Here we are in week 4 of the Tripod Diaries! This weeks assignment for the Digital Photography class was "Depth of Field". You can control the depth of field by adjusting your aperture settings. Commonly seen in outdoor portrait photos the depth of field is really short to throw the background out of focus. which creates a really great effect and places inf-aces on the subject of the photo. Other situations call for a longer depth of field like landscape photos, or photos that you want all of the details to come through the image.
For a long depth of field stop down the aperture to f16 or f22. Look passed the net and ball. Notice the clarity of the lines on the ground and puddle?
For a short depth of field use a wide open aperture like f5.6. See the difference? The lines and the puddle are a bit blurry huh? Depth of field is almost as important as the correct Exposure. Using the correct Depth of Field and the right Exposure really makes or breaks photos. You don't need to be a master or an expert on either to have fun and experiment, but learning to control them is a great way to step up your ability to make better photographs.
Selective Focus and a short Depth of Field is another way to manipulate photos with out photoshop. Here I used f5.6, and a Shutter Speed of 1/500 to get the short Depth of Field and the correct exposure. Again notice the short depth of field. The 2nd and 3rd tennis balls are out of focus. 
By adjusting your focus point you can decide which tennis ball you want in focus. This time I wanted to have the 2nd tennis ball in our net to be in focus. Again the same aperture and shutter speed for the correct Exposure, but the Point of Focus has moved to blur the Foreground and Background.
Finally I moved the focus point to the last tennis ball stuck in the net. All of the camera setting were the same (f5.6 @ 1/500) With a short depth of field you decide what is is going to be in focus. You select the details that are important to your photograph.My assistant Cleo wasn't really interested in Depth of Field. She was more concerned with getting the tennis balls out of the net.
So that's pretty much it for week 4 "Depth of Field". Please feel free to contact me via email or comment here with any questions you have on Depth of Field or anything else photography. Cheers!!
.
.JPG)
0 comments: