When shooting group I also halfpress shutter to get focus. Then flick to manual focus mode either on body or lens. If shooting myself alone, then maybe you can just use a tape measure from the camera to the subject's(your) eye.THink this is what cameramen do when they shoot a movie also. Infact, they totally don't use autofocus. They measure and make markings on the lens if the subject is supposed to move.
Basic Q: How to half focus using timer?
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Zerstorer said:
Yes, the background was lit. There are 5 focusing points in the camera. The subject (group in the dark) covers 4 of those points, and the camera still choses to focus on single top focus point (lit background)? Do all cameras behave this way?
To describe to you the shot, I was on the side of the Esplanade theatres with group sitting on the bench along the river. The camera put the Fullerton hotel in full focus. Group was out of focus.
ESPN: Your discussion on infinity mode is too complex for me. Maybe next time we meet.
joanne
Well, the background had the most contrast for the camera to lock onto, with the foreground darkened. In most cameras, the AF system will lock onto a more contrasty area even though its in the background, unless there is a function for closest subject priority.joteo said:
One tip would be to NOT use the Night portrait mode, in this mode Dynamic AF(all 5 af pts) are selected and you do not know which one the camera will arbitrarily select.
What you should try out next time is to meter the background in aperture priority and then switch to manual mode, transferring the exposure settings to it.
Then use the centre AF pt to lock focus on your subject and then switch to manual mode, before you use the remote to trigger the shutter.
espn said:What I meant was taking a group shot thru timer, setting it to infinity should solve the focusing issue. So that's why I mentioned infinity
Frankly when I replied I was only thinking about focusing it at infinity to keep the image & subject well within reasonable range so that every portion remains sharp.
Oh GOD, please HELP!
espn it seems like you are the target. :bsmilie: . I can understand espn as he is talking out of experience and not just blind theory.
Unless the group is very small i.e. 2-3 people otherwise at infinity it should be acceptable. If it is a big group it is either you stand far away or use a wide angle. Also you would have use a smaller aperture than normal. In either situation the infinity settings still gives you enough DOF to have the group acceptably sharp.
So how big is the group ?. and please post some photos for all to see and help better.
Unless the group is very small i.e. 2-3 people otherwise at infinity it should be acceptable. If it is a big group it is either you stand far away or use a wide angle. Also you would have use a smaller aperture than normal. In either situation the infinity settings still gives you enough DOF to have the group acceptably sharp.
So how big is the group ?. and please post some photos for all to see and help better.
gooseberry
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Infinity focus would be appropriate if the group of people were sufficiently far enough away from the camera. However, this isn't the case from Joanne's description - "Group terrifically out of focus. Background terrifically sharp." This means that the group of people are already well within the focusing range of the lens, and since obviously the lens was focusing behind the group of people (either at a point somewhere behind or already at infinity) - setting it to infinity manually will either get you the same result or even worse (people are more out of focus).Dennis said:
Joteo, just autofocus on the group if possible and put it into manual focus to snap. You mentioned night portrait mode so it must be pretty dark. If that's the case you will really have to guesstimate and autofocus on another object which is similar in distance to your group. Use the flash and try to use a small aperture like f8.
PS. I did not go through all the posts but setting it into infinity or any point near infinity will not work, not unless the group size is more than 100 and you are using less than 24mm which most would try to avoid anyway.
That is because the background is still out of focus, which means there is still more AF travel available. And I think joteo mentioned clearly that the group is blur while the background is sharp.
Anyway, I make part of my living taking group photos, so believe me on this.
PS. I did not go through all the posts but setting it into infinity or any point near infinity will not work, not unless the group size is more than 100 and you are using less than 24mm which most would try to avoid anyway.
That is because the background is still out of focus, which means there is still more AF travel available. And I think joteo mentioned clearly that the group is blur while the background is sharp.
Anyway, I make part of my living taking group photos, so believe me on this.
Forgot to mention that closest subject priority still depends on contrast. If the foreground is rather dark, there might not be enough light for the AF to detect.joteo said:
If you zoom into the background you might have to add a little more exposure to make the lights a little brighter. All these depends on the metering mode you are using. Generally matrix metering will get you into the ballpark without much fiddling.
