 Bob McCook |
Digital Depth of Field Problem I recently purchased a Canon G5. I love the camera but have a question concerning depth of field. With film, when shooting at a wide open setting like F1.8, the focused area is sharp but blurred behind and in front of the object. With the G5 set a F2.0, I'm getting clarity behind and in front with little difference between F2.0 or F5.6. What am I doing wrong? Should I use the macro setting even in a more general setting where I want a blurred background?
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Jon Close |
It's not you. It's because of the shorter focal-length lenses and the smaller image size of the digital cameras. While the G5's zoom lens gives the view of a 35mm-140mm in a 35mm camera, its actual focal length is only 7.2mm-28.8mm, so it is going to have the deep depth of field one would expect from extreme wide-angle lenses. With a 35mm film camera and a 50mm lens at f/2 focused at 6 feet, the depth of field is about 5 inches. With the equivalent view using the G5, the lens would be at about 12mm f/2 and depth of field will be about 2 feet. The most you can do to get shallow DOF is to get closer to your subject and put more distance between your subject and the background.
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Bob McCook |
Jon, Thanks for the help. I thought I'd lost my mind. The shorter focal-length makes sense. I'll try your suggestion using the 2 feet as a rule of thumb. BobMcCook
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Bill Hammer |
I am not a shill for this book. I have the same camera, love it and have the book, and use it constantly. You'll see some of my work off the camera at my site. Bill Hammer
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