Bee picture

[Armikl]

Taken with a Sony a300. ISO 100, fstop f/5.0, focal length 50.0 mm, shutter speed 1/500.

[JFSanders]

Great subject. Too bad about the lack of DOF and the blurred petals in the fore ground. It kills the pic. ISO is ok 200 or 400 would be better as long as noise didn't creep in. F stop should be as high as you can get it to increase DOF. Shutter speed can be what ever it needs to be to get proper exposure. Not bad for a hand held shot.

[Armikl]

Thanks for the comments. However, wouldn't changing the DOF also potentially change the shutter speed, thereby bringing the flower until greater focus, but defocusing the bee? The problem I see is that the bee's behavior is unpredictable, and any movement by the bee would render it out of focus, especially since the bee is the primary subject. Or am I missing something?

Thanks again; I look forward to hearing your answers.

Mike

[JFSanders]

Take two rows of 12 golf balls. Lay them next to each other so that you have two equal length rows. Standing over top of them look down. Now move 6 balls from one row to the other. Now you have one row with six golf balls and one row with 18 golf balls. When your aperture is set at f/5.6 your depth of field is like the row of six. When f/11 your DOF is like the row of 18. So if you were looking down on your bee and flower like you were looking at the golf balls you will see that a larger f/stop will produce an image that is in focus from front to back. Or actually your subject will be completely in focus and there won't be any out of focus elements in the fore ground. Which makes for a much more pleasing photograph.

[bugadifino]

Crikey, I know I'm new to dslr (infact any slr), but I have no idea what "F" numbers /apeture etc etc mean..

[windrider86]

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[JFSanders]

Originally Posted by bugadifino

Crikey, I know I'm new to dslr (infact any slr), but I have no idea what "F" numbers /apeture etc etc mean..

That is part of the problem with photography. It won't kill you if you do it wrong. So people don't pick up a book or three before they start doing it.