Seasons Greetings!

By admin on 19-12-2009

Tagged Under : Greetings, Seasons Greetings

From a recent morning in Seward, Alaska.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Seasons Greetings everyone!

The next week will probably be a bit slow here on the blog thanks to the holidays.

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After Sunset: Big Sur

By admin on 18-12-2009

Maine State Bird…

By admin on 14-12-2009

You gotta have quick reflexes to take a photo like this because the chickadees usually don’t land for long. I miss the photograph more times than I get it.

How do I capture so much depth of field?

By admin on 13-12-2009

Pedersen Glacier, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska.

It has been awhile since I have answered any Ask Ron questions.  As a reminder, I will answer any photography question as best I can.

A couple of weeks ago I received this question:

I love how you capture a foreground, middle ground background with such great depth.
Do you typically try to accomplish this with a 24 T/S or the 24 1.4L?
Thanks, Ray

To answer your question, yes I do use Canon’s tilt shift lenses a fair amount.  By tilting the plane of focus I am better able to position the depth of field from near to far without sacrificing a lot of shutter speed.  I go into more detail in this post on tilt with Canon’s tilt shift lenses.  These lenses are especially valuable when you have something really close, say within a couple of feet, and still want to keep distant objects in focus.

But, I don’t use those lenses as much as I should.  It is so much easier, faster and lighter to carry one 24-105 then three tilt shift lenses.  In these circumstances, I use a small aperture to maximize depth of field – usually around f/16.  I then focus about 1/4 to 1/3 of the way into the scene.  I also almost always will use a tripod, mirror lock up and the 2 second self timer to minimize any movement as much as possible.  This is about as good as it gets without tilt.  If something still has to be a bit out of focus I would rather it be distant objects – I believe prominent foreground elements have to be sharp – distant objects like mountains can be more forgiving.

Tomorrow I will answer another recent question on depth of field – this one regarding bokeh.

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