QDFS Field Testing

In this short post I'll discuss the latest tweaks I've made to my Canon M3 Quasi Depth of Field Script (QDFS) and show a few snaps from a recent field trip to the National Trust's Stourhead property.

When it first opened in the 1740s, the garden at Stourhead was described as 'a living work of art'. Its designer, Henry Hoare II – or 'Henry the Magnificent' – was one of a small group of 'gentleman gardeners' who used their large estates to create a personal landscape. Henry was inspired by his travels around Europe and, while Stourhead's garden has developed over the centuries, those original inspirations can still be seen today.

All the images captured at Stourhead were taken hand held with the help of the QDF Script, ie optimising focus and exposure bracketing.

The latest version of the script, downloadable from the right, now includes a wind bracketing option, which gives you your base bracket and an additional bracket at the same exposure, but at a higher ISO, and thus at a faster shutter speed. This use case covers wide angle capture, where the forground objects may be more visibly impacted by wind than the background. Typically you would use 3-4 Ev as the wind bracketing offset.

 I've also changed the UI and its functionality a little, as shown below:

The UP button now toggles between Canon shutter speed and ISO adjustment modes.With the DOWN button toggling the console on and off, with the console's position set in the script's menu.

Finally, the script now checks to see if the camera is in manual focus mode, and, if not, sets it to MF. It also checks and ensures the wheel is always set to shutter speed adjustment, irrespective of the camera being in ISO or Tv adjustment mode at start up. Noting, of course, you can switch between Tv and ISO adjustment modes with the UP button.

As usual I welcome any comments on this post or any of my posts.