Distance from subject???

kitkatdubs · Oct 5, 2015

i was experimenting since the girl is my friend- so i tried a silhouette. need honest opinions.

480sparky · Oct 5, 2015

A shallower DOF would have helped to keep the background from being so sharp and distracting.

Has nothing to do with DOF, but:

It's crooked. And you're too close... crop is too close to her head and you cut her feet off.

kitkatdubs · Oct 5, 2015

480sparky said:
A shallower DOF would have helped to keep the background from being so sharp and distracting.

Has nothing to do with DOF, but:

It's crooked. And you're too close... crop is too close to her head and you cut her feet off.

I was in her bedroom so I did not have the ability to go back any further. and i didn't cut off her feet- that is the bed... here is original

480sparky · Oct 5, 2015

Have her step to her right. Problem solved.

kitkatdubs · Oct 5, 2015

does this on look in focus?

jcdeboever · Oct 5, 2015

Only the professional photographer gets every shot in perfect focus. All amateurs are in focus hell. Geez this is going on and on

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kitkatdubs · Oct 5, 2015

jcdeboever said:
Only the professional photographer gets every shot in perfect focus. All amateurs are in focus hell.

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please stop commenting, you really aren't being helpful. good riddance

jcdeboever · Oct 5, 2015

kitkatdubs said:
jcdeboever said:

Only the professional photographer gets every shot in perfect focus. All amateurs are in focus hell.

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Click to expand...

please stop commenting, you really aren't being helpful. good riddance

OK... I am getting more confused by the post. Really?

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vintagesnaps · Oct 6, 2015

The girl in pink looks in focus; the mom doesn't and seems to be in a somewhat awkward looking position. In the silhouette the way the shot was framed in effect did cut off the feet by having her standing so her feet were partly hidden by the bed. It probably would have helped to change your vantage point and/or her position so she was completely in view.

I find it a little confusing too if this was a photo session or just taking some pictures for fun with a friend. If it's referred to as a shoot and there's a name/watermark that seems to give the impression that this was a paid shoot or one done in trade. It seems like it would help to develop skills in posing subjects and choosing a vantage point and framing shots, etc. as well as understanding aspects of how the camera works at various settings if the plan is to go from doing this for fun with a friend to doing portrait sessions.

Derrel · Oct 6, 2015

kitkatdubs said:
So heres my question then, what would YOU typically shoot a maternity/family portrait of 3 at? Like I just want them all in focus...?

First off, for group shots, if the people are posed so that they are all the same exact distances from the camera, depth of field at f/5 ought to be just adequate with a 50mm lens at any framing, from full-length vertical, to half-body horizontally frame (from the waist up), to even head and shoulders horizontally framed. But-- f/5 is just on the edge...if two people are in the back, or two are in front and one person is in back, and their heads are not posed close together--by you and by directions given to them, you'd more than likely want to be at f/6.3, or even better, f/7.1. The thing is--people often form loose groupings, unless they are directly posed by a photographer, and f/5 is probably going to leave "somebody" out of focus. Plus...there are also bodies involved...a woman's bustline can easily be rendered out of focus at f/5. Same with the legs of a person who is seated. Or the person in the back, who is not "squished in there tightly." I am not kidding...f/6.3, f/7.1, f/8--all are commonly used apertures for group portraiture.

THE CLOSER you are to the people, the more need there is for a higher aperture number, like 7.1 or 8 or even f/11. As you move the camera farther back, depth of field becomes deeper, and less-critical of exact, pin-point focus and extremely close posing/grouping.

At close distances, f/5 will often leave something important out of focus...nose...bust...ears...something. PLUS, at marginal apertures, there is basically no margin for safety, no margin focusing errors, no margin for people moving a little bit, and so on.

The_Traveler · Oct 6, 2015

Rather than just tacking new questions onto the same thread, you would be better off starting new threads with the new questions.
That way issues wouldn't overlap.

And posting a reduced image to look for sharpness won't work as well as posting a 100% crop so we can actually see the sharpness/unsharpness.

Dave442 · Oct 6, 2015

The shot of the girl's face looks in focus to me. It was shot at f/5. So it looks like you can select a focus point and just want to know how to control what else is in focus in your shots.
Best is to practice with each of your lenses and the subjects you like to shoot.

Find out where you need to place people so that you can shoot in the f/5.6 to f/8 range and have them all be acceptably in focus. The camera/lens is only going to focus at one distance for any given shot, everything in front of and behind that distance will have varying degrees of what we generally consider to be acceptably in focus - the Depth-Of-Field.

The DOF subject is covered very early on in the book Photography (a common photography student textbook) so its good you are working on this now and not some time down the road.

photosecrets050 · Oct 6, 2015

If you understood aperture, ISO and shutter speed then shooting at specified distance should not be
a problem. The distance between a camera and the subject is calculated based on aperture, ISO and shutter speed.
Shooting at f1.8 is allowing a lot of light into the camera. You can make the adjustment by controlling the speed of the light allowed into the camera. To get your party in focus at a distance of four feet or more, I would suggest you use a
tripod to minimize camera shack, if you have one, focus directly on the eyes, once they are in focus, then shoot. A lense with a focal lenght of f24 .mm is normally used for wide angle shots and can create distortion when extremely close to your subject. Determine what you really want the end result of the photograph to look like and then take your
picture based on that.

If you are shooting at a close distance in a room with very little space, I would suggest using a lense with a focal length from 24mm to 50mm, once you are taking pictures of more than one person. They would do a good job. Depth of Field calculators can be very useful if you know how to use them. They help determine what aperture and speed to shoot at.