Camera Labs

Hey guys, I'm 16 years old and I've been getting into photography a little more lately.

Last night I shot a Sweet 16 and got some great shots but there's a problem I'm noticing. It seems a lot of the pictures, even if I select the center point focus, unwanted parts will be blurred or only the persons face will be in focus. It was especially bad when taking large group shots where make the 3 people in the middles faces would be in focus and the rest would be off.

I was using a D60 with a 50mm f1.8 AF-S. I think part of the problem was the very annoying 3-point auto focus on the D60.

So if someone can give me some tips to improve and fix the problem I'd really appreciate it!...Nick

I think you'd be better posting an example, or even letting us know the details of the shot (subject distance, f stop etc)

I'm guessing you shot at or near f/1.8

Shooting with such a large aperture creates what we call a shallow depth of field. aka selective focus. If you were to stop down to f/5.6 or even f/8 you would find that a much larger area would be in focus.

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Canon 40D + 70-200mm f/2.8L IS + 50mm f/1.8
Manfrotto 055CX3 + 496RC2
www.thomaslowe.com

or sice it is a party i recon it was indoor where shutter speed was set low so you introduced camera shake into your photos, to avoid that shoot with shutter speeds faster than 1/equviavlet focal lenght (with your 50 f1.8 it would be at least 1/60)

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nikon d90 --->af-s dx 18-105mm; tamron 90mm macro

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----:>bakice ce vladati svjetom<:----

Alright thanks guys I'll try it out. I don't want to post any pictures of the party since there of a bunch of 16 year old girls but here are some i had with the same problem, notice how the face is in focus and the lower body/legs comes out of focus. It would be great if the whole dog was in focus and the background was blurred.
Exposure 1/60 sec, f/4.0 ISO 200

Exposure 1/80 sec, f/4.5 ISO 200



Sorry guys if these are stupid questions but like I said, I'm new to this and I'm starting to love it .

that is the general depth of field, close down the aperture to f8 or so and it should have more focus, but be careful because everything at the same distance will be in focus (rocks to the left of 1st dog)

also you could step back since the further away you are from the subject the bigger depth of field is, CORRECT ME if I'm wrong..

_________________
nikon d90 --->af-s dx 18-105mm; tamron 90mm macro

add me up on:

flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bakica/

deviant art:
http://tbensic.deviantart.com/

----:>bakice ce vladati svjetom<:----

You may find Gordon`s tutorials useful

http://www.dslrtips.com/workshops/DSLR_ ... tips.shtml

Using flash outdoors may be a technique you can use.

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Canon Powershot S95, Canon 7D, 15-85, Canon 85 1.8 USM, Sigma 30 1.4, 50mm 1.8, Canon 100 2.8L IS Macro, Canon 70-300L IS USM+Kenko 1.4 Pro 300DGX, Canon 430EX II and RS 4 Classic