The Old Pier through railings

[candidrachel]

I've seen photos of say a castle shot through a key hole. How do you do it?? I've attempted to capture this old, pier through the railings from the "new" pier. Any critique is welcome!

Thank you!


Canon 40D
ISO 200
1/400
F10
50mm lens

[navcom]

I like it. Nice use of perspective and framing. The only thing that might improve it would be finding an angle that would show the end of the pier off to the right there, which would pull your eye through the frame and off to the horizon. But not sure that it was possible as I'm not sure what is actually to the right.

Nice job!

[candidrachel]

Thank you Navcom! I had to be really careful what I included in the shot because to the right (like you suggested) in the frame is a diving school and they had all their dingies and stuff in the way which was a bit annoying.

But at the end of the day I think I did what I could. The light at that time was lovely. It was late afternoon and so the sun was getting towards golden.

[bruceliv]

Originally Posted by candidrachel

I've seen photos of say a castle shot through a key hole. How do you do it??

What a great view for this subject. I took the liberty of viewing some of your images on flickr. You have some good ideas.

Now I'm going to rephrase you question -- How does one control Depth of Field?

DoF is dependent on 3 variables: Focal length of lens, distance to subject, aperture. And you need your dSLR to accomplish this.

To improve your shot above, that is to get what I believe you want, you would focus on the nearer subject and use a smaller aperture (larger f-stop). This would improve the image, but might not be optimal.

The next method is to focus somewhere in between, the hyperfocal distance, and close down aperture appropriately.

Now the question for either of above choices, OK, but by how much?

Take multiple exposures at different settings.

But, first take a look at the following tutorial:
DOF

A reference where you can plug in the variables and actually get the results:
Online Depth of Field Calculator

If you plug in the Canon 40D, f/16 and various distances...
at say 15 ft focus distance, you'd have acceptable sharpness from 9.7-33 ft.
However, with the same setting, if you change your focus distance to 27 feet (hyperfocal distance), you would then have an image that's acceptably in focus from 13.5 ft - infinity!

You don't have to memorize this stuff. I believe dofmaster.com has scales you can download to PC or iPhone. With some practice, you can accomplish the results you want off the top of your head. Just experiment by taking several pictures of your subject with different settings (aperture and focus settings).

Note: Circles of Confusion is very confusing for many Think of it as a tiny area of acceptable sharpness.

[candidrachel]

Thank you for such a detailed reply I really struggle with the whole hyperfocal distance thing but those links you have given have helped me loads!

Thank you for taking the time to view my flickr stream!

[bruceliv]

Originally Posted by candidrachel

I really struggle with the whole hyperfocal distance thing...

The hyperfocal distance is the distance setting at any aperture that produces the greatest depth of field.

One upon a time All SLR lenses had depth of field marks engraved at the focusing mount. Knowing the approx. distances of the foreground and background, you first set the aperture, then set the desired distances between the marking for the chosen f-stop. We never labeled it with any fancy terms, just knew how to use the technique.

I hope this clears it up some.

[candidrachel]

Originally Posted by bruceliv

The hyperfocal distance is the distance setting at any aperture that produces the greatest depth of field.

One upon a time All SLR lenses had depth of field marks engraved at the focusing mount. Knowing the approx. distances of the foreground and background, you first set the aperture, then set the desired distances between the marking for the chosen f-stop. We never labeled it with any fancy terms, just knew how to use the technique.

I hope this clears it up some.

That's brilliant!! I remember my dads's old slr lenses had all sorts of numbers and settings engraved on them. I never really knew what they meant but now I do! In fact I might go upstairs in a minute and dig them out and have a quick look (I inherited a load of old stuff years ago).

[Sterling]

I'm not a fan of the frame here. To me, the view of the pier,water, and sky looks beautiful in that warm light and the blurry and shadowed frame detracts from that beauty. I think the issue is that it is not apparent just what the frame is and how it relates to the scene. In your keyhole example, it would be obvious what the opening was even if quite out of focus.