[Leica] Focusing Accurate

["Ferdinand U. LuDo" <fld@mozcom.com>]

Dear Luggers,

I'd like to ask those users of 90/2.0, 50/1.0 & the 75/1.4 at their max
aperture when shooting potraits of tight face shots as to how to focus
accurately.
I have a 90/2.0 summicron M and I use the 2.0 as much as I possibly can.
However after getting my pictures developed today, I noticed that the eyes
are not sharp, sometimes its the nose, or the hair, but not the eyes. Out
of 36 shots I did, 14 are slightly slighly out of focus and I focused each
one on the models right in the eyes. 

This is what I did:

i use the rangefinder field to first focus on the eyes on the model. after
its focused, i tilt the camera down so that I can fill the whole frame with
her face. By tilting it the rangefinder field is now at her nose, sometimes
near the mouth. at this point I no longer focus. then I click.

I don't have sharpness or out of focus problems using the 50mm or the 35mm
even at f2.0, but with the 90/2.0 i get a lot of unsharp/misfocus eyes. Its
really irritating!

I ask a fellow photographer and his advise was:

a.) stop down lens to f2.8-f4, the bokeh would still be nice since the face
is pretty much filled throughout the frame
b.) instead of tilting the camera down, i should keep the camera on the
same plane and i should lower my body so that the angle would not change.

I have not tried the method mentioned above yet, but perhaps someone can
enlighten me.


Regards

Ferdinand