Problem with my face focusing in a landscape photo. Pls help~

[wulf]

Start with the calculator.

First, select your camera (Canon 450D). Next put in your focal length and aperture (20mm and f/4 from your example, if I'm reading your settings correctly). Finally add in the distance from you to the subject (you can choose to do this in feet or meters). Watch how the figures change for different distances.

An important factor is that, the further away your subject is, the wider the depth of field. At 1m it would be about 0.4m deep. Move the subject to 2m and it increases not to 0.8m but up to 1.75m. At 4m, the depth of field would be about 14m. In your picture, you look to be focused on the building which is at least 100m away. The sharp area becomes very large BUT your foreground subject needs to be at least 5m away.

That is where the hyperfocal distance could be used - focus about 5.3m away and everything from about 2.6m on should be sharp.

The best way to grasp this is probably to play with the calculator, explore various combinations and then try them out in real life.

Wulf

[TerencePang]

Originally Posted by wulf

Start with the calculator.

First, select your camera (Canon 450D). Next put in your focal length and aperture (20mm and f/4 from your example, if I'm reading your settings correctly). Finally add in the distance from you to the subject (you can choose to do this in feet or meters). Watch how the figures change for different distances.

An important factor is that, the further away your subject is, the wider the depth of field. At 1m it would be about 0.4m deep. Move the subject to 2m and it increases not to 0.8m but up to 1.75m. At 4m, the depth of field would be about 14m. In your picture, you look to be focused on the building which is at least 100m away. The sharp area becomes very large BUT your foreground subject needs to be at least 5m away.

That is where the hyperfocal distance could be used - focus about 5.3m away and everything from about 2.6m on should be sharp.

The best way to grasp this is probably to play with the calculator, explore various combinations and then try them out in real life.

Wulf

About the hyperfocal distance, that means i gonna focus something which is about 5.3m away from me? Then come back again to take the photo? Will this affect the sharpness of my subject which is >100m away? If compare to not using the hyperfocal distance technique. My english isn't that good but hope you will understand what i asked. BUT really thank you about those infos you gave me, it's very useful!

One more question, i like to walking around the streets and find something to shoot, so which Mode is better for this kind of shooting? P-mode or Av-mode? Especially when i see someone interesting for me, and i hope to well focus his face with blurr background, how to make it? I found that isn't easy, coz i tried some but failed. It always focus the wrong things, what should i do? Should i zoom into his/her face and shutter half way pressed, then zoom out to compose my photo and shoot? And how about the shutter speed? Since he/her and me are moving, i got most of my photos blurr, cant get what i want. Any idea? Once more, hope you understand my question. CHeerrss~

Photo Information:
Date taken = 06.08.2009 ; 1900
Shooting mode = AE
Shutter speed = 1/25
AV = F/5.6
ISO = 100
Focal = 50mm
WB = Auto

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2565/...96d35bfd_b.jpg

In this photo, i hope to focus the girl on the left bottom. But i focused the red t-shirt boy~

Photo information:
Date taken = 06.08.2009 ; 1900
Shooting mode = AE
Shutter speed = 1/50
AV = F/5.6
ISO = 100
Focal = 29mm
WB = Auto

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2469/...67100bcf_b.jpg

In this photo, i cant well focused the girl with bicycle.

[autofocus]

Originally Posted by TerencePang

About the hyperfocal distance, that means i gonna focus something which is about 5.3m away from me? Then come back again to take the photo? Will this affect the sharpness of my subject which is >100m away? If compare to not using the hyper focal distance technique. My English isn't that good but hope you will understand what i asked. BUT really thank you about those infos you gave me, it's very useful!

