Auto Focus Issues When Photographing Faces

ejl

I seem to be having an issue with auto focus. It might be just me, but when I press the shutter half way, the auto focus almost never focuses on the face of my subject. What am I doing wrong?

Moose

Howdy @ejl - I'm assuming the issue you're experiencing usually occurs in low light? The reason for this is a lack of contrast. When the light is low, it's hard for the D5100 to pick up on contrasted edges. To resolve this, you can try pre-focusing on the subjects shirt/dress and then recomposing to include their face.

ejl

Not sure exactly how to pre-focus.

Moose

@ejl - Change your focus mode to AF-S, half-press the shutter button to pre-focus, keeping the shutter half-pressed, re-frame the shot for a better composition and then fully press to take the photo. :)

ejl

Thanks. :)