help with focusing during street photography

i'm new here , this is my second post. First was my intro. hope i'm using this section the way it was intended.

i'm very new to photography, i have a basic understanding of shutter speed, aperture and iso.. any help would be appreciated

looking for a little help with focus i suppose more than anything , but any other critique is welcome as well.

While i'm relatively happy with the way the picture below came out (perhaps it should have been aimed a tiny bit lower?) the problem is,its not what i intended(i;m thinking maybe what i intended would not have made for a better picture but thats besides the point) , i wanted both girls(vendors) to come out as sharp as possible, and it seems like the one to the left is more in focus than the one to the right ,but more than that i actually wanted most of the image to come out in focus, or alot more than it did ,, especially the the people walking by..

i shot this with a sigma 18-35 f1.8 .. using auto focus. and shutter priority.
so i'm assuming maybe i had my iso too low which is why it went to f1.8?
but i was trying to keep shutter speed at 250 because i wanted no motion blur from peoples movements.... which is why i did not use aperture priority
Is that the way to get more in focus while taking candids of people? crank up the iso? so as to not lose shutter speed?

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I think see part of your problem....
AF Area Select mode is set to AUTOMATIC.

You need to make sure you're in charge of the camera. YOU select what you want in focus by putting one of the focus points on the subject (or subject's nearest eye).

Next, I'd raise the ISO...1000, 1600, or even 2000 if the lighting is less than desired. At higher ISOs, you'll have a deeper depth of field (DOF) for focus.

Your shutter speed should be fine at 1/250. You should still use practice good technique to keep your camera steady and to gently press the shutter and not poke it roughly. All these little things come together to help make good street work.

Good luck and thanks for sharing your work!

Welcome to POTN!

Welcome to the forums

I think cpam.pix has helped you but the positive thing is that you have partially identified the problems yourself and it's apparent that you're enthusiastic in your aims and desire to improve.

You said you should have aimed a little lower and this is something I immediately noticed. Using a wide-angle lens, you might have crouched down a little so you could still aim straight. You haven't done but try not to point downwards.

You are well on the way, so do share with us some more of your images.

cpam.pix wrote in post #16749737
I think see part of your problem....
AF Area Select mode is set to AUTOMATIC.

You need to make sure you're in charge of the camera. YOU select what you want in focus by putting one of the focus points on the subject (or subject's nearest eye)...

I agree. I'm not sure that I'd have used One Shot AF, either, & tend to use AI Servo, especially when I'm shooting wide open & I'm moving &/or the subject might be.
A 35mm lens @ f/1.8 @ 10 feet is acceptably sharp between 9.19' & 10.97', so you have less than 2' of in focus range there.
http://www.cambridgein​colour.com/tutorials/D​OF-calculator.htm

Welcome to POTN!

Subjects are not moving here, they are stationary. One-shot should be just fine. As mentioned, f/1.8 gives very narrow DOF and it looks as if the lens might be front focusing a bit as the sign on the food cart is a bit sharper than either girl. Also, the lens is going to be a bit softer wide open as well. So, couple shooting at the lenses worst performing setting, very narrow DOF, and a slight miss on focus, you'll get a soft photo.

BTW, it also looks as if no sharpening was applied or if so, very minimal sharpening. Might apply just a bit of selective sharpening.

Agree with gjl711...the 2 girls you wanted in focus...and you focused on, are in fact OOF....you either moved (camera shake) or you were off on the focus. Your setting at ISO 200 and speed should have been enough as they aren't moving.
I would pitch this given the bad framing (feet cropped) and try again.

Thank you for the comments and advice everyone really appreciated.
I will definitely be taking everything into consideration . Lots of good advice here
I'm still a bit shy about taking pics of random people .. hopefully as I get more comfortable composition will Improve as well