Pet photography and DOF

[PKFUSION]

I was pleased with this shot, I like shallow DOF despite the extra work!
The owner said, "oh, it's nice but a shame it's all blurry".

What do you think? Any other C&C always welcome.

[wlou]

Hi Peter,
its a nice subject you have there, and by the looks of it, he was posing for you and not moving.
Is it the only picture you took?
For this one, the head is well in focus, while the body is slightly out of focus.
The background is somewhat distracting and compete with the main subject for attention. May I suggest a tight crop on the head?

[PKFUSION]

Funny you should say that. I took 10 or so. This was my favourite..

[FrankMi]

Hi Peter. I would agree with Louise. The problem for the owner is the fact that it is a picture of their cat and not just the cat's head so for them the 'subject' isn't in focus. That is also why the second one works so well.

[rpcrowe]

Non-photographers judge images a LOT DIFFERENTLY than photographers. Often when we shoot images it is for ourselves or to share with other photographers, not to share with non-photographers.

As an example...



My wife looked at this image and said, "it's a shame you couldn't get the whole picture in focus"

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Peter,

Plus they are probably used to shooting their moggy with a P&S with (small sensor and) enormous DoF.

I can't see any EXIF data but it looks a wide aperture on a DSLR to me.

Never mind, as I was saying to Frank only yesterday, I don't appreciate/understand the fine art of bonsai

The second looks a little more noisy - was that caused by;
a higher iso?
under exposure? (corrected in PP)
a tighter crop?

Nice cat and yes, good pictures.

Cheers,

[PKFUSION]

D90 105 macro (micro in Nikon speak!)
First was 1/160 f3 iso400 and close up was 1/160 f8 iso2000. Well spotted! Had to up the iso to get at least some DOF at that close distance...

[wlou]

Now thas a handsome cat!
And yes, non photographer do not see the same things in our pictures. My sister in law told me that "those pictures of water falls with the water looking like milk was not right". Real water does not look like that she says. Ah! The woes of the artists!

[Snow Leopard]

The blur actually makes the picture look well done !