Baby owls - DOF question

So, have some baby owls in our yard and today I saw them all for the first time. But, had a hard time getting them all in focus. Went up as high as f8 to try to get more DOF but still could not get them all in. I guess that is the way it goes but if someone has suggestions?

Wow. They're beautiful.
Sorry, can only share your pain.
Aren't they so nice.
Still beautiful photos though.

First off...adorable murder floofs! 8) So lucky to have in your yard!

Your best bet is going to be backing up and zooming to maintain your framing; potentially far enough you instead need to crop some of the photo [Assuming, of course, that you HAVE room]. The closer you are, the shallower your DoF is going to be. Your exposure settings here look like you were pretty darned close since you were at 320mm. You can get a little more DoF from stopping your aperture down a little bit, but I wouldn't be inclined to go below f/11 with that lens.

Check out the DoF calc tool here: http://www.dofmaster.c​om/dofjs.html
Input your Camera (7D is closest they have), Focal Length and rough distance to your subject and the right panel will show you a rough estimate of your total DoF to work with.

1. Backing up, then maintaining the closeness of framing with use of a longer FL will DO NOTHING FOR DOF!!!
   
2. Backing up and framing looser, but then cropping tight during postprocessing will DO NOTHING FOR DOF!!!
   

Wilt wrote in post #19072516
Backing up, then maintaining the closeness of framing with use of a longer FL will DO NOTHING FOR DOF!!!

Correct.

Because of where they are in the tree and the other branches, I have limited windows to shoot through, unfortunately.

duckster wrote in post #19072518
Because of where they are in the tree and the other branches, I have limited windows to shoot through, unfortunately.

The ONLY solution is use of a smaller shooting aperture.

I went up as high as f13 but those were really not good...

You could do focus stacking. Basically you take several shots, each with different focus so that every element that needs to be in focus will be in focus in at least one photo. Then the photos are combined using software taking the sharpest parts of each shot. I've never done photo stacking for birds but it should work fine.

Archibald wrote in post #19072566
You could do focus stacking. Basically you take several shots, each with different focus so that every element that needs to be in focus will be in focus in at least one photo. Then the photos are combined using software taking the sharpest parts of each shot. I've never done photo stacking for birds but it should work fine.

Given your described situation, this will be your only other option aside from stopping down. May be a little harsh on fine, feather details, but that *should* be negligible unless you go to print big or something.

Focus stacking is the only way I think.

Thanks for the insights. Something like focus stacking makes sense but probably way outside my skill set in regards to PP

duckster wrote in post #19072784
Thanks for the insights. Something like focus stacking makes sense but probably way outside my skill set in regards to PP

It's easy. Take a bunch of shots with varying focus. Download a trial version of Zerene Stacker and let it do the combining automatically.

Hmm, that doesn't sound as bad. I thought it was something you had to do more "manually"

duckster wrote in post #19072789
Hmm, that doesn't sound as bad. I thought it was something you had to do more "manually"

I haven't tried it with birds, but I'm thinking it would be fairly straight-forward. Decide on your framing, then focus (preferably back-button) on each bird in turn but reframing when taking the shot. Do each bird at least twice to guard against blinking eyes and swiveling heads. Pick the shots for the stack (the set of photos to be processed). Shoot JPGs or convert the raws to JPG. Pull them into Zerene and let it work for a few minutes.

In a scene like this, Zerene might have problems with elements like leaves or branches that move between frames. It might or might not be noticeable. If it is, you can clone in what you want from one or more of the pics. Zerene has provision for doing editing like this.