How to take a sharpe group picture

[White Wolf]

Hi All,

I am new here and i would like to ask a question as above.

I am using a 500D with kit lens. However, the pictures are only sharp at the center (seems only focus at the center) and the face of my buddies at the side appeared blur. :embrass:

Any idea what should i do to correct that? Thanks in advance.

 

[tenchimuyo]

wats ur aperture? Metering mode?

 

[Dream Merchant]

Ensure you're perpendicular to the group.

Use a small enough aperture - usually close to the optimal aperture setting of a lens (8 - 11).

Make sure there's enough light to ensure a high enough shutter speed. Use flash or supplementary lights if necessary.

Use a better quality lens. Personally if it's a planned shot, the very minimum I would look at is a prime of known quality.

Use a camera with a larger sensor.

Arrange the group such that there is minimal cropping required.

Shoot in RAW / the highest quality jpeg setting. Avoid extreme in-camera processing, and do your processing in post.

 

[ed9119]

f8, make sure front most person and back most person not too far apart and focus on person in the middle most of group

 

[White Wolf]

I used 5.6

But the thing is the photographer assistant also took a blur picture of us, after he set his own settings on the camera.

Looks like i have got lots of things to pick up, just to take a decent sharpe picture.

I will pick up these tips and try again on my colleagues, haha~~ many thanks!

 

[catchlights]

I used 5.6

But the thing is the photographer assistant also took a blur picture of us, after he set his own settings on the camera.

Looks like i have got lots of things to pick up, just to take a decent sharpe picture.

I will pick up these tips and try again on my colleagues, haha~~ many thanks!

how come suddenly pop out a photographer assistant? what his has to do with your blur photos?

f5.6 will work on most cases, unless the group is too big, or a small group but the people are not standing very close to each other, or shutter speed to slow, or a lens with poor image quality, or using a wideangle converter etc...

 

[White Wolf]

Its because we are attending our company D&D, then they do hire a photographer. However i think his assistant (which is not paid i guess) just follow him to pick up tips as he is only in his teens.
Manage to get hold of him to take our dept picture and the picture is blur as well. Thus seeking advice to improve myself.

 

[Reportage]

Really depends how much you have to work with.

Because the brighter the lighting, the faster the shutter speed you can use as well as maybe F/16 which would give you a very large focus-ed area. Then also depends on the lens you use.

for company dinner, unless you have multiple flash then might i suggest a brighter venue to take the picture or smaller group within the power of your flash.

 

[CamInit]

You can play with DOFMaster here:
http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html

and get a feel for the distribution on the depth of field. I hazard to guess, being indoors, he increased his ISO and aperture to allow faster shutter speed, sacrificing some DOF in return. :dunno:

 

[Legoz]

Actually, try to use PnS for group photos. Tends to be sharp from corner to corner.

Regards

 

[Dream Merchant]

how come suddenly pop out a photographer assistant? what his has to do with your blur photos?

f5.6 will work on most cases, unless the group is too big, or a small group but the people are not standing very close to each other, or shutter speed to slow, or a lens with poor image quality, or using a wideangle converter etc...

Actually we have very little details to work with leh. No idea of how many people ... is it table shot with typically 5 - 12 people crowded round, or a larger group, lighting conditions, equipment, settings etc etc etc

 

[Yappy]

I got a friend who rotate the lens/camera and stich them together. It has to be on a tripod when doing this.

 

[catchlights]

Actually we have very little details to work with leh. No idea of how many people ... is it table shot with typically 5 - 12 people crowded round, or a larger group, lighting conditions, equipment, settings etc etc etc

I don't think is a very large group, and it is a key shots, else the main photographer would to have to do it.

 

[catchlights]

Really depends how much you have to work with.

Because the brighter the lighting, the faster the shutter speed you can use as well as maybe F/16 which would give you a very large focus-ed area. Then also depends on the lens you use.

for company dinner, unless you have multiple flash then might i suggest a brighter venue to take the picture or smaller group within the power of your flash.

very good suggestion.

but this is clearly an impromptu shot.

 

[bruggink]

I think using a tripod does help a lot. In this way, the photographer can also be part of the picture.

 

[pokiemon]

Hi All,

I am new here and i would like to ask a question as above.

I am using a 500D with kit lens. However, the pictures are only sharp at the center (seems only focus at the center) and the face of my buddies at the side appeared blur. :embrass:

Any idea what should i do to correct that? Thanks in advance.

can you share with us that picture?

i am guessing your buddies were not standing in a straight row. this will result in someone always being off-focus no matter where your focus point is.

to correct this - you can (1) shoot at f5.6. to shoot at f5.6, you will need to ensure there is sufficient lighting. (2) get them to be aligned.

 

[nixontkl]

one way to max your DOF is to stand off until your lens focus is at the infinity end. most kit lense should hit infinity at 2.5-3m and use F5.6-8

if your group is standing rite behind the table in a curve, trick is not too focus on the center person by someone between the center and the L/R most person as that person will be more center in terms of distance from u to the grp. if the grp stand as a straight line then just focus the center person and stand perpendicular to the grp.

so far table shots F5.6 usually does the trick, only step up to F8 once when the table shot was a combine 3+ table full of ppl onto 1 table LOL.

 

[Reportage]

very good suggestion.

but this is clearly an impromptu shot.

The thing about dinner and dance and other formal events is that when explained clearly, everyone is inclined to move if it means a nicer photo.

 

[White Wolf]

Hi All,

There are actually the 5 of us, and basically we occupy the the picture. upclose on the 5 of us. Hm can conside a straight line, like i mentioned earlier, only the faces of the center guys are clear. My friends at the side are pretty blur~~ :cry:

 

[nixontkl]

the grp is just only 5 person, its kind of hard to have only the center person clear and the other 4 person blur.

can post the photo or the exif data of the shot? suspecting is that the shutter spd is alittle too slow and that your buddies moved slightly resulting in them being blur while the center guy stood still.

motion blur shot and OOF (out of focus) is different and the method to tackle them are different also. motion blur is by stepping up shutter speed, OOF is by selecting a better focusing point or stepping down the F stop.

so your not sharp picture is which type?