I'm not positive this applies to you and the 717 but I remember reading cameras with APS sensors and fixed lenses it becomes difficult to get very shallow DOF. Having said that . . . .
The photo is very bright. What post processing workflow did you use? Did you enhance the saturation or brightness? Its not like you blew out the details in the photograph, you exposed it very nicely. I think it would become easier to tell if you increased the contrast just a little so that the yellow stalks had a little more definition to them. Also, have you sharpened this shot at all? I know that with the 717 you shouldn't necessarily have to sharpen it but try running this through USM at something like 200%, 0.3 or 0.4 and maybe 1 or 2 pixels. See if that helps to separate out some of the colors and sharpen the definition on the parts that are more in the plane of focus.
It looks like the plane of focus rests on some of the stamen (I think that's the correct terminology for the brownish, walnut-looking organs at the end of the yellow stalks but biology class was lo so many years ago). And it appears that the DOF is fairly shallow as the petals behind (to the left of) all the sexual apparatii at the center of the blossom appear to be out of the field of focus.
I'm not sure (perhaps someone with a 717 can help) but does the 717 have a Macro setting? Did you try that on this shot because that may affect the DOF also.
Hope this at least gives you some directions to take in figuring out what you feel is missing or off in the DOF for this shot. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable about your equipment (or in general) can speak to the issue of the DOF on this shot.
You also might want to take a gander at this tutorial on DOF
Thanks for posting such a lovely flower; I really like the colors here.
It looks like the plane of focus rests on some of the stamen (I think that's the correct terminology for the brownish, walnut-looking organs at the end of the yellow stalks but biology class was lo so many years ago). And it appears that the DOF is fairly shallow as the petals behind (to the left of) all the sexual apparatii at the center of the blossom appear to be out of the field of focus.
If you are too close to your subject the DOF will be extremely shallow. You want to separate the flower from the surrounding BG; the area of maximum focus needs to be large enough to get all the flower relatively sharp. To achieve this you need to back away from the subject, zoom in, and use a lower f-number.
thanks for your replies....will take another shot at it tomorrow weather permitting.
Kev.... didn't do any alterations to the pic at all - have been experimenting with the settings .....when I'm looking through the lens I can see what I want it to look like - that's what I've been trying to do (not always succeeding but the getting there's fun)
Am just starting to work my way through the tutorials to help me understand PS (still a mystery)
Your data sez you shot at f/3.5. Try shooting the same composition at f/5.6; You will see an increase in DoF, but not so much as to bring the background into too sharp a focus. Remember that the smaller the aperture (larger number), the greater the DoF.
Also, the red channel is overexposed, so you have lost detail in that channel over most of the flower. You might try reducing the overall exposure a bit, maybe as much as one stop. Saturated primary colors in sunlight are, IMO, worse than whites to expose properly.
I'm not sure (perhaps someone with a 717 can help) but does the 717 have a Macro setting? Did you try that on this shot because that may affect the DOF also.
Yes, the 717 has a macro mode. Not using the macro may improve DOF because you would have to move away a bit, but I think you won't be able to get such a nice close-up shot as this one (unless you crop a lot of course).
