Niles Dening Photography Chautauqua Star Articles

Better Pictures with your Digital Camera - by Niles Dening

Illustrations for :
005 - Feb.26, 2010 --- Depth of field (or why isn’t everyone in focus?)

Illustration 005-1: Depth of field
In this pair of photos, the focus point in each was at the "X". The distance from the black ball to the most distant pin is about 5 feet. Note the distance in front and behind the focus point that each photo is in focus. The smaller the aperture opening (higher f-stop) the greater the depth of field. The photo on the left has fairly good focus form the black ball (about 2 feet from the camera) to the wall (about 8 feet from the camera). The photo on the right has fairly good focus from the front pin (about 4 feet from camera) the to the back pin (about 5 1/2 feet from the camera). See below the photos for f-stop settings.
Photo on the Left used an f-stop of 32 (and required a 2.5 second exposure)	Photo on the Right used an f-stop of 2.8 (and required a 1/50 second exposure)
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Illustration 005-2: Mode Selection Dial on Canon 5D

Many intermediate and upper level cameras make use of a mode selection dial. This dial is on the Canon 50D :

1) full automatic, 2) Creative Automatic, 3) Program - Auto, 4) Shutter Priority, 5) Aperture Priority, 6) Full Manual, 7) Automatic Depth of Field, 8 + 9) User Settings

The full automatic modes: 10) portrait, 11) landscape, 12) close up, 13) sports, 14) nighttime, 15) flash off

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Illustration 005-3: Depth of field
	In this closeup, with f 5.0 setting, 6" beyond the focus point is already blurring. The pictures on the wall (about 7') from camera are completely out of focus so they don't detract from the primary subject.
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