Something bothering me - Focusing

[jcoutts]

Hi

I have my sons prom Thursday and there is something bothering me about getting some nice shots with him and his other half.

Primarily I mean, what do I focus on... I mean we know for sure when doing portraits you focus on the eye.... BUT what do you do when there is someone standing beside one another. :bang::bang::bang:

1. Do you concentrate on one person and hope thother is in focus.....?

2. Do you back of the DOF say to F8.0, to try and make sure they are BOTH in focus.....?

3. What metering should you use....?

How would you go about it?

Would like to know how some of you approach this?

Can someone clear this up for me.

 

[fallen_mathi]

if it were me, i would either up the iso/lower the shutter speed, to increase the depth of field, or use a flash, to provide extra light, and alow me to increase the depth of field... either way, & are they outside/inside/whats the avaliable light like?

 

[HoppyUK]

You've got to get both people in focus! Absolutely. Even if it means using flash to get the f/number.

In theory you could line them up carefully side by side and get away with f/2.8 or something, but it's not workable in practise.

If you get desparate, move back and shoot full length. You'll get a lot more DoF that way than just head and shoulders. F/4 might do it.

Go on to www.dofmaster.com and see what you've got to play with using your camera/lens/distance.

 

[cokebottles]

Get them standing (or at least position their faces) in the same focal plane. So avoid one person standing behind the other, etc - will reduce the ammount of DoF you need to get them both in I guess.

 

[jcoutts]

O.K Guys, thanks a lot. However, what do I focus on???

O.K Assuming they are standing next to each other, can I just get away with a centre point focus (Eye) on one of them and then they will BOTH be in focus???...

 

[HoppyUK]

O.K Guys, thanks a lot. However, what do I focus on???

O.K Assuming they are standing next to each other, can I just get away with a centre point focus (Eye) on one of them and then they will BOTH be in focus???...

Use centre point, so that you always know exactly where the camera has focused.

Check out your depth of field here, like some helpful chap suggested above www.dofmaster.com