Depth of field - hopefully explained...

[arad85]

It's there and that's it but we can work with what we have to alter perception. Assuming we're not printing an image the size of the film negative what we'll then be doing is enlarging the image and seeing the faults more obviously or indeed what we can do is take a magnifying glass to the negative...

This is the Wikipedia definition of Depth of Field (in fact, it is the first line of the page on depth of field):

In optics, particularly as it relates to film and photography, depth of field (DOF) is the distance between the nearest and farthest objects in a scene that appear acceptably sharp in an image.

Which is exactly what you are doing in your text above - creating the bits that are sharp depending on how big you print and view.

You need to actually decompose what is going on in each step of capture, print and viewing, and perhaps you'll see the wood from the trees because in this case, there is a right and wrong answer which is perfectly predictable if you know a few variables.

And terminology, semantics and correctness do actually matter - especially when they are very well defined.

 

[arad85]

Doh.. too distracted by real work to get a quick reply in....

 

[gpc1]

The depth of a field is determined by how much rain we have had, and how muddy the ground is.

I was in a field once with a depth of 10 inches......
almost up to my knees.

There was no circle of confusion as i couldnt move in a circle as i was trapped by the depth of the field.

The shallower depth of the field was in the near far distance, more far than near though.

My number of 'F's was quite high !

 

[arad85]

 

[Ploddles]

..... I've watched a million tutorials, I've read a million magazines and books, and soaked it all up......

So when do you get time to shoot, watching all those tutorials and reading all those mags and books