Depth of Field

[Praths]

Hi Everyone

I am new to the forum- my aplogoies if this is in the wrong "track". I am an amateur, so your constructive criticism ( technical and composition) to improve the landscape/nature picture is apprecaited.

Picture taken at the Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens on 11 March at 09h25 in Johannesburg. I was practicing DOF in the photo by following the fence with my camera.

EXIF: f/4; 1/800; ISO-200; exposure bias -0.3 step; focal length- 28mm; metering mode partial and camera mode- AV. No post processing other than size reduction. I will be returning to the gardens - earlier in the day and would like to take the same pic following your input - hopefully I will see improvements-.



In my honest opinion- it look like something I used to take when I owned a point and shoot with no photography edcation-. A rather distressing situation.
tx- Praths

[jeeperman]

Praths, you say you were practicing DOF. You don't say what you were going for. All in focus? A portion OOF? F4 is pretty narrow (DoF).

[Andrew1]

Praths, when you go back, take a tripod. It will help you more clearly see where the focus is and the boundaries of the DOF.
I can't tell on my screen where those are in this shot. Keep on trying, you will get better.

[Bobobird]

If all focus points are active then playing with DOF will be "different".

[russellsnr]

Hi, Not sure what you are asking here but EXIF: f/4; 1/800; ISO-200 seem IMO for this shot incorrect, as there is obviously sunshine maybe sunny 16 rule (f16) ISO 100 and metre on the mid toned green trees, remember also if you allow the camera to take charge of the metere it will give you an average reading for the whole scene, looking at the scene IMO i would meter the sky +3 stops, recompose, take the picture then meter for the land, recompose take the picture and blend together, or if you have one use an NDG filter to pull in the sky. As I state JMO.
Russ

[revi]

according to the CiC DoF calculator with 28mm@F4, acceptable sharpness can be from 5m to infinity. Not much room to play with DoF, so perhaps that's why you don't get the expected effect?

[Praths]

Hi All

Thanks for the honest feedback and technical coaching- it is MUCH appreciated.

In summary - my take on improving this picture includes the following- figure out exactly what the subject is - in this, I was hoping to use the repeating pattern of the fence to lead the eye to the waterfall- while accomplishing a wide DOF. However- it all went wrong.

To improve on this picture- I will shoot the waterfall from a different angel ( I actually did this from much closer at different shutter speeds)- but far ( at least 10 m) from the subject to see what it looks like with grass in the foreground. I just want to see how the foreground competes with a focal point in the distrance with a 105 lenz ( how much of the foreground can I blur). I will use a bigger apperture( f/8 or f11), improve on the metering as recommended by Russel and use one focus point - i.e perhaps the centre point. Forget about the fence for now-.

In conclusion - the Ancient Chinese Philosopher - Lao Tse said-" when you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change". This is my starting point- figure out exactly what I want from the scene and the subject and then figure out the technical settings and shoot- several "takes"".
Once again- thank you very much for your candid feedback and encouraging words- as Andrew says- "keep trying you will get better".
Just by the way- perhaps the "boring"photo below is a better example of my DOF efforts- albeit- this needs significant improvement too.

[Dave Humphries]

In summary - my take on improving this picture includes the following- figure out exactly what the subject is - in this, I was hoping to use the repeating pattern of the fence to lead the eye to the waterfall- while accomplishing a wide DOF. However- it all went wrong.

Well, it worked like that for me, so not a total failure

The only thing that doesn't contribute is some of the grass on the right and the shadow of the nearby tree on the grass - if that were cropped off (about where the cabin is) and a greater DoF obtained, you'd be sorted.

Be careful of using the centre focus point alone with this composition though, either use one biassed down, or left to focus on something a bit closer, or focus lock it (e.g. switch to MF) and recompose (trickier on a tripod).

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