This is my dog, Leah. I like the picture, but can't understand exactly why her rear-end is out of focus when her face is clear. Any suggestions, reasons, help, etc. appreciated. Thank you!
Leah
I think I may have used the macro setting, when I may not have needed it.
My take is that your aperture was set wide, thus shallow depth of field. Personally I think the shot is better this way.
MJG
Loc: Bonita Springs, FL
I like the head and front in focus too.
Unfortunately, the OP received conflicting replies in her first post. I do not blame her for remaining confused. I encourage any member confident enough to reply as well, to please do so. No exif info available with photo above, so no specific advice possible.
CharleneT wrote:
I think I may have used the macro setting, when I may not have needed it.
Not a Macro setting issue. That setting merely allows you to focus on subjects closer than otherwise.
Because of the perspective of the dog the photo looks fine to me. It puts the focus on the face of the dog where it belongs. The rest of the photo is just background.
CharleneT wrote:
This is my dog, Leah. I like the picture, but can't understand exactly why her rear-end is out of focus when her face is clear. Any suggestions, reasons, help, etc. appreciated. Thank you!
Because the camera is focused on her face, as it should be.
Nice picture that way.
If you wanted to get her whole body sharp, you would have needed to shoot at a very high f/number, and focus near her shoulders.
That way, the thicker DOF, which extends about 1/3 in front and 2/3 behind the plane of focus, will be best utilized.
CharleneT wrote:
This is my dog, Leah. I like the picture, but can't understand exactly why her rear-end is out of focus when her face is clear. Any suggestions, reasons, help, etc. appreciated. Thank you!
Because the camera is focused on her face, as it should be.
Nice picture that way.
If you wanted to get her whole body sharp, you would have needed to shoot at a very high f/number, and focus near her shoulders.
That way, the thicker DOF, which extends about 1/3 in front and 2/3 behind the plane of focus, will be best utilized.
Thank you, everyone for your responses. Have a great day!
Face is good, but who needs the rump especially out of focus. Re-mask or clone out the rump and just give us the face.
Hay... retake the photo... from further away using perhaps a 85mm lens... again forget abut that rump... you can move to a different vantage point-angle ... perhaps even get the camera lower. Same applies to children and feed them puppy chow instead of hard candy.. it is heather.
I agree with N-72, Douglas, "No exif info available with photo above, so no specific advice possible."
People submitting shots should give lots of details of how the photo was shot and the equipment. Some reason they want us, trying to help, to play 20 questions....
CharleneT wrote:
This is my dog, Leah. I like the picture, but can't understand exactly why her rear-end is out of focus when her face is clear. Any suggestions, reasons, help, etc. appreciated. Thank you!
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Charlene, to begin, may I say that you have a very beautiful dog who also appears to be your good buddy !
The advice that I am about to give you is assuming that you have a camera with only one lens and you always use your camera in its automated programmed mode.
You might be pleased if you were to take the shot at a slightly greater distance whereby you get your dog's entire body into the scene, that is, if you want the entire body to be sharply in focus and in the scene.. Then, if your camera will allow, set its lens at f16, steady your camera, and then take the shot by focusing just behind you dog's ears. Once completed, should you would like, crop the photo to how you would like to see it be.
Charlene you need to understand depth of field. I do recommend that you read about it and understand it because depth of field is often used creatively and many portrait photographers use it with their subject to control the background.
The closer that you are to your subject the shorter the depth of field. The larger the aperture the shorter the depth of field.
You focused on the beautiful dog's face which is the right thing to do and obviously the depth of field made the rest of the body out of focus.
Nothing wrong with this portrait but as I said you need to learn about depth of field.
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