Mary sent me this image with a question. I like to include what fellow photographers have to say so that others that might have a similar question or photo can benefit. Here’s what Mary had to say:
“Hi,
My name is Mary Robinson and I came across your site via Lightstalking.com. I have enjoyed reading your blog and am interested in having a photo critiqued. My question is, I have always been told and read numerous times that the most important thing would be to make sure in portraits that the eyes are in focus. In this particular image I have done that, but the beak itself is not, given the settings I was using and that my angle of view was slightly above the bird how would I have avoided getting parts of the bird out of focus while others are in focus and does it matter in this particular instance as the eyes are what drew me to take the shot in the first place?”
Mary,
I looked at you camera settings and it said you were using a 70-200 zoom, and you were just about all the way out at 190mm. It also says that you were at F/7.1 at 1/160th of a second. This could be the problem.
I realize that the distance from the end of the beak to the eyes is not very far, but it might be too great a distance to get it all sharp at F/7.1 with a 200mm lens. At 200mm, the plane of focus is not very much, which is why it’s used to separate the Figure from the Ground. In my new class with the BPSOP, and in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops we work on the six principles of Gestalt. One of them is called Figure-Ground”, and it deals with ways to separate the figure (the subject) from the ground (background). The best way is to use a long lens and shoot with a minimum aperture. This is sort of what’s happening with your photo of the hawk.
Here’s what I suggest: First of all I assume you were using a tripod, because if you were hand holding it you already started out with a sharpness problem. Ok, assuming you were on a tripod, I believe it would have taken more DOF to get him sharp from the beak to the eyes…if you were at 190mm.
It also appears that you were over to the right side of the beak, so the distance from the feathers and eye on the left was further away from the features and eye on the right on the right. That would have been enough to not get all of it sharp. Remember that you’re dealing with a long lens so you have to remember that it’s going to take more DOF to get everything you want in focus.
It’s also possible that 1/160th of a second was not fast enough to maintain sharpness. That’s not really all that fast when shooting wildlife.
I hope this helped.
Visit my website at: www.joeBaraban.com and follow me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/barabanjoe. Check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime.
JoeB
