Help me understand how to focus on multiple points

[Adam]

Bit of a newbie question but struggling to get my head around it. I took a picture of 2 people on a sofa holding a baby using my 550D and 50mm 1.8mm lens using aperture priority mode.

I noticed that only 1 of the 2 people were in focus, the second person on the right hand side was very blurry which ruined the picture. I thought aperture priority would be best as they stood out from the background.

Which setting would I change and how would I next time ensure both of the subjects remain in focus?

 

[niko]

if you cant have them on the same focal plain then make the aperture smaller

 

[James J]

Also, learn to use the depth of field preview button to ensure that everyone is in focus.

 

[King Damager]

if you cant have them on the same focal plain then make the aperture smaller

A lot of it is about this really. At f1.8 you're going to have a very shallow field of view in focus. Chances are they weren't a level enough distance away from you to get both of them in focus. As such you'd need to increase the aperture (number value), to get the better depth of field.

As James said, DoF preview can massively help here.

kd

 

[An Exception]

Bit of a newbie question but struggling to get my head around it. I took a picture of 2 people on a sofa holding a baby using my 550D and 50mm 1.8mm lens using aperture priority mode.

I noticed that only 1 of the 2 people were in focus, the second person on the right hand side was very blurry which ruined the picture. I thought aperture priority would be best as they stood out from the background.

Which setting would I change and how would I next time ensure both of the subjects remain in focus?

How have to learn how to compose to get all the subjects on the same focal plane. If they are not on the same plane you can't focus on everything, and need to use small apertures to minimise the softness on the other subjects.