Quick reply needed re where to focus on multiple people?

sduk

sduk

Suspended / Banned
Messages
1,005
Name
Sammy
Edit My Images
Yes
I know it's crucial to focus on the eyes if you are shooting a person.

If you have 2 or more people where do you focus?

Would you use about f6.3 and focus one persons eyes? The person closest.

Been reading up on it and have confused myself.

I don't normaly photograph people lol

Hope someone can answer, need to know pretty quickly :)

Thanks

Sammy
 
sduk said:
I know it's crucial to focus on the eyes if you are shooting a person.
Click to expand...

eer no its not..

sduk said:
If you have 2 or more people where do you focus?
Click to expand...



WE dont know if these people are side by side in a straight line.. how far from you or anything else..

thus the simple answer is... what do you want in focus? the furthur apart the people are (forward/back not left/right) then the bigger the fstop..
 
That's what I thought. This thread was really just last minute nerves before shooting my first christening for a friend. Had read loads of advice threads on here but was just worrying. Managed to stay cool and do a good job tho.

I did focus on the eyes tho. Lol
 
fatmarley said:
Rather than say "eer no it's not" Why not explain?
Click to expand...

OK ...

Its not critical to focus on the eyes when shooting people..

that better :shrug:


What more of an explanation are you looking for?
 
To be fair you didn't give him any explanation to why you thought he was wrong, just told him he was. You gave a hint in your next answer when you mentioned f stop. Obviously if you are shooting at f/1.4 and are shooting a single person, I'd say focus on the eye (if they are facing the camera) is pretty crucial, as there is not point in having someone's nose in focus and their eyes not. If you are going to be shooting them at a smaller aperture eg f/8 then obviously more is going to be in focus so nailing the eyes may not be as crucial?
 
swordjo said:
. Obviously if you are shooting at f/1.4 and are shooting a single person, I'd say focus on the eye (if they are facing the camera) is pretty crucial,
Click to expand...

same here :)


Its a thread where without any specifics someone says.. its crucial to focus on the eyes.. well its not.. in certain situations it is.. as you say above.. i would also guess studio and portrait work..

but to simply announce its crucial to focus on the eyes when shooting people is rediculous... i shot 20 men playing football tonight and mostly focused on there bellies :)
 
sduk said:
I did focus on the eyes tho. Lol
Click to expand...

I'd rather see someones eyes in focus, rather than out of focus, so i'd say you did the right thing. Unless it was a clown, then perhaps it would be better to have the nose in focus?
 
KIPAX said:
but to simply announce its crucial to focus on the eyes when shooting people is rediculous... i shot 20 men playing football tonight and mostly focused on there bellies :)
Click to expand...

It would be impossible to focus on the eyes of twenty people at once. If you read the OP you will see he was on about a single person.
 
fatmarley said:
It would be impossible to focus on the eyes of twenty people at once. If you read the OP you will see he was on about a single person.
Click to expand...

Stop being obtuse. It's fairly obvious that Tony means he was photographing football, not a group shot.

You can shoot a football player at f2.8 and not be anywhere near the eyes- in fact you'd be daft to focus on anything other than the core unless they are breathing down your neck.

Sweeping generalities in photography are dangerous, because they are usually wrong.
 
DemiLion said:
Stop being obtuse. It's fairly obvious that Tony means he was photographing football, not a group shot.
Click to expand...

The original question was about one person, so It doesn't matter what Tony means.

If people gave helpful answers rather than cocky ones, I wouldn't but-in.
 
fatmarley said:
It would be impossible to focus on the eyes of twenty people at once. If you read the OP you will see he was on about a single person.
Click to expand...

how am i shooting 20 at once in a football match?

obviously its not a group picture if YOU read my post..


try reading this really slow :) It is NOT CRITICAL to focus on the eyes when shooting a person.. I gave one example why its not even practical let alone critical.. would you like a dozen more? :)
 
The OP was asking about photographing multiple people, so Tony's comments are correct.
 
KIPAX said:
how am i shooting 20 at once in a football match?

obviously its not a group picture if YOU read my post..


try reading this really slow :) It is NOT CRITICAL to focus on the eyes when shooting a person.. I gave one example why its not even practical let alone critical.. would you like a dozen more? :)
Click to expand...

Ok, so you shot them individually or in small groups.

All you are doing is stating the obvious. Of course you're not going to focus on the eyes if they are running around and/or at a distance to make it impractical. Can you give an example that's not obvious? Probably not.

