AlanLichty
Moderator
My usual M.O. for a shot like this is to have the very front droplets in focus and allow the background to go into bokeh so this is a distinctly different approach. And it works better than I would have expected. Nicely seen.
Very cool Amy! I think my natural tendency would be to shoot it also as Alan mentioned. But this works really well here. This approach is typically what one would see with portrait shooting of people with a very narrow DOF. I think you have done a great job with using that approach with landscape. I think what makes it work is the distinct OOF areas. It's not like the foreground in this is just a bit blurry because a photography didn't understand Hyperfocal Distance. So great job in my eyes.
Kurt Harrigan
Well-Known Member
I like the way they float. I'll have to try that sometime!
Amy Earl
Well-Known Member
Thanks Jim and Alan. I had not analyzed my approach at all, so it's interesting to hear your take on it. I feel like it might be like the difference between a musician who is classically trained and one who plays by ear. Though I've done workshops and classes in high school and university (and managed a darkroom) I have some proper training, but I've only used what I learned as guidelines and mostly shot "by eye" and intuition. Having used a variety of inexpensive point-and-click digital cameras in earlier years, I always found myself adapting intuitively to the capacity of each lens. To learn each I have always experimented a lot with positions, DoF, etc to test what it can do. I just play a lot and see what results I can get with the conditions and environment I have. It's enjoyable to do this on any walk or outing and I continue to "play" like this now more than any formal planning. I'm interested in trying other techniques and evolving, too.
Per your comments I'm thinking this shot might be improved by having a subject in the narrow focus band like a flower. I considered this abstract because it doesn't have a subject, per se, except the grass, and the bokeh are something on their own too.
Thanks Kurt, me too. It's fun playing with this effect which isn't what we see with the naked eye but is sort of magically appealing
