Taking Photos Of Two Dogs

[giraffez]

If i'm take a closeup of my two dogs, what do i focus on? i use the auto focus setting the red dot to the centre...... and then i focus the red dot in the centre of the two dogs. But alot of the photos are blurred. How do i get the camera to focus on the two dogs?

Using the canon 550d

[~*Shell*~]

The red dot will focus in the area between the two dogs. Go into your autofocus and scroll until you have all 9 points focusing or if your dogs are sitting next to eachother, set it to either the left or right focus point. If the dogs are next to eachother, both should be in focus.

Does that make sense?

[giraffez]

when i have it to automatic focus (with all 9 dots selected) sometimes it doesn't recognise there are 2 dogs and only focuses on one. I can't seem to find an option to just manually select both the left and right focus points (i can select one but not both). The dogs are right next to each other.... sometimes there is a slight gap but most of the time the photo appears blurred for one of the dogs

Not sure whether it makes a difference but one dog is bigger than the other

Edited December 4, 2010 by giraffez

[~*Shell*~]

That's because it can't have two points it's focusing on. The lens can only focus on one. Close down your aperture. Instead of setting it at something like f/2, set it at f/4 or f/5 and see if that helps. The depth of field will be wider and you should get more in focus.

Edited December 4, 2010 by ~*Shell*~

[Linda K]

What Shell has said 0 if there is too much of a difference between where each dog is (ie if one is closer to you than the other), the camera will have trouble having them both in focus - make sure they are as near to each other distance wise from you as you can, and then make sure you have the aperture set at least F5.6, and if that does not work, even F8 - the good thing about a digital camera is you can take the shots, and then CHIMP on the back and see of you need to make any adjustments and then try again. Are you shooting on manual, AV, TV or full auto?

[rubiton]

Either offset the dogs and take on an angle or take a wider shot so they are off centre but can be cropped later (that way you focus on one but ensure the other is in the shot)

[giraffez]

What Shell has said 0 if there is too much of a difference between where each dog is (ie if one is closer to you than the other), the camera will have trouble having them both in focus - make sure they are as near to each other distance wise from you as you can, and then make sure you have the aperture set at least F5.6, and if that does not work, even F8 - the good thing about a digital camera is you can take the shots, and then CHIMP on the back and see of you need to make any adjustments and then try again. Are you shooting on manual, AV, TV or full auto?

I am shooting at AV at F5.6 with the standard 18-55 lens.

[rubiton]

Try F8 - better depth of field if its sunny. ISO 400 and it should pick a fairly high shutter speed. As I said make sure the focus points are on a dog you can always centre crop later.

[PossumCorner]

.... But alot of the photos are blurred. How do i get the camera to focus on the two dogs? ....

Sure rules are made to be broken, but a good rule with dogs/people is to have the eyes in sharp focus if nothing else (but preferably something more).

If there are two dogs in the shot, try to have them both posed with their eyes in the same focus plane, same distance from the lens.

Then when you focus on one eye/set of eyes, the other pair should be reasonably close to in focus if not spot-on.

It is a huge help to have someone posing the dogs for you, then standing (working) behind you to get eyes and ears looking your way.

Set up with a clean background, no junk, then you can close the f.stop to get a wider depth of field. If the background is also in focus it is not going to be such a drama if there are no footpath lines, hoses etc to draw the eye away from the dogs, and f8 or higher will give more reliably in-focus dogs.

[giraffez]

ok thanks. Whats the idea around focusing on the dogs eyes? do i focus on the eyes and then move the camera to the centre before i take the shot? or do i just focus on one dog's eyes and take the shot there.

[PossumCorner]

I'm not a Canon user, Canon people can fine-tune "how to do it" for you. But there will be a setting that allows you to half-depress the shutter button, fix focus, then move the camera to frame the shot how you would like it. The focus will remain set at the distance you "first told it to". Then depress the button the rest of the way to take the shot. It should spell it out in the user-guide that came with the camera.

But if you don't have the setting correct, it will keep re-hunting the focussing point as you move the camera to re-frame the scene.