"John Coyle" wrote: > >Which is exactly why, a couple of years ago, we had a thread on the utility of > >DOF and I said then I thought it a waste of time on 35mm cameras. If you think > >you can judge depth of field accurately when you're stopped way down, as one > >usually is shooting macro, I believe, sir, you kid yourself!
Other uses of DOF: 1) Check vignetting with a filter, reversed lens, hood, or anything else you screw onto the front of your lens (depends on finder coverage, but if you can see vignetting on, say, a 92% coverage finder, vignetting is definately going to show up on your film. Use your smallest aperature for this, and point the camera at something bright. Look at the corners. 2) Evaluate light fall-off (which I consider to be distinct from vignetting) with wide angle lenses. Here again, stopping down often reduces light fall-off 3) Check flare. Often stopping down will reduce flare. 4) Check "bokeh" as mentioned previously by others in this thread. And sometimes that check will show a telephone pole growing right out of your subject's head; one that you can't see with that fast prime without stopping down. 5) It is quite useful, IMHO, as a depth of field check at about 1/3 lifesize and higher when shooting closeups. 6) Prepare you mentally for some of those screwmount lenses you might be tempted buy that you have to use stop down metering for. Grin. John Shaw's books are my favorite for nature photography technique. He swears by both DOF and mirror lock, more so in his earlier books than his later ones. Apparently, John will even cover his head and camera when using DOF preview, and s-l-o-w-l-y stop down the lens, permitting his eyes to adjust. I don't go that far, yet, but I do use a wide-brim hat, block light with a free hand, and let my eyes adjust - and DOF then becomes more useful. - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
