What is depth of field, what affects depth of field, and how can we use an understanding of depth of field to take better pictures? This tutorial will make everything clear from near to far.
This article is intended for the DSLR camera user, who has some notion of what DOF and apertures are, in relation to imagers. However, we welcome you to read the following regardless of your photographic experience or level, because it will eventually make sense to you.
Depth of field refers to the area of a scene which appears focussed. It is a product of three factors - the lens aperture, the focal length, and how far from the subject we are. This article covers these three factors and looks at how we can use them to control depth of field in our photography.
In this tutorial we discuss the depth of field (DOF) and deal with such questions as: "How sharp is the image at the DOF limits? Can you trust DOF scales? What aperture should you choose for optimum sharpness when the subject spans a range of distances?"
The aperture adjusts the size of the opening through which light passes to the image sensor. The aperture can be opened up to let in more light or closed (stopped down) to let in less.
Let's look at the effects a wide or a narrow aperture has.
Depth of Field in photography is one of the most important tools that you can use to assist you in achieving much better results as you understanding of how important your point of focus is and how to in that include your subjects as part of the background, or to separate them from the background.
This video is another example of using Depth Of Field, it is about getting away from your computer and taking photographs.
As daunting as it may seem, Depth Of Field is actually very easy to understand and easy to use in your photography, the creative aspect comes when you wish to provide a particular mood for your photography.