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ctfchallenge | all galleries >> Challenge 111 - Depth of Field ...D.O.F >> C111 - Eligible > 10th
sunfl*wer
by theFly
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08-JUL-2006 theFly

10th
sunfl*wer
by theFly

Canon EOS 350D ,Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II
1/1250s f/4.0 at 50.0mm iso100 full exif

other sizes: small medium original auto
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ctfchallenge23-Jul-2006 01:56
Thanks Techo and Yvonne.
theFly
ctfchallenge19-Jul-2006 00:35
aaah the perfect summer shot Lee. Yvonne
ctfchallenge17-Jul-2006 02:19
Just want to say how much I like this. One of those picture perfect settings. It's a wonderful capture. Perfect exposure, awesome composition and color constrast, with the sunflowers on the right and the barn in the background. * The sky does seem to break the overall contrast of the yellow against dark green but that's the one and only a minor nitpick. You did a great job with what you had to work with.

-Techo :)
ctfchallenge15-Jul-2006 12:13
Thanks. Sorry about the sky. I had to work with what God gave me.
theFly
Guest 14-Jul-2006 01:53
Bokeh or not, bland sky or not - I just like the shot.
Photogenix11-Jul-2006 22:42
Very interesting conversation in this thread.
Now, about the picture...feel that the sky spoils it.
- RK
Guest 11-Jul-2006 18:19
Love this Lee! Gorgeous!
Rod 10-Jul-2006 20:02
Yes the ugly house challenge was a strange one for me because as a photographer the so called uglier the subject the more beautiful it is for photography. Plus I didn't like the implications of calling someone’s house ugly. So Brent agreed to open the challenge up & I just shot houses that might have an interesting angle. I don't think you read or follow these challenges too closely otherwise all this would be apparent to you.
We have quite a few great shots already that would print up great, they may not be deep & meaningful great works of art but they're terrific picys to be proud of.
I have made the topic quite easy & wide by giving lot's a latitude but I'm not going to let the challenge sink into a mutual admiration society by letting pretty off topic picys stand, its not fair to the posters who have gone to the trouble of being on topic as they could have taken the easy way out by taking a simple close up like these sunflower shots:-)
Guest 10-Jul-2006 16:48
Rod,

I did not mean to detract from your winning shot. But I just felt it was not the ugliest house shot. I do feel it was one of the better photographs. During the last challenge, I was on vacation and drove through some rural areas with many ugly houses. My wife would say there is one and do you want to stop. I would say, no. It is not a good photograph.

I do like your topic very much. I think that DOF is a powerful tool to make wonderful pictures.

How this relates to this challenge. I have seen pictures that are posted that achieve to perfection the forground blur that you desire, but I do not think they are pictures that I would hang on the wall. I just don't want us to get blinded by trying to meet the letter of the law and miss the art of photography.
Rod 10-Jul-2006 11:46
I can understand your challenge analogy Lee but fail to see the point of how it relates to this challenge, unless you're saying because this is a good picy it makes it on topic or are you saying I won a challenge with an off topic picy?-) Unless you think I've picked a daft topic like Brent did:-) Anyhow Brent passed the shot as on topic which won't happen here for one of your two bokeh shots:-) I have set this challenge so we can see the width (wide or narrow) of the DOF in the picy. That is the sharp area in front of & behind the focal point. There's no sharp area in front of or behind your flower that we can see, so how can it be showing us some of the DOF? I think what's happening here is that you're using the technical reasons that your flower is in the DOF & by altering your F stop you are controlling the amount of blur. But that isn't the topic I set for this challenge as I want to see some of the sharp width. If you haven't been reading the main thread or the comments under the picys then I can understand why you're confused as to what I want.
As you know the host always knows best as they define the topic, not some technical publications or other sources.
elips10-Jul-2006 03:03
On topic or not, Lee, this is a wonderful image! The close sunflower just pops on my screen, almost out of my screen! Good work! ~Sharon
ctfchallenge09-Jul-2006 20:25
Rod,

I think the challenge is to take a good picture that uses DOF. Whether is forground, background, both, shallow, or wide.

The last challenge was ugly houses. There were many ugly houses submitted, but were they good photographs? I do not think the winner had the ugliest house presented, but it was one of the better photographs.

