6:35 AM, Mark wrote:

> Hi
>
> I am shooting in low light situ's with my flash and generally f8 or so. Head and shoulders I've noticed come a bit soft when focusing on eyes.
>
> Is it me or just the Dof so narrow on 120mm?

(It's 60mm film, but 120 size.)

Yes, the depth of field is very shallow on a medium-format
"sensor". I use DOFMaster for online calculations, but the
focus-scale on the barrel of the TL120's viewing lens will
give you an idea of the range of focus.

Set the aperture to f/8. Focus on the eyes. There are two
"8" marks on the lens barrel which you can read against the
focus-scale to see the near and far focus range. It's
approximate, but it's a place to start.

You can also use http://dofmaster.com/dofjs.html at your
computer.
For an 80mm lens, on a 6x6 "sensor", at f/8, and a focus
distance of 3m, there is a depth of field of about 1m That
should be sufficient to get all but the very (very) largest
people fully in focus :) If you bring the focus point in to
2m the range of focus decreases to .4m. Now you're starting
to get shallow.

> I have a wedding so plan on running a test roll with a close up and plaster someone with teeny clips of newspaper text making note of where I am focusing when shooting.

With the TL120, you only have one lens choice, so there is
likely one optimal distance to fill the frame for
head-shots, and another to fill the frame for group-shots.
Can't you just determine those distances beforehand, and
then zone-focus the camera for each group of shots?
Or are you trying to do hand-held 3D candids so won't know
the distances beforehand?

> Also plan on getting an off camera extension arm thing so I can get the flash up higher.

Excellent choice.

John Thurston
Juneau, Alaska

I shot my cousin's wedding, with f11 and nikon sb28 set to auto f11, all the shots indoor and outdoor came out perfectly sharp. The groom and bride were thrilled with the results. You may wish to stop down for more depth of field, try f16 for closeups
Nik

--- In MF3D-group@yahoogroups.com, John Thurston wrote:
>
> On 8/9/2012 6:35 AM, Mark wrote:
> > Hi
> >
> > I am shooting in low light situ's with my flash and generally f8 or so. Head and shoulders I've noticed come a bit soft when focusing on eyes.
> >
> > Is it me or just the Dof so narrow on 120mm?
>
> (It's 60mm film, but 120 size.)
>
> Yes, the depth of field is very shallow on a medium-format
> "sensor". I use DOFMaster for online calculations, but the
> focus-scale on the barrel of the TL120's viewing lens will
> give you an idea of the range of focus.
>
> Set the aperture to f/8. Focus on the eyes. There are two
> "8" marks on the lens barrel which you can read against the
> focus-scale to see the near and far focus range. It's
> approximate, but it's a place to start.
>
> You can also use http://dofmaster.com/dofjs.html at your
> computer.
> For an 80mm lens, on a 6x6 "sensor", at f/8, and a focus
> distance of 3m, there is a depth of field of about 1m That
> should be sufficient to get all but the very (very) largest
> people fully in focus :) If you bring the focus point in to
> 2m the range of focus decreases to .4m. Now you're starting
> to get shallow.
>
> > I have a wedding so plan on running a test roll with a close up and plaster someone with teeny clips of newspaper text making note of where I am focusing when shooting.
>
> With the TL120, you only have one lens choice, so there is
> likely one optimal distance to fill the frame for
> head-shots, and another to fill the frame for group-shots.
> Can't you just determine those distances beforehand, and
> then zone-focus the camera for each group of shots?
> Or are you trying to do hand-held 3D candids so won't know
> the distances beforehand?
>
> > Also plan on getting an off camera extension arm thing so I can get the flash up higher.
>
> Excellent choice.
>
> John Thurston
> Juneau, Alaska
>

--- In MF3D-group@yahoogroups.com, "sekharni" wrote:

>
>
> I shot my cousin's wedding, with f11 and nikon sb28 set to auto f11, all the shots indoor and outdoor came out perfectly sharp. The groom and bride were thrilled with the results. You may wish to stop down for more depth of field, try f16 for closeups
> Nik

cheers. double checking it all just to get used too it.

keep in mind I am also shooting in dark areas.

I've played a bit with the DOF calculator and at min focus .8 at f/8 there's not much of a zone of focus.

I may after I get the results back make up a cheat sheet / reminder for myself.

Wider shots - 4 people etc isn't an issue. Its the tight shots or when I need to drop down to wider f/stop or if my flash doesn't have enough kick and need to work wide open.

M