A Scary Stare....

[David Roach]

If you're a fish!!!!!!
1DMKIIN 400DO ISO 200 F8@1/160

[Doug Brown]

Dazzling eyes and a gorgeous BG. It may not have helped, but I would have pushed my ISO and stopped down to try to get more of the bill in focus.

[Rene' Villela]

You gotta love it! Imagine that face a 100 times bigger, next to you when you wake up in the middle of the night! :). Really nice BG and good exposure on the blacks. Really nice!

[David Roach]

Hi Doug, I like that the bill tip is OOF as it helps to focus on those emerald eyes. Besides, you're probably correct, as close as I was, it wouldn't have helped much to stop down.

[Tony Whitehead]

Good symmetrical front-on view of the face. Lovely BG. Well done to get the eyes sharp. I agree with Doug that buying a stop of DOF with ISO may have been helpful.

[Joe Senzatimore]

The eyes say it all. Love the choice of comp.

[Arthur Morris]

Nicely image. Love the eyes of course, and the BKGR. Assuming a distance of 15 feet to the subject, d-o-f as presented is about 1.68 inches total, roughly 50% in front of the point of focus, 50% behind. Stopping down to f/18 would yeild a d-o-f of 3.84 inches, again 50/50. It would seem that by focusing about halfway between the bill tip and the eyes that it would be possible to render both sharp. Such images can be extremely powerful and at the very least, it would be fun to set a higher ISO and experiment. And yes, adding flash would help too.

If you go to the Bulletin Archives and do a search for Depth of Field Calucalator it will take you to the neat site from which I got the calculations.

[David Roach]

OK, Maestro (and other pros), I do understand a higher ISO setting would allow me to stop down and maintain a high enough shutter speed. I was, by the way, at MFD (about 11ft+). I know because I had to back off just slightly to get focus. I also remember Artie talking about the exact same thing using, if I remember, a resting pelican in the Galapagos as the example. What about my point of liking the bill tip OOF? As always, this rank amateur thanks you all for the learnings!!!!!

[Doug Brown]

The OOF bill draws my eye away from the bird's eyes.

[Arthur Morris]

OK, Maestro (and other pros), I do understand a higher ISO setting would allow me to stop down and maintain a high enough shutter speed. I was, by the way, at MFD (about 11ft+). I know because I had to back off just slightly to get focus. I also remember Artie talking about the exact same thing using, if I remember, a resting pelican in the Galapagos as the example. What about my point of liking the bill tip OOF? As always, this rank amateur thanks you all for the learnings!!!!!

Hi David, I am fine with you liking the o-o-f look. I was just trying to open your eyes to other options when you have a very cooperative bird looking right at you.