My snake friend: This guy was nice enough to sit still while I took a zillion photos. What could have made this shot better? I think the right side of his head (around his mouth) looks...

aschweik Loc: NE Ohio

This guy was nice enough to sit still while I took a zillion photos. What could have made this shot better? I think the right side of his head (around his mouth) looks soft. Any suggestions would be helpful to me since I'm still learning! Thanks!

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Frank2013 Loc: San Antonio, TX. & Milwaukee, WI.

Welcome to the section aschweik...A well composed image with good separation of background. I agree with you assessment of softness...some lenses aren't at there best zoomed all the way to either end so you might try backing off just a bit....It's possible the mouth was just on the edge of the depth of field of focus..

WayneT Loc: Paris, TN

Try one of these.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1165600-REG/venus_optics_laowa_15mm_f_4_macro.html

Dave Chinn

aschweik wrote:

This guy was nice enough to sit still while I took a zillion photos. What could have made this shot better? I think the right side of his head (around his mouth) looks soft. Any suggestions would be helpful to me since I'm still learning! Thanks!

Looks to be a huge snake aschweik. IMO, you simply missed the focal point. If you look closer, behind the snake's head where the body bends is in focus. The eye is slightly soft, which would indicate you missed the focal point, which should have been the eye. Since your aperture was at f6.3 the whole head would have been in focus. Just my thoughts an opinion. Hope this helps for in the future. Oh, and I don't think I would be photographing any snake with a 15mm macro lens.
Dave

R.G. Loc: Scotland

Dave Chinn wrote:

.....Oh, and I don't think I would be photographing any snake with a 15mm macro lens.....

Even 300mm seems quite brave to me

.

Uuglypher Loc: South Dakota (East River)

aschweik wrote:

This guy was nice enough to sit still while I took a zillion photos. What could have made this shot better? I think the right side of his head (around his mouth) looks soft. Any suggestions would be helpful to me since I'm still learning! Thanks!

Hi, Aschweik,
Dave Chinn's suggestion that the focus should have been on the eye (and let the rest of the depth of field fall as it may)is spot on. Since this gravid female garter snake was stable and tolerant of your close presence, the depth of field could have been deepened by use of a smaller aperture with a longer shutter duration.

Good exposure and good pose and camera perspective !

The soft focus on the head is obvious on close inspection, but is of lesser import at normal viewing distance (2X the diagonal of the image).

By all means, let us see more of your work!

Best regards,
Dave Graham

aschweik Loc: NE Ohio

Thank you so much for all of your advice! Very helpful!!

JD750 Loc: SoCal

As has been suggested it looks like the focus plane is behind the snakes eye. Rocking back and forth just slightly after locking focus, even 1/2" of movement, can cause that. It's important to stay very still when shooting this type of subject, and squeeze the trigger... er I mean shutter rather than jabbing it. Bracing the camera on a rock or tree or can help with this. One other thought, is it possible you were too close and the lens could not focus that close? The min focus distance for the 70-300mm f4.5-6.3 is 4'. Something to keep in mind.

For future reference a shutter of 1/200 is a little slow at 300mm focal length. The rule of thumb for shutter speed is 1/Focal_length for a hand held shot. Image Stabilization helps, it can buy you a little bit, but it's still not a bad rule to keep in mind. And finally ISO 180 seems low for that shot. You camera can shoot decent quality at higher ISO. Keep in mind for the future, you can trade ISO for increased DOF and increased shutter speed.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Audrey, a good rule of thumb is, whenever you photograph a living creature, focus on the eye(s). The couple that with sufficient depth of field to encompass all that you feel is necessary to make the photograph.
--Bob

aschweik wrote:

This guy was nice enough to sit still while I took a zillion photos. What could have made this shot better? I think the right side of his head (around his mouth) looks soft. Any suggestions would be helpful to me since I'm still learning! Thanks!

John_F Loc: Minneapolis, MN

Does your camera that feature that magnifies the view when you do manual focus. With my Sony a6300 I have found that auto focus is not as 'tight' as I would expect. So I almost always use the feature that always fine tuning of the auto focus. You could try using a smaller aperture to enhance depth of field.

aschweik Loc: NE Ohio

I really appreciate everyone's suggestions. I learn a lot from all of you. I'm taking notes! Thanks, again!!

JD750 Loc: SoCal

John_F wrote:

Does your camera that feature that magnifies the view when you do manual focus. With my Sony a6300 I have found that auto focus is not as 'tight' as I would expect. So I almost always use the feature that always fine tuning of the auto focus. You could try using a smaller aperture to enhance depth of field.

Your Sony is a mirrorless camera. Mirrorless cameras have that feature for the EVF. Her camera is a DSLR with an optical viewfinder. Not available in an optical viewfinder.

aschweik Loc: NE Ohio

Thank you for clarifying. I did forget to ask about that last time I posted. I'm unfamiliar with mirrorless cameras, so your explanation helped. Thanks!

John_F Loc: Minneapolis, MN

Agreed. My last SLR camera was sold off many years ago so I am not-at-all informed about DSLR capabilities.

JD750 wrote:

Your Sony is a mirrorless camera. Mirrorless cameras have that feature for the EVF. Her camera is a DSLR with an optical viewfinder. Not available in an optical viewfinder.

Blenheim Orange Loc: Michigan

aschweik wrote:

This guy was nice enough to sit still while I took a zillion photos. What could have made this shot better? I think the right side of his head (around his mouth) looks soft. Any suggestions would be helpful to me since I'm still learning! Thanks!

Pretty good shoot. Generally speaking, focusing on the eye brings the best results on critters, and your image is focused just a little beyond his eye. Manually focus, concentrate on getting the eye in focus, move the camera closer and farther to fine tune focus, take several images and then keep the best - that is my approach.

Were you using auto-focus? It looks as though the camera auto-focused on the neck of the snake, on the point that happens to be in the center of the frame.

Mike