{sigh}This happens to me all the time. If someone is a bit ahead of the others, she/he's in focus and the rest of the group is blurry. It's so embarrassing (Hi. I have an expensive big girl camera but I can't get a good photo from it...). Here's my latest disappointment: It was shot on auto by the girl in the restaurant, but even when I take the photos, they're off like that. (I can get a good shot of my 3 kids, but that's about as big of a "group" as I can photograph.) Can someone tell me what I need to do to get a group shot where everyone is in focus? I'll be your best friend...
You need the aperture to be a bigger number. IE: if you shoot wide open (say 2.8) or whatever, you'll get the tip of someone's nose in focus and the rest not. If you change that number to be 5, more of the scene will be in focus. If you have enough light to do 10, even more. Does that make sense? The more wide open the aperture, the more light it lets in, but it focuses more narrowly.
That does make sense Angie! I always shoot around five. I guess I'll have to try and bump it up a little
I just read an article about this very thing and it was really well written: http://www.clickinmoms.com/blog/choosing-your-aperture-when-photographing-groups-by-melissa-koehler/
Ooooo. thanks, Karen! And yes, Angie, that does make sense. I'll play today and see if I can work it out.
The article Karen linked to is a good one. This paragraph that I pulled from it and the idea of keeping groups on the same focal planes is one of the major things I've learned over the last year or so. Definitely one of the key components to getting everyone in focus in a group shot. "The same goes for keeping your subjects all on the same focal plane. Try keeping everyone on the same focal plane to get them in focus at a lower aperture. What does this mean exactly? Well, if you can get a group of 2, 3 or even 4 people together and have their eyes all on the same focal plane, aka next to each other, you have a much better chance of getting everyone in focus at a wider aperture. This can be challenging with really small children/siblings especially if they are really active and don’t want to sit still long enough to get the shot. But when you can make it happen it really is awesome, especially with that gorgeous blurry background. Look at the image below, the subjects eyes aren’t perfectly in line with each other but they are pretty close. Everyone’s eyes are in focus and the images background is nice and blurry."
Well it's tough if you don't have good light, as it appears was your case since you were indoors. You cannot reduce the aperture enough to get them all in focus without getting a long exposure time -- in this case having a tripod would help..
