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12 years 2 months ago #196241 by Henry Peach

Heartfelt wrote: So, I had a Canon FD50mm f1.4 on the camera. You are saying I might have done better popping my 14-140 on, zooming in and backing up?


Increasing focal length = less DOF
Backing up (increasing focusing distance) = more DOF

The question, which you'll just have to test, is whether a longer focal length decreases DOF enough to make up for having to move farther away to get your subject composed the way you want.
mattneedham.zenfolio.com
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12 years 2 months ago - 12 years 2 months ago #196259 by Henry Peach
Google "zone focusing". Zone focusing is focusing in front of or behind the subject with the intent of having the subject fall just within the limits of the DOF. For instance if you don't have to worry about anything in the foreground, you can focus in front of your subject so that the subject is still within the DOF, and while you still have deep DOF, there's nothing but the subject in it. A little trickier to do these days with no decent DOF scales on the lenses, but maybe a smartphone DOF calc app would work?

Dear Camera Manufacturers, It's 2012. Where is our digital DOF scale feature?

Another trick: If using your flash in manual, and if you can disable the safety features of the camera (they can usually be switched off somewhere in a menu, but using radio remotes in manual usually disables the safety anyway) you can break the flash sync limit by 1/3rd or 2/3rds of a stop. If you were to do this indoors, where everything is lit by the flash, you would end up with one edge of the photo being underexposed. But outdoors you only need the flash as fill. In many situations the edges of the photos are all ambient exposure. As long as the part of the frame that won't get flashed doesn't need anything but ambient exposure you can go a smidge higher than the flash sync speed.
mattneedham.zenfolio.com
The following user(s) said Thank You: Heartfelt
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12 years 2 months ago #196280 by Heartfelt
Thanks.

I will look into zone focusing. I have plenty to learn.
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12 years 2 months ago #196304 by mattmoran

Henry Peach wrote:
Dear Camera Manufacturers, It's 2012. Where is our digital DOF scale feature?


That's an interesting idea. I assume you would want the display in the viewfinder?

I use Canon. I know lenses tell the camera about their focal length and aperture. Do they all report the focus distance? Just some of them? Do they report it when the autofocus is turned off? I'm pretty sure focus distance isn't really "standard" in EXIF data, but I know many cameras report it.

Maybe I should try some experiments with my lenses.
-Matt
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12 years 2 months ago - 12 years 2 months ago #196564 by Henry Peach

mattmoran wrote:

Henry Peach wrote:
Dear Camera Manufacturers, It's 2012. Where is our digital DOF scale feature?


That's an interesting idea. I assume you would want the display in the viewfinder?


Where ever: viewfinder, rear LCD, top LCD, maybe it's shown when you press "info" for an already taken pic.

There is a camera hack called CHDK for Canon Powershot cameras. It's most popular feature is that it allows access to raw files in camera models that normally don't have that feature. I bought a Canon G7 for cheap; it was unpopular because it was the only G Powershot that didn't offer raw. I installed CHDK, and was able to shoot raw. CHDK has a hundred other features. Many that allow customization. Many I don't understand. But a digital DOF calculator was a feature I learned to love. It just displayed focus distance, near limit, and far limit. Like a DOF scale on an old lens I had to do some testing to see how my opinion of "acceptably sharp" jibed with the scale, but it worked great for zone focusing.

I do think the camera is already keeping track of all the factors that would be required to calculate DOF with at least the accuracy of the DOF scales on prime lenses. Even nicer would be a feature where the photog could sort of adjust the scale. Like a setting that would show a more conservative calculation. I remember general advice used to be that if you really meant sharp, rather than acceptably sharp, you should use the DOF on the scale for the aperture one stop larger. For instance using the DOF scale for f/8 when shooting at f/11.
mattneedham.zenfolio.com
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12 years 2 months ago #196600 by mattmoran
It occurs to me that we are wandering pretty far off topic. However, I did some testing this morning with my two DSLRs and exiftool.

With my Digital Rebel and the 18-55 kit lens, the exif data (in the raw file) reports parameters called "Focus Distance Upper" and "Focus Distance Lower" with distances reported in meters. However, the numbers don't match what was actually in focus in the image. The kit lens does not have a dof scale on the lens.

With my 5D and the 50/1.4, the exif data (again from the raw) does not appear report any indication of the focus distance. However, the lens does have a DOF scale on the lens.

Granted, neither of these cameras are from 2012. And it is possible that the data available to the camera at time of exposure, or possibly written to the file someplace exiftool can't find it, or possibly it's there and I didn't recognize it. (Maybe it's not in a human friendly form.)
-Matt
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