Critique Welcomed Green Thumb

[Chris Dodkin]

One of the things I do to make the trips to the garden center more 'interesting' is to carry a camera with me.

They always have colorful and interesting displays - sometimes a statue or sculpture, sometimes an abstract piece of garden art.

Today, as swmbo sorted out another succulent for our garden, I spotted this...

Green Thumb

X-Pro1 and 35mm lens @ f/2

 

[Brian Moore]

Spectacular bokeh, Chris!

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Thanks Brian - bokehlishious in fact

 

[Steve Boykin]

Really nice composition and colors. On the bokeh/composition, it's really cool the way it gets progressively less in focus from the left side.

Do you focus and re-compose or shift the focus point with the buttons on the back. I always have trouble with this. This is fantastic example of of how to get selective focus not in the center of the frame. Does that make sense? I could try this all day and it would look like poop.

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Thanks Steve

I always move the AF point to cover the subject rather than focus and recompose

That way you nail the focus, recomposing can cause issues with narrow DOF shots - you only have to move a little and the subject is no longer sharp

In this case the pot was too smooth for accurate AF - so I move the AF square over the succulent - it locked on just fine then

f/2 was about as wide as I could go in daylight without an ND filter - but f/2 still gets you lots of bokeh and a decent enough DOF for the subject

 

[Rob MacKillop]

Interesting comment there, Chris. I remember reading that the Fuji AF systems prefer a featureless part to focus on, not one where there are lines, angles, etc. Hope I'm describing that clearly enough? That seems counter intuitive, and what you have done obviously works. Any thoughts on that?

 

[Glenn Clabo]

Chris...Nice shot! But more selfishly...You just explained away one of my basic problems. Thanks for making me feel so dumb. [doh]

 

[Steve Boykin]

Thanks Steve

I always move the AF point to cover the subject rather than focus and recompose

That way you nail the focus, recomposing can cause issues with narrow DOF shots - you only have to move a little and the subject is no longer sharp

In this case the pot was too smooth for accurate AF - so I move the AF square over the succulent - it locked on just fine then

f/2 was about as wide as I could go in daylight without an ND filter - but f/2 still gets you lots of bokeh and a decent enough DOF for the subject

THANKS Chris!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Interesting comment there, Chris. I remember reading that the Fuji AF systems prefer a featureless part to focus on, not one where there are lines, angles, etc. Hope I'm describing that clearly enough? That seems counter intuitive, and what you have done obviously works. Any thoughts on that?

Rob - the Fuji AF needs contrast to focus, where as the Canon AF on my 5DII needs edges - so the two work quite differently.

When I pointed the fuji AF box at the green plant pot, there was no contrast to AF on, so it came up with the red FAIL box.

I moved it up one position on the AF grid, and it was now over the plant, which had some nice areas of contrast - the AF locked on straight away.

The 5DII would most likely have liked to AF on the edge of the pot or the plant

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Chris...Nice shot! But more selfishly...You just explained away one of my basic problems. Thanks for making me feel so dumb. [doh]

Glenn - when I first started shooting with a Canon 50mm f/1.4 and later the 50 f/1.2, I was constantly frustrated by the AF not focusing on my subject in the final image.

After much anguish around focus, I pinned it down to the fact I was using the center AF point only, and doing focus + recompose.

It isn't an issue at small apertures, but wide open at close range it's a focus killer.

 

[Beth Carter]

lovely shot chris. the dof and colors are perfect. i love the af point selection with fuji.

 

[Pete Askew]

Nice shot Chris and an interesting discussion. You should turn the focus tips into a tutorial.

 

[Chris Dodkin]

lovely shot chris. the dof and colors are perfect. i love the af point selection with fuji.

Thanks Beth - agree, the AF grid on the Fuji makes for easy and accurate AF

We both came from the 5DII I think, which has less than state of the art AF!

- - - Updated - - -

Nice shot Chris and an interesting discussion. You should turn the focus tips into a tutorial.

Thanks Pete - and good idea....

 

[Lesley Jones]

Very nice shot and I love house leeks. I have (or had) a varied collection in our pots outside, but the blasted deer have started pulling them up again