Auto Focus Spot

donkeymusic

donkeymusic

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Carlo
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Hello,

just looking for some advice, in the studio i shoot with auto focus and use the spot setting so that i can focus on the face and then compose the photo.

If i have more than one person in the shoot, what setting is best to use?

Thanks for any advice
 
donkeymusic said:
Hello,

just looking for some advice, in the studio i shoot with auto focus and use the spot setting so that i can focus on the face and then compose the photo.

If i have more than one person in the shoot, what setting is best to use?

Thanks for any advice
Click to expand...

The same, just adjust your aperture to suit the depth of people. If the people were in a dead straight line and all there faces were exactly level, you could focus on the center one and shoot at f/1.4 and every down the line would be in focus. Sadly that rarely happens, so you'll need to make sure you Dof is wide enough to cover everyone.
 
This is both a focus and depth of field question.

If you have a group of people, you need enough DoF to ensure they are all sharp, and then focus on the right distance to optimise the sharpness in front and behind that point.

As a very rough rule of thumb, at 'normal' distances like this, the DoF extends one third in front and two thirds behind the focused point. Say you are shooting a group and the closest person is 2m away and the furthest is 5m. If you have a 28mm lens and set f/5.6 (on a crop format camera) then if you focus on 3m they will all be sharp. Input the numbers here and see what you get http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html
 
Don't know if it helps but i am shooting in a studio, where two girls will be sat next to each other.

I am shooting at f8

Thanks
 
donkeymusic said:
Don't know if it helps but i am shooting in a studio, where two girls will be sat next to each other.

I am shooting at f8

Thanks
Click to expand...

Then you can hardly fail at f/8. See Tom's post above, and check the DoFmaster link.
 
i suppose what i am asking is, if i am using spot focus i, with one person i would focus on there eyes. if i have two in the shoot, whose eyes would i focus on?

or am i right in thinking that if i was to focus on just one set of eyes due to using f8 then other would be in focus too?

thanks
 
donkeymusic said:
i suppose what i am asking is, if i am using spot focus i, with one person i would focus on there eyes. if i have two in the shoot, whose eyes would i focus on?

or am i right in thinking that if i was to focus on just one set of eyes due to using f8 then other would be in focus too?

thanks
Click to expand...

Yes, that's what we all said. If they are within the DOF that f/8 gives, then you can focus on anyone in the line.
 
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