The Experience of Depth

Of late my Passion Flower Vine has captured the attention of some Fritillary Caterpillars. So far I've counted 7 of them. What I love most about photographing small critters is what I'm able to do with the depth. I used the "super macro" setting on my camera and focused on the head, allowing the rest of the frame to blur as it would. I used the rule of thirds for my primary composition guidelines and looked for interesting angles. When dealing with a shallow depth of field I've found it best to take many pictures even of the same basic shot because fractions of a difference in the depth can change the entire focus of the picture.

For example, what if in the picture below I had mistakenly focused a fraction to the left of the caterpillar's head? It would have focused on the flower bud and slightly blurred the caterpillar rather than bringing it in sharp. It is often hard to notice the slight changes in depth when taking a picture which is why I always take several just to make sure I get it right.

Notice this picture below, if you look carefully the focus is on the middle of the caterpillar rather than it's head. Do you see how such a subtle change hinders the photograph's effect? I love the composition of this one but the slight misplaced sharpness really detracts from the overall picture.

To read about Andrew and Kathlena's experience with these little critters visit our Family Blog.