Eilean Donan No 3 – Tracey Capone Photography ©2012

One of my favorite aspects of using an SLR camera is the ability to get creative with depth of field. The majority of my trip around Scotland and Ireland was using my Nikon 24-70 2.8 and I have to say, that has quickly become my go to lens. Whether I’m doing portraits or landscape, the lens never fails to deliver the quality shots. (ok, I’m not letting the lens take all the credit… it does help to understand how to use it, and your camera, of course!)

I had previously introduced you to the Eilean Donan castle in Scotland with my shot at dusk. It was one of those, “in the right place at the right time” shots because the light was so perfect the resulting photograph, with it’s beautiful blues, is my favorite from the trip. Today’s photo of the day, “Eilean Donan No. 3″ was shot earlier in the day, in full sun which is, admittedly, not my favorite time to photograph so I decided to go the route of creative depth of field. With the lens set at f2.8, I focused about two feet in front of me on the stone wall and took the shot.

It’s important to remember, whether you’re playing with depth of field (DOF) in camera or later in post, you don’t want the subject in the background so blurred that you don’t know what it is. It should be blurred to the point where it isn’t the main focus of the photograph but is still an integral part of it.

While I love getting creative in Photoshop (I am currently obsessed with the three new blur filters in CS6), I love when a shot comes straight out of the camera with the DOF I was hoping for! I may not have loved the light while we were there but I came away with some memorable shots.

Enjoy!

*tracey*