Question about DoF...

[PhotoNewt]

Originally Posted by zespri

...I just took this photo of my fur-child a few minutes ago, and IMHO I think the blur improves the photo as it draws my eye to Lilly (my fur-child), rather than the daffodils...

An example of selective focusing with a wide aperture - f/2 here.

[zespri]

yes, a little too wide, as a lot of her is not in focus. But I'm not being hard on myself as I've only had my SLR for a few weeks, and still don't know which settings are appropriate. I'll be glad when I learn some good 'starting points' to set things at.

Originally Posted by PhotoNewt

An example of selective focusing with a wide aperture - f/2 here.

[Palladius]

I quite like blurred field in front of the subject (I prefer the first photo to the second) and I have a bit of a thing about framing but, to be honest, I do quite often seem to fall into the problems wulf and lauren mentioned...

[HockeyFan]

It just boils down to what you're wanting to achieve. Typically in cases where I'm just not sure, I'll take several shots, varying shutter and aperture and then figure it out later. Sometimes, I like my original intent, but then see the results of one of the other shots and decide that it's actually better.
It's not an exact science. It's a creative thing.

[kencaleno]

Depth of field appears to be the most confusing of focus elements. Depth of field is a range of acceptable sharpness in an image, from near to far. Three factors control Depth of field: Aperture: The wider the aperture, the shallower the depth of field. Focal length of lens, The longer the focal length of the lens, the shallower the depth of field will be. and Distance from subject, Landscape images have great depth of field, whereas Macro (extreme close-up) images have very shallow depth of field. Concerning depth of field, Hyperfocal distance seems to be even more confusing -Hyperfocal distance is a point of focus where at a certain aperture, Half the distance from that point to Infinity, (which starts at 30 feet) will be in acceptable focus, The best lenses for hyperfocal distance are 80mm or wider ; telephoto lenses, because of their relative short depth of field, are rarely used. (Prime lenses have a scale on them for this, zooms do not) Using a 18mm setting on your zoom lens at f16, Hyperfocal distance is somewhere around 5 ½ feet (1600mm), so depth of field at this aperture would be from 2 ¾ feet ( 800mm) to infinity, when focused at 5 1/ 2 feet. A good guideline for great depth of field for landscapes is to use the bottom focusing marker in your DSLR viewfinder, (either horizontal, or vertical) as this will focus 1/3 of the way into the distance, (It is on the lower third imaginary “Rule of Thirds” gridline!) ,as is usually recommended. [ NOTE: Unless your camera has depth of field preview, looking through the viewfinder all will not be in focus, because your lens, until you press the shutter button to make the shot, will be open at full aperture.] Regards, Ken

[kelly]

I don't mean to "hijack" your thread but I had the same question! Personally, I like your second image better than the first but I understand what you are asking. the image I am posting I like but I don't know if it appeals to anyone else




1/1000 s
f 6.3
iso 400

[dannyrich]

I think a tighter crop would help massively.

Good photo though its just too big an area compared to the ldybird.

[kelly]

like this?

[private]

Thats better but maybe even tighter...

[kelly]

I am not sure if I like the tighter crop. what do you think?