focusing in close-up

R

Ruby Gold

Member
One other question. After looking at footage I shot in a recent interview, I noticed that when I went in for a very tight close-up, the shot was slightly out of focus.

I was in 60i mode, using 3 point lighting, manual white balance, manual iris setting, and manual focus.

To set focus, I framed my shot, noting the zoom number, then zoomed all the way in and focused. During the interview I wd zoom in or out for a tighter or wider shot, going out as wide as the original zoom number I noted. Everything seems in focus except the super tight close-ups.

Any ideas why these were out of focus or how to correct for that in the future wd be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Ruby
 
It could be your glass, in which case, you just can't zoom in that much, it would probably be better to move the camera closer and keep the lens wider.

A sure fire way to check focus is to buy one of those little mag lights where the cap comes off, giving you an exposed pin bulb.

Place that bulb right where you want focus (like right in front of the actors face... make sure to sheild the bulb from their eye by cupping your hand), then zoom in all the way and rack focus back and forth until the bulb light looks like a little circular pin. When it is out of focus you will see a star-like pattern.

You can also add more light to your scene and stop-up. zooming in and opening up your iris all the way can lead to softer images.

In a worse case scenario, have your camera checked out, could be a bad chip, bad chip mounting, etc. But try the other stuff before you panic.
 
Thanks for the response, but what do you mean by "it could be your glass?" And, again, forgive the ignorance, but what is rack focusing, exactly? I sort of get it, but...

thanks-
 
Rack focus is where you zoom in on something and you have something in the foreground of the shot (closests to the camera) in focus while your background is completely blurred out then you would slowly spin the focus rings on the camera to make the background in focus and the foreground out of focus. This technique can be used as a transition, or to reveal something, a reaction between 2 people, etc.
 
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