I will read your post, but have to run now.

theFly
Rod 09-Jul-2006 19:27
I can see what you mean Lee but that illustration with the cards is to show how the DOF is much wider at F8 than it is at F2.8. The DOF doesn't include the OOF parts of the picy. The card shots also don't show the whole DOF as we can't see where it starts. The cards do illustrate what happens with different F stops but they don't illustrate the creative possibilities of using the DOF, as I said before every shot ever taken has DOF so how can we have a challenge where every shot is on topic? So to make this a challenge we have to see all the DOF or at least see most of it. I hope my post in the main thread makes this clear:-)
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1010&message=19135016
Guest 09-Jul-2006 11:53
Rod,

Go back to my link. The F2.4 shot shows three cards. From left to right they are less in focus. This is DOF. The F8 shot shows three cards. They are all in focus. This is DOF.

In the three card example, there is nothing shown in the foreground to require it to be a DOF illustration.

If my picture was shot at F22, it still would be a DOF shot. Everything would have been in focus and it would be a large DOF shot. I do not think it would be as successful though.

I apologize for not fully reading and understanding the requirements of this challenge. If the challenge requires something in the forground to make it OT, I will remove both of my pictures.

Lee
Rod 09-Jul-2006 09:02
One other thing Lee, you said.......
"The flowers on the lower right are less OOF than the ones behind it, and then the barn and trees......"
Which makes me think you're not quite clear about the DOF. The DOF only refers to the in focus (sharp) area in the shot which is by varying amounts depending on the focal length & F stop used is wide or narrow. So the different amounts of blur you refer to has no real bearing on the DOF, it's the sharp area & its width which is the DOF, this is the area we're interested in for this challenge:-)
Rod 09-Jul-2006 03:19
Your link Lee ses the same as me topic discription this is from your link ....
Depth of field (DOF) is a term which refers to the areas of the photograph both in front and behind the main focus point which remain "sharp" (in focus). .........

And this is from me topic discription...........
The depth of field (DOF) is the distance in front of and behind the subject which appears to be in focus. This doesn't mean everything in front & behind the subject is in focus, just a short distance. The total of the in focus part being the DOF For any given lens setting, there is only one distance at which a subject is precisely in focus, but focus falls off gradually on either side of that distance, so there is a region in which the blurring is noticable before & after the in focus distance bit:-) .....

Now there's no area in front of your Sunflower is there? So how can we see the DOF in this shot? We can't, we have to assume it's there. So this is just a generic close up & it's not taken with the aim of showing us the DOF. I know this has part of the DOF so has a Bokeh shot, but for this challenge we want to see the whole DOF in at least two shots, otherwise we will end up with a gallery full of plain close ups & that's a differet topic init:-)
ctfchallenge09-Jul-2006 01:52
I really like your sunflower shot Lee. Great color, composition and lighting (and it does show DOF to me). But Rod wants OOF foreground too or off to pending! :-) CJ
janewigginsphotography09-Jul-2006 01:29
I'm not sure why Rod wants DOF in foreground and background. I usually have tried to crop my foreground DOF, but am seeing how having it front and back can really zero in on the subject. This is definitely a DOF shot Lee... It's a keep in my book :) jano BTW, I also love the light.
ctfchallenge09-Jul-2006 01:03
Great shot Lee. Rich
Guest 08-Jul-2006 23:40
Thanks Jano and Rod.
Rod, maybe I do not understand DOF. I have always thought of it as defined here:

http://www.dpreview.com/learn/?/Glossary/Optical/Depth_of_Field_01.htm

The flowers on the lower right are less OOF that the ones behind it, and then the barn and trees.
Rod 08-Jul-2006 21:53
Lovely colours Lee but as this & your flowers in a bucket shot are normal close ups with no attention payed to the DOF topic this will be classed as a Bokeh shot,
you being an experienced artiiiiist are only allowed one of these types of shots.
So you will have to shoot two more (please) with OOF foregrounds & backgrounds to show us the DOF.
I would prefer this shot with no sky in, otherwise it looks great mate:-)
ctfchallenge08-Jul-2006 17:16
Breathtaking! jano