Frog Wonderful

[Marie Hass]

I just wanted to share these. I know DoF is too shallow. This seems to be a perennial problem I am having. That and under-exposure. I was using my 500D closeup lens at f5.6.







Please feel free to comment/critique.

Marie

[Geoff F]

Yes, Marie, F5.6 is very shallow for that sort of shot. I would prefer to use at least F11 for scenes like that.

But I can't see what your other settings were so you may have been forced into a shallow focus by other constraints.

The exposure is fine, any more would just blow the highlights.

I think I would have a go at a different crop for #2. Possibly 5 x 4 ratio or even square would lose most of the very bright out of focus background at the top which I find distracting; and would concentrate more on the main subject.

[Marie Hass]

Thanks Geoff for commenting. I figured a northern leopard frog would pique your interest.

Geoff, this set here was actually shot at shutter speed 100, f10, 105mm, ISO 400. I used my closeup lens 500D on my 23-105 f4.0L lens. I am sorry for the confusion. The first ones I did NOT post I shot at f5.6. These here all were shot with the above settings. It was later in the day - about 6pm so light was limited. I am still shooting manual.

Hope that gives you enough information. I wonder if it would have worked better if I had my 70-300 lens on and backed up a bit. I have 1X, 2X, 4X and 10X 58mm closeup lenses as well.

Does this look better, now? I like this crop better. Thank you for the suggestion.



Looking forward to all comments and suggestions.

Marie

[Geoff F]

Yes that looks better to me.

I don't think another lens would really help, unless these are substantial crops; you are quite close enough.

Possibly going to Iso 800 would have enabled the use of a smaller aperture, but at the risk of increased noise.

Just a 'silly suggestion' for the first and last images. How about a substantial crop which 'cuts the frog in half' and just shows the sharply focused areas? I think it may work and appear as though that was your original intention.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Marie,

DoF may be limited, but you still have the focus in the correct place on the eyes.

S/he looks like they were a fairly relaxed model for you, for 1/100s they are pretty sharp too.

I usually shoot 3" dragon flies with my (Nikon) 70-300mm (and no CU lens), so that might have been an option - I don't think it would help much with DoF though.

For me the problem I see is actually slight over exposure.

I can't make up my mind if I prefer #2 or #3 though.

Cheers,

[Marie Hass]

I did that, Geoff, and the frog was quite startlingly "in your face". Scairt me! lololol. The only crop I did was to #3, to an 18X10 and the one crop you suggested.

Dave, thank you for your suggestions. I gave it a wee bit of a chill in the fridge. No harm, only in for 10 mins. It sat there warming up whist I took pictures.

Marie