Family Portrait

Learner

Hi,
I'm a newbie and have been taking family portraits with my 50mm. I shoot in Aperture priority mode with auto white balance and center weighted metering mode. Could you please suggest what my focus mode and AF-Area mode should be on? Last time I had 'Single servo AF' for focus mode and 'single point AF'. I had the single focus point pointed on my baby's eye and my wife was not sharp in the pictures. Please guide me through this.

Regards

kravattisolmu

Are you talking about the 50mm f/1.8g? When set to f/1.8 your depth of field is too small for two people, so pump the F number to f/2.8 at least. I don't think it's about the focus point, I think it's about the depth of field (the camera's F number).

Rule of thumb: the more people, the more depth of field you need to be accurate. If it's a big group pump the F number over 10 and use flash.

Were they both in your depth of field, but only the baby was sharp?

kravattisolmu

I found this site. Very good tips regarding babys, familys etc:
http://www.exposureguide.com/photographing-babies.htm

An external flash with diffuser is recommended. You don't have to get very expensive Nikon sb's (they are good thought). Instead I personally use Nissin Di622 Mark II that's around 120 euro. You can turn the flash to point towards the roof so it won't fire towards your family's eyes. Also it gives ttl mode where you can take the flash off the camera and place it where you want it and have good lightning all the time. I use this ttl mode a lot. It rocks because indoor light is rarely good enough for bigger shutter speeds.

Learner

Thank you @kravattisolmu. Very informative.

KTSmith05

Thank you for posting this question and the answers! This was very helpful. I was having the same issue.