Depth of Field

4 Tasks to improve your Photography.

Depth of Field edition!

Aperture and Depth of Field (DoF). What is it and how can mastering it improve my Photography?

Lets Dive in!

Let's review, Aperture is one of the three main elements of the exposure triangle in photography, along with shutter speed and ISO. It refers to the opening in a camera lens through which light enters the camera. The aperture size is measured in f-stops, and it's used to control the amount of light that reaches the camera's sensor, as well as the depth of field in an image.

An aperture is like the iris of the human eye, it can open wide to let in more light or close down to let in less light. The aperture is adjusted by the aperture ring on the lens or by changing the aperture value in the camera's menu settings. The aperture value is expressed in f-stops, which represent the ratio of the lens's focal length to the aperture diameter. The aperture is often represented by the letter f followed by a number such as f/2.8, f/5.6 and so on. The lower the f-stop number, the wider the aperture, and the more light that enters the camera.

One of the most significant ways aperture is used in photography is to control depth of field (DoF). Depth of field refers to the range of sharpness in an image, and it's determined by the aperture size. A shallow depth of field means that only a small portion of the image is in focus, while a large depth of field means that more of the image is in focus.

A small aperture, represented by a high f-stop number like f/16 or f/22, will have a large depth of field. This means that objects both near and far from the lens will be in focus.

The wider the aperture the shorter the depth of field will be in your photograph less distance will be sharp. Also referred to as Shallow Depth of field.

The smaller the aperture the longer the depth of field will be in your photograph more distance will be sharp. Also referred to as long Depth of Field.

Image above shows Depth of Field with different apertures. borrowed from cameraharmony.com

Lets get to the first task!

Practice using Aperture Priority mode. 'A' or 'Av' dial on the top of your camera. Put ISO to auto. Brands and models may very on what Aperure Priority mode looks like on the dial. Refer to your manual.

Get used to how your camera works in A mode and what dial makes changes the f-stop.

Task 2.

We will practice controlling the depth of field. To do that we will need to do the following.

• camera in Aperture Priority

• ISO to lowest native.

• Make sure your AF (auto focus) point is set to the center frame.

• if you have a zoom lens pick a middle focal length. 50mm if possible but any focal length is fine.

• Set your camera on a timer. 2 seconds. we will need a tripod and use a remote trigger to prevent camera shake and motion blur.

• set your focus point to something around 5ft away.

• next take a image going through your lens's aperture sequence. start at your wide aperture to the smallest.

Look at your images and see how your camera DoF changes from image to image.

Task 3

Control the depth of field using focal length.

• we will continue where we left from task 2.

• Keep all the same settings and your camera on the tripod, we will set our aperture to f/2.8.

• Using a zoom lens, take one image at the widest focal length. Most lenses will be 24 but your may be different.

• Take a second picture zoomed in as much as possible.

Compare the DoF between the images.

Task 4

Control the DoF using distance. Distance controls depth of field. the closer you are the more shallow the Dof. the farther you are the longer the DoF.

Lets practice!

• put your camera in Aperture Pirority mode, ISO auto, focal length to 35mm and aperture to your widest.

• take a photo of something close.

• take a photo of something in the distance.

Notice the difference in the DoF between the images.

Both image 5.1 and 5.2 taken at the same focal length, aperture and shutter speed. Notice the Depth of Field change between the two. Image 5.1 taken further way has a deeper DoF while Image 5.2 has a shallow DoF. The difference is the distance to the subject.

Thank you for taking the time to read! I hope this information on Depth of Field helps you improve your photography. Remember to experiment and have fun and see what works best for you and your style. Let me know if you have any questions.

Get out there are take some pictures!

-Thomas Martinez