Comfortable leaf

[dadas115]

I took this shot last night. Any comments/suggestions?

Thanks,

Greg

[Seb]

I took this shot last night. Any comments/suggestions?

Thanks,

Greg

Hello Greg.

This is not bad. The lighting is interesting but the picture is somewhat confusing at first (I guess that it have to do with the nature of your subject itself : ) )
Actually, the dof arround the paws leads to an eyes misleading effect. I think that you could try to shoot the scene from further away with the same dof. If you try it from few different distances you should probably get your subject to be in focus while keeping the background slightly out of focus.
The thing to do here would be to position yourself as you did for this shot, make your camera settings with the same dof, focusing on the same point and then move few steps back. The thing about dof, is that 1/3 of the area in focus extends in front of your point of focus. The remaining 2/3 goes beyond it. Thus, by moving back you should get the paws in focus while keeping the rest of your subject in good focus. This may be tricky in this situation as your dof seems shallow but you should get interesting results with few trials.


Seb

[dadas115]

I don’t understand what you mean about a misleading effect but maybe that is because I am used to looking at small animals and it is very clear to me what this is. Maybe as you suggest it isn’t clear to less experienced nature observers. Here is another shot from that same session. This is a crop from a further away picture as you suggested. Is this more like what you wanted or have I misread your comment?

I have also uploaded a different view. This one is the full frame.

Thanks very much for taking the time to make your thoughtful suggestions.

Greg

[bobbythebandit]

These are so much better. It takes time and patience to get this kinda shot.Well done.
Bobby

[Seb]

I dont understand what you mean about a misleading effect but maybe that is because I am used to looking at small animals and it is very clear to me what this is. Maybe as you suggest it isnt clear to less experienced nature observers. Here is another shot from that same session. This is a crop from a further away picture as you suggested. Is this more like what you wanted or have I misread your comment?

I have also uploaded a different view. This one is the full frame.

Thanks very much for taking the time to make your thoughtful suggestions.

Greg

Hello Greg,

I apologize for not having been clearer in my original post. What I actually meant about the paws is that they goes from in focus to out of focus to in focus again.... The parts of the paws that are closer to the body are in focus just like the rest of the body but the articulations (which were closer from your lense as the paws are fold) are out of focus (they are in front of the zone of focus).

The new pictures that you have submitted are more succesful I think.

Here is a link which you may find to be useful.
http://www.vividlight.com/articles/3513.htm#math1
It explains deep of field and hyperfocal in a way that is much more clearer than mine.

Seb