Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Creative Use Of Depth Of Field In Photography

By Carl Johnson


Depth of field (DOF) is the amount of your image that's in focus. Numerous beginning photographers make the mistake of attempting to maintain as much of their pictures in focus as is feasible. Regrettably, unless you're shooting scenery, doing so generally hinders the effect your pictures have on the audience, and can make your photos look poor when you go to develop them, or if you get into custom poster printing. You'll recognize the reason as we discuss this matter in much more fine detail below.

Experienced photographers recognize that clouding certain aspects in the backdrop and foreground may generate memorable images. DOF is a tool that helps you to tell a narrative regarding the point of interest; it can be leveraged to create diverse visual experiences for the audience.

This post will describe depth of field, and explain how aperture affects it. You will furthermore learn the worth of short vs . long focus in your shots. Lastly, we'll investigate the reason blurring your subject is frequently the proper procedure for concentrating your audience's attention.

The Impact Of Aperture On Depth Of Field

Aperture demonstrates the dimension of the opening by which light comes into into your digital camera. It's symbolized by a number, such as F/2.8, F/8.0, and F/22. They are known as f-values. The greater the digit, the smaller the opening (i.e. aperture) and the significantly less light allowed through the lens.

Aperture has a direct effect on the depth of field in your photographs. The larger the opening, the shallower the DOF. For instance, suppose you're shooting a tree with a rock formation within your frame's backdrop. If your aperture is set to F/22, both the tree (your point of interest) and the rock formation come in focus. If you shoot with the aperture set to F/2.8, the tree will stay in focus, but the rocks are going to be blurred.

There's no distinct point at which physical objects in your backdrop or forefront suddenly lose focus. The transition is incremental as aperture changes, and thus seldom apparent. This is known as the circle of confusion.

Clouding Your Point Of Interest To Center The Audience's Attention

As with all aspects of digital photography, experimenting with your depth of field is the best method to reveal techniques that produce remarkable shots. For example, suppose you are taking photos of partners walking away along the shore of a beach. Usually, you would keep your subject matter (the pair) in sharp focus even while letting the sand and water cloud. But consider the effect of clouding your subject.

It creates a new visual experience. It adds an additional component to the narrative, which is mostly determined by the audience. For instance, the couple appears to be walking toward a future that is uncertain, but full of promises.

For traditional images, like portraits and panoramas, the "guidelines" governing the use of depth of field are more rigid. With portraits, a short DOF is superior to draw your audience's attention to your subject. This helps to decrease distractions that could normally pull attention from your subject. With scenery, a wide-angle lens with a small aperture - thus, creating a longer depth of field - ensures the foreground and background aspects remain in focus; this leads the eyes through the entire arrangement, and introduces the viewer to every aspect in the picture.

Frameworking Your Point Of Focus With Forefront Components

A particularly effective approach to using DOF is to frame your subject with forefront elements that are out of focus. For example, imagine your model is standing ten feet away surrounded by heavy foliage. Position the plants, foliage, and branches all along the perimeter of your framework, around your subject matter.

Increase your aperture to produce a shallow depth of field in order to blur the border; keep the subject matter in sharp focus. Blurring the foliage and branches keeps them from distracting your viewer, while utilizing them for the narrative you are attempting to tell in your picture.

Depth of field is one of the most neglected photography tools, though it is an important component of just about every picture you capture. Learn to use it creatively to generate a unique encounter for your viewers.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment