What aperture for couple shots

[Ilovelearning]

I frequently miss focus on couple shoots. I need to know what aperture you guys suggest shooting at to keep both people in focus. I like shooting wide open where I will have alot of depth of field. What is the widest aperture I can go with?

Thank you

 

[rusty9]

why don't you just experiment and find out for yourself

 

[KmH]

I frequently miss focus on couple shoots. I need to know what aperture you guys suggest shooting at to keep both people in focus. I like shooting wide open where I will have alot of depth of field. What is the widest aperture I can go with?

Thank you

There's your problem!

Shooting wide open usually gives very little DOF.

DOF is controlled by 4 things:

1. lens focal length
2. lens aperture
3. subject to lens distance
4. subject to background distance.

 

[Rudha]

I frequently miss focus on couple shoots. I need to know what aperture you guys suggest shooting at to keep both people in focus. I like shooting wide open where I will have alot of depth of field. What is the widest aperture I can go with?

Thank you

the widest aperture you can get completely depends on the lens you have so unless you post that information nobody can help you, also posting the camera details helps ....just post the whole lot
about the aperture for my d40 with DX sensor anywhere between f8-f11 will give me maximum clarity and acceptable depth of field i never worked with couples but i think that should be just fine. I'm sure others will give better solution but either way post ur gear info first.

 

[Robin Usagani]

also when you have a very shallow DOF, I would use spot focusing. But making it deeper would help .

 

[table1349]

Understanding Depth of Field in Photography

 

[Ilovelearning]

Let me make sure i said what I meant.

When I said wide open, I meant 2.8. I like shooting this because I blur the back ground in my pictures. When I shoot f16 or f8 I have to manually blur the backgrounds out in pp

So what I'm trying to figure out is what is a good aperture to shoot at with a couple and still give me just my couple in focus and everything around them blur.

I have a d90 my lens got to 2.8 to 22.

I want everyone in my group to be sharp. Wtih 2.8 if someone is leaning back a little, i miss and they are not sharp.

will something like 4.5 or 5.6 allow me to get everyone in focus even if they are a tad bit behind the other person. Or should I got with something around 8.

Is my question clearer this time. Thanks for the hlep to guys.

 

[Ilovelearning]

I'm about to check out spot focusing, but why do you recommend it?

 

[Ilovelearning]

Forgive my english, please. I am still learning your language.

 

[KmH]

Forgive my english, please. I am still learning your language.

If you included your general location in your profile, we would know in advance to take your language capabilities into account.

 

[grant]

Like someone said, knowing what equipment you have is needed.

You can look at this too though. Its a chart to find out how much will be in focus giving your distance from subject and f-stop. Depth of Field Table

 

[Ilovelearning]

Like someone said, knowing what equipment you have is needed.

You can look at this too though. Its a chart to find out how much will be in focus giving your distance from subject and f-stop. Depth of Field Table

I said I have a d90 and a 5mm 1.8 and another lens with 2.8 - 22, no problem if you missed it.

The chart is good, but I do not understand it. Can you help?

On the chart its says at a distance of 5 feet at aperture 2.8, near is 4' 10.2'' and far is 5' 2". What does this mean in regards to what is being blurred and what is not. I am sorry I do not understand. Any help is really appreciated. Can you word it like you were talking to a dumb A**. Again, sorry I'm not just picking this chart up.

 

[Ilovelearning]

Understanding Depth of Field in Photography

The chart at the bottom answered my question. If it is correct then I learned alot about depth of field. I read a article about it when i first start photography, but it help revisiting.

I've always done bad at getting everyone in focus. Found the answers to help that. thanks everyone.

 

[indeedies]

When I'm shooting couples I never shoot at 2.8 for the reason you described before. Usually I'm somewhere between 4.5-6.0 depending on the situation and how the couple is situated.

Someone had mentioned (in not a very helpful manner) to simply practice and see what works best. I would encourage this approach. Go out with a couple of friends and put the camera in aperature priority mode. Ignore pretty much everything that's going on with the camera, composition and background. Start by putting your subjects right next to eachother and play with different F-stops. Then put one subject directly behind the other one and again play with different F-stops. With the D90 the screen is large enough so you can zoom in on the eyes of each subject and see where you're missing focus and where you're not.

Hope this helps and good luck ;-)

Also, posting examples may get you better responses in the future.

 

[Breaux]

It also helps to put the background as far as possible behind the subjects.