How do I get both subjects to be in focus?

[brandy wilkinson]

How do I get both subjects to be in focus when one is behind the other, but keep things behind them blurred?

Here is the photo where the little brother is out of focus but the older brother is in focus. I needed both to be in focus sitting where they are sitting.


1/400
f2.8
ISO: lo0.3
50 mm
Flash: none

[rediguana]

There are a few options...
1. Ensure they are the same distance from the camera (e.g. in the same plane) - the downside is that this limits creativity
2. Stop the camera down to f8 or whatever is required to get them both in focus - the downside is that you lose the lovely bokeh
3. Get a tilt shift lens so that you can adjust the plane of focus so that it goes through their faces - expense purchase and requires a fair bit of learning and experimentation to get right
4. Do it in post-processing - need good skills to make it look like a proper tilt-shifted image.
You will also struggle to get the background out of focus when they are so close to it - you need to do two things a) get the kids closer to the camera, b) create more distance between the kids and the background

Option (3) is the only way you will technically be able to adjust the focus plane to get two faces in focus when they are significantly (e.g. wider that the depth of field - the bit in focus) different distances from the sensor. Canon TSE and Nikon PC lenses are very expensive - but they open this level of creativity and technical control over images. You'd probably be wanting a 45mm or 85mm/90mm lens for portraits with a tilt shift.

Have a look at these images from tilt shift lenses to see how they change the depth of field in ways that most lenses can't (because ordinary lenses only provide focus parallel to the sensor, and not at angles).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/Ca...8/interesting/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/Ca...8/interesting/

[kencaleno]

F11 and keep subjects well away from background- Ah, but what camera are you using? If you are using a point and shoot use F4 (which equals F11 on DSLR's) Regards, Ken

[OsmosisStudios]

f/11 might be a bit much, especially for this situation. F/8 should do the trick.