Ewok-Shih-tzu
It’s been less than a week with my new cam. I just upgraded from a Sony Cybershot to a Canon T2i (550D) so I’ve been taking in an unbelievable amount of information the last few days.
This photo was taken using manual settings & manual focus. The ears seem to be out-of-focus which was not my intent. I believe the lighting is okay.
Tell me what I’ve done wrong.
Please tear apart this photo in the comments … it’s for my own good.
I ended up on your blog while searching to find out why it is taking so long for me to get my t2i…
What f-stop did you choose? I assume if you are shooting completely manually you know that a lower number f-stop will cause a narrower depth of field right (and hence the ears being out of focus)?
I hope you are enjoying your new camera.
I am loving my new camera but sorry to hear you haven’t received yours yet. Where did you order from?
I took the pic at f/5.6.
I guess I overlooked that a lower f-stop caused a narrower depth.
This is my first stab at photography so I’m really grateful for your comments =)
Are you on Twitter?
f/5.6 should yield a decent depth of field, but it depends on the focal length too. Next time, try f/11 and concentrate on making sure the eyes are in focus. That should help keep more of the face in focus. Maybe even set it back to AF and select the point that’s closest to the eyes.
It’s a great photo, but I agree with Todd, you could try stopping down, maybe try the same type of shot again with F8 or 11. If you compare this to the cat photo, the shallow depth of field works in that one as you got some very cool abstract shapes in the background so F stop depends largely on the effect you are going for as well.
Thanks for your comments Dan =)
@Cube_girl just mentioned you’d commented. I’ll take your advice and try those variations of F-Stop. I liked the effect I achieved but I really felt it looked wrong with the ears out-of-focus. Thank you again for taking the time =) I’ll add you on Twitter if I haven’t already. If you happen to come across any good tutorials and or rules of F-Stop… please let me know.
Hey Herbg =)
Do you know of a ‘breakdown of the rules’ tutorial ? I am really new to photography and would like to follow
recipes if possible. As an example is it always the rule that a specific f-stop mixed with a specific focal length will achieve similar
results from one lens to another? Here’s to hoping that wasn’t a really stupid question.
Excuse the newbie ignorance :p
Thank you for your thoughts!
http://digital-photography-school.com/ has some good tutorials on the basics. But in general, I find books on the subject to be the most useful. For beginners, I suggest the “Digital Field Guide” series that is written expressly for your camera (http://amzn.com/0470648635). They cover the basics and apply the principles directly to your particular camera.
There’s a good explanation on the effects of aperture and focal length on depth of field here: http://bit.ly/97ae3F
Good luck and keep shooting!
I ordered my camera from the camera store in calgary. Oh well I can try and wait patiently.
I am on twitter.. username is just my full name without the space. Follow at your own peril – I’m not that exciting..
I second herbg’s suggestions for tutorials. I learned quite a lot from the digital photography school. I also shot hundreds of pics a day and constantly experimented with different f-stops (aperture priority because I’m too lazy for manual) and different focal lengths too.