depth of feild?

Question

can i take a picture of depth of field using a digital camera..i usually just use the camera to take pictures of myself and occasions and things...i am now experimenting with it.i looked up what depth of feild is online,but it showed a fancy camera type thingy..can you take a picture of depth of field with any camera?

Answer 1

Some of what TR said was correct - you can't take a picture of depth of field and depth of field is a term that describes what portion of a scene is acceptably in focus at a given setting.

But I strongly disagree with this:
"...the digital technology makes everything from one inch to infinity in proper focus. That's why digital cameras don't have to be focused."

Digital cameras have lenses and those lenses have to be focused. Those lenses also have a specific depth of field for the aperature at which they operate and the distance for which they are focused. Some point and shoot cameras, may not need to be focused, but only because of a small lens aperture. Whether the image is formed on film or a solid state image sensor has nothing to do with depth of field. In fact, there were many point and shoot film cameras that did not need to be focused either. Digital cameras typically do have autofocus, which may make the job of focusing transparent to the user, but the lens still has to be focused, even if the focus is fixed.

Also, "... it was also possible to play with depth of field by using shorter or longer shutter settings to make it deeper or shallower." is incorrect. Depth of field is a function of lens aperture and the distance at which the lens is focused, not shutter speed.

Answer 2

It's going to be darn hard to "de-focus" too much using a digital camera while keeping the main subject in sharp focus. The smaller the sensor, the greater depth of field you will have. Generally speaking, the smaller the camera, the smaller the sensor. Most of the pictures you take with a digital camera are quite sharp from near to far distances and there is a reason for that which I will explain.

While we speak in terms of the 35 mm equivalency of digital lenses, don't forget that the digital sensors are usually smaller than a full-format 35 mm frame. Most of the more popular point and shoot cameras have the smaller sensors. It's only about 5 mm wide and 4 mm high. The lens on required to cover that angle of view is an ACTUAL 6-17 mm zoom lens. At these focal lengths, the background is going to almost always be in pretty sharp focus.

In other words, if you WANT to defocus the background, you are going to have to work pretty hard at it. You would have to zoom to the longer end of the lens and set the aperture open as wide as it will go, if your camera even allows you to control the aperture, and get pretty close to your main subject while having the background a fair distance away.

The bigger the sensor, the easier it will be to achieve pleasing bokeh. This means moving to a dSLR, which all have sensors about 20 times bigger than the typical P&S digicam. If you want to really go for brokeh (very bad pun intended), you can get a Canon 5D and you will get exactly the same effect you are accustomed to in a 35 mm camera, since the sensor is the same size as 35 mm film.

Here is an example with a point and shoot camera. Even though this is macro mode and f/2.8, where the background should blur the most, it's not terribly blurry because it's relatively close to the subject.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/872732755/

Here is an example with a point and shoot camera, so it CAN be done. The background is much farther away,though.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/843563558/

Compare that to this image, though, which has a similar subject-to-background distance. The SLR has the obvious advantage.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/408446616/

Answer 3

you can show depth of field with any camera if you understand all the elements of depth of field. Set up a model of say a line of pencils if you cant vary anything then you'll have to vary only the distance you focus and either light the model artificially or shoot it during bright daylight and as the sun goes down ( with less light the aperture will open more) the shutter speed will probably also slow down so prepare to use some sort of support {shutter speed is not a factor just a byproduct} if you have a zoom lens shoot shooting at its longest will give you the least depth of field while at it's widest will give you the most depth of field

learning to make your camera do what you want it do when you want it to do it is what makes you a photographer not just a picture taker

Answer 4

Depth of field (DOF)describes the depth of the focal plane within an image. It is controlled primarily by your F-Stop/Aperture settings. If you have a point and shoot camera you may not have the ability to set these controls manually. If you have a point and shoot camera you will need to use the presets to get the effect you want. i.e. Landscape for large DOF, portrait for small DOF.

I have an article with illustrations on DOF at photography.about.com. The link is: http://photography.about.com/od/takingpictures/ss/DOF.htm

Best of luck in your photography!
~Liz
http://photography.about.com

Answer 5

You can't take a picture of "depth of field" at all--the depth of field is the term that describes what part of the picture is in focus.

You don't get depth of field with a digital camera--the digital technology makes everything from one inch to infinity in proper focus. That's why digital cameras don't have to be focused.

In the old film days, most cameras had a fixed focal length; their depth of field would be roughly 6 feet to infinity--anything closer than six feet automatically got blurry.

With a good 35 mm reflex camera or better, you could focus. The lens would allow you to shoot with a closer depth of field--depending on the lens, it would be a few inches out to four feet, or much longer.

Then, it was also possible to play with depth of field by using shorter or longer shutter settings to make it deeper or shallower.

So if you want depth of field, you need to get yourself a 1970s era SLR camera.

Answer 6

You recieved a lot of good answers and I will give you another link to help you so you can also see what some of this means.

http://www.photonhead.com/beginners/shutterandaperture.php

Hope this helps,
Kevin

Answer 7

yes