Creative Zone setting for Fishing "portraits"?

Greetings,

I recently purchased a 40D (17-85mm IS) with a 580EX II. Although I enjoy a variety of photographic styles - as it relates to this question, I'm hoping to gain some input on the "ideal" Creative Zone setting for fishing photos... you know the ones - standard "portrait" style... holding a fish out and in front of your body.

Although I have done a fair bit of research into this, there doesn't seem to be a lot of info specific to this topic (and/or for specific camera settings). Keeping in mind I do use a flash for fill as well as a diffuser, circ-polar filter. I also shoot in RAW.

Getting back to my question, I've experimented with P, AV and A-DEP modes but I just can't put my finger on deciding which one is best. The key is to ensure that both the fish and the person are in sharp focus (while taking advantage of a wide angle lens)... the background can be blurred (depending on desired effect). I can't seem to get consistency with the AF points on both subjects from one shot to the next... sometimes only the AF points on the fish illuminate and not on the person. Am I wrong in assuming that if the AF points only illuminate on the fish that it will be the only object in sharp focus?... I've noticed this even if I have the aperture set for greater DOF.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks, Darrin
(1st thread posting)

To add to this... regarding Flash. As it is primarily used for fill flash & I'm not always pleased with direct flash, any suggestions on a Diffuser to soften things up a little as well as fill in the shadows.
I'm considering either the LumiQuest Mini Soft Box, Ultra Bouncer, Pocket Bouncer, Ultra Soft... I'm aware that the last three are mostly for bounce, but they do add a degree of fill & softness.
Any opinions?

Thanks, Darrin

Welcome to the forum. The best creative zone for all shots is M. I promise it's not that hard. Grab the camera and shoot some stuff on M. Post the results for a little guidance if necessary.

Edit to elaborate. Start off with an aperture of f/11 (f/8 min, f/16 max). This should give you enough depth of field to get the fish and person in focus, have them old the fish next to them rather than way out in front of them. If it is daylight set the ISO to 200; higher if your shutter speed gets to low, lower if the shutter speed is stupid fast. If you are using the IS lens then the shutter speed can get as low as 1/60. If you are using fill flash your max shutter speed will be 1/200. The circular polarizer will help to slow the shutter speed as well has reduce glare.

Welcome to the forum.

Those are all just camera modes, they dictate how the camera will react to you setting specific parameters.

For this fish shot, what you are looking to do is shoot a wide angle portrait such that a fish at 3 feet distance and a person at 5 feet distance both appear in focus right?

To do this, I suggest you start in Av mode. You need to stop down the lens to a high aperture number to maximize the depth of field (DOF). Using a handy online DOF calculator I find that you will probably be successful at f/8 and 17mm getting everything from 3.3 feet to infinity in focus, and you will certainly be successful at f/11 getting everything from 2.2 feet to infinity in focus.

Be sure to watch that shutter speed as you stop down, and if it drops below about 1/60 then increase the ISO setting.

One last point, while your camera has multiple focus points for you to use, there is no magic about getting several to light up. That just means two points are sitting on something that is exactly the same distance from the camera. While you can have large DOF, there can still only ever be one plane of sharpest focus.

I agree. First set the f-stop & shutter speed you need. Then adjust the ISO.
Need an exposure crutch?

More on how the subject affects the exposure in Post # 47

After experimenting a lot (around 2500 shots), I have found that Av (for controlling DOF) and Tv (for controlling blur) are the most useful modes. However, I have also found those two are not that good for casual flash photography. For instance Av uses the flash just to fill the image, so if you are using a f1.8 lens Av will determine a slow shutter time (1/10 for instance) even with the flash being fired (there is a custom function that allows you to set the shutter time to 1/200 but only in the Av mode).
Recently, I did some testing and discovered the A-DEP mode is quite good for flash photography, because it eliminates the DOF problem with fast lenses, like the 50 or 85 mm.
Two examples: the first is 85mm at iso 800, shutter priority 1/125 f1.8, and we see DOF problems. The second is 50mm at iso 200, A-DEP, 1/60 f4 which I think is much better.

Miguel

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.