As I was taking photos for this months challenge, Birds, and I got a little confused on Depth of Field. I have read and understand the 3 things that affect DOF (aperture, distance, focal length) but as I was putting this into action photographing the birds, I found out I didn't understand it as much as I thought.
Here is what happened, I set my camera up with tripod, speed light, and remote trigger. I started at a zoom of about 200 to stay back from the birds at my feeder. I got some great photos but I wanted to increase the DOF. I couldn't use a smaller aperture since I already was using a high ISO and max flash (already increased to +3), so i decided to put my depth of field knowledge to use. I said to myself, if I use a smaller focal length (ie. 70 mm) I will increase my DOF. But in order to get the same field of view, I would have to move in closer (less DOF!!!!). Oh No!!!
I could do some experiments but I am lazy and I don't have a DOF preview on my Nikon D3100 (and I don't know the distances I used to plug into a DOF calculator). In general, which is going to give me more DOF with the same field of view, 1) further back with zoom, or 2) closer with a wider angle (assuming same f/stop, etc).
Here is what happened, I set my camera up with tripod, speed light, and remote trigger. I started at a zoom of about 200 to stay back from the birds at my feeder. I got some great photos but I wanted to increase the DOF. I couldn't use a smaller aperture since I already was using a high ISO and max flash (already increased to +3), so i decided to put my depth of field knowledge to use. I said to myself, if I use a smaller focal length (ie. 70 mm) I will increase my DOF. But in order to get the same field of view, I would have to move in closer (less DOF!!!!). Oh No!!!
I could do some experiments but I am lazy and I don't have a DOF preview on my Nikon D3100 (and I don't know the distances I used to plug into a DOF calculator). In general, which is going to give me more DOF with the same field of view, 1) further back with zoom, or 2) closer with a wider angle (assuming same f/stop, etc).