Rasbora, ember tetra

[Jeff120]

You are correct Aaron

Rob,
axelrodi rasbora

[krisw]

Jay, can you clarify a bit more about what you're advocating. If this is already a 100% crop, then won't backing away result in less pixel data of the tetra when cropped, resulting in a lower resolution, or a crop where the fish is smaller relative to the photograph size? Would a better alternative be to increase the power of the flash so that you could shoot at a higher F-stop to gain DOF that way? Or would that result in some other negative side effect? (trying to learn this stuff myself)

[jerseyjay]

For those of us unfamiliar with photography acronyms, OOF = out of focus and DOF = depth of field?

Aaron,

You got it man !

[maddog10]

I think Jay was talking about the actual focal point, which in this case he feels is the belly. Assuming Jeff was trying to get the eye in focus as is the norm in this situation, he may have been to close to the fish for the lens to focus properly - every lens has a minimum focus distance that must be maintained. Of course Jay could have meant something else entirely, I can't read minds (but I can see the future!)

If you get good, sharp focus on a subject (even from a fair distance away) there will be plenty of data retained in the photo so that even I tight crop will look good. There is a limit to how much light/flash you can use, especially for fish that are white, silver, red, yellow and/or orange. These colors will "blow out" easily and become big colored blobs on the photos. I think Jeff did very well with the exposure in both the shots he posted.

[jerseyjay]

I think Jay was talking about the actual focal point, which in this case he feels is the belly. Assuming Jeff was trying to get the eye in focus as is the norm in this situation, he may have been to close to the fish for the lens to focus properly - every lens has a minimum focus distance that must be maintained. Of course Jay could have meant something else entirely, I can't read minds (but I can see the future!)

If you get good, sharp focus on a subject (even from a fair distance away) there will be plenty of data retained in the photo so that even I tight crop will look good. There is a limit to how much light/flash you can use, especially for fish that are white, silver, red, yellow and/or orange. These colors will "blow out" easily and become big colored blobs on the photos. I think Jeff did very well with the exposure in both the shots he posted.

Michael,

Keep in mind that if Focus is set to AUTO, you are pointing at the subject and that subject is OOF, you will not be able to take a photograph. Lens motor will be sliding in and out to find the sweet spot. Obviously if lens is set to Manual Focus even if subject is OOF, camera will accept that setting. I still believe that focus was locked on the belly, lens was close to the object therefore DOF was extremely tight resulting in eye / tail OOF and bell In-Focus.

Nevertheless, good photographs !

[maddog10]

You are right, probably had the focus slightly off (not on eye) which is easy to do with a small subject. This is where I hate "Save for web" as I can't extract the exif from the photo. Would like to see what the aperture was set at.

I agree, very nice photos of very challenging subjects.

[Jeff120]

You are probably right about the focus, these guys dart around, when he got under the flash I focused as fast as I could. I wish I still had my lazy africans that just hover around all day!

Aperture was probably f11, and I do use manual focus for macro shots.

Moving back away from the subject basically give you a little more forgiveness. When you are @ max distance moving a matter of mm throws the focus off.

[krisw]

Thanks for the explanation guys, it all makes sense! Jeff, hope you're not taking this as a harsh critique, as mentioned, both shots are great regardless!