One Day...

[Russell Graves]

Russell, may I ask how you got so much blur in the background with the values Shane posted? The DOF seems extremely shallow for F8.

Thanks! I am always trying to learn.

That is a good question.

Depth of field, ultimately, is a balance between focal length, distance from the subject, and the distance of the background from the subject.

With a wide angle lens, you won't be able to get super soft backgrounds unless you are super close to your subject. Even then, the background will never end up super-blurry.

If you add a telephoto lens, then the background begins to blur more. However, if the background is relatively close to the subject, you won't get a super blurry background.

For example, if the deer was standing at the edge of a motte of trees, then the background wouldn't be as soft.

In this shot, the combination of an extreme focal length (1000mm) a relatively close distance to the subject (probably 30 yards), and the background being a good distance away from the deer all combine to make the background nice and silky.

Does that make sense?

Thanks,

Russell

[Sika]

Makes perfect sense. I figured the focal length played a big role. thanks again!

[Atfulldraw]

Thanks, Shane!

That one wouldn't work for my Mac, but I quickly found a Firefox add-on that did work!

[Kevin]

That one wouldn't work for my Mac

Man, if I had a nickle for every time I heard that (i would say a dollar, but honestly I don't need Bill Gates money)

[Brannon74]

Great shot of deer. It was nice meeting you Russel. Krys showed me the shots you e-mailed him and they were great. Looking forward to seeing the article in TPWD.

[Sr_Egor]

As always nice pics Russell G.

[Russell Graves]

Great shot of deer. It was nice meeting you Russel. Krys showed me the shots you e-mailed him and they were great. Looking forward to seeing the article in TPWD.

Hey, it was great meeting you, too. I am glad you guys liked the pictures and just wish that I'd have had more time to spend.

Thanks,

RG

[texag93]

Nice buck. He should be a good one in the next couple of years. Russell, there were some really bad storms up that way. I think our lease missed most of it. Heard Childress was hit pretty bad.