Reptile & Amphibian Forums

enjoy

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Dan Quinn
Manhattan Herps

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As sbogill pointed out, depth of field (DOF) can make a big difference in the appeal of a photo. You may already know all of this, but I’ll mention in it for the sake of discussion and general interest. First of all, depth of field refers to how much distance in the photograph, front to back, is in relatively sharp focus. A narrow depth of field gives a thin band of sharp focus with areas in front of and behind this band being out of focus (OOF). Conversely, a wider DOF will allow more of the subject to be in sharp focus. DOF is controlled by the aperture (hole that lets light in). A large aperture setting (hole diameter big) like f2.8 produces a narrow DOF, and a small setting (hole diameter small) like f32 produces a broader DOF. In general, when using DOF to enhance the appeal of a photo, try to avoid large OOF areas in the front of the photograph. Also, try to have the highest impact area of the subject (usually the eye) in sharp focus. Even if everything behind a sharply focused eye is blurry, the picture can still be appealing. Here are a few examples to illustrate points:

DOF in this pic of a dart poison frog is fairly narrow because the aperture is set about f4 (relatively large diameter). A significant portion of the frog is therefore out of focus. The picture would certainly be better with a smaller aperture / broader DOF, but since the eye of the frog is focused, the photo is still usable.

The aperture setting used for this pic of a chorus frog was f18 (small diameter) so DOF is broad resulting in the whole frog being in relatively sharp focus. The position of the flash (low and to the right) created a harsh shadow behind the frog that detracts from the photo, but since we’re discussing DOF, I thought it was a good example pic.

Extremely narrow DOF produced by using a very wide aperture setting like the f2.8 used for this pic can be effective as well. Having everything but the plane containing the eyes OOF serves to focus attention on the bizarre anatomy possessed by these jumping spiders. This is an example of how DOF can be used to isolate the most interesting characteristic of your subject.

As always, posting some info about your equipment and settings used to produce your pics is helpful, especially if you are posting to receive comments / constructive criticism.

Cheers,
WK

thanks WK, the camera used was a nikon coolpix 3200

i personally like these shots and wasnt really looking for any constructive critisism, but you'res is always helpful

thanks
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Dan Quinn
Manhattan Herps