close-up focusing help

[zoezach]

I am fairly new and have recently shot a maternity shoot (which was for my nephew and his wife). I tried to do an up close of her belly with the wedding rings and could not get the auto-focus to stop "twitching". I tried manual focus and that didn't work either. I was shooting P mode monochrome. Can anyone tell me what my problem is or what I can do to fix this problem? I'm using a Canon XTI with a Tamron lens.

[rockpics]

It sounds like you may have been trying to focus closer than your lens is able to focus. Some lenses will focus closer to the subject than others.

[SCone]

Sounds like you were too close. The AF will also hunt for focus if it's too dark to get a good lock. P-mode will not pop up the flash to assist AF.

[AndrewCCM]

You'll need a lens that has close focusing capability like a Macro if your are too close.

[zoezach]

Thanks for the advice, that is kind of what I figured out. However, I was just outside with the kids in the snow and had on the 75-300mm lens and it did just fine close-up, just what I was wanting the other day. Looked great. What size of a macro would be best to get. Like I said, I am just getting started and haven't done much of that type of photography.

[AndrewCCM]

Favorite Canon Macro is the 100 F2.8 Macro. It is fantastically sharp. Great for things other than Macro as well. However, it is a slow focuser in low light... However, with macro work, many times you are using MF anyway.

Highly recommend it. I sold mine not too long ago...I just never used it much for my type of work and used the proceeds towards something else.

[laawaaris]

for a baby, the out of focus look is kind of cool ...

bring the lens up real close to the baby's face ... just out of reach of the minimum focusing distance of the lens ... then take the picture

you'll end up with a slightly blurry photo of the baby's face ... you might catch a cool emotion on the baby, and if you try fading it to black and white, i think both you and the baby's mom just might go gaga over the photo ...