Fun with DOF

So i have been stuck shooting mostly video over the last few weeks but had a chance to take out the still yesterday and decided to bring the 105mm.

Found a cooperative eel but i have taken a lot of eel photos over the years and thought i would see just how close i could get, well this is pretty close!

very minimal DOF when it is pushed out to the limit you will see....i just love minimal DOF. Some people think it ruins a picture and that the eyes should be in focus. Personally i don't think its so necessary.

Anyone else want to post some really limited DOF shots that work well?

Mike

The eyes are definitely not in focus ! That's breaking the rules... and I love it !

You must have been pretty close. Did you get bit any bite marks on the lens port ?

JP

Hi Mike,

I also think that minimal DOF isn't used enough by UW photographers. It is definitely an area in which full frame photographers have an advantage over cropped sensor DSLRs and compact cameras.

Like your shot. Uses the effect well.

Alex

Bravo!!

I have always liked this shot simply because only the head is in focus - down to the cirri above the eyes. This was shot in Galapagos with a Sony DSC-F717 in an Ike housing. (F/2.0)

regards...

- MP

This one isn't nearly extreme as your moray shot (which is AWESOME, IMO), but here's one of a little (~1.5" long) corraline sculpin bookended by red algae in the front and an orange bat star in the rear.

Thanks for the comments guys. Shockingly no bite marks on port but he/she was definitely curious and giving it a good sniff.

Mike and Matt, nice examples as well. Both very cool looking fish.

I especially like the sharp focus on the eyes of that sculpin. And of course neither is a fish id shot and that always makes for a more interesting photo.

Surely others have some interesting shots of different uses of DOF?

Bring em on

Sometimes your DOF is restricted by the conditions in which you are shooting. I wanted to get an ambient light shot of this Hilton's Aeolid in about 20ft of water. Because the water was quite surgy, I needed good shutter speed to keep the shot from blurring. I also knew that I would end up with a fairly shallow DOF; I focused on the orange band on its right rhinosphore and hoped for the best. This is the result.

Here's another of a Hermissenda Crassicornis. I wanted to blurr the rhinophores for a more extreme close-up feel. I'm not sure if that's the exact effect I got, however.

I think it's the best way to make ur photo stronger...... and as I'm still shooting film (yes....yes....I'm working on it!!!) I tries quite often limited DOF, but it's very difficult to master the effect!! especially whith film !!!!

Since I was posting this on the macro thread, I thought I put it here as well.

Canon 100mm macro, 1.4x TC , +2 diopter. Set to F/6.3 effictive aperture F/9.

Herb, that's one kick *ss shot!

I love Herb's shot as well.

Here's a couple attempts:

...

It is definitely an area in which full frame photographers have an advantage over cropped sensor DSLRs and compact cameras.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Um, why do you think that is, Alex...I know you have good reasons, and'd like to understand.

Thanks,

Chris

Great examples everyone. I really think the use of a nice tight DOF really makes a great bang to a macro photo. It makes the viewer really concentrate on the most important area of the photo and creates a stunning composition. I rarely put the 60mm on anymore and am shooting a ton of 105mm with different close up filters...pain in the butt on auto focus though...have to get that manual ring one of these days..

As for Alex's comment, i am not sure i agree. The cropped sensor on most digitals makes those long lenses longer and therefore makes the DOF even smaller. The ability to take many shots and save money on developing also allows people to try more options like close up filters without worrying about wasting too many shots on something that might not work (at least thats what i am doing)

Rand: what is that fish? So ugly its cute....

Mike

Mike, you've been gone too long.

Very common in BC, not sure if it's a young Blackeyed goby or maybe a blackspot. Not too up on the Gobies names here. This one is from Barkley Sound.

Rand

Ahh yes Rand you are correct, you see i have a small problem, if i enter water colder than 28C(80F) my brain instantly freezes and my memory turns to mush...

Not even my D70 and new housing convinced me to enter those cold waters at home last year.... tested it in the bathtub instead!

I'm getting the shivers just talking about it! And people give me a hard time about wearing my 7mm here, i keep telling them its all about keeping my mind sharp, no one believes it..

Ahh, confessions of a warm water wuss B)

These are two of my fave shots .. i love taking piccies like this as Alex will attest to. Anyway I am showing 2 shots as the first is taken with an Olympus 3040 and the second with my Canon D60 ... It's how i started becoming familiar with the D60 underwater was to try techniques I already knew to work.

I much prefer the greater effect I can get with the D60.

I was down south in B.C just over a month ago diving in Barkley Sound for some warm-water diving . It is all relative. It was 55 to 61 F, which is not very cold for a dry suit. Not cold at all. I have seen numerous much colder divers in the tropics, mainly due to using wetsuits and loss of direct sunlight (night, cloudy and rainy etc).

There were lots of black-eyed gobies, or goby-wons (re. obi-won), as I jokingly refered to them. Here is a pair of shots done with an RS (still on film), Velvia, and a single SS200. Note less DOF but focus on pectoral and dorsal in closer shot, that was as close as I could get to a goby-won with the 50, before they would spook.

Tom

Red-lined the attachment space, here is the other shot.

Tom