getting everyone in focus

[scottieMacneil]

hallo there PhoFos,

delighted to be here. this is my first post.

in my current project i find myself in a different environment every other day taking photos of people in the workplace. everything's great so far apart from the fact that when i have two or more people in the scene i'm finding it difficult to get all the faces pristinely in focus as is my want. very rarely are the subjects the same distance from the lens.

i'm using two speed lights, a tripod, a remote shutter and a D7100. i'm keeping it in AF-A auto-area mode when with two or more. i'm 1/50, f5.6 and ISO 125-200 max. i do not want to raise the ISO and use a higher f-stop. i do not like what that gives me. nobody's moving and the light is good. sometimes the auto-focus will give me what i want when i half press the shutter but sometimes not. and i don't have time to f-stop around. i'm in and out.

any ideas anyone?

 

[scottieMacneil]

oh yeah, i'm using a Nikkor 35mm 1.8

 

[snowbear]

Can you post examples? Off the bat, I suspect DoF.

 

[tirediron]

Yep... bow to physics. Depth of field (DoF) is a fixed value which depends mainly on: lens focal length, aperutre and camera-to-subject distance. If you want greater DoF you can: use a shorter focal length, allow for greater separation between camera and subject, or use a smaller aperture. If you don't like any of those options, then, sorry, but you're stuck. Proper focusing can mitigate the problem to some degree; assume for instance that your DoF in your current situation is 36" (14 in front of, and 22 behind point of focus). If you focus on the nose of the nearest subject, you might not have enough DoF to include the farther subject, but if you focused on say, his shoulder, the 14" in front would bring his face into focus and the 22" behind might be enough for the farther person.

 

[Braineack]

i'm using two speed lights, a tripod, a remote shutter and a D7100. i'm keeping it in AF-A auto-area mode when with two or more. i'm 1/50, f5.6 and ISO 125-200 max. i do not want to raise the ISO and use a higher f-stop. i do not like what that gives me. nobody's moving and the light is good. sometimes the auto-focus will give me what i want when i half press the shutter but sometimes not. and i don't have time to f-stop around. i'm in and out.

any ideas anyone?

get someone that knows what thery are doing to take the pics?

if youre unwilling to change cameras settings how can we help you?

 

[ruifo]

Do some tests here, to find the best f/# for everything in focus:

Online Depth of Field Calculator

 

[tirediron]

i'm using two speed lights, a tripod, a remote shutter and a D7100. i'm keeping it in AF-A auto-area mode when with two or more. i'm 1/50, f5.6 and ISO 125-200 max. i do not want to raise the ISO and use a higher f-stop. i do not like what that gives me. nobody's moving and the light is good. sometimes the auto-focus will give me what i want when i half press the shutter but sometimes not. and i don't have time to f-stop around. i'm in and out.

any ideas anyone?

get someone that knows what thery are doing to take the pics?

if youre unwilling to change cameras settings how can we help you?

I'll take "What isn't a helpful answer for $100 please Alex"

 

[Braineack]

.

 

[scottieMacneil]

Can you post examples? Off the bat, I suspect DoF.

no worries snow bear.

 

[Braineack]

The one thing he's unwilling to change is the one thing that will solve his problems.

 

[scottieMacneil]

Can you post examples? Off the bat, I suspect DoF.

no worries snow bear.

View attachment 98038

i'm using two speed lights, a tripod, a remote shutter and a D7100. i'm keeping it in AF-A auto-area mode when with two or more. i'm 1/50, f5.6 and ISO 125-200 max. i do not want to raise the ISO and use a higher f-stop. i do not like what that gives me. nobody's moving and the light is good. sometimes the auto-focus will give me what i want when i half press the shutter but sometimes not. and i don't have time to f-stop around. i'm in and out.

any ideas anyone?

get someone that knows what thery are doing to take the pics?

if youre unwilling to change cameras settings how can we help you?

Mmmmmm, you seem like a total arsehole. i didn't realise this forum was for bitter knob-ends. where does one go for advice when when one is not a pro?

and you should get someone who knows how to spell to write your next reply

 

[ronlane]

If you don't want to change camera settings then you need to take a step (or two back) and she needs to step forward to be closer to the same plane as he is.

His eyes seem a little soft to me in this example but it could be my contacts and this monitor.

 

[snowbear]

Looks like DoF. You can stop down, go wider or move back.

 

[scottieMacneil]

The one thing he's unwilling to change is the one thing that will solve his problems.

ok. let's start again. the reason i am stuck on changing the f_stop is because it's leaving me with too much grain that does not sit right with the rest of the photos. the reason i'm writing is precisely to change things in order to get better. ia m fully aware that this is a path to go down but it doesn't seem to be working for me. i was wandering if there was perhaps a technical route to go down that i was not aware of.

i thank anyone who has constructive criticism to give.

 

[ronlane]

constructively, you should be able to correct "grain" (Noise) in post very easily if you moved to ISO 400.

 

[Braineack]

Mmmmmm, you seem like a total arsehole. i didn't realise this forum was for bitter knob-ends. where does one go for advice when when one is not a pro?

isn't that exactly what the internet is for?

You don't have adequate DOF--you really need to stop down to increase your DOF and then turn up your flash power (or iso) to make up for loss of light.

or you could move further away from the subjects, but I still don't think that will give you enough if you're unwilling to go smaller than f/5.6.

or you could get your subjects on the same plane.

better?

 

[Braineack]

The one thing he's unwilling to change is the one thing that will solve his problems.

ok. let's start again. the reason i am stuck on changing the f_stop is because it's leaving me with too much grain that does not sit right with the rest of the photos. the reason i'm writing is precisely to change things in order to get better. ia m fully aware that this is a path to go down but it doesn't seem to be working for me. i was wandering if there was perhaps a technical route to go down that i was not aware of.

Closing the aperture doesn't add noise. however, increasing the ISO can.

I'd be shooting this closer to f/8-11. This will bring the BG more in focus as well, and I don't think that's nessecarily a bad thing.