Let’s Talk about Depth of Field.

In case you are not following along, we are on week 12 of the Everyday Eyecandy Project 52! I haven’t given you a photography related lesson in a while, but I found myself talking about Bokeh on yesterday’s Facebook Live and it occurred to me that I hadn’t actually sat down and written a photography related post in a while. While the theme this week is Bokeh, bokeh is dependent on depth of field. And using Bokeh and depth of field together ( a shallow depth of field and the bokeh effect) can produce wonderful and creative results.

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Taken with Canon 6D and Canon 100mm 2.8 lens

Settings f/10 Shutter Speed 1/100 ISO 6400

Simply put, Depth of field is the area of your photo that is in focus. A large depth of field means there is a LOT of your photo in focus. A small depth of field means there is a SMALL amount of your photo in focus.

There are 3 ways Depth of Field can help you get great Bokeh

Aperture( the f/stop)
The distance between you and the area you are focused on
Focal length ( the lens you are using)

Aperture

Remember, aperture determines how much light comes through your lens to your camera and can determine how much of your photo is in focus because…

SMALL f-stop numbers ( say f/1.2) crates a small or shallow depth of field.

Take with Canon 6D and Canon 100mm 2.8 lens

Settings aperture f/2.8 Shutter Speed 1/500 ISO 3200

LARGE f-stop numbers ( say f/20) create a large or deep depth of field.

Taken with Canon 6D and Canon 24-105 4.0 L lens

Settings: Aperture f/10 Shutter Speed 1/800 ISO 400

The distance between you and the area you are focusing on

The distance between your camera and your subject plays a HUGE role.

The closer that you and your camera are to the subject that you are focusing on, the smaller or more shallow your depth of field is.
The farther you and your camera are to the subject that you are focusing on, the larger or less shallow your depth of field is.

Focal length

Your focal length of your lens also plays it’s part.

The LONGER your focal length of your lens, the smaller/more shallow your depth of field.
The SHORTER the focal length of your lens, the larger or deeper your depth of field.

All of the photos above were taken standing in the same place, in the same light with the same settings. The only thing different were the focal lengths. Notice how much of the photo is in focus changes with each change in focal length.