How to get focus for all of the picture?

[erinville]

I have a Canon EOS 500D camera. My problem is that when taking photos of people whether indoors or outdoors in the "P" mode I sometimes get a result which shows eg... 5 people in the photo & eg.. only two of their faces are in focus with the other three with slightly blurry faces. I tried the "Live Mode" which is "supposed" to have face detection but try as I might I cannot get this to work on all of the faces in the picture.
Does anyone know how I can get all of the faces in the picture in clear focus?

[Tito87]

Originally Posted by erinville

I have a Canon EOS 500D camera. My problem is that when taking photos of people whether indoors or outdoors in the "P" mode I sometimes get a result which shows eg... 5 people in the photo & eg.. only two of their faces are in focus with the other three with slightly blurry faces. I tried the "Live Mode" which is "supposed" to have face detection but try as I might I cannot get this to work on all of the faces in the picture.
Does anyone know how I can get all of the faces in the picture in clear focus?

Are they all on the same plane? Do you have some standing behind others? It depends on your composition, focal length and what aperture you're using.

[Doug Sundseth]

It sounds to me like you're having problems getting enough depth of field in your shot. When you choose a full-auto mode, you don't have much control over that.

Recommendation:

Go to Aperture priority (Av for Canon) and set a large number (small aperture). This will work better if you are using the wider part of the lens's zoom range. For more information about the specifics of field depth for a given camera, focal length, and aperture, see DoFMaster.

[erinville]

Are Aperture & Fstop one & the same thing?

[erinville]

The photo I took was 1/60, 3.5fstop & ISO 200. I'll try to upload one here later.

[RichardTaylor]

Yes.
At F3.5 (depending on the focal length you were using) depth of field (zone of sharpness) is fairly shallow.

You may find this tutorial on exposure helpful, especially part 3 (aperture)

Exposure (1) A balancing act

[erinville]

I need to upload the picture but I think I need to register first for this.
How do I do this, & how do I upload?

[RichardTaylor]

Do you have a Flickr account?
I have only posted pics from there.

[SusanH1970]

Originally Posted by erinville

I need to upload the picture but I think I need to register first for this.
How do I do this, & how do I upload?

Digital Photography School - Photography Forums - FAQ: vBulletin FAQ

You can scroll down to "Posting Pictures".

[erinville]

IMG_2002_1 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!