Keeping eyes sharp in groups

[bel]

Hi all,

I have been using my DSLR manually for some time now and am pretty comfortable with it. I am having trouble on manual however, getting the eyes sharp when i have more than one person in the shot. I close down the aperture but am still having problems. When i take individual shots i am nailing the eyes so it is really frustrating when i cant get groups of 2 or more with sharp eyes and catchlights! Help!

[private]

take a look at you Dof calculator. Online Depth of Field Calculator Also, if you post a pic with the exif - that might also help. There is the old "rule" of thumb about people and fstop - 2 people f2, three people f3... - but also keeping folks on the same plane also helps...

[CaptainNH]

Remember that if you pose groups in straight lines, you vary the distance from lens to eye as you move along the line. If you pose them in an arc you can keep the distance the same for each person.

[Swisstony10]

It's quite likely that when you do an individual portrait you use a fairly big aperture. That gives the most attractive and "typical" depth of field for individual portraits, but when you shoot a group, the depth of field needs to be considerably wider to get everyone in clear focus.

I don't usually go below f8 for a decent-sized group, and I have two different ways that I tend to try and pose people to get the best results:

1 - The Arc - I start with the person in the centre of the group, and then just curve the people either side of them towards me slightly, not in a semi-circle, more of a kind of banana. If I had them in a straight row, and drew a line from me to the centre person, and a line from me to the edge person, the edge person would be a fair bit further away (a surprising amount, unless you're dead good at mental geometry!). By curving them slightly, I don't get the two distances the same, but I reduce the difference between the two, and thus decrease the depth of field that I need to get them all in focus.

2 - The Shallow Block - If I have a group of, say 15 people, I'll get the five shortest people lined up first, then the five tallest people behind them, leaning forward between their shoulders slightly - this gets them in almost the same plane, so the depth of field can be relatively shallow. Finally I get the five remaining people to crouch/squat/kneel/sit/something similar in front of them all, and that again allows me a reasonably shallow depth of field. If it's a mixed group of adults and children, it's easy enough to put the children in front standing up, and then have the same arrangement for the first two lots of people. I'll tend to use this one for things like sporting groups - I wouldn't normally have a family group at a wedding with a third of the people kneeling on the floor! (Unless it was something the b&g specifically wanted)..

Russ.