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Depth of Field, Why Bother?
If you have read my previous articles on the subject of Depth of Field you will know what we mean by the term and how to achieve the effect in your photographs. If you have tried experimenting, you may also have discovered that it can be a frustrating experience!
In this article I want to show why it is important to master techniques for achieving depth of field effects in your photographs because it really does improve your work. It can make a huge difference and if you are trying to sell your work it will certainly make a positive difference to your success rate.
I am going to illustrate what I mean with a number of images that make good use of depth of field. I am sure you will be able to recognise the contribution it makes, and will want to replicate this in your own images.
| Canon EOS300D, 200mm, 1/125, f11, ISO200 |
These two photographs illustrate the difference between a straight 'point and shoot' image of the three horses on the left, and a small amount of depth of field in the shot below.
If you click on one of these images, a new window will open with larger versions so you can better see what's going on.
There is nothing particularly wrong with the top shot and it would look well in many situations, but just a small change in the bottom one helps the horse stand out and become the focus of attention.
In comaprison, in the top one almost everything, including the trees in the background, is in focus. Your eye tends to wander around the whole image rather than hold on the main subject matter, the three horses.
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| Canon EOS300D, 200mm, 1/200, f5.6, ISO200 |
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Canon EOS300D, 200mm, 1/200, f5.6, ISO125 |
These two on the right have made excellent use of depth of field. The background tells you all about the location, but causes no distraction, whilst the real subjects are in perfect focus.
They hardly even need captions to get across the story of kids having fun in the countryside. |
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In the example above, I've quickly replaced the background in the one above right, to give an idea what things would have looked like if I had payed no attention to depth of field issues.
The version on the right is the much better image. Apart from the obvious depth of field issues, it offers an editor flexibility to either crop it to fit a page, or to overlap text or a caption on top of the picture without losing it in the background. |
Canon EOS300D, 200mm, 1/125, f5.6, ISO400
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When shooting these images the camera was switched to Aperture Priority mode. This allows the photographer to select the required aperture leaving the camera to sort out everything else. This allows you to concentrate on the aperture and how it will affect the depth of field without worrying about shutter speed.
Shooting like this gives you time to take a number of shots whilst quickly changing the aperture so that you can compare and select the best from the group. |
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| Below are two images that show the difference the focal length of the lens can make. |
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| Canon EOS300D, 200mm, 1/200, f5.6, ISO100 |
Canon EOS300D, 55mm, 1/60, f4, ISO100 |
The image on the left was taken using a setting of 200mm on the camera's zoom lens. The horse looking straight at the camera is in sharp focus so that you can make out individual hairs on it's mane and tail.
The horse behind it on the left is sufficiently out of focus to prevent it grabbing your attention, even though it was not very far behind.. As you move further back things get more and more out of focus.
The effect begins quite close to the point of focus due to the long focal length. |
The image above was taken at a focal length of 55mm at f4.
Even though this is a larger aperture than the one on the left, the two large trees behind the group are still quite sharply focused.
The shorter focal length does not compress distances the way longer lenses do.
This emphasises the need to bracket your exposures whilst taking a number of shots to make sure you get the effect you want. |
Finally, just to confuse matters, the shot on the right was taken with the camera in fully automatic mode. I decided to let the camera make it's own decisions and see what happened!
As you can see, it made a reasonable job. The use of a focal length of 200mm has given enough distance compression, coupled with good, tight focusing, to produce a good shot.
Knowing how various focal lengths affect you work allows shots like this to be grabbed almost without thinking about it and you end up with many more usefull and saleable images. All it takes is practice ... |
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Canon EOS300D, 200mm, 1/250, f7.1, ISO100 |
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