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Category: New Answers

Photography Question 

Noelle Rosenberg 		 

How to Get 3 People in Focus


Hi, I have three children who I love to take pictures of but I find when I shoot all three of them together, I tend to get some blur (one child typically out of focus). I like to use my 50MM, manual settings. What am I doing wrong? Any tips would be greatly appreciated.
Best,


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0 July 24, 2011

 
- Bojan Bencic

BetterPhoto Member
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Bojan Bencic's Gallery 		  Hi Noelle,
You didn't mention the details of your manual settings, but if you are using 50mm prime lens, your problem is probably shallow DOF (depth of field). Try reducing the aperture to f/6 or less and compare the results. Using a smaller aperture will reduce the amount of light on the sensor so you will need to compensate with longer exposure or increased ISO value.
Hope it helps, regards,


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0 July 25, 2011

 
- Greg McCroskery

BetterPhoto Member
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Greg McCroskery's Gallery 		  Noelle,

Bojan is correct, however, be sure you understand that when he says "Try reducing the aperture to f/6 or less..." he is talking about a higher f-stop value (e.g. f/8).

God Bless,
Greg


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0 July 26, 2011

 

Noelle Rosenberg 		 
 

BetterPhoto.com Editor's Pick   		Girls
Girls
aperture - f/2.8

shutter - 1/60

lens 50mm prime

ISO 250

Noelle Rosenberg

  
 
Thanks so much. I appreciate your info. I shot this one yesterday at f/2.8. Looks pretty crisp with a 1/60 shutter speed.


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0 July 26, 2011

 
- Bojan Bencic

BetterPhoto Member
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Bojan Bencic's Gallery 		  Beautiful portrait of three sweet little girls, Noelle.

As long as you have all their faces (eyes) at equal distance from the camera, you'll have no problem with shallow DOF.
f/2.8 works great in this photo. You can see the effect of f/2.8 (shallow DOF) on their feet and on the background (soft and out of focus). In this case it is a good thing.
If the girls would stand one in front of the other (each head at different distance from the camera) you would probably use a smaller aperture (larger f-number like f/8 or f/16) to get all their faces in focus.
You can try different aperture values on the same subject (if you can keep the girls still for long enough) and compare the results.

Great portrait, have fun,

Bojan


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0 July 27, 2011

 

Noelle Rosenberg 		  Thanks Bojan!

Best, Noelle


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0 July 28, 2011

 
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