interesting focal length/DOF sample

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Archive 2007 · interesting focal length/DOF sample

Daniel Buck
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p.4 #1 · interesting focal length/DOF sample

yes, it's pretty difficult to judge the composition of the entire image, isn't it! I used to do alot of stitching fore the purpos of more resolution, I found a good way to judge composition while stitching is to take a piece of cardboard, cut out a rectangle and look through the rectangle to compose your shot (keep the rectangle where the camera is positioned). make a note of the objects that are in all 4 corners of the rectangle, then make sure your shooting 'grid' of images includes all of those objects and you'll be sure that you have your desired composition all covered!

You could also probably do this with a wide lens, but it's easier to do it with a rectangle, because you can just move the rectangle forward or backwards to see more or less of your scene (keeping in mind that if you go really wide, you'll need to shoot alot of images!

Or just do it blind and make sure you cover a huge area, then crop later

hehe!

Jun 19, 2007 at 10:48 PM

Jonas B
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p.4 #2 · interesting focal length/DOF sample

carstenw wrote:
-snip-
Make sure that the nodal point of the lens (somewhere in the middle of the lens normally) stays more or less put. I was being silly and pivoted around my waist, introducing parallax error, and even Autopano Pro does not seem happy about this.

Hi there Carsten,

Well, when taking panos I usually use a pano head with the camera fixed to rotate around the nodal point. With the modern software (I use PTGui) also handheld panos works very well but the "proper" ones seem to come out better in some way. Less manual intervention is needed.
When having objects close to the camera the importance of having the nodal point at the rotation point increases in my experience. This thin DOF pano idea needs something in the foreground, so...
I'll see if I get the time some day this week for an experiment. I have no model to hassle right now.... A statue? It was years ago.

regards,

Jun 19, 2007 at 11:33 PM

Daniel Buck
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p.4 #3 · interesting focal length/DOF sample

The next phase of my experiment was to focus farther out (I had previously been focusing at about 1.5 meters, now I'm at probably 5+ meters) and using less images (12)

The effect is not as dramatic as it is when I focus close up and use alot more images, but the effect is still there (especially when you view it full size, or printed)

Focused about 5 meters or so:

This image is copyrighted by the owner

focused at probably 3 meters. The blur is noticeably more pronounced at this distance, but still keeps a good amount of background around the car, for the same 12 images.

This image is copyrighted by the owner

the last set here, the first one is a stitch with the 85mm (just as before) but the shot below it was taken from the exact same spot as the one above, but instead of stitching with the fast 85mm, I shot a single shot with my 28mm, wide open (the perspective matches pretty close, I cropped the top off to keep the same panorama feel as the stitch). Even wide open, the 28mm is almost uniformly sharp across the entire image at this focus distance, not a whole lot of focus blur at all! I was a bit disappointed at the lack of 'miniature' look to these latest stitch tests, but when viewed next to a single wide angle shot with the aperture all the way open, the effect is still quite pronounced on the stitched images! So, test was a success I guess :-) These last two images were focused on the front wheel, instead of the rear of the car, by the way.

This image is copyrighted by the owner

Jun 25, 2007 at 07:18 AM

Jonas B
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p.4 #4 · interesting focal length/DOF sample

Carsten, Daniel, anyone...

Hello. Time flies. I have made a couple of experiments with this technique. Lack of time (but some vacation instead) in combination with some dementia makes this post very late. (I thought I already posted it.)

Here:

This image is copyrighted by the owner

The picture above is from an exhibiton, type sculpture park. It's taken with a Pentax K10D and a Sigma 30/1.4 and it's the result from 37 pictures sritched together using PTGui.

It doesn't look that special here but you can compare it with this picture:

This image is copyrighted by the owner

Above, one single shot, K10D, Zenitar 16FE. I backed up as far as possible here so the stitching was called for as I don't have any wider lens.

Aug 11, 2007 at 06:22 PM

Daniel Buck
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p.4 #5 · interesting focal length/DOF sample

I think using the 30mm might be what doesn't work quits so well. Were you shooting it wide open? How close to the focus point were you? I've found that it seems to work better when you are closer to your object. Around 1-3 meters or so (with an 85mm lens) That is, if your purpose is to get funky looking DOF.

Aug 11, 2007 at 06:26 PM

Jonas B
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p.4 #6 · interesting focal length/DOF sample

Daniel Buck wrote:
I think using the 30mm might be what doesn't work quits so well. Were you shooting it wide open? How close to the focus point were you? I've found that it seems to work better when you are closer to your object. Around 1-3 meters or so (with an 85mm lens) That is, if your purpose is to get funky looking DOF.

Hi Daniel,

...and thank you for starting this thread.

My primary goal was not to get a funky looking background. The first goal was to be able to cover the whole thing. As I had to stitch anyway (see the 16mm fish-eye picture) I decided I could as well try to do it this way.

The second goal was to get a nice rendering of the OOF areas. The fisheye was taken at f/4 (as the lens is useless wide open (f/2.8)).

I thought it was successfull thinking of the goals. Th epictures are taken at f/2.

I also tried a version with a 50mm lens (SMC Takumar 50/1.4 at f/2). Then it grew to 97 pictures ore something thereabout. The Takumar 50 proved to have a less nice bokeh and it was a failure.

Your FF camera with the 85/1.2 give special results, funky perhaps... Now I have gone in the other direction; from a 5D to a K10D and then again to an Olympus E-510. Smaller sensors both times.

I'll try it again when I find something reasonably sized target, perhaps with a 50mm again at f/2.

regards,

--
Jonas

Aug 11, 2007 at 07:07 PM

Daniel Buck
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p.4 #7 · interesting focal length/DOF sample

ah, I didn't realize that other shot was taken with a 16mm. Wow space was limited there! What is directly behind you?

Aug 11, 2007 at 07:11 PM

Jonas B
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p.4 #8 · interesting focal length/DOF sample

Just behind my back there were some rocks and a hill. Backing 2 meters means being one meter above the sculpture.
In this case I was very content with the OOF background.
Then it may not be the best target for the technique as demonstrated in your car pictures, especially the first one which I liked a lot.
The good thing is that the technique works and I may do it again, either for the effect or because of limited space.

--
Jonas

Aug 11, 2007 at 08:55 PM

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