Does my image appear to have depth.

[bcsurvivor49]

Does my image appear to have depth. Is this a good picture? Are the rocks my focal point?

Shot with a Canon PowerShot A480
Was on auto
ISO 80
Aperture was 4.34

[danbaileyphoto]

I would say that it does have some depth. Not sure if the rocks are the focal point, but they certainly help balance the shot and give the eye something to do other than explore the valley beyond. So, by that notion, it does have depth. You have foreground and background subject matter that each attract the eye in a different way.

[Photologyst]

Well, yes and no.

One can clearly discern the foreground from the background, but, for my taste (which is subjective of course) I would like to see more sharpness in the middle ground because, that appears to be the focal point.

[sabrina860]

I would love to see this in hdr!

[bcsurvivor49]

Hi everyone
Thank you for your feed back. I don't know what a hdr is. Maybe high def ratio. Just a guess on my part.....and how to I do it. I use Photoshop CS.

[Krusty79]

Ah, I see you were in Jasper! I loved Banff and Jasper when I was there. I think you have composed your image to show depth, but you took the shot with an aperture of 4.3, which is going to give you a very shallow depth of field. If you could have used a smaller aperture like f.11, I think you would have more of the "depth" effect and more of your image will be in focus. However, I think you will need a DSLR to do that.

HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. If you do a search for that term, you should get a lot of results.

[Photologyst]

Originally Posted by bcsurvivor49

Hi everyone
Thank you for your feed back. I don't know what a hdr is. Maybe high def ratio. Just a guess on my part.....and how to I do it. I use Photoshop CS.

The best program for HDR photos is Photomatix: HDR photo software & plugin for Lightroom, Aperture & Photoshop - Tone Mapping, Exposure Fusion & HDR Imaging for photography Basically you bracket photos and then the program puts them together so that you get the full dynamic range.

I agree that this photo might work well with the technique.

You just have to be carful that it doesn't look bizarre.

[RichardTaylor]

@ bcsurvivor49
To me the rocks appear to be too dark, and not quite large enough, and do merge into the miidle ground.

The exposure is fixable with some PPing and I can post an an example of what can be achieved, with your permission.

@ Krusty79
A point and shoot camera was used so getting enough DOF is not a problem. The P&S cameras I own will not go past F8..
If it was used at 6mm @ F4.5 and focused at 10' feet the DOF would range from 3.5 feet to infinity.

Online Depth of Field Calculator

[Krusty79]

Richard,

I looked up the specs for the Canon A480 and here's what I found:

The 3.3x optical zoom lens in the Canon A480 is ever so slightly wider-angle and less powerful than the 3.4x zoom of the A470, and offers 35mm equivalent focal lengths from a rather tight 37mm wide angle to a 122mm telephoto.

So, it looks like bssurvivor49 can't shoot at 6mm, as the widest it goes it 37mm. According to the link you provided, that cuts the DOF down to about 8-12 feet. Am I using the calculator correctly?

Greg

[RichardTaylor]

@ Krusty79

From Canon's web site
Focal Length (optical)
6.6 (W) – 21.6 (T) mm

35mm film equivalent
37 (W) – 122 (T) mm

Forget the the 35mm equivalent, use the real focal lengths.

Here is an example, of mine, shot with a Canon G11


Camera Canon PowerShot G11
Exposure 0.033 sec (1/30)
Aperture f/8.0
Focal Length 6.1 mm
Subject Distance 0.75 m (approx 30")

Using DOF master it gives me a DOF from 14" to infinity.

To me that is a major advantage of using a point & shoot and also one of its disadvantages - you can't get really shallow DOF, except when shooting macros.