Depth-Of-Field (DOF) in Photography

Hi guys, today I am writing up a general tutorial on how Depth-Of-Field (DOF for short) works in photography. It is actually pretty easy to learn. DOF is pretty much how much of an image that can be in focus at certain settings. There is actually quite a lot of physics and how light travels, but I will just be giving a pretty general overview in this tutorial to help you take better photos.

For depth of field, here are the 2 rules you need to remember:

• The closer you are to an object, the less you can get in focus. The farther away, the more you can get in focus. That is why you see people using telephoto lenses to do portraits. Zoom in and back up if you want more in focus. 
• The wider your aperture, the less you can get in focus, however you get more light and faster shutter. The narrower your aperture, the more you can get in focus, however less light means slower shutter speed. Don't go too narrow, or you will experience blurriness. 

The distance is quite self explanatory, but aperture might be a bit confusing for beginners, so I will go into more detail here. The scale for aperture might be a bit confusing for beginners as the scale is kind of "opposite". The aperture is measured in f-stops (generally denoted as "f/XX" where "XX" is the aperture). The SMALLER the number, the BIGGER the aperture opening (example: f/2.8), more light and faster shutter speed. The BIGGER the number, the SMALLER the aperture opening (example: f/22), less light and slower shutter speed. If you are on a tripod and want everything in focus, you can use a smaller aperture, however when handheld, you want to balance these to not get motion blur, but still get a usable image. The widest aperture for the lens is generally denoted in the name of the lens (you can't go wider than that). Some zoom lenses have a variable aperture where the widest aperture will change as you zoom in and out. You usually find two aperture numbers in the names of those lenses. 

For landscape shots, you don't want to go all out f/22. When the aperture opening gets that small, a different type of distortion occurs and you will get a blurry image that looks out of focus. I generally use an f/14 and f/16 for my landscape shots, but the "good aperture" varies lens to lens and is something you want to experiment with and balance out with DOF. When handheld, I use a middle of the road aperture for landscape shots somewhere from f/8 to f/11.

If you want to experiment with the aperture controls to further control DOF, you can do so in the following modes of your camera: A or Av (Aperture Priority), M (Manual), or B (Bulb) modes.

Below are some sample photos to show you the DOF from controlling the aperture. These photos are shot at Sundial Bridge in Redding, CA on my road trip from the SF Bay Area to Vancouver, BC, Canada. You can view the photos from my trip here. The photos are of the giant steel cables keeping the bridge up. I thought they would make a great DOF subject to do a tutorial on.

This first photo is shot at f/2.8, a very wide aperture with less of the cable in focus. 

Here is a photo at f/5. As you can see more of the cable is in focus now. 

Here is a photo at f/2.8. See how very little of the cable is in focus. 

Here is another photo at f/5. As you can see more of the cable is in focus. 

This is it for the tutorial! I hope it has helped you out a bit with your photography. :) Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and family members! Also, if you want to get notifications when I post up more photos, "Like" us on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Instagram. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

Sundial Bridge - Turtle Bay (Redding, CA)

From 7/17/2013 to 8/2/2013, I took a road trip from the SF Bay Area to Vancouver, BC, Canada. Half of the trip was spent driving up the west coast. On my trip, I visited many famous places such as Seattle, Butchart Gardens, Mount Rainier, and much more. Obviously I got many coastal shots and many places that isn't as famous. The reason I am posting it now is because the high amount of photos I took equaled a high amount of processing time. I took a bit over 2000 photos on the trip. After stitching the panoramas, compositing the HDRs, and picking out photos from the repeats, I have a bit over 1000 photos to show you guys. The photos will be split into parts. I will link you to the previous and next parts on each post just like I did with my Death Valley National Park photos and my Yellowstone/Grand Teton National Park photos. Hope you enjoy viewing this chain of posts!

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. To view my best California photos, use this link. To view all of my day 17 photos, use this link.

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Today I have photos Sundial Bridge at Turtle Bay in Redding, CA. These are the last photos from this trip and for this chain of blog posts. I hope you enjoy viewing them. Sundial Bridge is a bridge in Redding, CA that crosses over the Sacramento River. The shape of the bridge creates a giant sundial.

This is Sundial Bridge. The bottom of the bridge is made of glass so you can see through it. 

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 40 35 29 N 122 22 39 W  

Black and white process of the photo above. 

 Facing west overlooking the Sacramento River. Took me a while to get Sacramento right... I've been living in California for 13 years now and I noticed I had no clue how to spell Sacramento correctly while labeling my shots for Panoramio. LOL What really screwed me over was the fact that "sacramental" is actually a real word and spell check kept suggesting that instead of the name for the capital city of California. 

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 40 35 31 N 122 22 39 W  

Facing east (on the other side of the bridge) overlooking the Sacramento River. 

 Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 40 35 33 N 122 22 39 W  

Another few shots of the Sundial Bridge at the sundial part. 

Approximate GPS location (type into Google) according to the Canon GP-E2 GPS Receiver: 40 35 33 N 122 22 39 W  

Looking at the giant cables, I thought they'd make great depth-of-field subjects. Here are 2 abstract shots of the giant cables on the bridge. 

These are all the photos for today and for this trip. I hope you have enjoyed viewing this chain of blog posts. I haven't planned what I will be posting next time. I may start on my photos from my China trip, but I may also do something else. Don't forget to check back! Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and family members! Also, if you want to get notifications when I post up more photos, "Like" us on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Instagram. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

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Copyright Warning: These photos are some of my most popular works of art. Unauthorized usage and reproductions are strictly prohibited. Please contact me here to purchase prints and negotiate photo licenses.