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C A N O N E O S 7 0 D : F R O M S N A P S H O T S T O G R E AT S H O T S
When you look at a person, probably the very first thing you notice is their eyes—it’s just
natural to make eye contact with other people, and we even do this with pets and other
animals. This is extremely important when creating photographs, because you want to
be sure that your focus is on your subject’s eyes (Figure 4.8). Also keep in mind that if the
subject is positioned at an angle, it’s best to focus on the eye that is nearest the camera,
since that’s where we naturally tend to look first (Figure 4.9).
In Chapter 1, “The 70D Top Ten List,” I discussed autofocus on the 70D. For the most control,
the best option for portrait work is to pick one of the nine focus points and stay away
from automatic selection. You can move the focus around within your viewfinder to find
the eye, ensuring that you are focusing on the proper part of the image before taking
your photo. Leaving the focusing decision up to the camera means you could end up with
an in-focus nose and blurry eyes, or, even worse, it might try to focus on the background
instead of the person.
Figure 4.8
It’s important to set
your focus on the
eyes when photo-
graphing portraits,
which is important
for both people and
animal portraits.
ISO 2000 •
1/1000 sec. •
f/2.8 • 40mm lens
