Hey Peoples! I need some advice...

[TheFabulousSashaBee]

If you look at the picture of the kid his shirt collar is in better focus than his face. While his shoulders and face are pretty close to being the same distance from you I suspect you were shooting slightly down at them thus from that angle the collar is a different distance than the face so with a thin dof (9 inches or whatever) and if you miss it slightly you're not going to get both things in focus.

Especially in manual it is a skill which can be honed to eyeball it just right. Stopped down a few just makes it easier on you to get within the range of focus when you give yourself a larger dof target to hit. And would allow you to get more of the person in focus like if they were laying down perpendicular to the camera or if you had a couple rows of people.

Similarly with the bride. The books on the right one has a P that looks pretty sharp and in general that is a good pic to understand dof. The books in the front are blurry. Follow the aisle back and it gets more in focus to around the book with the big P then it starts to get less in focus behind that. Looks like the focus there is just behind her maybe on her shoulder.

See....This is why I ask questions on here. I get answers that actually make sense. Thanks so much!

 

[KmH]

I am going to research DOF a little more, maybe that's were i'm getting messed up. I always try to shoot with the lowest ISO so something else is not adding up...

Understanding Depth of Field in Photography

 

[Bebulamar]

The lens is a manual focus and I was thinking that I just wasn't focusing...but I don't know. Driving me crazy! Here's 2 that I have access to....

Unless you crop a lot the picture of the boy can not be made with a 14mm lens uncropped.

 

[Gary A.]

Has the lens been dropped or banged around? Often lenses need to be re-aligned.

 

[Alan92RTTT]

Could part of the problem be the 3200's Anti-Alias filter.