Still learning, quick question

herf

Hey guys/gals! I am still bumping along at a snail pace trying to get better with my pictures. Below is one that I took today and I couldn't seem to get my kitty's whole face in focus. It was done with a D40 with a 35mm 1.8G lens f/2.2 1/20 ISO 800

Richard

Two things: f/2.2 gives a very narrow depth of field when you're up close. A narrower aperture would allow more to be in focus. Check out DOFMaster's online calculator and play around with the settings to get a sense of what's possible. The other thing is that at 1/20 sec, unless your technique is very good, you are likely to get camera motion blur in hand-held shots--I'm guessing this was shot hand-held. More light (possibly from a flash) or a higher ISO would alleviate the problem, as you could use a smaller aperture and/or a faster shutter, as would using a tripod. HTH.

BTW, you could improve the apparent sharpness of this image if you raised the black point to improve the contrast.

herf

Richard wrote: »

Two things: f/2.2 gives a very narrow depth of field when you're up close. A narrower aperture would allow more to be in focus. Check out DOFMaster's online calculator and play around with the settings to get a sense of what's possible. The other thing is that at 1/20 sec, unless your technique is very good, you are likely to get camera motion blur in hand-held shots--I'm guessing this was shot hand-held. More light (possibly from a flash) or a higher ISO would alleviate the problem, as you could use a smaller aperture and/or a faster shutter, as would using a tripod. HTH.

BTW, you could improve the apparent sharpness of this image if you raised the black point to improve the contrast.

Thanks for the input! I don't know why, but the whole aperture number vs shutter speed is still eluding me a bit. I will give it another try and see what I can come up with!

threecubed

herf wrote: »

Thanks for the input! I don't know why, but the whole aperture number vs shutter speed is still eluding me a bit. I will give it another try and see what I can come up with!

Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson is a great book for figuring out the purpose of using various aperture, shutter speed, and ISO settings. It isn't overly complex, but not too dumbed down either. I got a lot from it when I was first trying to figure out manual settings on my camera.

spinero

You could get further away or use a smaller f-stop, or aperture (that means a bigger number, f/4 for example) and more will be in focus. I like it fine as it is. Make sure the front eye is in focus and its a keeper.