A few more closeups

16 years ago

Here are some more photos from my back yard. I'll be sad to see the hummers go - they are so fun to watch! If only they would stop chasing each other so much, I could get a lot more photos. ;-)

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Comments (4)

luvabird ,,,
16 years ago
Nice shots!

Donna, va
yardenman
16 years ago
Very good pics!

Yeah, I'll be sorry to see they go, too. Realizing it was September today reminded me of their eventual migration. Sometimes it seems only weeks since they arrived for the year...
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kenn3d
16 years ago
Those are great captures of a lovely bird Liz,

It's amazing to me how thin the DOF is with your camera/lens combo. The bird is razor sharp and the background disappears completely! It's like he posed in a studio for you. I noticed Dave sometimes gets shots like this too.

I'm just inches away from purchasing a Sony 1.7x TC for the S3, and if I get it I know I'll usually need to keep it wide open (f3.5) to get enuf light. I wonder if my closeups will exhibit anything like this kind of total background blur then?

Kenn
gymell
Original Author
16 years ago
Kenn,

The DOF is a result of several factors.

One is the long focal length. The first photo was taken with a 400mm lens, so the field of view would be a bit wider and easier to get flight shots. The next two photos were taken with a 500mm lens and a 1.4 teleconverter attached, for 700mm. Very narrow field of view and I found it hard to get flight shots with that (hence the perching.)

Another thing is my distance to the subject. In all of the photos, I used extension tubes which allowed me to get quite close, compared to the normal minimum focus distance for these lenses.

Next is the wide lens aperture I used. The first photo is at f/5.6, and the other two are at f/8 because I was trying to get a little more DOF. Even so, you can see that not all of the bird's body in those is in focus.

Lastly is the distance between the subject and the background. The background is sunlit grass quite a distance away, so it blurs completely.

So it's all dependent on focal length, closeness to the subject, lens aperture, and distance from the subject to the background. Probably another small factor using a low ISO (I used ISO 100) which also has less noise. I suppose lens quality also has something to do with it.

With the 1.7x TC on your S3, you should be able to get some decent focal length. If you can get fairly close to the subject, and keep the aperture wide, you might be able to get a pretty good background blur, depending on what the background is and how far away. Good luck, and be sure to share your results!

Liz