Ian thought I was soft!

[ST-EOS]

In my previous post staring Tom, Ian made me look back at the image I had posted (LINK) as he thought might be soft. He was correct it didn't have a very good DOF. This is a image from the same day which hopefully isn't soft .

[the black fox]

Re: Ian thought I was soft!

Afraid this one is softer ,the nose is sharp enough so it’s a d.o.f not a focussing issue .either stop your lens down further when doing close ups or focus on the eye . My first impression is your shooting in single shot mode where the camera focuses on the nearest object

[@imagesBV]

Re: Ian thought I was soft!

I find I need to shoot at f8 to get nose to ear sharpness.....the background still blurs because it is so relatively far away - depends on focal length and distance to subject of course.....200mm f4.5 could be enough but at 50mm may need f8

[ST-EOS]

Re: Ian thought I was soft!

Afraid this one is softer ,the nose is sharp enough so it’s a d.o.f not a focussing issue .either stop your lens down further when doing close ups or focus on the eye . My first impression is your shooting in single shot mode where the camera focuses on the nearest object

Thanks Jeff, after reading your comments I went back to the image to identify the focus points and exif. As you will see from the attached image the focus was on the tongue not his eye.

I find I need to shoot at f8 to get nose to ear sharpness.....the background still blurs because it is so relatively far away - depends on focal length and distance to subject of course.....200mm f4.5 could be enough but at 50mm may need f8

Cheers Brian, I was using a 100mmL IS Macro at f8. But as you will see from the attached image, my choice of focus point was rubbish

Tom-Focus-copy.jpg

[the black fox]

Re: Ian thought I was soft!

The closer you are to a subject peter ,the smaller the aperture needs to be to get d.o.f correct ,in this case the right hand eye would have been my choice of focus points with around F11 or even F16

[@imagesBV]

Re: Ian thought I was soft!

Ah! I see.

For what its worth I try to focus on the bridge of the nose or the tag hanging around the neck.....some of my best shots are with the 100L Macro
On reviewing mine, most shots are at around f5.6-f8.0....but a bit further away than your composition.