Dennis: There is nothing to do with big/groups or small groups. It has everything to do with the concept of infinity focus. Unless you are using an ultrawide <17mm that has infinity beyond 3m, all you are going to get are blurry shots. Even then, focusing using distance scale and some awareness of hyperfocal focusing and how DOF propagates will give much better results than racking it to infinity.
Yo guys, juz relac. 
Sidetrack abit, I was doing a corporate group shot, pretty standard 1 roll sitting and 1 roll standing (prob abt 20 pple) and they had foreign delegates for the forum. They want the background to be clear (all the trees/scenery and hotel). I was doing 28mm, about 1.5-2 car lengths away and burst 3 shots at f8. I then bracketed at f16. Even at f16, the background scenery was not exactly clear but at 6R it was passable to the client. :sweat:
Sidetrack abit, I was doing a corporate group shot, pretty standard 1 roll sitting and 1 roll standing (prob abt 20 pple) and they had foreign delegates for the forum. They want the background to be clear (all the trees/scenery and hotel). I was doing 28mm, about 1.5-2 car lengths away and burst 3 shots at f8. I then bracketed at f16. Even at f16, the background scenery was not exactly clear but at 6R it was passable to the client. :sweat:
Hi Everyone,
Thanks for all your suggestions. As a newbie, I appreciate all responses, even if it's beyond me.
From all the posts, I think I may be starting to understand ESPN's suggestion for infinity.
Please see if I'm right:
I can use inifinity if the distance of the group is beyond the maximum focusing distance stated by the lens.
If I use the set AF on group, switch to MF then reframe timer shoot, the group is within the maximum focusing distance of the lens.
So this means, if I were to use the kit lens as an example, if the group were beyond 2m, then setting infinity would make everything clear.
As the group was only a meter or less away, the preferred method is the Set AF then MF and reframe method.
If my understanding is right, then it also solves my other group picture problem: There was a group of about 30-50 people I think. There were maybe 4 or 5 rows of people. Only some were in focus. I this case, I should've moved the camera back and used infinity to get them all into focus?
Perhaps I should've posted this in the newbie forum...
But since we're here, the thing is even if I got the group in focus for this night shot, there are people who cannot stay still even for a half second. How do you all deal with taking sharp pictures of groups (before people start to move) at night, and yet keep the ambient lighting? Is the only way to get an external flash unit?
PS: Unfortunately, the group of friends I shot have disallowed me to put up the picture, so I can't post it.
Thanks
joanne
Thanks for all your suggestions. As a newbie, I appreciate all responses, even if it's beyond me.
From all the posts, I think I may be starting to understand ESPN's suggestion for infinity.
Please see if I'm right:
I can use inifinity if the distance of the group is beyond the maximum focusing distance stated by the lens.
If I use the set AF on group, switch to MF then reframe timer shoot, the group is within the maximum focusing distance of the lens.
So this means, if I were to use the kit lens as an example, if the group were beyond 2m, then setting infinity would make everything clear.
As the group was only a meter or less away, the preferred method is the Set AF then MF and reframe method.
If my understanding is right, then it also solves my other group picture problem: There was a group of about 30-50 people I think. There were maybe 4 or 5 rows of people. Only some were in focus. I this case, I should've moved the camera back and used infinity to get them all into focus?
Perhaps I should've posted this in the newbie forum...
But since we're here, the thing is even if I got the group in focus for this night shot, there are people who cannot stay still even for a half second. How do you all deal with taking sharp pictures of groups (before people start to move) at night, and yet keep the ambient lighting? Is the only way to get an external flash unit?
PS: Unfortunately, the group of friends I shot have disallowed me to put up the picture, so I can't post it.
Thanks
joanne
joteo said:
No, even on a 17/18mm lens there is still considerable range of focus beyond 2M to infinity. Do note a a tiny bit of focus travel on the lens translates to a big difference in focus distance.
To see it visually, try focusing on some objects 2m away and at a distant building. Still a big difference to me at 17mm.
And setting focus to infinity doesn't make everything clear. If you want more you need to understand depth of field and hyperfocal distances or at the very least as I mentioned earlier, how DOF propagates.
Here you go.joteo said:
http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html
However, I wouldn't worry too much about all these yet.
With the newer G lenses, there is no longer a DOF scale on the lense unlike older lenses. In that case, what you have to do usually is just step down according to experience and focus at the correct spot to maximize DOF.
The best knowledge is gained through personal usage and experience.
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