I’ve had several people ask me recently where to focus when taking insect photos. Here’s my advice.
Aim for the eyes.
Compare:
The second photo should be more appealing than the first. Indeed, the first looks out of focus. Strictly speaking, though, this isn’t true.
The top photo shows a much greater percentage of the body in focus than does the bottom photo. Look at how crisp the outline of the fly appears in comparison to the blur of the body in the second photo. In fact, a computer might even select the top photo as the better of the two based overall sharpness.
But we humans are not computers. We are social primates, and we naturally gravitate towards the eyes.