Quote" try reading this really slow :)" Still being rude I see.
 
Last edited:
chphotos said:
The OP was asking about photographing multiple people, so Tony's comments are correct.
Click to expand...

You are correct, but it's the "err no it's not" attitude I didn't like. This was a comment about shooting one person.
 
Matt, Tony is a sports photographer he was probably shooting them while they were playing, so would have been at f2.8 or f/4 so the person is the subject and needs to stand out so a shallow depth of field. In portraits you generally focus on the eyes and try to get everything in focus but when it comes to a group this is impossible, remember a depth of field has a centre and will have the area to the back and the front of the focus point so if its 3 people deep focus on the middle row with a narrow apperture 2 ros I generally focus on the front row unless the person paying is int he 2nd row then focus on them.

There are no set rules, you have to addapt your knowlege to the situation.

How would Tony shoot a team photo?
 
fatmarley said:
All you are doing is stating the obvious. Of course you're not going to focus on the eyes if they are running around and/or at a distance to make it impractical.
.
Click to expand...

There you go... the original statment simply said its critical to focus on eyes when shooting people.. i say it isn't and you now agree with me..

had the original statment been more specific to a circumstance then yes.. focus on the eyes.. but a blanket statement saying its critical when photogrpahing people is simply wrong ..
 
fatmarley said:
Still being rude I see.
Click to expand...

I dont know where the "still" comes from.. but none of my posts are emant to be rude.. if you see straight to the point and/or not enough info for you to understand as rude.. or off the cuff comments with smiles.. if all these are rude to you then your reading them the wrong way.. perhaps your looking for fault I dont know.. but I can assure you the point of any post i make is never intended as rude..
 
fatmarley said:
You are correct, but it's the "err no it's not" attitude I didn't like. .
Click to expand...

the problem then would seem to be wiht you... nobody else has taken offence.. just you... obviously you dont like my posting style..unfortunatly i wont be changing it so your going to have to just take it as it is.. your going to ahve a long boring life looking for my posts to complain about :)
 
KIPAX said:
There you go... the original statment simply said its critical to focus on eyes when shooting people.. i say it isn't and you now agree with me..
Click to expand...

Try reading this really slow :) Not people, he said "a PERSON".
 
KIPAX said:
the problem then would seem to be wiht you... nobody else has taken offence.. just you... obviously you dont like my posting style..unfortunatly i wont be changing it so your going to have to just take it as it is.. your going to ahve a long boring life looking for my posts to complain about :)
Click to expand...


How do you know nobody has taken offence? People don't usually like to get involved in these kind of disagreements.

I'm not a stalker so you wont have to worry about me following you :)
 
fatmarley said:
How do you know nobody has taken offence? People don't usually like to get involved in these kind of disagreements.

I'm not a stalker so you wont have to worry about me following you :)
Click to expand...

I don't like to get involved in these disagreements.

Although I have not taken offence.

It was more of a 'meh' moment - hand-bags at 20 paces and all that.
 
fatmarley said:
How do you know nobody has taken offence? People don't usually like to get involved in these kind of disagreements.

I'm not a stalker so you wont have to worry about me following you :)
Click to expand...

Its quite simple - nobody has complained to the management in this thread about HIS posts and comments. Yours on the other hand have attracted quite a few complaints. Kindly reconsider either your posting style, or your choice of forum.
 
TheBigYin said:
Its quite simple - nobody has complained to the management in this thread about HIS posts and comments. Yours on the other hand have attracted quite a few complaints. Kindly reconsider either your posting style, or your choice of forum.
Click to expand...

Great minds think alike. :)
 
Hi Sduk,

It depends on the effect you want. Are you intending to get both of them sharp or just one of them with the other intentionally blur.

I'm going on the assumption that you intend to do a group shot and the group of people are pretty close to you. Say 3 meters.

The best thing to do is to arrange the people so that they're all within the depth of field. However, if you are intending to do it candid, you would have to position yourself instead.

Also, the depth of field is also affected by the focal length of your lens. If you are using something like a 24 mm or 35 mm lens, you could use something like F2.8 or F3.5 as the depth of field is reasonable wide so you may not need to go to F6.3.

Like what you mentioned, I would focus on the nearest person at the eye.

However, if the people are very far away from you, you can focus on the head or the body. The reason is the depth of field will be thicker for distant subjects and you do not need to be as precise to get the eyes sharp.

I hope this helps :D
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top