Welcome to the Newschoolers forums! You may read the forums as a guest, however you must be a registered member to post.
Register to become a member today!
Need quick advice about couples shooting.
Posts: 2006
-
Karma: 53
Which f stop should I shoot on if I'm looking for a lot of bokeh without running the chance of slightly getting one or the other person out of focus.
2.8?
Thanks for any advice.
I've been only shooting sr pictures not needing to focus on more than one face so this will be a bit diff. any ideas?
Posts: 3914
-
Karma: 2,179
2.8 should easily give you a deep enough depth of field, assuming they are sitting side by side.
Posts: 1542
-
Karma: 96
Also realize, how far you are from your subject also affects your depth of field. If you have a focus window on your lens, check the distance of where you are to your subject. f2.8 is going to get your bokeh but it's not the only stop that will. Depending on your distance and your lens you'll be able to get great bokeh through plenty of stops. Switch it up and don't just shoot at f2.8. Manual focus will be your friend because you can never rely on autofocus.
Posts: 228
-
Karma: 20
uhh how would an slr's autofocus not be reliable? what camera are you shooting with?
Posts: 2859
-
Karma: 171
it could focus on something other than what you intended
Posts: 228
-
Karma: 20
yea no shit sherlock, but he recommended using manual focus when shooting two static people because autofocus wouldn't be reliable. any idiot with an index finger can use autofocus accurately in a situation like that...
Posts: 2859
-
Karma: 171
no need to get your panties in a bunch... maybe its a weird shot where they're not taking up most of the frame or something and it decided it wanted to focus on the background. i was just saying. plus unless im shooting action i just prefer using mf, its more fun.
Posts: 2006
-
Karma: 53
Thanks for the reply guys. Most of my shots turned out keeping the focus on both their faces for the most part. but a few I definitely needs to shoot at a higher f stop # to keep both faces in focus when focusing on only one since they are the same exact distance from me.
Its just hard to tell where exactly youre focused on until you throw them up on a cpu screen.
Posts: 10014
-
Karma: 8,386
you should be able to use a focus mode for AF that only focuses on a certain part of the image that you select. You should also be able to set up a button that does a 100% preview with a click, so you can check focus quickly.
Smoothing out a background, as said above, will vary depending on how close you are to them, but also changes based on how far away the background is you want to blur. I wouldn't say there's a rule of thumb - you have to figure it out based on the situation you are in
All times are Eastern (-5)
