So MANY questions. Let me pick your brain, if you will.

[AMOMENT]

I have a friend who is a prof. photog. She does incredible work. She says she often leaves her camera on autofocus because the camera is so efficient in focusing and detecting what to have in the picture. I have been experimenting alot with focal points. I have the Nikon D3100. It has 11 auto focus points. I shoot children alot so I very rarely shoot manually although I will sometimes choose an auto select point. Since I can only select one at a time, I do my best to position it between my subjects eyes. I have an 18-55mm lens that came with the camera but I often use my Nikkor 50mm f/1.8. Depending on how far away my subject is or how much of the picture I want to be in focus, I raise and lower the aperture. I was recently directed to a very helpful site for how to photograph children. (thanks to a member on here ) They recommended using single point focusing. Can someone explain why I would want to use this over auto continuous? I assumed that selecting a focal point and then choosing continuous would allow me to simply re position the camera/myself as opposed to having to recompose everything. I'm clearly wrong. Furthermore, when I do select one of my 11 focal points and try to position it between eyes, the person's face still seems a bit out of focus. Any tips?
I dislike using my liveview because I find it has too much lag. However, when I do use it, it seems as if my face priority box pops up and locks in on the face. I think my camera only enables the face priority if I use the liveview. I can also zoom in and get some cool effects but they are unpredictable when using it. How do I ensure the face wil be in ultimate focus other than positioning the focus point between or on one of the subjects eyes and adjusting my position/aperture for the correct DOF when manually selecting one of these auto focus points? I often use matrix metering. Maybe I should take this photographer's advice, and just always use complete auto focus?
My subject's faces are occassionally not bright enough. If I have enough time to reposition my subject this is not a problem but often, it is of a moving child. I have PSE and will post process it by quick selecting their face and decreasing the shadows. Any other ideas? As of right now I only have a pop up flash. I'm thinking that I should use this if this is the case. Are my wrong?
Any further equipment you would purchase to get me started? I also want to be able to do some indoor work now that it is getting closer to winter and alot of people are not willing to take it outside. Speedlight? Screen?
Last but not least, I use PSE and like it. I've heard of members on here using lightroom and another program that happened to be free. What are your feelings about these programs? Pros/cons?

Thank you so much in advance!

 

[MTVision]

Manual focus isn't choosing focal points. You use autofocus just like your photog friend.

I wouldn't let the camera choose the focal points especially with a narrow DOF. When you using a single focal point you want to focus on the eye nearest to you - not in the middle of the eyes. Letting the camera choose the focus points is how the camera works in auto mode.

I always use single point. Af-a (what you are about) switching from single point to continuous depending on what the camera thinks it should be.

 

[MTVision]

One other thing - continuous just means that if your subject moves the lens will keep trying to lock focus. By choosing your own focal point you may not have to recompose. With af-a how do you think the camera knows what you want the focal point to be?

 

[Overread]

Lotsa questions - which is good - though I might have got a little lost in your auto focus part; so I'll outline a few methods/ideas you can consider as well as pitfalls for them.

Focusing in general with a moving subject; Myself I use continuous Auto focus mode combined with a single point being active in the camera. This allows me to point the AF point at the area I want in focus and have the camera focus on that point. I can then track the motion of that point by keeping the AF point over the area I want in focus to keep it focused on it (whilst the AF is running).
Using the outer AF points allows for more creativity when using this method, though you might find them a little slower and less responsive at times than the middle point when using a lower end camera body; simply put higher end bodies have more outer points of the cross variety which allows for more accurate/faster AF - though in decent lighting the outer points on even a lower end camera should be fine.


Focus and recompose - if you use single shot AF you can focus on a point fast with the AF and then recompose the scene to reflect the creative composition you want. The problem here is that there are 2 weaknesses to this mode:
1) The point you want in focus needs to remain still - if it moves around after you recompose you've lost the focus

2) The plane of focus shifts; when you focus imagine that the in-focus part of the scene is like a book; the depth of the book is the depth of field whilst the flat shape of the book is parallel to the front of your lens. Thinking like this you can see that if you set focus to a single point and then change the composition the angle between you and the original subject shifts; the book changes position, following the front of the lens and the original point might slip out of focus.

Thus is why with focus-recompose you need to adjust (manually) the focus as needed after recomposing. For action based subjects its possible, but tricky.



My own method - is to combine single point AF control (the first method) with backbutton autofocus control; This means that AF is engaged not by a half-press of the shutter button, but by a press of a button on the back of the camera with your thumb. This allows AF to be moved off the shutter button so that taking a shot will not engage the AF. This is very empowering because it allows you to keep the AF in continuous mode, but also use it just like single shot AF when needed (eg focus and recompose or shift instantly to manual focusing if combined with a lens with fulltime manual focusing control, without having to flick the AF on/off switch). It takes a little getting used to, but once you get used to it few go back to regular AF control.





As for Lightroom - lightroom is a great product for RAW processing workflow and for file organisation. It's actual editing methods are strong in that its non-destructive (it never changes the photo it lists out the changes made and applies them to a template each time so the original remains untouched - unless of course you save the output to a file); however its editing is limited to mostly global changes with a few selective tools. It's primary intention is to streamline RAW processing and then help organise your image library - with the intention that you use a dedicated editing program (elements/CS5/other) for more extensive and local editing.
At your stage if you're using RAW getting lightroom isn't a bad move; it helps get your photos into organisation early and helps with your workflow and will work well with elements alongside it - though I wouldn't feel that must get this software and I would be tempted to put more money into getting the shot (ie lighting/lenses) over software.

 

[Derrel]

Start shooting at f/5.6, until you get a better idea of why to shoot at any other aperture. See what happens.

 

[D-B-J]

When using your 1.8 lens wide open(as i assume you are trying), you must focus on the eye's for an accurate focusing, so try not to use the point in the center of their face. I rarely take my camera off AF-Continuous. It works well that way.

 

[enzodm]

My subject's faces are occassionally not bright enough. If I have enough time to reposition my subject this is not a problem but often, it is of a moving child. I have PSE and will post process it by quick selecting their face and decreasing the shadows. Any other ideas? As of right now I only have a pop up flash. I'm thinking that I should use this if this is the case.

Often better than nothing: Fill flash - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia