Group Shot, Back Row Not Focused

[ryan_caldero]

So I took a group shot of about 12 young ladies, but the front row seemed sharp, but the back row of girls were soft. I shot at f/9 at 1/160 sec shutter speed. Should I have bumped the aperture to f/15, f/16, etc? I noticed that at times I take a picture of a few people and only one will be in focus and the other which is standing right next to the subject is slightly out of focus. So when taking pic of 2 or more people should I be shooting a a larger aperture? Some times I shot at f/4 on manual. Here is a sample of the picture I was mentioning.


IMG_6907 by ryan_caldero, on Flickr

 

[Destin]

There are a few things you can do to increase you Depth of Field and get everyone in focus. I would stop down to about F11 or F13 if I could.

But another factor that affects DOF is your distance from the subject. The closer to the subject you are, the thinner the DOF will be. For a shot like this you want to be as far away from them as you can, shooting at a longer focal length.

I generally use my 70-200 for group shots like these, and shoot at around 135mm if space allows. It gives you much better odds of getting everyone in focus, and shooting at longer focal lengths will make the rows seem closer together because it compresses the image slightly.

Here is an online Depth of Field calculator you can play with. Punch in different numbers to see how different things affect your Depth of Field:

http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html

 

[JeffieLove]

Did you use a flash?

You couldn't close down the aperture much more without having too slow of a shutter speed then you would have had a whole different problem.

If I could see a larger version than what's on flickr, I'd be able to judge better, but honestly, the front row doesn't really look tack sharp to me either. I am wondering if you AF point was set in the middle of if you let the camera choose the AF point. If the AF point was in the middle then the focus will be on the red belt of the girl in the back row. If the camera chose, then who knows where the AF point was!??!

I don't know what the "rules" are for apertures with larger groups of people. I generally shoot no more than 4 people at a time and I tend to stick with f/8 - f/11 for them.

WIsh I could be a little more helpful, but at least this gives you some "troubleshooting" ideas?

 

[gsgary]

Where did you focus ? you need to focus between the 2 rows (halfway)

 

[Destin]

Where did you focus ? you need to focus between the 2 rows (halfway)

Every single photographer I have EVER talked to, along with EVERY article I've ever read say to focus on the eyes of the people in the front row when shooting group portraits with 2 rows.

Reason they all give is that you have more DOF behind the focus point than in front of it.

 

[RedWylder]

Thanks for the post, I had something of a similar issues recently with a group shot I took. /goes to find picture...

 

[KmH]

It looks like you had the back row standing quite a ways behind the front row, which didn't help.

In fact the ladies standing in the back look noticably smaller than the ladies sitting in front. (particualrly their faces)

I would have had the front row stand wher their feet are in this shot and would have had the back row stand wher the front is sitting in your shot.

In other words the problem was neither focus, nor DOF.

 

[gsgary]

Where did you focus ? you need to focus between the 2 rows (halfway)

Every single photographer I have EVER talked to, along with EVERY article I've ever read say to focus on the eyes of the people in the front row when shooting group portraits with 2 rows.

Reason they all give is that you have more DOF behind the focus point than in front of it.

Depends what focal length you use certain lengths you can get 50/50