Photography
depth-of-field.

Photography depth-of-field.
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Keep your images sharp by controlling the depth-of-field.
Depth-of -field can be best described as the distance from the front to back in any image that is in reasonably sharp focus. Any parts of an image that are outside of this should be blur and are outside the depth-of-field. There are a few ways to control depth-of-field: use a small aperture, focus on a point further away from your camera or use a lens with a short focal length.
Lets look at the tools that control depth-of-field.
Aperture and f/stops: The aperture is an opening in the centre of the lens through which light passes. The amount of light which passes through an aperture is indicated by f/stops. The lower the f/stop the more light that passes through the aperture. Opening up one full f/stop doubles the amount of light entering the camera. F/4 admits twice the light of f5.6.
By selecting a small or narrow aperture (f/16 or up), all or most of the scene will be reasonably sharp. This is ideal for landscape photography. By using a small aperture you increase the depth-of-field.
By selecting a large or wide aperture (f/5.6 or below) you decide which part of your image is sharp. This is ideal for taking pictures of wildlife, portraits, sport and small objects. By using a large aperture you decrease the depth-of-field. This means that only a small part of the image will be in focus.
The smaller the f/number, the wider the aperture.
There is about twice the depth-of-field behind the point of focus as there is in front of it, using any aperture.
Selective use of focusing also controls depth-of-field. If you focus on a point that is near the camera you will have a shallow or short depth-of-field. If you focus on a point that is far away from your camera the depth-of-field will be greater.
The focal length of your lens also controls the depth-of-field. A short focal lens in any setting will give a greater depth-of-field.
Having gained an understanding of depth-of-field, it is now time to be practical with it. If you are shooting a landscape scene you will want all areas of the scene to be sharp, so you will need a greater depth-of-field. Your camera’s aperture should have a setting of f/16 or greater which will leave the total scene sharp.
Wildlife and flower images require only parts of the image to be sharp. An aperture setting of f/4 will leave you with a narrow depth-of-field and a smaller area of sharpness.
Some lenses can be bought with a depth-of-field scale on them. These are very handy for landscape photography where you set the lens so that all parts of the image will be sharp
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