How to get a few subjects in focus

blackwolf

blackwolf

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Ann
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Hi don,t know wether i can explain this but say i am photographing a few birds in quite close proximity is it possible to get them all in perfect focus if so how do i do it
 
If your shooting in AV (or the Nikon equivalent) increase the f number for a greater depth of field (think thats the right wording)...

The smaller the F no the narrower the band of focus....
 
as above.....although it might slow yours shutter down so you will have to bump up your iso
 
As above, but it's not that easy in practise. Long lenses at close distance means very shallow depth of field, and using a higher f/number to get a bit more DoF usually drops the shutter speed too low, both for hand-holding a long lens and also for subjects like birds that move around pretty sharpish.

To see how much depth of field you get, put the numbers in here http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html
 
Wow thank you very much for your swift replys that is a big help and the website is very good to cheers :thumbs:
 
A higher f-stop does indeed increase your depth of field (area in good focus), but the trade-off, which has been pointed out, is a slower shutter speed

You may find you can effectively 'group' your tweetie-pies within a plane of sharp focus by either you moving position, or if you're 'training' them to come to you, by feeding in a straight-ish line or positioning one branch for them to land on

If your branch is parallel to the back of your camera, then when you focus on the middle bird you could have a dozen birds sat on it and all would be in focus; the more off-parallel your branch the fewer birds will be in focus as they are then moving nearer or further away from you and out of the 'zone' that's in focus

I hope that made sense :)

DD
 
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