A question i have put off for far too long!
Discussion
Ok so recently i have been getting into portraiture photography and i am having trouble taking pictures of large groups of people, where for instance they are one behind the other etc. Every time or near enough on the nearest or the furthest are in focus.
Is increasing my aperture the only option?
Cheers
and to make this thread a little more interesting here are a couple from my friends 18th birthday party, with intentional shallow depth of field on them!
First attempt at proper portraits and would love to know what you think i am doing right/wrong
Cheers
Leighton
Is increasing my aperture the only option?
Cheers
and to make this thread a little more interesting here are a couple from my friends 18th birthday party, with intentional shallow depth of field on them!
First attempt at proper portraits and would love to know what you think i am doing right/wrong
Cheers
Leighton
A 'pro' once told me: F8, and you'll be alright.
Which seems to work quite nicely.
I also remember this from a Chase Jarvis interview...
You should know what Shutter and aperture you want to use before shooting, then adjust the ISO to suit. This has worked wonders for me recently.
Which seems to work quite nicely.
I also remember this from a Chase Jarvis interview...
You should know what Shutter and aperture you want to use before shooting, then adjust the ISO to suit. This has worked wonders for me recently.
Edited by Scope on Wednesday 17th September 21:59
Edited by Scope on Wednesday 17th September 22:00
Or just select the focus point (or manually focus) to the attractive ones, and leave the "less attractive" ones out of focus...
If you want to maximise Depth of field, but want to use the largest aperture possible (to blur backgrounds or in low light) try focusing at the hyperfocal distance, that is the point at which your depth of field matches the distance of you target subject away from the camera.
In simple terms you may use this in landscape photography to maximise depth of field. Where you might naturally focus at infinity, and use an aperture of say F11, you actually focus about a third of the distance into the scene, so that the closest point is in focus, but the far extreme is still within the depth of field. Say you need a depth of field of 2-100m. Rather than focus at infinity and use a really small apperture (to reach all the way back to 2m), you focus at say 30m, and use an aperture that reaches back to 2m, and forward to 100m.
Basically learn to use the DOF preview button.
If you want to maximise Depth of field, but want to use the largest aperture possible (to blur backgrounds or in low light) try focusing at the hyperfocal distance, that is the point at which your depth of field matches the distance of you target subject away from the camera.
In simple terms you may use this in landscape photography to maximise depth of field. Where you might naturally focus at infinity, and use an aperture of say F11, you actually focus about a third of the distance into the scene, so that the closest point is in focus, but the far extreme is still within the depth of field. Say you need a depth of field of 2-100m. Rather than focus at infinity and use a really small apperture (to reach all the way back to 2m), you focus at say 30m, and use an aperture that reaches back to 2m, and forward to 100m.
Basically learn to use the DOF preview button.
One thing we lack on modern digi cameras lenses, is the numerical values of depth field which used to be shown on 35 mm lenses. At least I dont have this on my Canon 400D.
From memory of my 35 mm days, a 35mm lense on f16 gave fantastic depth of field, of course you had to select the shutter speed to suit. Something like 3mtrs to infinity.
From memory of my 35 mm days, a 35mm lense on f16 gave fantastic depth of field, of course you had to select the shutter speed to suit. Something like 3mtrs to infinity.
It depends on the focal length of the lens and also the subject to camera distance. Wider angle lenses will give a much wider depth of field at a given aperture than a telephoto one. The nearer you are to the subject the shallower the depth of field will be. Conversely the further away you are from the subject the wider the depth of field will be. A good exercise is to set up a range of still lives or portraits and practice with set focal length and varying apertures. Say 28mm, 50mm, 85mm, 135mm with f2, f5.6, f8, f16. Vary the subject-to-camera distance between the different set ups too.
I think that you have produced a very good set of images above.
I think that you have produced a very good set of images above.
Edited by EmmaP on Thursday 18th September 09:33
leightonjames said:
Thanks everyone, yet another set of amazing answers. gotta love you guys!
Thanks for the nice comment on the photos Emma
During the event i had a master practictioner in neuro linguistic programming give me his business card to potentially take some photos! result!
Correct, absolutely amazing answers, now if you were asking about speeding and NIP's.....Thanks for the nice comment on the photos Emma
During the event i had a master practictioner in neuro linguistic programming give me his business card to potentially take some photos! result!
May I add that I enjoyed your pics as well, keep it up.
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