Depth Of Field: How To Make Professional DOF Photos With Ease
Shallow DOF emphasizes a boy's eyes on St. Thomas Mount, Chennai, India.
Depth Of Field (DOF) can be confusing and may seem overly complex and technical. I still remember the breakthrough that came when I mastered depth of field and how it became a critical factor in being able to create more professional looking and emotionally charged images.
Depth Of Field defines the area of apparent sharpness, both in front and behind the point of focus, in a photo. Aperture, lens focal length and the camera to subject distance are the ways by which you can control the depth of field (dof) your photos.
Depth Of Field (dof) is a great technique to dramatically improve your photos. This guide will break down depth of field in photography and show you how to make use of it to produce fantastic landscape, portrait and architectural photos.
In doing so you’ll be able to make giant steps in your own creative journey through the art of photography.
There are three aspects that control depth of field, each of which are within our control to manage.
What Is Depth Of Field?
Before we can discuss how to control depth of field in camera we need to understand what the term actually means, in a clear and unambiguous way.
Strictly speaking, there’s only one portion of your photo that’s critically sharp. It’s the point at which your camera’s lens is focused. Most often that’s the focal point or primary point of interest in the photo, often referred to as the subject.
Assuming neither you nor your camera moves, during the time it takes for your camera to expose the image, you can expect that the subject will render nice and sharp in the photo.
Depth of field actually determines how much of the photo, both in front and behind the point of focus, appears relatively sharp and, as a consequence, what areas of the photo will be blurred.
In the case of a portrait the point of focus would, most likely, be the eye that’s closest to the camera. Everything outside this area of apparent sharpness will be rendered, to varying degrees, out of focus.
The more out of focus the surroundings (by which I mean what’s in front and behind the point of focus) become the more shallow the depth of field is considered to be.
A shallow depth of field is often considered ideal for portraits though there are, of course, exceptions to the rule.
Conversely, a large depth of field, where foreground to background is rendered relatively sharp, is preferred for most types of natural landscape and architectural photography.
How To Control Depth Of Field
There are three ways by which you can control depth of field in camera. We can list those elements as follows:
Lens Aperture
Lens Focal Length
Camera to Subject Distance
Let’s explore how mastery over each of these separate factors will allow you to control depth of field and, as a result, make a huge difference to the quality of the photos you make.
Lens Aperture and Depth Of Field
Except in the case of super wide-angle lenses, a physically wide lens aperture (e.g., f/4) will produce a relatively shallow depth of field and is, therefore, often a great starting point for portrait photography.
A physically narrow lens aperture (e.g., f/11) will produce a larger depth of field with more of the photo, both in front and behind the point of focus, rendering relatively sharp.
An aperture in the f/8 to f/11 range is, therefore, a great option for landscape photographers.
St Catherine of Siena crown of thorns statue, St. Patrick's Church, Melbourne.
Shallow Depth Of Field Explained
Take a look at my photo of the statue of St. Catherine of Siena, holding the crown of thorns, as a sign of the stigmata she is said to have received from God.
It’s a good example of how an extremely wide aperture, in this case f/1.2, creates a particularly shallow depth of field that brings attention to the primary subject photographed by visually separating the subject from what would otherwise have been a highly detailed and distracting background.
You might also notice that I chose to focus my camera’s lens on the statue’s eyes. The result is a plane of focus from the eyes up to the back of the crown of thorns rendering sharp, while the front of the crown of thorns and the background have been rendered out of focus.
I find this interesting because, while the statue’s eyes might appear to be concentrating on the crown of thorns, they might also be looking upward and beyond, towards a more cosmic reality.
It’s and example of how a little bit of ambiguity can be the difference between a technically competent photo and an image which encourages the viewer to think about what they’re seeing and what that might mean.
I’ve written a really interesting post on that very topic titled Subject and Meaning in Photography. I really hope you enjoy reading it.
In addition, photographing from a low angle of view has allowed me to emphasize the religious experience being portrayed and the respect devotees would have for the subject in question and the moment that’s depicted in the original work of art.
I love photographing statues, regardless of the religion depicted. I'm often impressed by the fact that the figures portrayed are used to explore the Human Condition, which is why I often approach photographing statues as I would a portrait.
Phone box outside the Globe Tavern in Stanley illustrating Depth Of Field.
When To Use A Large Depth Of Field
An aperture in the f/8 to f/11 range is, therefore, a great option for landscape and architectural photography.
That’s because most folks want to make landscape and architectural photos that are sharp from foreground right through to the distant background.
The above image, featuring the Globe Tavern in Stanley in the Falkland Islands, was made with a large depth of field for maximum image detail.
