Critters
Can anyone identify this butterfly? Not a clue this end. As you can see by it's wings the poor thing is a little worse for wear, quite small and flat, dull brown throughout. Can't tell you what the underside of the wing looked like as the little blighter never flipped or fluttered for me. Also at quite a distance so this isn't a macro image. That though leads me onto what kind of image we would call this, and that would be use of depth of field, or as you may often see it abbreviated to dof.
It sounds far more scary and technical than it actually is. Not at all. If you were viewing this image with your own eyes rather than through my lens then your eyes and brain would adjust the sharpness and clarity of everything you see in the frame, so all would be in focus. With depth of field all you are doing is concentrating focus onto one point. In this case the butterfly. As the eyes move back through the image and around it you will notice the softening or blurring(usually referred to as soft focus) of the leaves, giving a 3D effect to the photo. Easily done. As I was at a distance I just adjusted the lens until I got the desired focal point for the butterfly. Needless to say this was on a manual setting. You can do this on any part of the image, but one thing you must get right is the sharp focus on the subject. If you don't get that right then the image will just be flat and blurry throughout. Easier to demonstrate and more dramatic on two opposing colours, but chose a nature image with muted colours as it's a shot often used in nature photography.
A while since we've had photography tips on the blog, but this is a question I get asked a lot, so there you go. Quite a sensible post for me too. Now go and practice and remember people I want results or you could just go and click Misty to see more cute critters.
It sounds far more scary and technical than it actually is. Not at all. If you were viewing this image with your own eyes rather than through my lens then your eyes and brain would adjust the sharpness and clarity of everything you see in the frame, so all would be in focus. With depth of field all you are doing is concentrating focus onto one point. In this case the butterfly. As the eyes move back through the image and around it you will notice the softening or blurring(usually referred to as soft focus) of the leaves, giving a 3D effect to the photo. Easily done. As I was at a distance I just adjusted the lens until I got the desired focal point for the butterfly. Needless to say this was on a manual setting. You can do this on any part of the image, but one thing you must get right is the sharp focus on the subject. If you don't get that right then the image will just be flat and blurry throughout. Easier to demonstrate and more dramatic on two opposing colours, but chose a nature image with muted colours as it's a shot often used in nature photography.
A while since we've had photography tips on the blog, but this is a question I get asked a lot, so there you go. Quite a sensible post for me too. Now go and practice and remember people I want results or you could just go and click Misty to see more cute critters.