Creating an HDR image with a shallow depth of field

“All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

So I don’t intend this to be a tutorial but more of an observation. I tend to create most of my HDR images in the f8 to f22 range, keeping as much in focus as possible from front to back of the image. Seems like bracketing most anything ….say….f5.6 or lower while positioning the camera to get a “shallow” depth of field….creates some “weird” results.

Again, a geeky post here unless you are into this kinda stuff.

What are your thoughts on this?

In the image above, I tried something a bit different…

Not sure why I keep using all the ……..’s by the way, but I’ll continue.

While bumbling through the desert in Southern Utah, I noticed a few of these little cactus clusters sprinkled all over the desert landscape. This one, like so many others, really looked like a nasty little thing to fall into!

So in order to capture as much detail as possible, my first series of brackets were set at most likely about F8 or F11. I then dialed that a little wider to draw more attention to the cactus….thus blurring out the background a bit. This somewhat dangerous little pile of thorns and prickly parts is in fact the subject and the real reason I stopped in the first place, so it made sense to really draw more attention to it.

Fast forward a couple of months.

I processed both sets in Photomatix 5 and then decided to blend both of them together in Photoshop. After a few more adjustments in Lightroom (sometimes you just don’t know when to stop!), I settled on this.

Again, like I have said before, these tools are all here to use, play, and create with. Although I kinda like what I came up with, I might hate  it later, so I’ll release it before that happens.

Keep playing!