My canine best friend

[Maffrew]

Hi all,

I'm another newbie, both to the site and photography. I've only ever used compact point and shoots before, however my wife and I are due to have our first baby in March and i'm keen to chronicle family life with some decent shots. With that in mind, I bought a Nikon D3000 twin lens kit and am going to set about learning to take half decent shots.

The following shot is one of the first photos i've taken with the camera and i'm looking for tips on how to achieve the proper focus. It was just taken in the yard so the background isn't terrible interesting, but Bella is gorgeous.

However, although she's mostly in focus (to my eye at least!), because of the way she sits, her tail and one of her feet are in the background and slightly blurred. Is there a way I could have avoided that, or is that a symptom of the way she's sat and something I wouldn't be able to fix without a different pose, or maybe framing it differently?

I suspect composition will be as hard to learn, if not harder than the technical aspects of shooting. Anyway, here's the shot:



Edit to add EXIF data:

Camera: Nikon D3000
Exposure: 0.004 sec (1/250)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 32 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: No Flash

[Chip]

Welcome!

Now that you've made the switch to a DSLR, you've already experienced one thing that's both a curse and a blessing: narrow depth of field (DOF).

Point and shoots have a much deeper DOF, so with a P&S, most likely all of Bella would've been in focus.

But with a DSLR, especially when you're close to your subject, the DOF can be very narrow. This DOF Calculator is a good way to start getting a feel for how narrow the DOF can be for different apertures, focal lengths and distances to subject.

Narrow DOF can be a huge plus, once you get the hang of it . . . "blurring out" the background can isolate your subject and can make your shots more interesting. So, for example, it might've been useful to make the DOF for your shot of Bella even narrower - doing so would draw more attention to her eyes/head.

Going to the DPS blog (click on the logo at the top of this page) and checking out the blurbs on exposure triangle might be a good way to learn some helpful info.

And you're right - Bella is a cutie.

[abchip]

Originally Posted by Maffrew

Hi all,

Bella is gorgeous.
However, although she's mostly in focus (to my eye at least!), because of the way she sits, her tail and one of her feet are in the background and slightly blurred. Is there a way I could have avoided that, or is that a symptom of the way she's sat and something I wouldn't be able to fix without a different pose, or maybe framing it differently?

Maffrew,

First a Congratulations is inorder!!!!!

I second Chips advise! Also, having some DOF in your photos is good thing. When someone looks at this photo of Bella (who is gorgeous) maybe your intention is to draw our eyes to here face first because it's in focus and then the rest of her second. So use DOF to your advantage. This will translate to photographing your baby, Do you want their face in focus or maybe the frog their holding in outstretched arms in focus instead!? Just a thought.

BTW, To get more of her body in focus try to get it on the same plane. In this shot you are shooting almost straight down at her so try kneeling down so your more at her level and see how that changes your DOF.

[Maffrew]

Thanks for the input guys. I'll look at some of the tutorials and try to recreate the shot with varying degrees of depth of field, see if I can get a feel for how to create different levels of it.