Assignment: Sharp
One of the things I find myself fighting with the most is getting the right depth of field. I often shoot with a 50mm 1.4, and I know that I get over-zealous about going all the way out to that 1.4, and I'm often disappointed with the results. So I decided to use this assignment to explore different settings that get me the depth-of-field I want, with sharp focus on precisely the parts of the photo I want it on.
I took, as my subject, the rather jagged crystals of black salt, and I put a blue-headed pin in the middle of it. Not particularly interesting as a subject, but it worked well for the study I was doing (and for the "sharp" theme). It turns out that getting the DoF I wanted required a much smaller aperture than I had anticipated, but I was also shooting at fairly close range.
The photo:
and the close-up, which shows sharp focus for just the right amount of the photo:
and the EXIF:
Camera: Canon EOS 20D
Exposure: 0.025 sec (1/40)
Aperture: f/6.3
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Exposure Bias: 0/2 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire