K9 portrait on the car deck of a BC Ferry.
Technical: Canon EOS 5D Mark II , ISO 100, 1/500sec, f/1.4, 85mm
Note: A new 85 mm ‘portrait’ lens was used in this image. It was capable of very shallow focus and I thought, “great, just what I want in this situation…snout and eyes sharp other distracting elements out of focus”. I set the aperture to the minimum aperture, f/1.4, and it looked good on the camera display. But it turned out that a bit more depth of field would have been better (the depth of focus would extend through both eyes). I can’t help thinking I must have looked much like this dog when I went to use the image…
Simply setting the camera to f/1.8 or f/2.0 for more depth of focus would ‘have sharpened’ the dog’s eyes and snout. The more you ‘shoot’, the more you learn.
In a controlled studio setting, controlling the depth of focus is an easy task. The image below is a test photo taken while setting up for a GISPA performers portrait shoot.
Note #2: If you are viewing this post on a phone or small screen you might want to pinch in and out a bit to explore the depth of focus.