Controlling Focus With Depth-of-Field
Student Photos by Lainey Bustos, spring 2015.
Depth-of-field is the distance between the nearest and farthest point in the photo that is reasonably sharp. You can increase or decrease depth-of-field by adjusting your aperture (lens opening or f-stop), the lens’ focal length and/or the camera distance to subject.
Wide angle lens (less than 50mm focal length) = more DoF.
Telephoto lens (greater than 50 mm focal length ) = less DoF.
Further from subject = great DoF.
Closer to subject = less DoF.
For this assignment we will only explore the effect that aperture has on DoF.
For greater depth-of-field use small aperture (f16).
For less depth-of-field use wide aperture (f4.5).
Assignment Instructions:
Shoot a portrait of subject at 8-10 feet from the camera with an interesting background – have great distance behind subject. Use good lighting and a 50 mm lens. Set ISO for 200 or 400.
First shot – focus on subject, about 8-10 feet from the camera and need to use interesting background. Set f-stop to wide aperture – f2, 2.8, 4 or 5.6 (wider is better), adjust shutter speed to get correct exposure, use camera’s light meter and histogram to adjust exposure.
Second shot – same framing as the first shot, but adjust f-stop to small aperture – f16 or f22, adjust shutter speed to get correct exposure – use camera’s light meter and histogram to adjust exposure.
Second Set – same as the first with different background.
If you bracket (create variation of exposures – darker and lighter), do so with your shutter speed.
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Deliverables:
Upload two sets of images, each set with large and shallow depth of field. Each set has distinct background for a total of four pictures.
Repeat: each set will contain a distinct background and two images – one image shot with a small aperture and one image shot with a wide aperture.