Silly Wabbit

[Cortian]

Wandering around the house... complain to wife "I haven't got anything to photograph! I need something to photograph!" Wander around some more... Found something

C&C welcomed. Encouraged, in fact.

Goal here was two-fold: 1. Photograph something. Anything 2. Experiment with DoF in full manual mode.

Tried it first with auto-ISO, which didn't want to go higher than 400. DoF was too shallow. E.g.: Despite the fact the focus was just in front of the eye, everything from there back was not sharp. Bumped the ISO to 800, which allowed me to stop down to f/5.6 and keep the shutter speed at something IS could keep the shake out of.

I think I'll try it again, same subject, only with something more interesting than a vinyl window frame in the background, when I get my light back.

 

[zombiesniper]

Good first effort and it shows how a shallow DOF isn't always your friend.

In this situation I would try both of the following and see which solution you like better.
1. Adjust the focus point to the right a bit so you can keep the composition and get the eye sharp.
2. Reset your focus point back to the centre and make sure your focus mode is in "One Shot" not a continuous focus mode. Now place the centre focus point on the eye, half press to gain focus, remain half pressed and recompose. Now fire the shutter.

These are two simple solutions to the same problem of getting the eye in focus on an off centre composition.

 

[Cortian]

Thanks, ZS!

 

[Designer]

2. Experiment with DoF in full manual mode.

Your choice of subject has not been your friend. By using something that is fuzzy, you can't easily discern where the focus falls off.

To me, it looks like the back end of the toy is OOF, but as I wrote, kinda hard to tell for sure. Window casing is nicely OOF though.

 

[Cortian]

2. Experiment with DoF in full manual mode.

Your choice of subject has not been your friend. By using something that is fuzzy, you can't easily discern where the focus falls off.

Hmmm... (Looks...) Could be I don't know the difference between "in focus," "kind of in focus" and "out-of-focus?" To me it looks like it's easy to tell, because, where it's in focus, you can clearly see the individual fibres. Where it's clearly OOF, you cannot?

(Retrieves discards from trash...)

This is the one closest in composition and lighting to the one I saved:

To my eye the differences in DoF are pretty clear.

But point taken & thanks for the comments. I'll look around to see if there's something better with which to experiment with DoF. (I do kinda like that bunny, as a subject, tho...)

 

[Designer]

Yes. Parts of bunny are still OOF. Try again.

 

[ac12]

Stuffed animals make good practice subjects.
They say still, don't mind how long you take, and don't complain

 

[ac12]

The next thing to do is to work on different lighting.
Example, a reflector on the left would fill in the shadow on the left.
That reflector could be as simple as a sheet of paper or a crumpled aluminum foil that is smoothened and put on to a cardboard backer. IOW, CHEAP and easy to make.

You can spend hours by the window with the rabbit and reflectors .

 

[Cortian]

Thanks for the ideas, ac12! In fact I have just the cardboard, too.

 

[ac12]

Next get a teddy bear.
Teddy bears have their eyes in front, like a human.
So the lighting technique you learn is closer to humans, than with the wabbit with their eyes on the side.

 

[ac12]

The problem with the wabbit, is the long head.
With shallow DoF, and focused on the eye, the nose could be out of focus.
The wabbit exagerates the same problem with a human.

BTW, nice pix.

 

[Cortian]

Next get a teddy bear.
Teddy bears have their eyes in front, like a human.
So the lighting technique you learn is closer to humans, than with the wabbit with their eyes on the side.

We have teddy bears. Though a couple of them would be little improvement over the wabbit.

The problem with the wabbit, is the long head.
With shallow DoF, and focused on the eye, the nose could be out of focus.
The wabbit exagerates the same problem with a human.

*nod*

BTW, nice pix.

Thanks!

Picked up Reynolds Wrap heavy duty non-stick. The non-stick side already has texture. It might be dispersive enough w/o crinkling it. I'll test it with one of my flashlights tonight. Also picked up a can of Gorilla spray adhesive. Already had the perfect cardboard, that folds up nicely for storage/transport and is heavier material.

I will, naturally, post pictures

I'll put all that together tomorrow, as right now I must vacuum and dust. (Became my job upon retirement. Now I also do it out of enlightened self-interest .)

 

[ac12]

I'll put all that together tomorrow, as right now I must vacuum and dust. (Became my job upon retirement. Now I also do it out of enlightened self-interest .)

Groan
I gotta vacuum the house also.
And wet wipe the bird feathers off the floor around their cages.

 

[Cortian]

Got 'er done today...

I carefully laid blue painter's tape along the edges of the cardboard so the overspray wouldn't make them sticky. I'll let the adhesive cure overnight. Tomorrow I'll trim off the excess foil and remove the painter's tape.

If I got it right I should end-up with a nicely-foldable reflector that is dispersive.

 

[limr]

Y'know...there's also the idea that there should be as much in focus as you want in focus. I know the general feeling is that the entire head/face/whatever needs to be in sharp focus, but I say that depends on what you are going for. What do you want it to look like? What is the look that you are going for? I think you should play with varying levels of DOF to get a sense of what you like or how it affects the feeling of the image.