Aperture for Groups

[Elliotte Rusty Harold]

Last week I spent some time working Roseate Spoonbills (and a few egrets and herons) on the beach. I got some nice, sharp, well-exposed photos but I noticed that even at f/9.0 I really couldn't get more than one bird at a time in clear focus:



This image was taken at f/9.0 with a 400mm f/4 lens on a 7D. I was quite close, approximately 5-6 meters away; and for once I was not focus length limited. Depth of field calculators show me as still only getting a few centimeters at f/16 and maybe 10 centimeters at f/22. Short of focus stacking different images after the shot, what's possible to do in this situation in the field?

[Kerry Perkins]

Hello Elliotte, I'm afraid there's just no hope of repealing the laws of physics - as much as we would like to do so! The tradeoff we make for magnification is loss of depth of field. As you mentioned, stacking for deep focus is about the only way with a tele lens and good luck getting the birds to stand still long enough for that! Unfortunately, the spoonie on the right is outside the DOF of the shot. The one on the left would make a nice vertical, which can be done without losing any resolution. Nice job on the capture, exposure and color are excellent and the water makes a lovely background.

[John Chardine]

One way around it is to move left or right so that both subjects are equidistant to you. Focus stacking is a great technique and definitely worth a try.