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                          DEPTH OF FIELD – PHOTOGRAPHIC FOUNDATIONS

 

    A deep depth of field means that most or all of the image is sharp focus

 

 A shallow depth of field means that a small portion of the image is in focus.

 

How does this work? If you are photographing a landscape scene, you will likely want all of that scene to be in sharp focus ,a deep depth of filed so your audience sees everything in front of them.

 

 

You will need effective use of lines and perspective to help tell the story or give the impression you want your viewers to feel.

 

A shallow depth of field in a landscape image might be confusing to your viewers.

At other times you will want only a small portion of your overall image to be in focus.

 

And the out of focus part of the image is called bokeh.

 

To use the the shallow depth of field on purpose,the person is in sharp focus and the background is out of focus,so why do that?

 

 

-It brings a stronger emphasis on your subject with it being the thing most in focus in your image.

 

-The biggest reason is that your eye will naturally go to whatever is in focus in your image.

 

-So you can use shallow depth of filed to force your viewer to look at your subject.

 

-Make sure that whatever your subject is, that it is sharp and focus.

 

If the rest of the image is out of focus, that part of the image will stand out and people will immediately look there.

Selective focus – chose what parts of your image are in crisp sharp focus and which parts are in soft focus (blurred) … this brings the attention of your audience to the parts of your picture that you want them to really notice.

 

As a photographer you have the ability to determine that you want people to look at .by using a shallow depth of field & having only part of the scene in focus, you will make sure that there iis no doubt about what the subject is ad where you want your viewer to look.

 

A deep of field is used to show grand scenes in nature when you want to overwhelm your audience with beauty, but everything in focus must work together or the subject of your picture could get lost.

 

With lots of practice and seeing the results, depth of field will become an invaluable composition tool

 

1 The size of your camera’s aperture…the f/stop number stting controls the cameras aperture. The focal length of your lens controls the actual size of the opening in millimeters. The size of the aperture is found by dividing the f/stop number into the focal length you are using to shoot with.

 

2 The distance of your subject from other parts of your images such as the foreground or background.

The more separation of your subject from other parts of your frame, the lesser the depth of field will be when focused on your subject.

DEEP DEPTH - When there is a deep depth it is referring to the amount of space in between objects. The camera angle allows this effect to take place in the picture.

SHALLOW DEPTH - Shallow depth in this picture is the un focused background and in the picture below this one it is the subject that is un focused, That is what creates shallow depth.

Selective Focus - Selective focus I chose to shoot this picture exactly like this so that I can get both the subject in focus and more of the background in focus, again what selective focus is ... is what you chose to focus on as your subject.

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