# What aperture for couple shots



## Ilovelearning (Jun 26, 2010)

I frequently miss focus on couple shoots. I need to know what aperture you guys suggest shooting at to keep both people in focus. I like shooting wide open where I will have alot of depth of field. What is the widest aperture I can go with?

Thank you


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## rusty9 (Jun 26, 2010)

why don't you just experiment and find out for yourself


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## KmH (Jun 26, 2010)

Ilovelearning said:


> I frequently miss focus on couple shoots. I need to know what aperture you guys suggest shooting at to keep both people in focus.* I like shooting wide open where I will have alot of depth of field*. What is the widest aperture I can go with?
> 
> Thank you


There's your problem!

Shooting wide open usually gives _very little_ DOF.

DOF is controlled by 4 things:

lens focal length
lens aperture
subject to lens distance
subject to background distance.


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## Rudha (Jun 26, 2010)

Ilovelearning said:


> I frequently miss focus on couple shoots. I need to know what aperture you guys suggest shooting at to keep both people in focus. I like shooting wide open where I will have alot of depth of field. What is the widest aperture I can go with?
> 
> Thank you



the widest aperture you can get completely depends on the lens you have so unless you post that information nobody can help you, also posting the camera details helps ....just post the whole lot 
about the aperture for my d40 with DX sensor anywhere between f8-f11 will give me maximum clarity and acceptable depth of field i never worked with couples but i think that should be just fine. I'm sure others will give better solution but either way post ur gear info first.


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## Robin Usagani (Jun 26, 2010)

also when you have a very shallow DOF, I would use spot focusing.  But making it deeper would help  .


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## table1349 (Jun 26, 2010)

Understanding Depth of Field in Photography


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## Ilovelearning (Jun 26, 2010)

Let me make sure i said what I meant.

When I said wide open, I meant 2.8. I like shooting this because I blur the back ground in my pictures. When I shoot f16 or f8 I have to manually blur the backgrounds out in pp

So what I'm trying to figure out is what is a good aperture to shoot at with a couple and still give me just my couple in focus and everything around them blur.

I have a d90 my lens got to 2.8 to 22.

I want everyone in my group to be sharp. Wtih 2.8 if someone is leaning back a little, i miss and they are not sharp.

will something like 4.5 or 5.6 allow me to get everyone in focus even if they are a tad bit behind the other person. Or should I got with something around 8.

Is my question clearer this time. Thanks for the hlep to guys.


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## Ilovelearning (Jun 26, 2010)

I'm about to check out spot focusing, but why do you recommend it?


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## Ilovelearning (Jun 26, 2010)

Forgive my english, please. I am still learning your language.


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## KmH (Jun 26, 2010)

Ilovelearning said:


> Forgive my english, please. I am still learning your language.


If you included your general location in your profile, we would know in advance to take your language capabilities into account.


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## grant (Jun 26, 2010)

Like someone said, knowing what equipment you have is needed.

You can look at this too though. Its a chart to find out how much will be in focus giving your distance from subject and f-stop. Depth of Field Table


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## Ilovelearning (Jun 26, 2010)

grant said:


> Like someone said, knowing what equipment you have is needed.
> 
> You can look at this too though. Its a chart to find out how much will be in focus giving your distance from subject and f-stop. Depth of Field Table



I said I have a d90 and a 5mm 1.8 and another lens with 2.8 - 22, no problem if you missed it.

The chart is good, but I do not understand it. Can you help?

On the chart its says at a distance of 5 feet at aperture 2.8, near is 4' 10.2'' and  far is 5' 2". What does this mean in regards to what is being blurred and what is not. I am sorry I do not understand. Any help is really appreciated. Can you word it like you were talking to a dumb A**. Again, sorry I'm not just picking this chart up.


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## Ilovelearning (Jun 26, 2010)

gryphonslair99 said:


> Understanding Depth of Field in Photography



The chart at the bottom answered my question. If it is correct then I learned alot about depth of field. I read a article about it when i first start photography, but it help revisiting.

I've always done bad at getting everyone in focus. Found the answers to help that. thanks everyone.


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## indeedies (Jun 26, 2010)

When I'm shooting couples I never shoot at 2.8 for the reason you described before. Usually I'm somewhere between 4.5-6.0 depending on the situation and how the couple is situated.

Someone had mentioned (in not a very helpful manner) to simply practice and see what works best.  I would encourage this approach.  Go out with a couple of friends and put the camera in aperature priority mode.  Ignore pretty much everything that's going on with the camera, composition and background.  Start by putting your subjects right next to eachother and play with different F-stops.  Then put one subject directly behind the other one and again play with different F-stops.  With the D90 the screen is large enough so you can zoom in on the eyes of each subject and see where you're missing focus and where you're not.

Hope this helps and good luck ;-)

Also, posting examples may get you better responses in the future.


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## Breaux (Jun 26, 2010)

It also helps to put the background as far as possible behind the subjects.


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## Derrel (Jun 26, 2010)

f/5.6


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