How do I keep a moving person sharp at a wide aperture on a Nikon D3300?
Asked 9/4/2018
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2 answers
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I’m practicing photographing a single person in motion, such as someone spinning slowly, and I want the face to stay sharp while shooting at a wide aperture. With my Nikon D3300 and 35mm or 50mm lens, my results are often slightly soft. What autofocus technique and camera settings should I use to improve focus accuracy for this kind of movement?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
8y ago
2 Answers
1
I would try it with continuous AF (AF-C), on a single focus point. Then I would shoot at a very high frame rate, as much as possible.
It is very difficult to get sharp images under these circumstances, so the more you shoot, the more chance you will get the perfect one. Aim your focus point on the head/face, or eyes if you can as good as possible, and shoot many pictures by keeping the shutter pressed.
3D tracking does not seem a good option to me because it is not made for this situation. It is made for the situation where you want the background to stay the same, but your subject is moving. Changing the focus point manually is too slow, so there is a mode to do that for you. Here you don't need that, because the face (or head) seems to stay in the same place, and you can follow it with the camera if it does not. 3D tracking tends to focus on the object closest to the camera, so it would probably be fooled be the hair and focus on that in stead of the face.
Originally by user40887. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user40887
8y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Use continuous autofocus (AF-C) so the camera keeps adjusting focus as the person moves. Set a single focus point and keep it on the face—ideally the eyes or head—while you track the subject. Then shoot in continuous/burst mode to increase your chances of getting a perfectly sharp frame.
At very wide apertures, depth of field is extremely thin, so even slow spinning can move parts of the subject out of the focus plane. That means getting “most of them” in focus may require stopping down a little rather than shooting wide open.
Based on the community answers, 3D tracking is not the best fit here if the face stays in roughly the same place in the frame and you can follow it yourself with a single point.
In short: AF-C, single-point AF on the face, burst shooting, and consider using a slightly narrower aperture if you need more of the person sharp.
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