AF area Mode

[AMRAN028]

Hi, I am new in dslr world and would appreciate if you could shed some light regarding AF area mode. I have taken few photos using my Nikon D40 during my holiday. Most of the photos taken are with either myself or my wife as a focus object (closet object) while the background being the interesting landmark (e.g. building, castle, etc). I set my camera using "programme auto" with AF area mode as "single-area" setting. Using the left/right selector, I set the focus area to the closest object.

Looking at the final photo, undoubtedly, it is a nice portrait picture however the background is blurred!

My question is which AF-area mode should I use so that the closest object as well as the background are sharp? Would "dynamic" setting solve this problem?

Thanks!

[dcclark]

You don't want a different AF mode, you want to adjust your aperture.

The AF mode only determines where the camera is focused. So, if it focuses on you and your wife -- then you will be in focus, and everything else may be blurred.

The amount of the photo which is in sharp focus (in front of and behind you, the main subjects) is called "Depth of Field". You are asking for a large depth of field, meaning, a large amount of the photo should be in focus.

One way to achieve this is to set your D40 to "A" mode (Aperture Priority) and change to a larger f/value (such as f/10, or f/16). That will bring more of the background into focus. A smaller f/value (such as f/3.5) will have less in focus. Don't just crank the aperture as high as you can go (say, f/32), because that can result in a very slow shutter speed, meaning that you'll STILL be blurry, because of motion blur.

That's the very basics -- you can find a few more details here at DPS.