How to control depth of field...?

[Anonymous]

Can someone give me advice on how to make this particular technique work? Thanks a lot.

This is my {squat} post!!! Woo-hoo!!!

Peace,

Chip

 

[mkirda]

Can someone give me advice on how to make this particular technique work? Thanks a lot.

Peace,

Chip

Dial in the F-stop to a larger number... I.E. f8 or f16 or f32.
It actually makes the hole smaller.

Regards.
Mike Kirda

 

[Len]

To elaborate on Mike's point,

The bigger the aperature (lower the f stop number), the less depth of field you'll have and vice versa. BTW, less DOF means more blurred background. Yeah, a lot of this is somewhat confusing to grasp at first.

For example, a camera set at f/2.0 (lower f stop = bigger aperature) will have a very shallow DOF with a small focal plane of focus and a lot of blurred background/foreground. A camera set at f/16 (small aperature) will have very deep depth of field, with a lot more foreground and background in focus. I hope that made sense. Note that the smaller the aperature (higher the f stop), the less light gets into the camera so you'll need to compensate for exposure by slowing down the shutter speed to allow it to capture more light.

BTW, most digital cameras have a very deep DOF because the sensor is smaller then 35mm (has to do with angle of light, etc. that I don' think you wanna get into). It's harder to get a blurred background with digital consumer cameras.

Congrats on {squat}

 

[Len]

PS. just in case you aren't familiar with aperature, think of it like your eye's iris that can open wider or close down smaller to let varying amount of light in. The bigger the hole, the bigger the aperature. Bigger aperatures (that is, bigger holes) lets more light in obviously.

 

[Anonymous]

Good description, Len.

I always just try to remember the bigger the F-stop number, the more stuff will be in focus. (K.I.S.S. all the way, baby!)

 

[wetworx101]

Like was said before, DOF is heavily dependant on exposure settings, but keep in mind, DOF is very hard to manipulate in Digital cams due to the size of the sensor, unless you have a SLR body cam like a canon D1 that uses a capture device that has a sensor the same size as a 35mm. To make manipulation of DOF easier, get as close as possible, since the closer you get, the focal depth lessens and so does the DOF (as oppose to taking a macro from a few feet away with a zoom, then the proportions lend to a higher DOF). Either that or stick with 35mm...unless you have the thousands to buy a D1s...