An Important Observation

With the challenge of trying to figure out what the Group F/1 philosophy should look like still well under way, I've put some feelers out in the online photography community. One of the places I've been 'hanging out' online discussing photography is PhotoSig -- an online community where you can submit photographs for critique, as well as critique photographs from other members. There are also forums and reviews there, so it's really an excellent resource for budding photographers.


I've submitted photos that I've taken with the current revision of the Group F/1 philosophy, and received some very helpful advice. One critique, however, really stands out in my mind as being very key to furthering the philosophy of Group F/1. It's actually somewhat obvious, and I'm not sure how I missed considering this. But nevertheless, it's been an eye opener for me, and really a foundational principal that certainly will be adopted going forward with this pursuit.

In reply to my explanation about what I was doing with the Depth-of-Focus in the particular image, one PhotoSig member replied:

Paul while I understand your intent I can tell you that it doesn't come off that way while looking at the image. I think the DOF tapers off very rapidly and that looks - appears - as an oversight rather than intentional.

That's the key, indeed, and the fundamental challenge of exploring life at the other end of the aperture ring. So, I'm adopting this as the first tenet of the Group F/1 philosophy: Photographs must be composed so that the common viewer can see that the focus effect is intentional and not indeed an oversight.

Of course, that's a much larger challenge than it may appear. Something I'm going to have to get busy working on. I'm not sure any of my current images within this philosophy truly do live up to that tenet...