Photography basics - Focus and DoF

Focus and Depth of Field

As we continue our work with the basics of photography it's time to have a look at focusing and the active use of Depth of Field and focus. We will cover the basics in this article and in later articles we will touch more upon subjects such as bokeh and the use of depth of field and focus in other forms of specialized photography.

Before going in to the main subject I feel it important to point out the connection between focus, distance to subject, focal length and aperture.

Here are some general rules for focus, and DoF:
-Focus in on the main subject.
-The closer to the camera the shorter the DoF. (If you stand close to the subject sucha as with macro the smaller DoF you'll get. If you stand farther away you'll get more of the photo in focus.)
-The larger the aperture, the shorter the DoF. (Low f/stop numbers = large aperture high numbers = small aperture.) f/1.8 gives a smaller area in focus than f/8 but f/1.8 allows for faster shutter speeds.
-A combination of all these can be used to make a small DoF in a technique called bokeh. Or to create a photo where just about the entire image is in focus.

When shooting portraits one wants to keep the focus on the eyes.


Photo by
adean.deviantart.com/ adean

One also wants to use a relatively small aperture. (high /f stop numbers)
In order to give the photo a relatively large DoF.  In addition to this one might want to think about the distance to the subject.

When shooting animals, the rules are the same. How ever when using a long telephoto lens one has to take this in to account as well. But main focusing is recommended to be on the eyes of the subject.


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sillverrfoxx.deviantart.com/ sillverrfoxx

As the distance to the subject has an influence on the depth of field the long telephoto lens works well to capture a close crop image of the animal. Wild life photography is difficult because of the many variables such as the animals movement and difficulty to see and keep shutter speeds to a minimum..

When shooting landscapes one can play around a little with depth of field and focusing, all depending on the scenery one wants to capture. If one is shooting a fog covered scene one might want to use a large aperture in order to increase the effect of the fog. Where as when shooting a scene with lovely colors and detail one will want to use a smaller aperture.


Photo by
dragonslayero.deviantart.com/ dragonslayero

In macro photography the focusing has to be quite accurate due to the short distance and the relatively long focal length of the standard macro lens the DoF will be very short.


Photo by
death-ek.deviantart.com/ death-ek

Here is an article about self motivation and self critique by nemiziz feel free to have a read thru. It's an interesting piece.

I'd like to thank the photographers mentioned in this article for letting me use their works in this article,
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