Depth of field issue?

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JoeB

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I shot this photo earlier this year and although I like the photo I was wondering about the depth-of-field and the ducks in focus. Do the in focus ducks distract or lead your eye away from the Bald Eagle? Your thoughts are appreciated.
Nikon d500 with Nikon 500mm f4. Shot at f5.6 with shutter speed less than 1/1000.
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To me there's too much going on in that photo which does distract from the Eagle. One or even a couple of Ducks scrambling to get away as the Eagle approached would tell the story but there's so much going on that competes for the viewer's attention. I don't think a different aperture and more or less DoF would resolve those things but IMO it would be a stronger image without that somewhat out of focus group of Ducks in the lower right.
 
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DRwyoming said:
To me there's too much going on in that photo which does distract from the Eagle. One or even a couple of Ducks scrambling to get away as the Eagle approached would tell the story but there's so much going on that competes for the viewer's attention. I don't think a different aperture and more or less DoF would resolve those things but IMO it would be a stronger image without that somewhat out of focus group of Ducks in the lower right.
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Thanks DR. I appreciate your comment and likely that is what is causing my concern with the photo.

Joe
 
With that nice background it would be easy to move the ducks or remove them.
 
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The photo confuses me, because the ducks in the rear are in focus, while the ducks in the foreground--which appear to be closer to the eagle--are not. It gives the appearance of being Photoshopped. Not saying you did, just saying it looks that way to me.
 
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There is no way you could have created enough depth of field to have everything in focus because you didn't necessarily know things would turn out like this. It may not be ideal to have blurry ducks but sometimes that doesn't matter so much because you rightly wanted to concentrate on the main subject i.e. the Eagle. You can probably get ducks all day long but isn't the Eagle the special visitor ?

This is where burst mode pays dividends. Firing off a dozen or so shots as the Eagle moved would likely have netted you at least one shot with nothing in the background.

You could crop to include just the flying duck above the Eagle's head and remove the duck behind the wing but as you've cropped already that might not appeal. Were you quite a long way from the action.
 
Capturingtheunseen.com said:
The photo confuses me, because the ducks in the rear are in focus, while the ducks in the foreground--which appear to be closer to the eagle--are not. It gives the appearance of being Photoshopped. Not saying you did, just saying it looks that way to me.
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Depth of field works in both directions, though. The plane of sharp focus would be parallel to the sensor, so depth of field would drop off both in front of and behind the plane of focus. The camera seems to be tilted slightly left to my eye relative to the subjects, meaning the plane of focus would be angled, making the foreground birds on the right even farther from the plane of focus behind them.
 
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bleirer said:
Depth of field works in both directions, though. The plane of sharp focus would be parallel to the sensor, so depth of field would drop off both in front of and behind the plane of focus. The camera seems to be tilted slightly left to my eye relative meaning the plane of focus would be angled, making the foreground birds on the right even farther from the plane of focus behind them.
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I'm sure it's just an optical illusion, but my first reaction when looking at the image was, "what the heck is going on here?" lol
 
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gbodave said:
There is no way you could have created enough depth of field to have everything in focus because you didn't necessarily know things would turn out like this. It may not be ideal to have blurry ducks but sometimes that doesn't matter so much because you rightly wanted to concentrate on the main subject i.e. the Eagle. You can probably get ducks all day long but isn't the Eagle the special visitor ?

This is where burst mode pays dividends. Firing off a dozen or so shots as the Eagle moved would likely have netted you at least one shot with nothing in the background.

You could crop to include just the flying duck above the Eagle's head and remove the duck behind the wing but as you've cropped already that might not appeal. Were you quite a long way from the action.
Click to expand...
It is cropped by about 50%, the distance was not ideal.

Joe
 
DRwyoming said:
To me there's too much going on in that photo which does distract from the Eagle. One or even a couple of Ducks scrambling to get away as the Eagle approached would tell the story but there's so much going on that competes for the viewer's attention. I don't think a different aperture and more or less DoF would resolve those things but IMO it would be a stronger image without that somewhat out of focus group of Ducks in the lower right.
Click to expand...

I agree about the ducks on the bottom right. If you have the pixels to give I would crop in from the left to eliminate the tall stick and clump, or clone it out, and from the bottom crop up above the heads of the small ducks and clone away the bit of wing that would remain. Plus remove the bit of rock under the eagle wing.
 
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Beautiful looking bird you captured there, Joe.

I agree what has been said already, so not going to repeat that. But what you could consider trying as well is not cropping more but instead cloning out the out of focus group of ducks in the bottom right as well as the rightmost duck in the middle of the frame. There's not too much going on near them (splashes etc), so it should be doable.

That might considerably clean up the image already and give it a less "cluttered" feel.
 
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To me it looks like the focus was behind the eagle, closer to the background ducks. Anyway, if you removed some or all of the ducks you would just have a greatly cropped, small in size eagle with more open water around it than before. I think I would just file this in the "eagle with lots of ducks" catogory and look to get closer shots of the eagle by itself in the future. And, honestly, I think it's an interesting shot as it is. You could say that the ducks are a distraction, or you could say that they are a part of the photograph.
 
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Concur with Woodyg3 in that the eagle, particularly the head, seems to be a tiny bit soft compared to the ducks more in the background. Assuming you had the AF point on the eagle head, could your lens/camera combination be back focusing? Still, a good shot at a relatively slow shutter speed.
 
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There sure is a lot of elements struggling to catch my attention. I assume your thought focus was the eagle. To have it as the main subject I would suggest some different ways.
1. Before next event check you lens for focus accuracy, Could look as if the focus accidentally has landed between the eagle and the swimming ducks, so both are equally in focus
2. Try f/4, not sure how hard it will hurt sharpness, as it reduces DOF
3. Continue shooting while the eagle flies by, hoping it will pass the ducks and still be withing reach

Cropping can go to far and ruin quality, so I will not recommend to go further the 50% you mention
 
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Little bit of editing following the collective suggestions. And then I have to admit to preferring the original - I like the busy-ness of it :)

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I like the entire scene. If I could...I would like the closest duck to not be in the shot. My eye keeps going back and forth between the duck and the eagle. It does take away from the eagle but I think the other ducks are part of the story. With nature, you take what you are given and make the best visual you can. And this shows the ducks are giving the eagle a little space.
 
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