Once you’ve set goals for your image, you can adjust your lens aperture, focal length, or subject distance to achieve the perfect DOF for your photograph.Depth of field (DOF) refers to how much a photograph appears to be in focus. When you look at a scene or a subject, consider the goals of your photograph.ĭo you want to focus the viewer’s attention on something specific, like an odd street sign or a cute dog? Do you want the viewer’s eye to travel through the frame to multiple points of interest, like a child in the foreground and an airplane in the background? Shallow DOF will focus the viewer’s attention, while deep DOF will let them evaluate the whole scene. Playing with DOF is one of the quickest ways to add a bit of artistry to your images. Generally, the bigger the sensor size, the shallower the DOF. If you were to shoot at the same aperture on cameras with different sensor sizes, the resulting images would have very different DOF.
Shallow depth of field f stop full#
Cameras contain image sensors of various sizes, from the small sensors found in micro four-thirds cameras to the larger sensors found in full frame DSLR cameras. Sensor sizeĬamera sensor size is another important consideration for DOF. By selecting one camera lens over another, you can increase or decrease the DOF of your images. 300-600mm) so the image has a lot of magnification, resulting in a shallower DOF. A telephoto lens has a longer focal length (ex. It doesn’t magnify the image very much, so it delivers a greater DOF. This is because focal length relates to the magnification of the image.Ī wide-angle lens has a shorter focal length (ex.
The focal length of the lens is another variable that will affect an image’s DOF. If you focus instead on a flower that is five feet away, your image will have much greater DOF because of the decrease in focus distance. So if you photograph a flower with the lens just a few inches from the petals, your image will have a shallower DOF. The closer your lens is to the subject, the shallower the DOF. The distance between the lens and the main subject has an impact on DOF. Do any other camera settings or variables affect depth of field?Īperture is the primary camera setting you can adjust to change DOF, but a few other settings and variables will also affect your image’s DOF. If you find yourself wishing you had more detail in the foreground or background, you can close down the aperture to increase the DOF. This is why macro and portrait photography are most commonly shot with a wide aperture like f/1.4-f/4, and why landscapes are typically shot with a small aperture like f/11-f/22.Īs you shoot, if you find yourself wishing you had a bit more separation between the subject and the background, you can use a wider aperture to better blur the background and gain visual separation. By adjusting the f-stop from wide to narrow, you can increase the image’s DOF. How do I change a photo’s depth of field?į-stop or lens aperture is the camera setting that has the greatest impact on DOF. For example, landscape photography that keeps the whole image in focus, from the flower in the foreground to the mountains in the background, has a deep DOF. In an image with a deep DOF, a large portion of the image is in tack-sharp focus. For example, a portrait in which the subject is in focus and the background is blurred has a shallow DOF.
The rest of the image has soft focus or more pronounced blur or bokeh. Shallow depth of fieldĪn image with a shallow DOF only has a small focus point, or area in which objects are tack sharp. An image can have a shallow DOF or a deeper DOF. So what exactly is DOF and why is it important? Depth of field definedĭepth of field refers to the portions of a photograph that are in sharp focus. Depth of field (DOF) is one of the more commonly frustrating concepts for new photographers. With so many principles and terms to remember in photography, it’s pretty easy for beginner photographers to feel overwhelmed or confused.
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