Multiple subject focusing

[Nold]

So I took my Cannon A-1 rock climbing this past weekend to snap some photos of the kids climbing.

All of the photos came out great except some of them with 2-3 people didn't turn out so hot. With 3 or so people not everyone is on the same plane of focus, so the person in the front would be in focus and the other two were slightly out of focus. Someone might be a head or so behind someone else or vice verse. I was stuck on trying to really blur the background to focus on the people, so I had my aperture really opened up. So to solve this I would reduce the size of my aperture, but not so much that the entire background came into focus?

Another issue was trying to focus in on two people about 20 feet behind one another. Again, after reading I see I should have reduced the size my aperture.BUT by reducing the size enough to allow that large of a field of focus, I would be subject to a pretty long shutter speed correct? Is it even possible to get that much into focus?

Sorry for all the questions. I looked up quite a bit of information. All my pictures exposure wise came out pretty well. I will post a few when I get home for critique.

 

[altitude604]

You would need a smaller aperture to get more people in focus. It's a trade-off... more people in focus, but more background in focus.

To compensate for slower shutter speeds you could use ISO400 or ISO800 speed film to keep your shutter speeds up.

 

[Nold]

Excellent, The most recent box of film I bought is iso 400. Thanks for the response!

 

[Mike_E]

If you don't mind digi-darkroom there is a thing called photo-stacking. It's designed for macro but what it does is to take several shots and combine then putting everything in focus.

Sort of like bracketing for an HDR but for focus instead.

 

[Proteus617]

I'm assuming you have a prime lens on your A-1? Focus on subject #1, read the distance from the lens barrel. Do the same for subject #2. Zone focus your lens so distance 1 and 2 are equidistant between the hash marks for your chosen aperture.

 

[Nold]

A prime lense? I have whatever lense the camera came with. I see what you're saying with the distance hash marks. I'll try that next time I shoot. I have been shooting mostly in aperture priority mode.