DOF Advice please; High Shot Count Game Changer LRC

[BarkingBeans Coffee]

First my High Shot Count Review Game Changer.
Preferences>Interface>check Swipe between images using mouse/trackpad
No more clicking the arrow buttons. Wow I breezed through 4,000 images. For first pass this was so great with my MBP trackpad. Two fingers right to left. I guess this can work with a mouse wheel too.

Next effort on this is going to back off on the tight crop and I want to get the entire top surface in focus so that I get all the birds in focus. This was f10 at 290mm with the 1.4TC. Maybe its focus setting changes as well. This was Auto Area AF wit the water blocked.
I know there are calculators but I have a feeling there is more in play. So any suggestions for settings is appreciated. I can probably take my 1.4TC off.
Will the Preview function give me a good idea. Although I am using the LCD for composition so not looking through the viewfinder.
Any suggestions are appreciated.

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[Cameron T]

Use a depth of field calculator to see what you can do to get everything in focus. You need to put in your distance, etc, so that's something you'll have to measure.

I'm not sure what "other factors" exist when calculating depth of field. Yes, it can shift depending on exactly where you focus, but you'll have to fudge that too to make sure you still have enough DOF to get them all.

 

[DRwyoming]

Next effort on this is going to back off on the tight crop and I want to get the entire top surface in focus so that I get all the birds in focus. This was f10 at 290mm with the 1.4TC. Maybe its focus setting changes as well. This was Auto Area AF wit the water blocked.
I know there are calculators but I have a feeling there is more in play. So any suggestions for settings is appreciated. I can probably take my 1.4TC off.
Will the Preview function give me a good idea. Although I am using the LCD for composition so not looking through the viewfinder.
Any suggestions are appreciated.

Well, the calculators are correct but in a nutshell DoF for a given aperture depends on magnification so the larger you want the birds in the frame the tougher it is going to be to keep two or more birds at different distances in sharp focus. So you can either loosen up the framing (smaller birds in frame and less magnification) or stop down further and suffer a higher ISO or lower shutter speed. Of course for more static subjects you could try a two or three shot focus stack focusing on different subjects for each shots but that's likely tough with active subjects like small birds.

Seeing as you framed this at 290mm you might as well remove the TC as you were within the native 100-400mm focal length of your lens anyway. That said, the TC doesn't really change the potential DoF any more than just framing the image at 290mm with the native lens but a TC never improves contrast or sharpness so no real reason to have it in the system if you don't need to extend the focal length of your lens.

It's a cool shot as is, but to get all the birds in focus you may have to keep trying until they just happen to have all of their eyes very near the same distance from the camera and/or stop down further and tradeoff some ISO or shutter speed for increased DoF.

 

[BarkingBeans Coffee]

Thanks - I started this as a test of the TC and it morphed into an Auto Capture learning experience. Clearly the 1.4 can come off for the next attempt. Of course I am guessing next try there won't be 8-9 of them. I am more motivated to keep trying with my new review trick. Made it so much easier than pushing the arrow key 4,000 times.