Digital TC and Digital Zoom with the SX50

Stephen Barrett wrote:

A very good telemacro tip that I learned from VisionLight is that you can increase DOF by increasing your distance from the subject.

I remember that thread, Stephen. For others who missed it, here is the example image once again:

The two honeysuckle blooms appear to be touching, but are actually separated in space by about 8"-12" (it varied with the wind and I had to wait for a second or two of "rest" to get the shot). Using a lower focal length macro approach gave sharp focus to the fore bloom and decent focus to the aft bloom, but DOF also gave too much focus to the trees about 100 feet in the background. The resulting image could have had technical merit but would have been artistically boring. By moving back 16'-18' from the plant and changing to 1200mm, the resultant compression made the two blooms appear to touch while just drawing both into the depth of field. That same compression drew the trees into a closer relationship with the blooms, with lack of wide depth of field masking their identity as a dance of light to support the choreography of the image.

Many people choose the focal length of a lens based only on the distance from the subject and how much of the frame they want to fill with it. What can be much more rewarding in creating artistic images is learning the attributes of compression and depth of field at each focal length based on its distance to the subject, then using one's feet to frame that subject.

I've learned a lot from you Stephen as you share your journeys in the world of macro and micro photography. And I'm happy that I could contribute a little myself. Hopefully other people will also find some useful information here to experiment at creating their own visions of artistic expression.

Ed