best focus?

[clengster_77]

what do you think is the best focus to use for "marching of the bride, entourage, etc..."?

1. one shot
2. ai focus
3. ai servo

thanks
cleng

[lime]

If the venue has lowlight, one shot pre-focus to certain spot, then shoot when they get to the spot. By the way, I have CFn 4 set to 03, so once I've pre-focused w/ the thumb, I don't have to worry about the camera trying to re-focus when I hit the shutter.

Exiting church in good light, ai servo.

[CyberPet]

If you use AI Focus it'll kick into AI Servo when it needs to... but it needs time to focus and that is the hard part with this type of focus. So if you want a sure thing, then pre-focus on a certain spot is the only way to go and wait until they've reached that spot before you fire away.

[clengster_77]

will the flash freeze their movement even if i pre focus on a certain point?

[CyberPet]

well that depens on the setup really, if you are dragging the shutter or not... but yeah, most of the time it should freezes their movement if you use something like 1/30 sec or 1/60 sec.

[tim]

I prefocus, or use a wide dof and focus/shoot quickly. The flash should freeze their movement, but you have to be careful you're focused in the right place.

[sapearl]

I will second Petra's comments - yes, the flash will very nicely freeze the action if you are dragging the shutter and the church is not overly bright. She and I use similar shutter speeds in these circumstances and get good results.

However my lenses are not autofocus (Petra has more modern equipment - I just use that old fashioned Swedish crank wind stuff :lol: ) so I must prefocus on a set spot - perhaps a pattern in the carpet, a certain person sitting in an aisle seat next to the spot that will be photographed.... you get the idea.

One instance where you can get into trouble, and this happened to me once, if you are using 1/30 or 1/60 for your shutter speed and the church is REALLY bright, the flash WILL freeze the action, but you can still get some ghosting trailing away from the bride. This was a nightmare to fix with film, but somewhat "fixable" with PS and a lot of blood, sweat and tears.

Moral of the story: If you make a good photograph right out of the camera, you don't need to fix it in PS.

Stu Pearl
Cleveland, Ohio

well that depens on the setup really, if you are dragging the shutter or not... but yeah, most of the time it should freezes their movement if you use something like 1/30 sec or 1/60 sec.

[clengster_77]

thanks for your ideas! :)