Next question for the experts! LOL read..

[johneric8]

If I want to get a picture of someone laying on a bed with their feet closest to the camera, how do I go about getting the face to be in focus as well ?? For example: If you your subject was sitting on a bed with their back up against the headboard what is the best strategy for getting their face and feet in focus? Is it using an fstop of around 18? Also consider that you're either using a flash or natural lighting. Is a wide angle lens a good bet?

[kb244]

well you could try higher aperture to increase DOF, or longer shutter to do so, but I think the most pratical method would be using a wide angle lens ( < 28mm ) , as it seems that the wider the lens, the less shallow the DOF can be, compared to higher focal lengths. To experiment try your 18-55 ( the widest one I assume you have ), put it at 18mm , dont get too close, try a middle aperture, and just make the exposure longer, see if that does anything for ya.

[BearSummer]

Hi Johneric8,

what you are talkiing about is something called Depth of Field (DOF) which basically dictates how much of the picture appears to be in acceptable focus. DOF depends on your distance from the object and the fstop set on the camera. You can increase the DOF by moving further away from the subject, by increaseing your fstop (change from f8 to f16) or by a mixture of the two. The other problem you may have is that if you are fairly close to the subject then the feet are going to be much closer to you than the head (as a ratio if the distance) which means the feet will appear huge. If you wanted to have a more realistic view then you should move further away and pick a longer lens.

Hope this helps

BearSummer

[tim]

I'd suggest you take a beginners photography class, it'll teach you all the basics like this. IMHO that's better than asking lots of individual questions.

[Pekka]

If I want to get a picture of someone laying on a bed with their feet closest to the camera, how do I go about getting the face to be in focus as well ?? For example: If you your subject was sitting on a bed with their back up against the headboard what is the best strategy for getting their face and feet in focus? Is it using an fstop of around 18? Also consider that you're either using a flash or natural lighting. Is a wide angle lens a good bet?

Above answers are good but there is one more aspect to this situation: composition. If you compose the shot so that the feet and face are on same focal plane you can use larger apertures from same distance. Here is a simplified example (for 1.3X fov crop camera):

http://photography-on-the.net/stuff/composition_dof.jpg

You focus to face (2m). When shooting straight you need f16 to get feet in focus. If you change composition you can do the same with f2.8 from same distance. By changing composition and model position you can work with very large apertures very close.

[JAZZ D.P.G.]

You might want to look at this site:

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/understanding-series/index.shtml

Some good essays on the pratical use of DOF and related topics. Some other great hints and help for starters as well.

Good luck.

[johneric8]

Above answers are good but there is one more aspect to this situation: composition. If you compose the shot so that the feet and face are on same focal plane you can use larger apertures from same distance. Here is a simplified example (for 1.3X fov crop camera):

http://photography-on-the.net/stuff/composition_dof.jpg

You focus to face (2m). When shooting straight you need f16 to get feet in focus. If you change composition you can do the same with f2.8 from same distance. By changing composition and model position you can work with very large apertures very close.
Wow thanks for this info !!! very cool..