How do I ....?

I am taking pictures of the my daughter's high school marching band during the football games. I am using Av mode because that seems to give me the best lighting levels but lacks in the ability to stop the action from time to time. A tripod is really helping with the blur but is really short so I am thinking a monopod. Anyway...I get really random focus points as I am trying to take the pictures. How do I get, if it is possible, the camera to not use one set point for focusing? In this scenario I want the entire picture to be in focus, or on the same focus plane, to get the pictures I want. Any thoughts, tips, suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated...thanks.

I would suggest to read your manual, try out all the different settings, i would use the DEP setting if you want to get a certain amount in focus.

Maybe try and use the Auto settings like Sport mode etc?

Hope this helps a bit

Maybe you can tell us which camera you are talking about, that will also help a lot.

Generally speaking, you have to enable only one focusing point instead of all of them.
Shooting with lower aperture (bigger F-number) will give your picture more details in focus..

Anyway, take a look at this site.

http://web.canon.jp/im​aging/enjoydslr/

It might not give the direct answer to your question, but it’ll show you some interesting things about your camera..

OK, you have several issues and a few are camera specific.

I'm going to assume the band is playing at Friday night games under the lights. If it's daytime then this all gets easier.

In any case, for one thing you are probably right to use Av mode. In low light you need to spin the main dial to the largest aperture your lens allows....This means the smallest number on the display. This lets in the most light.

If you still have blur, try upping the ISO number to get faster shutter speed. Using a monopod will help especially with long telephoto lenses....but watch closely for subject movement blur...band members that are sharp in some areas but have blurry arms and such. Subject blur will not be helped with a monopod, tripod or IS lens....you have to have a faster shutter speed to fix that.

Now for focus, one of the problems with using a large aperture is that the depth of field of what is in focus will be narrow. This means you have to pick what you want to be in focus and let anything closer or further away become soft. Learn to press the focus point selection button and twirl the main dial (XT or XTi) to pick the focus point closest to what you want sharp. Put that point on the subject and shoot.

You can't get the camera to use many points if the objects are at different distances....when you let the camera pick the points you will sometimes see two points light up at once but that is only because they are both sitting on an object that is a single distance from the camera. Take control of the focus and do not let the camera pick.

I know from your earlier posts that you've been struggling with this for a while....don't give up. You've learned a lot and I think you are getting to where you have the low light issues mostly understood. Now work with the focus a bit and I think it will all click. One suggestion is to get that camera out in some decent light and just spend an hour experimenting. Try taking the same shot at f/4...f/5.6....f/8 or at ISO 100....800.....1600. Get a feel for how these parameters work when the conditions are not so tough. Also spend some time practicing with focus.

Thanks, I didn't think I was going to be able to fix this but figured I would ask anyway. My pictures are coming out much better now, especially with a tripod but that doesn't help when I'm walking around the field so I have a monopod on the way. Thanks for the replies.