Face focus troubles with Canon 70D - can you help?

[PoohJen]

Hi All,

I'm having trouble getting faces in focus when I have more than one person in a shot. In this instance, I am talking about posed pictures (as opposed to sports or candid).

At a recent family event, I changed to fully automatic, hoping that would help, but no, even in posed shots with only two people, one would often be out of focus. I was using the kit lens (18-135, I believe).

I admit to being wholly unqualified to own a 70D (I use it mostly for sports shots bursts). I've got a few books, but I would welcome any tips/settings for getting all faces in focus!

(frankly, a lot of my shots are not as sharp as I want; I wonder if my hand is too unsteady, or if I just need glasses!)

Thanks!

 

[havoc315]

It's a depth of field issue. Technically, only a 2 dimensional plane is in focus. So if 1 person is just slightly behind the other person -- even just an inch off, then only 1 person can be in focus.
By using a smaller aperture, you increase the area that appears sharp (that appears to be in focus).
I'll typically stop the aperture down to f8-f11 for group shots, to try to get the whole group "in focus."

Google a depth of field calculator, and you'll see what I mean. You input your camera, your focal length, and your aperture, and it tells you the size of the depth of field.

 

[xlxo]

Also try walking back... this helps with DOF issues.

Another tip... make sures the eyes are in focus. Forget the rest of the face. If you are using auto-focus, focus at least on one eyeball.

 

[mom2rtk]

What was your aperture setting on the photo you are unhappy with? Are you shooting with our without a flash?

 

[WilsonFlyer]

What was your aperture setting on the photo you are unhappy with? Are you shooting with our without a flash?

Indeed. An example shot with some EXIF data would be most helpful, especially one with the Canon focus point in it.

 

[photo_chick]

I think people have already hit on your problem.. if one face appears to be in focus and another does not it's probably a depth of field issue. Though hard to tell 100% without an image or EXIF data.

As mentioned already, make sure you're using settings that allow for sufficient depth of field. Aperture, focal length and distance to subject all come into play here. Also try to get your subjects as close to the same plane of space as possible.

But even if you use sufficient depth of field, the people still will never all be in focus because there is only one point of focus in an image. Only one plane of space where things can be perfectly in focus. Depth of field is the area just in front of and behind that plane of focus that is considered "acceptably sharp". Technically that area is not in focus so even things that fall within the depth of field can seem out of focus if you pixel peep. So you want to be realistic when you're looking at group shots and consider the size you'll be sharing/viewing/printing them at rather than pixel peeping.

 

[xlxo]

Does your Canon have a face detection feature? My Nikon DSLR can check for faces to optimize the DOF.

 

[PoohJen]

Everyone, thank you so much for your responses.

I hope to take a closer look at them next weekend and try to digest your advice/diagnoses! I don't have the image data currently available. I was taking the shots outside in daytime, but occasionally the flash would engage automatically.

And I'll look to the dof sections of my books.

thanks again!