C&C for Halloween please

[Marlene]

My daughter is having a little party for Halloween and the girls want photos in their costumes. We had a little practice shoot today with not so great results. Can anyone give me some tips on how to improve this? I'm using a Canon 50mm 1.8 lens.
Thanks!

 

[Josh66]

Her face looks kinda soft.

It would probably be better to stop down a little (f/2 or 2.8, something like that).
At 1.8 your DOF is pretty small, and slight movements by you or her could cause you to miss the focus.

 

[c.cloudwalker]

The only serious problem I see is the focus. It seems to be forward of her face. Other than that it is a nice photo.

And a very nice costume!

 

[Felix0890]

Focus on her eyes, not her hair. Do you want the background, including the pumpkin, in focus too? If so, use a smaller aperture (higher F number) to get it all in focus. If you're going only for her on focus and the rest blurred out, keep the aperture small but make sure you are focusing on her face. if you want to make her off to the side, just change which focusing point the camera is using.

 

[Marlene]

Thanks so much for the help! The blur around the face is what I was really concerned about. I will try again today and stop down some.