I need help with depth of field in photography...?

Question

My assignment is to shoot pics with different apertures to show depth of field. I am not very photo savy so any and all help would be greatly appreciated. If you could please give me help on where to set the aperture too that would be great. thank you in advance!

Answer 1

The smaller the aperture, the greatest DOF.
Open up lens and focus on a near object, the background will be blurred, great for portraits.

Ho, Hum, digital cams have settings or this.

I really hope you are studying how cameras work.
Look up the name Camera, see what it got it's name from.
Hyperfocal Distance is a worth while thing to check out as well . . loads of serious photographers have no clue what that is . .stun your teacher with that one.

Above all enjoy it

Answer 2

An apertures can also be called an f-stop.

If you have a manual camera, look at the lens and you'll see numbers like 5.6, 8, 16, 22. These are f-stops. The bigger the number, the smaller the aperture (the hole in the lens that lets the light in). Just twist this part of the lens around and it will click onto the different f-stops.

The bigger the f-stop number, the more depth of field you'll have. This means there will be more in focus. Big f-stops (small apertures) are good for landscapes where you want everything to be in focus.

The smaller the f-stop number, the less depth of field you'll have. This means less in focus. Small f-stops are good for portraits because the background will be out of focus and fuzzy.

If you have a digital camera, you'll be able to change the f-stops using the cameras selection controls. On a Canon for example, you turn the dial near the shutter button. You'll have to read your camera's instruction manual to learn this because every digital camera is a bit different.

For your assignment, make sure as you take photos with different apertures, that you keep your camera focused on the same point in each photo. That will give you the best result for showing different depths of field.

Answer 3

Your assignment is to take a series of photos of the same subject, but varying depth of field. First, your subject needs to be close, with a distant backgound for the effect to be noticable. Many cameras have a minimum focus distance, so i would try about 4 foot for the subject, up to 6 foot if a person. In order to get the wide aperture, you need to have the subject in deep shade if outdoors and use a film speed of ASA 100 or less. Doing this indoors will be a real challenge because flash will interact with aperature and your camera may not allow manual setting. The background needs to be at least 15 feet away, preferably with elements at various distances, and have sufficient detail so that defocus can actually be observed. Not a flat painted wall, trees are better and they also give shade!! Also, do NOT use a wide angle setting, a 35mm camera lens equivalent of 70 mm is ideal for portraits but 50 to 100 mm should work for this project. You will need a tripod, or adequate support for the camera both to replicate the shooting position every time and to hold the camera still for the very long exposure that will be needed to get to f-16 or f-22. The aperature needs to open to at least f-2 with a 50 mm lense for the effect to be fully noticable although a telephoto at f-4 should also work. If your camera allows setting the aperature directly then do that. If not, then change the speed setting to force aperature adjustment for each shot. The ideal exposure range is f-2 at 1/1000, f-4 at 1/250, f-8 at 1/60 and f-16 at 1/15 however this will depend on the specific light available and film ASA. Your shutter might not work faster than 1/1000 and speeds slower than 1/15 may pick up blur from movement and ruin the focus effect.

Answer 4

Depth of Field is used to describe how much of the photograph is in focus.

The different apertures are called "f stops".
Different cameras have different available f stops, but they usually span from f4- f32.

The fstop number is a fraction of the diameter of the lens opening.
So f4, seeming like a small number, is actually the biggest opening. Because it is a fraction.
And f32 would be the smallest opening.

The bigger the opening, the more out of focus areas you will get.
A small opening will result in a very clear crisp photograph with all areas in focus.

The larger the aperture, the shorter the shutter speed time.
Taking photographs with a small opening requires more light, thus, a longer shutter speed.
For example, if you want to photograph a garden, with all of the flowers equally in focus, and you set your opening to f20, this is a very small opening.
So your camera is going to need a longer exposure time to allow more light to enter.
If you want one flower in focus, and you set your camera to f4, your lens is WIDEopen. Therefore, if you leave the lens open for a long time, it will flood with light and ruin your picture.
So, you'd want to pick a very fast shutter speed.

Assuming that you are shooting with a DSLR, you should shoot in Aperture Priority mode, usually symbolized by an A on your camera's dial.
This mode lets you set your fstop, and the camera will choose the best shutter speed to expose the picture.

Set your fstop.
Then point the camera at what you want to shoot.
(make sure your lens in on Autofocus; AV, not M (manual).
Now, gently press down the button like you are taking the picture, only, don't press it down all the way.

This should focus the camera on what you want.
If you are using a large f stop such as f5.6, you should see one item in focus, and the rest "blurred" (out of focus).
Then, press the button down all the way.

Take that same picture at several different fstops.

Good luck!

PS: see if your local library or bookstore has a book called Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson.
That explains it all much better.

Answer 5

Choose a light intensity where you can take pictures with both the smallest and largest apertures of your lens. Use stationary subjects and preferably put the camera on a tripod (you might need it when you are shooting with the small aperture) Put two or three objects in front of the camera, all in view but at different distances. Focus on one of them (the middle one would be great) and take a picture with both the smallest and largest aperture. Adjust the shutter speed appropriately to keep the exposure constant (hint: for doubling the f stop you'll need to multiply your exposure time by four). Observe the difference in the pictures.

To learn more about depth of field, read up on "circle of confusion" too. Understanding that helps you get the definition of "sharp" and "unsharp".

Answer 6

An Introduction to Depth of Field (pdf): http://www.largeformatphotography.info/articles/IntroToDoF.pdf

Answer 7

Wikipedia does pretty well on the subject of depth of field. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depth_of_field

If you have a digital camera, choose the "A" mode and then just do it! You can see the results immediately, although it is harder to achieve as much "de-focusing" with digital cameras, especially point and shoot cameras.

Answer 8

well ..to show DOF:
shot a close-up of a long yellow ruler. Extend the ruler like you wanna measure the distance between the camera and a subject at 3m. Focus somewhere at 1/2 of that ruler. 1st shot with f2.8 , 2nd with f5 and 3rd with f11. You should see the differences.
;-)