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Ed Vatza
08-14-2008, 06:20 PM
Image made at Jacobsburg State Park (PA) last weekend.

Canon 30D and 300mm f/2.8L IS.

1/2000 sec @ f/4; ISO 200; 0 EV; Natural light

Kaushik Balakumar
08-14-2008, 06:34 PM
Wow Ed, u r rocking with ur new lens - such a lovely BG this is...
U had ample light - why did'nt u stop down a bit more to have the whole of the butterfly in DOF...?
Head, body & lower parts of the wings look pretty soft.

Steve Foss
08-14-2008, 06:43 PM
Love the comp and light, Ed. First thing after that I saw was the softness on part of the butterfly, and looking at your techs I thought a bump to iso400 and stopping down to f11 would have done a great job on extending DOF.

Then I scrolled down and saw Kaushik's post. Guess that means I'm in agreement with him. ;)

Ed Vatza
08-14-2008, 07:15 PM
Thanks Kaushik. Thanks Steve. As always, I appreciate your critiques.

I do most of images of flowers and such stopped down pretty far (f/16 or such). As Jules can tell you, I am always saying "more dof, more dof".

On this particular day, I was determined to open things up quite a bit. All my images that day (see "A Study in Scarlet" and 'Coneflower" for other examples) were made between f/2.8 and f/8. So the reason I didn't stop down is because I didn't want to. :) I wanted to work soft.

That said, the issue becomes does it work? And what I am hearing so far is maybe not!

Steve Foss
08-14-2008, 08:35 PM
It doesn't work for me, Ed, the way it is. If I'm going to make a statement in shallow DOF, I usually make it very tightly. Here, because you've got the whole butterfly and some blossoms, I want to see the whole butterfly sharp.

That is simply the way I look at it, and the fact that it doesn't work as well as possible for me should not sway you or your vision in any way.

Ed Vatza
08-14-2008, 08:44 PM
Good point Steve and point well taken. I'll file that away for the next time I think about going wide. Thanks.

Jonathan Michael Ashton
08-15-2008, 02:32 AM
Hi Steve, nice composition but I am afraid the first thing that struck me was where do I focus? The Monarch is half in half out, if deliberately making DOF limited then I would have tried to focus on the head/eye region, that way I would stop my eye roving around the image.
Jon

Kaushik Balakumar
08-15-2008, 03:41 AM
Agree with u Ed. Am not against shallow DOF experiments either. And wud chime in with what Jon mentioned - keeping the head region in the shallow DOF region. This might have also created a radiating blurred out wings as we move outwards from the head/body region which "might" have looked better...

Ed Vatza
08-15-2008, 05:46 AM
Jon, Kaushik,

Once again, good points. And I will be sure to keep them in mind. I guess there are a couple things I've learned here. First off, I was so enamored with the composition that I overlooked some of the dof shortcomings. This despite the fact that I purposely shot wide open with limited dof. And second, I am always, always better off using a tripod. This image was made handheld and while I targeted the head as the focal point, I obviously missed.

What's the old saying... "Do as I say not as I do." These are things that I often comment on in other people's images. Then I ignore them in mine. Yikes!!!

Thanks for the critiques.