This was my first photo I took with my Toyo View VX-125 large-format film camera at the Boley street motorcycle drag races. I was using my Nikkor-W 210mm F5.6 lens – my favorite 4×5 lens. I was hoping to get this great portrait with a view down the street they were racing on. It was HOT – the thermometer in my Chevy Silverado said 100 degrees. I set up this photo and just out of habit used F5.6 as my aperture. I tried to make sure and focus on my subject’s eyes, but if you look closely, I missed and his back tire is in focus, and his face and front tire are not in focus.
This is just a good reminder to me that I need to shoot around F8 for most of my portraits with the 210 mm lens so that I make sure I have enough depth of field to get all of my subject in focus. The longer the focal length of the lens and the closer the subject is to the camera, the more narrow the depth of field becomes, regardless of camera size. Lesson learned. Again.
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