focusing with 50mm lens

[PhotoGirl]

hello everyone,
I have a question about focusing with a 50mm lens. Does anyone have any tips how to achieve sharp photos with a lens like this for group shots? I just bought one and over the holidays I tried to take group shots of people in my family. Normally, with my zoom lens I would focus on the person at the front of the group and recompose the photo and everyone in the shot would be sharp. But I noticed with the 50mm (because its shallow depth of field?) that technique did not work very well. The person at the front was sharp, but the people behind him were blurry. I also tried manually focusing to various degrees of success (I also think I took too long focusing and my subjects got a little tired! lol) So, if anyone has any tips/advice to improve my photos, I'd really appreciate it.
Thanks

[Anbesol]

depending on how close you are, just stop your aperture down. The closer you are, the more you should stop it down. ~ 5.6 might do ya, if you're pretty close try f/8, you can always check with your DOF Preview.

[Franglais]

What focal length are you at when you do a group shot? Probably not at 50mm, which is a mild telephoto on your camera. You're probably using a shorter focal length to get a wider angle to "get everybody in". And the shorter the focal length, the wider the depth of field at a given aperture and distance.

Rephrasing what Anbesol just said - if you're in poor light then the camera is selecting a wider aperture than your zoom lens can do. The 50mm can go down to f1.8 while a 18-55 typically stops at f4. So you can use a higher shutter speed and lower ISO but you sacrifice depth of field.

In fact it sounds like you'd be better off using the zoom lens for this shot.

[gryphonslair99]

hello everyone,
I have a question about focusing with a 50mm lens. Does anyone have any tips how to achieve sharp photos with a lens like this for group shots? I just bought one and over the holidays I tried to take group shots of people in my family. Normally, with my zoom lens I would focus on the person at the front of the group and recompose the photo and everyone in the shot would be sharp. But I noticed with the 50mm (because its shallow depth of field?) that technique did not work very well. The person at the front was sharp, but the people behind him were blurry. I also tried manually focusing to various degrees of success (I also think I took too long focusing and my subjects got a little tired! lol) So, if anyone has any tips/advice to improve my photos, I'd really appreciate it.
Thanks

Adjust your aperture to give you the DOF you need to get the shot. If you need to add light then do so via a strobe or two depending on the size of the group.

[Anbesol]

I suspect she isn't using strobes, otherwise she wouldn't be at maximum aperture in the first place.

Photogirl, specifically - use aperture priority and shoot for about f/5.6, adjust your iso so you are hitting 1/60th or faster.

[PhotoGirl]

thank you everyone for your replies and helpful advice