Triple Take

One of the techniques in a photographer’s toolbox is called ‘depth of field’ – if you have a single lens reflex camera, you can adjust how much of the image will be in focus. Either a lot, or a little. It depends on what sort of effect you are after. Could be artsy, with a fuzzy background, like a lot of portraiture, or you may want everything in the image to be sharply in focus. Like most newspaper photos.

Like many photographers, I like to take a number of shots of the same subject using different camera settings, including aperture, which controls the depth of field. What I post is generally what I consider the most effective. But sometimes I can’t decide. Either I like several variations, or none of them. Sometimes I don’t know if it’s the image or my eye that ‘s out of focus!

Anyway, here are three versions of the same shot from my garden, taken Saturday morning. A small dusky red Hemerocallis, variety unknown, in front of a very healthy Clematis x durandii. This is a really cool, rambling, Clematis – one of my favourites. You can read all about it here.

For me, the top image is mostly all in focus. In this next one, I think the Clematis is more sharp, and in the final version, the daylilies are clear while the clematis are fuzzy.

I know which on I prefer, but what about you?