4 : S AY C H E E S E !
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One easy way to work is to set the focus point location in the middle, find your subject’s
eye, and press the shutter button halfway to set focus. With your finger still holding
the shutter halfway down, recompose and
take the photo. The “focus and recompose”
method is a quick way to photograph people
and can work for many situations. Speed
is important because people tend to move
around during the shooting process, and
keeping the focus point in the middle can
simplify things for you.
Catchlight
A
catchlight
is that little sparkle that adds
life to the eyes (Figure 4.10). When you are
photographing a person with a light source
in front of them, you will usually get a reflec-
tion of that light in the eye, be it your flash,
the sky, or something else brightly reflecting
in the eye. The light reflects off the eye sur-
face as bright highlights and serves to bring
attention to the eyes. Larger catchlights from
a reflector or studio softbox tend to be more
attractive than tiny catchlights from a flash.
Another option for photographing people is
to use Live View’s facial detection features.
The Canon 70D has the ability to detect and
track human faces, allowing you to focus
on those faces quickly. Basically, the camera
keeps a track on the faces it can find in your
scene, and then once you press the shutter it
focuses on the face onto which it is locked.
This is great for fast-moving subjects, but I
wouldn’t recommend it for close-up work
with a very shallow depth of field (such as an
aperture set to f/2.8), as you’ll want to make
sure that the focus is always set to the eyes
instead of another portion of the face.
Figure 4.10
The catchlights in this image add a
sparkle to the little girl’s somber expression.
ISO 100 • 1/500 sec. • f/2.8 • 40mm lens
