Barred Owl Closeup

This shot was taken with the 20D + 70-200 f4L with a 2X at ISO 800

very nice Eric,

i can never get that close to an owl - probably because ive never seen an owl in the wild yet!
good for you to get close !


troy

Looks like the DOF is too shallow.
For some reason the Online Depth of Field Calculator is not responding this evening.
When you figure out what your shooting distance was, it would be educational to look up that value for the 20D and a 400 mm lens set to f/8 and see what you get. It's probably going to account for your shallow depth of field.

OK - now it's cooperating. Looks like at 6' shooting distance your DOF is 1/4" and vanishes completely at 3 ft.

Close Shot!!!

Robert_Lay wrote in post #4591961
Looks like the DOF is too shallow.
For some reason the Online Depth of Field Calculator is not responding this evening.
When you figure out what your shooting distance was, it would be educational to look up that value for the 20D and a 400 mm lens set to f/8 and see what you get. It's probably going to account for your shallow depth of field.

OK - now it's cooperating. Looks like at 6' shooting distance your DOF is 1/4" and vanishes completely at 3 ft.

Thanks Robert, the depth of field I have is the way I wanted the shot. The ISO also had to be pushed to allow for a decent shutter speed. The shot was taken at f8 and 1/250 handheld. I should have been at 1/125 or 1/60 for this shot as I had to boost the exposure some due to being backlit. I get what you are saying but for this shot and these circumstances I think the shot turned out well. If you notice the eye (being the most important part) is in focus.

Thanks guys, You just have to be careful when getting close so you do not scare the owl or make it feel threatened!

Nice shot! My only suggestion would be to selectively increase the contrast on the eyeball (to make the catchlight more obvious).