Posts Tagged ‘DoF’

In recent years camera manufacturers seem to have greatly shifted their focus towards 'full frame' cameras. (A full frame camera is one where the image sensor is the same size as a piece of 35mm film, whereas a 'crop frame' camera has a smaller image sensor - typically 1.5 - 2x smaller.) The reason for this is not that full frame cameras are inherently better, but simply that they have a higher profit margin on the full frame models.

I've read a lot of comments from other photographers, and also a few articles that seem to treat full frame cameras as the holy grail of photography. But I think many people are being led astray by the full frame marketing brigade. Yes, a full frame camera is the best choice for some photographers. But for others a crop sensor camera may be a better choice.

So, in this article I want to redress the balance, and look at some reasons why a crop sensor camera can be a better choice than a full frame camera.

When photographing certain subjects or scenes, we want all of the image in focus. This is often the case in product photography and landscape photography. We want sharpness from front to back with no area of the product or landscape out of focus.

This can be tricky to achieve, but there are a number of techniques that can be used to achieve a very large depth of field (the amount of the image in focus).

Bokeh is a word used to describe the out of focus areas of a photo. It does not really mean how out of focus an area is, but rather how the out of focus areas are rendered.

A Cup of Bokeh, please? by Shermeee on flickr (licensed CC-BY)

You will find that some people are very particular about bokeh, while others aren't really bothered. Just like one person might love a particular photo, while another person might think it is nothing special, the bokeh characteristics of a photo can be quite subjective.

Camera lens reviews, particularly those in Japan, now often include photos with out of focus areas particularly so that viewers can judge the bokeh.

When you take a photo of a landscape, it's not too difficult to get everything from a few feet in front of you all the way to the horizon in focus. But as you get closer to your subject and the magnification level increases, the depth of field (amount of the image in focus) rapidly drops off.

In macro and close-up photography, depth of field is so narrow it is usually measured in millimeters. So taking photos where more than just a thin sliver of the image is in focus can be tricky.

The depth of field in this image covers just a small part of the butterfly's mustache

We've all seen beautiful photos where the subject is in focus but the background is blurred. These sorts of photos may seem difficult to create. But with an understanding of depth of field, you can make photos like this too.

In this article we'll look how you can achieve a shallow depth of field to create photos with a blurred background.

The Aggressive Black Drongo! by VinothChandar on flickr (licensed CC-BY)

Most digital cameras offer a range of shooting modes, going from M (Manual), through A or Av (Aperture priority), S or Tv (Shutter priority), to P (Program mode - automatic). In this article we'll look at the Aperture priority mode, and why you might want to use this mode on your camera.

For many years photographers have used depth of field control as a tool to focus viewers' attention within their work. It seems recently we have forgotten how to use this incredibly effective technique. Learn how to use this properly and your photography will take on a new dimension.

Lenses, both those available separately for DSLR cameras, and those built into compact and bridge cameras, come in a wide variety of focal lengths. This article discusses the different focal lengths, what they are suitable for, and the different trade-offs.

Aperture is one of 3 settings, along with shutter speed and ISO, that can be used to affect the brightness (exposure) of an image. It also affects how much of the image is in focus (DoF), and how out of focus areas appear (bokeh). This article covers how the aperture setting affects exposure, DoF and bokeh, and what aperture settings to use for certain effects.