Help needed with AF Area Modes

Hi all,

I have just returned from a 2-week holiday which was a perfect opportunity to road test my new Nikkor 35mm f.18 prime lens. I must admit, it did seem to live up to the very good reviews I had been reading.

One of my ongoing issues with it though is the AF Area mode settings, which had me going crazy. Often when I had the camera set to AF-S and tried to take a photo of a group of family members, part of the photo would be blurred. I realised quickly that this was because I was setting it to focus one one key area. My question, though, is what setting is best for when there is more than one primary subject in the shot - like 3 or people's faces? In this instance also, would people suggest using continuous focus mode, or should single still be ok, given that they are presumably still?

I'd really appreciate any help and suggestions.

Thanks so much, Alex

Continous focus is for moving subjects so AF-S is fine for stationary subjects. The issue you have is probably with the depth of field. You have less areas of focus in front of and behind your subject of focus when shooting at relatively close distances with larger apertures (lower numbers). What aperture have you been using?


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Hi jwstl,

Many thanks for your response.

Most of the photos in question have been indoors with relatively low light so large aperture settings and fairly close. I do this, of course, to keep shutter speed above 1/60 if I can with higher ISO. What do you recommend doing in your opinion?

Many thanks again.

Alex

AJS said:

Most of the photos in question have been indoors with relatively low light so large aperture settings and fairly close. I do this, of course, to keep shutter speed above 1/60 if I can with higher ISO. What do you recommend doing in your opinion?

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Welcome to the conundrum photographers face so often: balancing shutter speed, aperture and ISO; also known as the Exposure Triangle. In this instance it's critical to keep faces in focus so your depth of field is going to have to increase and that means using a smaller aperture... At least that's how I interpret this scenario.

But, because of the smaller aperture you will need to adjust another part of your Exposure Triangle to compensate for the now reduced amount of light coming through the smaller aperture we've determined you need for that deeper depth of field. Luckily you have some options.

You could use flash to put more light on the scene, you could just use the slower shutter speed that comes with a smaller aperture but use a tripod to steady the shot or you could increase the ISO and put up with the increased noise.


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