Focusing On Two Objects

marchmama2009

I'm hoping you can help me. I'm trying to take a photo of my two children sitting next to one another. I have it on the manual setting, however, when I go to move the red dot around to focus my shot I can never get a clear picture of both their faces. When I try to put the red focus dot in between them, it obviously makes the area behind them in focus and not their faces. I can't just put the red dot on one of their faces because then one is in focus and the other isn't as crisp. I don't like the camera picking the focus spots because it rarely gives me a clear focus on both their faces with the blurred background. Is there any way that I can manually move more than one red dot around to help me focus? I am trying so hard to explain this, but it's a little tricky; I hope I'm making sense. Thanks for any help you can give me!

Riddelske

Unfortunately you can't move more than the one dot; it's one or none. Instead of focusing on one of the faces try in between and use an aperture around f/5 and manual focus. Try and move the faces closer together, but not too close as the shot will look too posed if you catch my drift. Regards.

PBked

Hi,
You don't mention which lens you will be using. I assume you are trying to get an out of focus background but to do that you need a wide aperture which will give you a shallower depth of field. My advice is to try to cut out the background as much as possible and use a suitable aperture. I wouldn't go for f/5, rather more like f/3.5-f/4. Position your children with one standing behind the other and slightly to one side so their heads overlap ever so slightly. Make sure that you fill the frame as much as possible with their heads and necks. Now use your center spot and position it in line with the eyes and on the line made by the overlap of their heads. The aperture I have suggested should give enough depth of field. If you use a neutral sort of background, you can blur it a little in post processing if it looks too obtrusive.
Whatever you decide to do, come on back and let us know how you got on.
Regards,
PBked