Focus Points For Group Shots

carolals

Hi, I am due to photograph a small wedding for a friend and I'm panicing about it. I have experimented a lot but I usually get blurry and out of focus pictures. I am very worried, specially with the group shoots, as I want to get every face very sharp. When it is just one person I feel I can control the focus better with a single AF point manual selection (centre one). But for a group shoot I just don't know how to control the focusing point to be in every face.
I have thought about shooting everything in either CA mode or the full automatic one, but with these modes you don't have control over your focusing points. How to do you focus on faces then?
With P mode you do have control over your focusing points but still have the problem of how to focusing when there are few faces.
With full manual mode I always set up a wide aperture (f/1.8 to f/4.0) as I like the shallow depth of field effect, but then I can't control the shutter speed as they move when I set the exposure to the middle.
I have a Canon 50mm f/1.8. and as I understand I should set up my shutter speed to 1/100? If that is the case which aperture should I set to get sharp pictures?
Say that day is a cloudy day/rainy day and people are posing, which settings should I use?
Please help, I am very stressed about getting these pictures right.
Thanks so much.

darshun

A wedding, wow, good luck .

You have multiple points you need to focus on and you won't have time to measure distances or calculate the depth of field.

You need to get a rough idea of the what depth of fields will be at what distance/aperture. If you get ever get stuck shrink the aperture. You can't do anything with an out of focus image.

These will help:
http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/depth-of-field.htm
http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/dof-calculator.htm

I could give a you million tips, but it comes down to lots of practice.

Here are few tips:
- 1\160 should be about right, if you can hold the camera still and nothing is moving to fast
- take 2-3 shots of every frame; someone always blinks at the wrong time.
- positioning the people, framing and communication skills are much more important than the camera. Keeping everyone happy and natural is key.
- Don't ever photograph a wedding (this tip is for myself, but can apply to anyone)! It's hard, stressful and you can't correct mistakes.
- having images that pop are great, but its not the only way.

If it's a bright day, you could always set it in aperture priority and quickly take shots at different apertures.

I believe lenses are sharpest at an f stop or two above the largest.
So if your using a 50mm f/1.8, shooting at f/2 to f/4 would be the best for sharpness.

carolals

Thanks so much, these tips are very handy!

PBked

Hi Carolals,
I posted sometime before about the perils of shooting weddings. I agree with Darshun, don't photograph weddings. If you must do it, then maybe these tips will help.
Take the obligatory group shot with everyone standing still. Use continous shooting and rattle off a few. Close down your aperture to get a deeper depth of field.
Look for candids where you only need to focus on one or two people and open up your aperture to decrease depth of field and try to focus on the eyes.
Take the bride and groom somewhere quiet like inside the church, if it is not too dark, where they will not be distracted by what is going on around and you can concentrate on posing and photographing them. Find a window and turn your back to it with the bride and groom in front of you so you are using natural light. Don't choose a window where the full light of the sun is streaming through!
Photograph details such as the wedding cake, church etc. as they don't move or blink.
Photograph the hands of the bride and groom touching to show off the ring.
I could go on, but I hope I have given you some ideas to mull over.
Regards.

carolals

Thanks so much! I am taking notes of all of these tips for the day and getting very nervous at the same time. Can I also ask, when you set up your aperture and shutter speed do you also have to check your exposure? When you move the wheel to get it to the correct balance (middle) does your shutter speed change? So you end up with a different shutter speed? I don't understand that bit of the manual mode. Is Aperture mode safer so I don't have to worry about getting the right shutter speed? Would you also recommend taking the inside shots in automatic mode?

PBked

Hi again,
Personally, unless you are absolutely confident with manual mode, I would tend to use aperture priority. Leave the ISO set to auto 1600 and let the camera take care of the shutter speed; nobody is going to be running around at a wedding except for kids of course.
As for your exposure, take a test shot and check the histogram on the lcd. If you need to compensate, then adjust your exposure up or down accordingly. Remember that exposure compensation does not reset itself, so you need to zero it manually.
Regards.

carolals

Great, thanks so much!