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Photography Question 

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Depth of fieled


 
 
How we adjust the depth in landscape &
portrait photography.


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March 18, 2005

 

Chris J. Browne
  Use your f/stop, but at some point the f/stop will decrease sharpness. Some lenses have the ability to tilt. . .very cool.

Also remember that the absolute focus point has other areas in focus. About 1/3 the distance in front and 2/3 the distance behind. Also the large f/stop, like f/4 will give a very shallow depth of field. Large mm lenses will also give shallow depth of field even if at f/16! Just the physics of lenses.


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March 18, 2005

 

Mark Feldstein
  To add a bit to what Chris said, he's referring to what's called the "Rule of Thirds". For landscape shots, as he said, you can focus 1/3 into the scene and stop the lens down to determine what f-stop you need to shoot at in order to check whether or not the remaining 2/3 is in focus. The way you do that is to use the "depth of field preview" on your camera or lens. This is usually a buttom that you push or pull to stop the lens down to the actual operating aperture, say f8.0 or f11. While the frame will go darker, you should notice a definite difference in focus for the remainder of the scene behind where you focused.

For portraiture, same deal however you may use the 1/3 focusing point as the tip of the subjects nose. Again, you can check your depth of field for the remaining distance by stopping down your lens in the same way I mentioned. My preference is to work at higher number/ smaller f-stops in portraits to create sharpness from front to back, usually f-11 or so, which is the sweet spot on my Nkkor 105mm lens (35mm) and the same for my 150mm medium format lens, both I find well-suited for portraits. Both give me a comfortable working distance to the victim and adequate depth of field when working with slower speed films like ISO 50 or 100.

And, when Chris refers to large lenses, I think he's referring to "large" as in telephotos. Got the picture? ;>)
Mark
"feldstein@attglobal.net"


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March 18, 2005

 
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