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Tutorial: Depth of Field
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Tutorial: Depth of Field
Most cameras have at least some manual settings which can help you create different looks and feels and it it worth taking some time to familiarise yourself with them. Depth of field (DOF) is one of the first things people talk about when they are talking about taking photos of roses (even if they don't call it DOF). Everyone wants to take those soft dreamy photos that have a blurred background, which photographers call bokeh ... i.e. 'That photo has some silky smooth bokeh' , and a sharply focused flower. DOF is the amount of the image which is in sharp focus infront of and behind the focal point. Deep DOF is where the image is in focus a long way in front of, and behind, the focal point and a shallow DOF is where the amount of image that is in sharp focus is quite small. To achieve the blurred background effect you need to make the DOF shallow and to do this you need to learn how to use two manual functions. They are the aperture settings and the shutter speed. Aperture setting are described by a set numbers called f-stops. You will see them written with the letter 'f' followed by a number (e.g. f2.8 ). The shutter speed is how long the camera's shutter stays open for and is usually written as a fraction of a second (e.g. 1/250th of a sec) but in low light situations it can stay open for much longer than a second.
Imagine your camera lens is like your eye. When there is a lot of light the pupil of your eye shrinks to reduce the amount of light entering the eye. When there is less light the pupil opens up more to let more light in. In your camera this function is carried out by the iris of the lens to make the aperture, the hole through which light enters the camera via the lens, bigger or smaller. By setting the f-stop higher or lower you are making the hole inversely larger or smaller. That means, the lower the f-stop the larger the aperture. An aperture setting of f2.8 is larger than an aperture setting of f24. DOF is directly controlled by the size of the aperture and the lower the f-stop the more shallow the DOF. A high f-stop will produce photos with much more of the image in focus. Think of the shutter speed as the amount of time you can keep your eyes open without blinking
Take these two photos of 'Pax' as an example (taken this evening):
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
The first photo of 'Pax' was taken with a medium sized aperture setting of f11. This is probably getting towards the high side of aperture settings though I often go much higher (to f22 for example). You can see that the amount of photo in focus is fairly high for this lens (a 24-135 zoom lense at 135mm) though there is still a good amount of blurring in the background. This helps hide the weeds behind it As a general rule, the longer the lens the more difficult it is to get good DOF so zoom lenses at long focal lengths are a good choice to help make these silky smooth backgrounds that people lust over. The shutter speed in this image was 1/125th of a second. The more the aperture is closed off the longer the shutter needs to stay open so issues like blurring/shake can become problematic.
The second photo of the same flower from about the same spot shows what happens when you stop the aperture down. In this case I stopped it as far down as this lens would go at a focal length of 135mm. It is f5.6. Because it is a much larger aperture value (remember a smaller number is a larger aperture) a lot of light is let in so I set my shutter speed a lot faster at 1/640th of a second. Exposure is proportional and you can keep the exposure levels the same by changing the shutter speeds and f-stops up and down but that is another tutorial. If you are starting out it is best to use your camera's built in exposure metre to help control your exposure.
So to wrap up this very short tutorial on DOF remember f-stop is the size of the apeture, the bigger the number the smaller the apeture, the smaller the f-stop the more shallow the DOF is, and the more the aperture is closed the longer the shutter will need to stay open.
If you experiment with your camera's manual settings why not post your results here for us to see. Maybe we can make some suggestions as to how you might make your photos even better!
Imagine your camera lens is like your eye. When there is a lot of light the pupil of your eye shrinks to reduce the amount of light entering the eye. When there is less light the pupil opens up more to let more light in. In your camera this function is carried out by the iris of the lens to make the aperture, the hole through which light enters the camera via the lens, bigger or smaller. By setting the f-stop higher or lower you are making the hole inversely larger or smaller. That means, the lower the f-stop the larger the aperture. An aperture setting of f2.8 is larger than an aperture setting of f24. DOF is directly controlled by the size of the aperture and the lower the f-stop the more shallow the DOF. A high f-stop will produce photos with much more of the image in focus. Think of the shutter speed as the amount of time you can keep your eyes open without blinking
Take these two photos of 'Pax' as an example (taken this evening):
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
The first photo of 'Pax' was taken with a medium sized aperture setting of f11. This is probably getting towards the high side of aperture settings though I often go much higher (to f22 for example). You can see that the amount of photo in focus is fairly high for this lens (a 24-135 zoom lense at 135mm) though there is still a good amount of blurring in the background. This helps hide the weeds behind it As a general rule, the longer the lens the more difficult it is to get good DOF so zoom lenses at long focal lengths are a good choice to help make these silky smooth backgrounds that people lust over. The shutter speed in this image was 1/125th of a second. The more the aperture is closed off the longer the shutter needs to stay open so issues like blurring/shake can become problematic.
The second photo of the same flower from about the same spot shows what happens when you stop the aperture down. In this case I stopped it as far down as this lens would go at a focal length of 135mm. It is f5.6. Because it is a much larger aperture value (remember a smaller number is a larger aperture) a lot of light is let in so I set my shutter speed a lot faster at 1/640th of a second. Exposure is proportional and you can keep the exposure levels the same by changing the shutter speeds and f-stops up and down but that is another tutorial. If you are starting out it is best to use your camera's built in exposure metre to help control your exposure.
So to wrap up this very short tutorial on DOF remember f-stop is the size of the apeture, the bigger the number the smaller the apeture, the smaller the f-stop the more shallow the DOF is, and the more the aperture is closed the longer the shutter will need to stay open.
If you experiment with your camera's manual settings why not post your results here for us to see. Maybe we can make some suggestions as to how you might make your photos even better!
Re: Tutorial: Depth of Field
Why can I not see the pictures, I am logged in?
Great work
Great work
Bruce Sanders- Number of posts : 49
Location : Hunter Valley
Registration date : 2014-04-23
Re: Tutorial: Depth of Field
The links are not there , Bruce....they probably have been deleted by the previous owner(admin)....sorry
neptune- Number of posts : 2450
Location : Western Australia
Registration date : 2010-06-26
Re: Tutorial: Depth of Field
Many thanks thought it was something like that just trying to better my photography
Bruce Sanders- Number of posts : 49
Location : Hunter Valley
Registration date : 2014-04-23
Re: Tutorial: Depth of Field
Bruce Sanders wrote:Many thanks thought it was something like that just trying to better my photography
You could try this link Bruce,
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
The Lazy Rosarian- Number of posts : 5191
Age : 70
Location : Mudgee, NSW, Australia
Registration date : 2009-01-11
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