Do any of these photos exhibit deep depth of field?

[RealisticRadical]

I'm not sure if i am getting this down... Shallow depth of field is very easy, as it's quite obvious, but i can't tell what deep depth of field is, or what it even looks like. Can anyone assist me, and also tell me if any of these photos show deep depth of field? 

[Jacktastic-Mofo]

Depth of field refers to the focus of objects at a certain distance. For example you could focus on an object 3ft away and an object 6ft away would appear blurry. It's like when you hold a finger up to your face and stair at it, everything past it becomes blurry. Shallow depth of field is done by having a very high aperture, like F20- allowing you to have very little blur, no matter what you're focused on.

[RealisticRadical]

Depth of field refers to the focus of objects at a certain distance. For example you could focus on an object 3ft away and an object 6ft away would appear blurry. It's like when you hold a finger up to your face and stair at it, everything past it becomes blurry. Shallow depth of field is done by having a very high aperture, like F20- allowing you to have very little blur, no matter what you're focused on.

You have it backwards.. This is shallow depth of field:

[hsm]

 

this is an example of shallow depth of field. the subject is in focus but the backround and anything in front of it are blurred very noticeably. Landscapes and wide shots rarely ever have depth of field, but it all depends on the aperture of the lens the photo was taken with.

[hsm]

Depth of field refers to the focus of objects at a certain distance. For example you could focus on an object 3ft away and an object 6ft away would appear blurry. It's like when you hold a finger up to your face and stair at it, everything past it becomes blurry. Shallow depth of field is done by having a very high aperture, like F20- allowing you to have very little blur, no matter what you're focused on.

thats not correct. shallow depth of field is usually anything under f3

[RealisticRadical]

 

this is an example of shallow depth of field. the subject is in focus but the backround and anything in front of it are blurred very noticeably. Landscapes and wide shots rarely ever have depth of field, but it all depends on the aperture of the lens the photo was taken with.

I'm talking about deep depth of field though.

[RealisticRadical]

thats not correct. shallow depth of field is usually anything under f3

That's not really correct either. The picture with the sunflow, i took it with my f-stop at f/4. Higher apertures = shallow depth of field. 

[bob345]

Heres a picture i took that can help describe depth of field

 

You see how there is only a small bit in sharp focus? That area of sharp focus is the focal plane. Whatever falls into that field will be in focus and what ever does not will gradually become more out of focus. The size of this field in front of and behind the focal plane is your depth of field. a smaller field is what you call shallow depth of field and a larger field is a wide depth of field. There are many variables that change this such as aperture, focal length, and focal distance from the image plane. A wider aperture or lower f stop will make your depth of field shallower whereas a higher f stop will make it wider. Having a longer focal length increases depth of field as does moving close to your subject.

 

HTC one m8 camera2 by Tauss ., on Flickr

[Swndlr]

snip

 

this is an example of shallow depth of field. the subject is in focus but the backround and anything in front of it are blurred very noticeably. Landscapes and wide shots rarely ever have depth of field, but it all depends on the aperture of the lens the photo was taken with.

Nice bokeh :wub:

And kitty

[ALwin]

snip

 

Why do you want to know if your photos show/have deep depth of field?

 

The simple rule for depth of field "wide apertures = shallow, narrow apertures = deep" (wide apertures have smaller numbers, e.g. f/2.8 and narrow apertures have higher numbers, e.g. f/22).  So to change your depth of field you simply change the aperture.  However depth of field also changes with sensor size if you want to keep the same composition.  DOF of f/2.8 on a full frame camera will be shallower than f/2.8 on a compact point and shoot camera with a tiny sensor for the same framing of the composition.

 

On a full frame camera like the Nikon D800, an aperture of f/1.4 produces a very very shallow depth of field that is mere millimeters "thick".  On a camera like the Canon G16 which has a much smaller sensor, f/1.4 might produce a DOF of a few inches thick.

 

Another thing about depth of field, it doesn't begin from your plane of focus and measured towards the background.  The depth of field will encompass areas both in front and behind your plane of focus.  So if you set your aperture on a 50mm lens, e.g. to f/8, and the camera (e.g. Nikon D800 full frame) is dead set to focus on an object 2m away from your sensor/film plane (that little marking on your camera, see image for example), the DOF will cause anything several inches in front of your subject and anything several inches behind your subject to be within an acceptable level of sharpness.

 

And because DOF encompasses both in front and behind the subject of focus, many photographers use what is called Hyperfocal Distance to take sharp images of very wide landscapes without having to resort to using extremely narrow apertures which can cause the image to lose quality due to exceeding the lens' diffraction limits.

 

Online DOF calculator: http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html

 

[ALwin]

If you really want to visualize DOF for different apertures, I recommend you do a Google image search for "focus test chart" and find an image like this, set it on a flat board (e.g. clipboard) on a table at an angle.  Set your camera on a tripod. manually focus your center focus point so that it is focused at the center 0 point of the chart and take photos while changing your aperture value each time.  Start with your widest aperture (smallest number) and in 1-stop increments make the aperture smaller and smaller with each shot.  Never change the focus point, just change the aperture and adjust shutter speed accordingly.

 

As you make your aperture smaller, you will see more of the numbers in front of and behind the middle 0 marker on the chart getting more and more into sharper focus.

[Lockless]

 

Can I have your cat?

[Bsmith]

a big depth of field is just throwing your F number to the highest possible(F/22, F/39 or whatever) or setting your focus distance on "unlimited", those two options create a all in focus effect on the objects captured.

 

examples from googling " big depth of field photography"

 

as you can see it's really hard to take good pictures that way and the only real reason to do it a lot is when shooting landscape/panorama photo's or when recording footage with a action cam like the gopro, which has big depth of field by default.

The main downside is, since everything looks is supposed to look in focus it might be hard for people to focus on your subject because they get distracted by other things.

[ALwin]

a big depth of field is just throwing your F number to the highest possible(F/22, F/39 or whatever) or setting your focus distance on "unlimited", those two options create a all in focus effect on the objects captured.

 

Yes, and keep in mind that as you make your aperture more and more narrow, you will reach a point what is called the diffraction limit for your lens.  So while DOF will increase which is supposed to make more elements in the scene sharper, you will actually be losing sharpness.  Most lenses have a diffraction limit between f/4-f/16, outside of this aperture range and the image is not as sharp as it is supposed to be.

 

Hence, if you want a wide landscape to contain an acceptable level of sharpness everywhere without exceeding the diffraction limit, take the shot at an optimal aperture using the hyperfocal distance.

 

Now, will you notice this loss of sharpness due to exceeding diffraction limits?

On the wide end of apertures, you will.  The image will appear soft.

At the narrow end you will have to look a bit closer and examine the image at the full resolution instead of scaling it down.

[reptileexperts]

Depth of field can be thought of very simply.

 

Larger Aperture (Smaller number) is a shallower DOF (e.g. 1.4 < 2.8)

Closer subjects have a shallow DOF (3ft away < 6ft away)

Tighter zooms have a shallow DOF (500mm < 24mm)

 

The contrast to all these is of course true

 

Small Aperture is a Large DOF (e.g. macro subjects at f16)

Far Subjects have a Large DOF (Landscapes shot at f8)

Wide Angle subjects have a Large DOF (Wide Angle cats at 24mm f4)