As you can see the photo is sharp from the fine grained gravel foreground right through to the tree branches in the background.
Lens Focal Length and Depth Of Field
On either a 35 mm film-based camera or a full frame digital camera a 50 mm lens is considered to be a normal or standard focal length. That’s because it approximates the perspective with which we might expect our subject to appear in relation to their surroundings.
There are several different categories of zoom lenses commonly used on these cameras, the most popular of which we can place into the following groups:
Wide-angle (e.g., 17-35 mm)
Telephoto (e.g., 80-200 mm)
Wide-angle to telephoto (e.g., 24-105 mm, 24-200 mm)
Theoretically, wide angle focal lengths (e.g., 17 mm, 24 mm, 35 mm) produce a larger depth of field, at a given aperture and camera-to-subject distance, than would be the case with a standard focal length (e.g., 50 mm) and considerable more so than would be the case with a telephoto focal length (e.g, 200 mm) lens.
Put simply, the more you zoom in the stronger the magnification and the more shallow the depth of field becomes.
Shallow depth of field Macro lens image of a red rose.
Depth Of Field With Macro Lenses
That’s very much the case with this photo of rain drops on a red rose which I made in the garden of a winery in the Yarra Valley just outside of Melbourne, Australia.
The image was created with a Canon 180 mm Macro lens positioned very close to the subject.
This particular lens functions as both a macro lens, for close up photography, and also as a fixed/prime 180 mm telephoto lens.
While all lenses have a minimum focus distance, macro lenses offer very high levels of sharpness and extremely high resolving power.
But what makes macro lenses special is that their minimum focus distance is substantially less than what you get with other lenses of a similar focal length. As a consequence a macro lens will allow you to move in and photograph very close to the subject.
That action will result in the subject appearing larger in the frame compared to what it otherwise would if photographed from, say, one meter away.
Just be aware that the closer to your subject you get the more shallow the depth of field will become. As you tend to work at very close camera to subject distances when using a Macro lens the depth of field produced is often very shallow indeed.
But, together with the way Macro lenses challenge our normal perception of size and scale, it’s the extremely shallow depth of field produced by these lenses that creates such interesting and often ethereal results.
Camera-to-Subject Distance and DOF
Likewise, the closer you get to your subject the more shallow the depth of field will be produced.
This is critically important to understand because an aperture of f/4 may not produce the amount of blur, either side of your primary focal point, that you want for a particular image.
The good news is that to produce an even more shallow depth of field it’s simply a matter of moving closer and refocusing your camera’s lens on the subject of your photo to significantly blur the surroundings.
In the case of portrait photography a very shallow depth of field will help focus attention on the subject and, as a result, often produce a more professional looking image.
Now imagine you’re photographing a group photo and you need a relatively large depth of field to keep everyone sharp. An aperture of f/11 will probably suffice but, as you’re working under low light conditions, the resulting shutter speed could be so slow that camera or subject movement would be introduced.
The solution would be to either increase the ISO or, alternatively, move back a few steps and achieve a similar DOF with a more modest aperture (e.g., f/5.6).
Creative use of depth of field featuring two horses.
Using Depth Of Field Creatively
You can see from this photo of two horses just how visually powerful really shallow depth of field can be.
In this case I utilized a physically wide aperture (i.e., f/2), a telephoto lens (i.e., 85 mm) and a relatively close camera to subject distance to produce an extremely shallow depth of field.
It’s important to note that, by being so close to the point of focus (the foreground horse), in addition to utilising an aperture of f/2, I was able to produce and exceptionally shallow DOF.
The success of this image is very much dependant upon the relationship between the two horses. To that end, and to make the image as interesting as possible, I played with the idea of similarities and differences.
Both horses looked very much the same, in reality, but by rendering one of them sharp and the other blurred I was able to provide visual separation between them. In doing so I believe I’ve produced an interesting and, to my mind, emotionally compelling image.
Understanding Depth Of Field
Understanding the concept of Depth Of Field (DOF) and being able to apply it, for creative reasons, in your own photography is an essential element towards mastering your camera and lenses. As a result you’ll find your technical competency and artistic freedom will flourish.
As it’s also one of photography’s most creative and easily accessible techniques, proper application of depth of field will help you control the look and emotional impact of your photos.
To help you along your journey check out the associated article I wrote titled Selective Focus and Depth Of Field. It’s illustrated with beautiful pictures from my journeys to France, China, Australia, New Zealand and Antarctica.
I’m thinking about depth of field every time I make photos. It’s really that important and it’s one of the ways by which you can stamp your own style on the photos you create.
Be sure to consider how to make the best use of depth of field in each and every photo you create.
