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      01-11-2012, 01:56 PM   #2389
dcstep
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Drives: '09 Cpe Silverstone FR 6MT
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Location: Colorado

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2009 M3  [8.40]
Quote:
Originally Posted by M_Six View Post
The lens may be waterproof, my camera is not. But there's always the option of shooting from within my BMW-brand blind, right Dave?

This lens will take some practice. The DOF at F2 isn't razor thin for shots from a few yards away, but you do need to consider it. The bokeh looks to be nice, though. Just getting used to standing waaaaaay back for shots, like the 30ft or so I was away from these flowers, will take some adjusting.
Why buy f/2 if you're going to shoot at f/8, eh?

It's very interesting dealing with shallow DOF and some subjects. If the subject has an eye and you get that in focus, then it often hardly matters if 98% of the image is OOF. It's really interesting to study. Look at the image below:


Rufous hummingbird (female) sizes up a wildflower by dcstep, on Flickr

If you click on the image and go to Flickr and view it in the Original size, you'll see that very little of it is in focus. I got the eye, the back-right feathers on the head and a couple of spots on the penstemon stalk. The bokeh in the back and the fact that just a few parts are really, really sharp, makes the viewer think it's a "sharp" image when it's almost entirely OOF!!!

So, something has to be really sharp, but often it doesn't need to be that much.

Still, despite the success of my image above, I wonder what it would have looked like at f/11. I'd still have bokeh and the bird might be drop-dead sharp.

Dave
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