When Enough Depth of Field Isn't Possible

Too often the laws of optics conspire against us photographers, and to get what we want artistically we have to outsmart these annoying limitations.

For example, on a photo tour to Kenya in 2007, our group spotted this beautiful leopard sleeping in a tree. It was a great shot -- except for the fact that the large branch that was about 5 or 6 feet in front of the cat wasn't sharp. I was using a 500mm f/4 telephoto, which meant that depth of field was very shallow. I was shooting wide open -- f/4 -- because the light level was low and in the vehicle a tripod is impractical. Out of focus foregrounds are usually very distracting, so I solved the problem by taking two pictures.

First I focused on the leopard and took a photo, and then I focused on the foreground branch and took a second shot. I tried to be as precise as possible in not moving the lens from the time I took one shot to the time the second one was snapped. The camera and lens rested on a bean bag, so while it wasn't a perfect match, it was close enough.

When I got home, I used Photoshop to combine the two images. I meticulously cut and pasted the sharp branch (using the Pen tool in CS4) over the out of focus branch. Now both the foreground and background are tack sharp and the picture works. It looks like what I saw with my eyes.