Focus area, DOF?

Not sure where to post this. So feel free to move it to the right area.

I just bought an external flash.. the 430EX II. Was told it was a mid-range flash.

Hooked it up and decided to try it out in the bedroom with the pets. They always make good subjects.

Ok... I took some shots of our chihuahua. She's good practice because she's always moving but tonight she just layed on the bed and let me take pictures.

When I brought the photo into lightroom I noticed that the tip of her nose is as clear as but her eyes are not.... This is a close up shot too... I just zoomed in. In order to for her entire head to be in focus, what should I have done to get a full frame focus?

Posting the image and the exif....

Exposure 1/200 at f/5.6
Focal length 200mm
ISO 100
Flash: Fired

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'text/html' | Byte size: ZERO

Depth of field is a function of focusing distance, focal length, and aperture size. At closer distances, longer lengths and larger apertures the dof becomes thinner. At longer distances, shorter lengths and smaller apertures the dof becomes larger. To compensate for your longer focal length here you could have either backed up or stopped down your lens. I imagine that you couldn't back up enough to compensate since the dof is extremely thin here. Stopping down the lens might also not be enough and usually makes proper exposure more difficult to acheive - something that could be remedied by your flash.

My suggestion would be to shoot with a combination of short focal length and smaller apertures. Although you would have to move closer to the subject to achieve your close up, it would be easier to get your photo in focus.

Can you explain "stopping down the lens"? I haven't heard that expression yet.

Scratch that... looked it up... just never heard it said like that before.....

Ok... Still need to get my head around the bigger/wider/smaller/ thing with aperture.
I've read up on it so many times and I still get buggered by it.

Bigger the fstop number then more of the image is in focus? (Bigger the number, smaller the hole) correct?

So if I shot my dog f/5.6.... and she's not all clear, I should have upped the f-stop to like 8?

Which AF mode were you using?
It just looks like missed focus to me, there is more to contrast around the nose since the fur is white, so the camera probably picked that up and said ok I'll focus on this.

Stopping down means increasing the aperture number (but it's really inverse because the higher the aperture number the smaller the aperture itself). So while this shot was taken at 5.6, stopping it down would be taking it to f/8 - and the result of this would be the increased depth of field, so in this example the nose and more of the snout would be in focus.

Hope this helps

Also, check out this website here:

Depth of Field Calculator

This will ultimately answer your question on how to get the whole head in focus

aussiedee wrote in post #12676045
Bigger the fstop number then more of the image is in focus? (Bigger the number, smaller the hole) correct?

Correct. Bigger number = smaller hole = more in focus but less light gets in.

With a flash you probably could have stopped down more to get more in focus. But regardless make sure you focus on the eyes still. Keep in mind that the DoF we see in our images is a range, so if you focus on th eyes then a bit behind and a bit in front will be in focus, whereas if you focus on the nose then the bit in front is effectively wasted.

TheBigDog wrote in post #12676051
Which AF mode were you using?...... So while this shot was taken at 5.6, stopping it down would be taking it to f/8 - .......

Hope this helps

Ha ha.... cool! So I pretty much answered my own question, ... I edited my post and then yours appeared below it.

I was trying a couple different ones.... M mode and AV... I usually use Av

aussiedee wrote in post #12676064
I was trying a couple different ones.... M mode and AV... I usually use Av

That's the drive mode, the autofocus mode would be center point, expansion, etc. I guess the simplest way to ask is do you choose the autofocus point or do you let the camera choose it for you?

Which is where the shutter speed comes in (longer shutter, more light)... right? or use of a flash.

@TheBigDog Thanks for the website... bookmarked!
Also trying to score a book someone recommended but hard to find in Oz.

TheBigDog wrote in post #12676074
That's the drive mode, the autofocus mode would be center point, expansion, etc. I guess the simplest way to ask is do you choose the autofocus point or do you let the camera choose it for you?

I have it on auto-focus one shot.

aussiedee wrote in post #12676082
Which is where the shutter speed comes in (longer shutter, more light)... right? or use of a flash.

The exposure of your image is basically determined by three factors (ignoring additional light) which is what makes things a little tricky. Aperture, shutter speed, and ISO (sensitivity). Change one and you have to alter at least one other to correct for it and maintain your exposure. ISO is the one that has little control over the "look" of your photo, but increase it too much and you get noise.

You used ISO100 in your photo. You could've pushed the ISO to 400 without much negative impact and therefore set your aperture to F/11. Though believe it or not there is even a negative to the aperture being too small (diffraction, yay for optical limitations), but in reality F/11 would be fine.

i think this is more a case of missed focus than anything else.
selecting the focus point yourself is the way to go!!

Some top tips to help you:

Focus on the eye, normally the one nearest to you if not head on

This may help with you DOF as the eye is the critical, must be in focus, if the nose is slightly out you can still keep hopefully use the shot.

Use the central focus point

If the pet is moving fast then servo auto focus (but you then can't focus and reframe the shot, so just zoom out/step back to get what you need in the fram - refocus)

Exposure on evaluative and check the whites are not washed out (smallest of gap on the right of the histogram).

phreeky wrote in post #12676063
Correct. Bigger number = smaller hole = more in focus but less light gets in.

to clarify the bigger number is actually smaller. they are fractions.

f2 is actually 1/2 and f8 is actually 1/8 so f8 actually is smaller than f2. yes its confusing, but if you think it about like the fractions that they truly are it makes more sense.

mike_311 wrote in post #12676401
to clarify the bigger number is actually smaller. they are fractions.

f2 is actually 1/2 and f8 is actually 1/8 so f8 actually is smaller than f2. yes its confusing, but if you think it about like the fractions that they truly are it makes more sense.

I always tell others to think of it as it is: it's not f2, but f/2. not f8 but f/8 (focal length/value). This usually clears things up.