One more question, i like to walking around the streets and find something to shoot, so which Mode is better for this kind of shooting? P-mode or Av-mode? Especially when i see someone interesting for me, and i hope to well focus his face with blurr background, how to make it? I found that isn't easy, coz i tried some but failed. It always focus the wrong things, what should i do? Should i zoom into his/her face and shutter half way pressed, then zoom out to compose my photo and shoot? And how about the shutter speed? Since he/her and me are moving, i got most of my photos blurr, cant get what i want. Any idea? Once more, hope you understand my question. CHeerrss~

Photo Information:
Date taken = 06.08.2009 ; 1900
Shooting mode = AE
Shutter speed = 1/25
AV = F/5.6
ISO = 100
Focal = 50mm
WB = Auto

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2565/...96d35bfd_b.jpg

In this photo, i hope to focus the girl on the left bottom. But i focused the red t-shirt boy~

Photo information:
Date taken = 06.08.2009 ; 1900
Shooting mode = AE
Shutter speed = 1/50
AV = F/5.6
ISO = 100
Focal = 29mm
WB = Auto

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2469/...67100bcf_b.jpg

In this photo, i cant well focused the girl with bicycle.

Terrence, you're contributing to your focus problem by trying to stop action of people moving on bikes or just walking towards you at too slow shutter speeds. At the shutter speeds you're using (1/25, and 1/50th) you are not going to stop action..therefore, the subjects look blurry. In order to do this, you will need a shutter speed of not slower than 1/200th second. So, you will want to shoot in the "S" mode to do that. One more very important thing to look at is how do you have your camera's focus mechanism set...if it's set on one shot, your camera will lock the focus as you press the shutter, and that's fine providing your subject is not moving. However, in what you are trying to do, you want your camera to continue to focus and change while your subject is moving. To do that, you will need to move the focus on your camera's settings to A1 Focus, or A1 Servo. Hope this helps a little.

[wulf]

If your camera isn't doing a good job for you, you are better off with manual focusing... and manual focusing is much easier using a lens designed for it. The focus ring on the kit lens for my D40 is narrow and slightly wobbly (at least, that's how it feels) so it was a pleasant revelation when I got my 50mm lens and found it to have a wide, stable ring complete with distance markings.

To be honest, I don't make a lot of use of hyperfocal distance focusing but I can imagine it would be very hard to combine that with autofocus mode.

Wulf

[autofocus]

Terrence, as a complete newbie, let me make a few suggestions to you.
Number 1, read your manual.
Number 2, read your manual again.
Number 3, don't try to do too many things with your new camera at once. The camera is like a Swiss Army knife with many settings and many functions. The combination of all these different settings will yield very different results in your photos. Start by learning what all these functions will do, but do it one at a time. Then go out and practice that until you understand it before you move onto the next thing you want to try. Try re-shooting the same shot after you make some change in your original settings and see what happens...like shoot your first shot at F/3.5, and then do it again at F/11, and look at the different results.
Number 4, read your manual again, and be sure to take it with you as you go around practicing your shots. Do you get my point about reading your manual??

Vinnie

[TerencePang]

Okayss~ Thank you for all your replies.. Thx so much!!

[zebthepilot]

I'm not one to often suggest using a camera in any auto mode. But I will point out that your 450d has an excellent auto depth of field mode (a-DEP). it'll calculate the difference between the 9 auto focus points and pick an aperture that'll best capture the entire frame in focus. that and shooting at 400iso would likely have resulted in a sharp, nice shot.

I haven't every line of the comments to you but there are some good suggestions here. I would add the following.

were I to tell someone how to take a good basic photo here I would have suggested the following assuming they know their camera's menus and buttons & making a couple of assumptions about the location, I might see the place and totally change my suggestions. with camera in a-dep mode make sure at least one focus point is on the person. I'd expect the camera would have picked somewhere around f6.3 to f8. you should have shot at 400iso. (were the shutter speed as metered over a few seconds you could use put the flash in "second curtain" mode. It'd result in a sharper foreground on a long exposure image) I would have also suggested setting the flash compensation to -1/3 to get a more natural looking blend of foreground (flash) and background (ambient). Then bump up the overall exposure by +1/3.