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Depth-of-fleld
preview
lever
®
What depth
of
field
is
When
you
focus
on
your subject at a certain aperture,
you
will
find that not only
is
the subject itself
in
focus but objects
in
a
certain distance range both
in
front of
and
behind it appear
sharp. Objects increasingly out of this range become
in
-
creasingly out of focus.
Thi
s " in-focus zone"
is
known
as
"depth
of
field." When this zone
of
sharpness
is
large, the depth of
field
is
said to
be
deep; when it
is
small, the depth of field
is
said to
be
shallow.
The
following can
be
said
of
depth of field, given the same
focusing distance:
1)
The
smaller the taking aperture (i.e., the higher the flstop
number), the deeper the depth of field,
and
the larger the
aperture, the shallower the depth of field.
2)
The
farther away the subject
is
from the lens, the deeper the
depth of field becomes; the closer to the lens, the shallower
the depth of field.
3)
There
's
greater depth of field behind the main subject than
in
front of
it.
28
Note, too, that
in
the case of lenses with different focal lengths
but
of
the same maximum flnumber, the shorter the focal length
of
the lens, the larger the depth of field, and vice versa.
The
depth of field
at
the taking aperture
is
indicated
by
the color·
coded lines having the same color
as
that of the aperture set
and
which correspond to the distance sca
le
on
the focusing
ring
.
The
range
is
indicated
by
the distance between the lines.
Shown
in
the photo
is
an
example of the difference
in
depth of
field with a 50mm
f/1.4 lens when using different aperture set·
tings
at
a set focusing distance
of
2
m.
Control of depth of field
enables selective blurring
of
the background elements
of
a
picture either to let the major subject stand out or for overall
sharpness, so that
all
elements
in
the entire picture field appear
sharp.
This
will give your picture its
own
character,
thu
s making
it
different from other pictures.
Getting the subject
in
focus
is
only
one
aspect of photography.
When
you
take pictures,
be
sure to consider depth
of
field, too.