Playing with Depth of Field
Ok for those who are a bit more into photography might follow this, for those who do not; I’ll try and explain as best as I can but I am open for being corrected! (nudge Brennan).
Ok Depth of Field (or DOF) is a term used when shortening or extending the field of view using camera. The trick is to keep the object you want sharp while blurring the background. For a better explanation visit the Wikipedia version of Depth of Field.
The above shot was taken with the following camera settings:
- Shutter Speed: 1/15sec
- Aperture: F/3.5 (lowest the camera goes)
- Focal Length: 24mm
- ISO: 100
Now out of the 20 or so shots I took, this one came out the best. I was able to manually focus on the flower while using an f-stop of 3.5 to blur out the background nicely, or I think so anyway. I am definitely open for comments/suggestions etc. I need to get away from the Point & Shoot photography and back into the more fun manual stuff!
Yeah I love playing with depth of field also (now that I know how to control it). When I got my first DSLR over a year ago, I just used auto mode and couldn’t really control things like I wanted.
And yep, you are correct and the f-stop, lower numbers will blur out the background, great for portraits.
I posted a quick f-stop tutorial a month or so ago that you might enjoy:
http://www.shawn-knight.net/quick-photo-tutorial-aperture-f-stop/
Well I’ll nudge away. Field of view is the incorrect term for it, but that is semantics. Depth of field is the area of acceptable focus or depth of focus. Almost as important to DOF is the look of the out of focus areas. Bokeh. Also the plane of focus is important. Check out a wierd and wonderful lens called a Lensbaby, it alters the plane of focus. I have two little niggles with the picture. The Bull’s eye composition and the second flower overlapping with the back pedal. Other than that it’s a good start.
Brennan the Vyper
My second link is supposed to be Lensbaby Lenses