Pet's

Decided to have a play with two relaxed characters in my house hold.
C&C welcome as usual.

Summer's Yaaahn!


K10D with SMC K 1.8/55. 1/400 sec at F 2.8. ISO 100.

Alert!


K10D with SMC K 1.8/55. 1/400 sec at F 2.8. ISO 100.

Martin.

Martin,
the shots came out fabulous. I am amazed how you managed to get such a wide area on the subjects with the F/2.8. Obviously something I have to learn because everytime I try it with my 50mm lens I get a very small circle with focus spot on. But you pulled out on these ones, they look fantastic. Great profile on the canine but I also love the cat.

Just for my knowledge and understanding, would you have managed to get the bottom jaw of the cat also focused had you stopped slightly down the aperture? I assume then you would have risked lower ss, am I correct?

EDITED: oh it just clicked to me now that the jaw blur was not out of focus but movement of the jaw by the feline , I guess I am a bit slow picking up some stuff still today huh?
Mike, no more jokes about head knocks do you hear me? in case you are reading this which I am sure you must be

I'm not saying nothing Amin

Cracking shots love the dog pose

Hi Amin,
In both cases focus was on the tip of their nose. I used the standard Oem screen for the K10D so had to rely on the Green Hexagon. I have noticed that while using the GH there is a certain latitude to play with. Basicly you can focus just in front/middle and at the back of the GH, without the light disappearing.

The cat picture was taken at 50 cm with the GH front focussed.
Hence lesser DOF.

The Dog was taken at 1 meter with th GH middle focussed.
Hence a bit more DOF, but still nicely blurred.

HIH,
Martin.

thanks Martin, it does help to understand a bit better, and will try to implement that procedure to improve my captures thanks again for your time explaining

Great Shots Martin.
Shame about the jaw movement on the cat but a great capture and I love the expression on the dogs face!

The lower jaw of the cat is out of focus, it's not movement blur. If Martin had stopped the lens down then depth of field would have been increased and there would have been more detail here, but then the shutter speed would have been longer, and detail in the background would have been more visible, which may have detracted from the shot.

If you look at the cat shot, below the fang and just above the tongue is a highlight on a tooth, that's rendered as a circular out of focus blob. If the jaw was blurred due to movement, this blob would have been oblong, rather than a circle.

The focus on the dog is so good at f/2.8 because the nose, eye and ear are all along the focus plane, ie. the same distance from the camera. The depth of field is still shallow (although better than the cat pic due to the greater focus distance), but it's not so noticable as the main features are all sharp.

I especially like the cat pic.

Dan

Thanks Dan,
Coming from you, this really means something for me.

Martin.

Dan

Well spotted , and let's lock ourselves here in a small amicable debate shall we? Gosh I can't believe I am locking horns here with an equivalent of a titan in photography compared to me, but hey, if I don't blurt out what I think then I won't learn or improve more

So here it goes:

I follow your thought process and I must admit that soon after you explained that it was out OOF rather than a blur first look satisfied me immediately. But then again started to think that if that jaw and tooth is OOF then how come the plane below it which is slightly further away from the spot on focus and the jaw position, where you can see the bit of black fur still somewhat at 2 o'clock position is still in focus.
The DOF wouldn't have jumped one plane leaving it out of focus and then getting the focusing back on a lower plane would it?
It would mean thatit has sandwiched one OOF plane between two focused ones.

Unless I am seeing something wrong again in which case I am sure your great experience and talent will elucidate me

Thanks

Amin

Amin, I would argue that this bit of fur is from the cat's front leg. It's in front of the lower jar and therefore in the focal plane.

Great shots, Martin! I'm not sure of the title for the dog pic, though
What does it look like when it's bored?

Prieni

Amin, the cat was diagonally placed on the chair. Her left shoulder/foot was stretched towards me. Her head and neck was curved down to her chest.
That explains why the in-focus shoulder part is in front of her out of focus lower jaw.

Martin.

These puppy's don't show much emotion, although they can have very funny facial expressions. She was staring down a rather big 1000 pound cow, 10 metres from her.

Martin.

Dan,
the case has been made here for you , fully see it now, and yes, looking at it again I can see why that part of the fur is focused, its part of the shoulder becomes part of the focusing place

This did actually make me laugh out loud.

You're welcome Martin, it's a nice pic, and I'm a cat person, with two myself (one black, one black and white). Nice cat photos generally appeal to me.

I've got this book, which I like because of the way the cat's energy and character have been perfectly captured. Worth a look next time you're in a bookshop.

Dan