Aperture, light & depth of field

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WhitePepper

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Dave
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Hi,

I'm an amateur photographer and am setting about doing some creative shoots with models over the next year.

I have my 1st shoot lined up in roughly two weeks time, which will be outdoors in an old abandoned tip. It has plenty of character and texture and I'm keep to capture this in the photos. I'm expecting to want some shots to have a large depth of field to retain all the detail and texture of this urban landscape, and was just looking for a few pointers.

My available equipment:
Canon 400D
Jessops A300 flash
Demb flip-it and diffuser
Sigma f3.5- 6.3 18-200mm lens
Canon f1.8 50mm lens
5-in-1 reflector
Tripod
(Please assume I'm doing a full body shot at roughly 10:00AM).

My main concern is knowing what aperture to use to get enough depth of field but obtaining enough light to get a crisp shot. I don't really want to go any higher than 400 ISO if possible but obviously dont want a blurred image either. Should I use my flash? If so, what would be the optimum set up?

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
 
Maybe try the dof button to get a rough idea also take trial shots and check the histogram for exposure

I'm no expert, but don't think this question can be given a solid answer without knowing the prevailing conditions at the time you are there
 
would def advise you experiment with what you hope to achieve with static objects before using models or they will get bored and you will lose their interest rapidly if you are thinking about depth of focus etc whilst they wait for you.
depends on light levels right now f8 on a good day at 100 asa poss but when gloomy thats difficult to get
 
WhitePepper said:
Hi,

I'm an amateur photographer and am setting about doing some creative shoots with models over the next year.

I have my 1st shoot lined up in roughly two weeks time, which will be outdoors in an old abandoned tip. It has plenty of character and texture and I'm keep to capture this in the photos. I'm expecting to want some shots to have a large depth of field to retain all the detail and texture of this urban landscape, and was just looking for a few pointers.

My available equipment:
Canon 400D
Jessops A300 flash
Demb flip-it and diffuser
Sigma f3.5- 6.3 18-200mm lens
Canon f1.8 50mm lens
5-in-1 reflector
Tripod
(Please assume I'm doing a full body shot at roughly 10:00AM).

My main concern is knowing what aperture to use to get enough depth of field but obtaining enough light to get a crisp shot. I don't really want to go any higher than 400 ISO if possible but obviously dont want a blurred image either. Should I use my flash? If so, what would be the optimum set up?

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Click to expand...

long exposures on a tripod...and everyone holds their breath...literally
 
Eddie1 said:
would def advise you experiment with what you hope to achieve with static objects before using models or they will get bored and you will lose their interest rapidly if you are thinking about depth of focus etc whilst they wait for you.
depends on light levels right now f8 on a good day at 100 asa poss but when gloomy thats difficult to get
Click to expand...

Please stop confusing Depth of Field with Depth of Focus, they are two completely different things. :nono:
 
agreed

"While the phrase depth of focus was historically used, and is sometimes still used, to mean depth of field, in modern times it is more often reserved for the image-side depth. Depth of field is a measurement of depth of acceptable sharpness in the object space, or subject space.

Depth of focus, however, is a measurement of how much the film or sensor plane can be displaced while an object remains in acceptably sharp focus. In this sense, it relates to a single plane in object space.[1][2] It can also be viewed as the flip side of depth of field, occurring on the opposite side of the lens.[2] With the first interpretation, the depth of focus is symmetrical about the image plane; with the latter, the depth of focus is greater on the far side of the image plane, though in most cases the distances are approximately equal.

Where depth of field often can be measured in macroscopic units such as meters and feet, depth of focus is typically measured in microscopic units such as fractions of a millimeter or thousandths of an inch.

The same factors that determine depth of field also determine depth of focus, but these factors can have different effects than they have in depth of field. Both depth of field and depth of focus increase with smaller apertures. For distant subjects (beyond macro range), depth of focus is relatively insensitive to focal length and subject distance, for a fixed f-number. In the macro region, depth of focus increases with longer focal length or closer subject distance, while depth of field decreases."

wiki

i think we all talk the same language...depth of field for those f no referrals
 
Thanks for the advice.

I will be going down a week in advance to take some test shots so I can experiment a little then.

I was also wondering if there were any general rules of thumb e.g aim to use an aperture no wider than f11 when trying to get a large depth of field etc.
 
WhitePepper said:
Hi,

I'm an amateur photographer and am setting about doing some creative shoots with models over the next year.

I have my 1st shoot lined up in roughly two weeks time, which will be outdoors in an old abandoned tip. It has plenty of character and texture and I'm keep to capture this in the photos. I'm expecting to want some shots to have a large depth of field to retain all the detail and texture of this urban landscape, and was just looking for a few pointers.

My available equipment:
Canon 400D
Jessops A300 flash
Demb flip-it and diffuser
Sigma f3.5- 6.3 18-200mm lens
Canon f1.8 50mm lens
5-in-1 reflector
Tripod
(Please assume I'm doing a full body shot at roughly 10:00AM).

My main concern is knowing what aperture to use to get enough depth of field but obtaining enough light to get a crisp shot. I don't really want to go any higher than 400 ISO if possible but obviously dont want a blurred image either. Should I use my flash? If so, what would be the optimum set up?

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Click to expand...

That's really such an extensive question it's impossible to answer. If you shoot at 18mm it will be one answer, at 200mm another, and yet another depending on focusing distance.

The best way to learn these things is just to do it, which is obviously what you're doing. I would concentrate on using a fast enough shutter speed to remove any possibility of camera shake, and to focus very carefully on the eyes. If you then have enough scope left in your settings options to play about with depth of field, go for it, but make sure those other two considerations are 100% nailed.
 
Thanks everyone.

Hoppy, you are quite right. I need to get as sharp a shot as possible, and then get as much depth of field as possible second to that. Sound advice.
 
WhitePepper said:
Thanks everyone.

Hoppy, you are quite right. I need to get as sharp a shot as possible, and then get as much depth of field as possible second to that. Sound advice.
Click to expand...

best lens performance seems to be somewhere around 3/4 total closed aperture

i would open up two stops from fully closed...and remember a wide angle has about its total USEFUL MAXIMUM depth of field at around f5.6

the real depth you are wanting to cover could be from 2 metres to 30 metres
way short of 0.3 metres and the elusive infinity
 
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