Depth of Field

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Nadeem

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Depth of Field I'm sure this questions be asked and answered a million times but as a pure novice.

Say i want to take like a Potrait Shot of a person and want to make the background blurred i.e i think that’s called Shallow Depth of Field what factors determine that is it the aperture or are other factors involved and what aperture do i need.

I know i used some terminology but i just need to know as a layman how i achieve that as i might not have lens to be able to do that?
 
what is the F. Range on your lens?

basically the smaller the number on the F. (e.g. F.2.8) the shallow the DOF and more blurred the BG will be.
 
The focal length of your lens, aperture , distance of subject from the focal plane, distance of subject from background and your sensor size all have a bearing on the DOF. have a look at this calculator.
 
Nadeem said:
Just as i thought then the F range is f3.5/5.6, Time to save some pennies
Click to expand...

3.5 should still work, use a fash shutter with it as well and should be ok. 2.8 was just an example. Some good portrait lenses people go for are nifty fifties, basically a 50mm lens with normally an F. or 1.8....normally around £100 ish. at least for canon anyway.
 
Dogfish_magnet said:
The focal length of your lens, aperture , distance of subject from the focal plane, distance of subject from background and your sensor size all have a bearing on the DOF. have a look at this calculator.
Click to expand...

Lol thanks confuse me even more i was happier with the F number answer

I think i'll have to give it a go, i know on the GF1 14-45mm lens during filming you can change the depth of field by chnaging focus from near to far object and vice versa.
 
Even at f/8 you can get some background blur, it just depends how much you want, how far you are from your subject and your light availability. If you're up your subject's nose, so to speak, then even a small aperture (large F number) will give some background blur, but if you're a bit further away you need to open it more to maintain background blur.
 
Basically depth of field is controlled by magnification and f/number.

Magnification - the bigger the subject is in the frame, the less DoF you get. You can make it bigger by using the longest focal length, or moving closer, or both. Format also has an effect on this, as obviously with a larger format, eg full frame, the image on the sensor is larger, hence greater magnification. But you can't change that, just fill the frame as tightly as you can.

F/number - lower f/number equals less DoF.

What shallowest DoF boils down to in practise is zoom at max focal length, move as close as you can, and shoot at lowest f/number. Unfortunately, 4/3rds format is rather small and also f/3.5 is not that low, but you should still be able to get a pretty good result :)
 
Nadeem said:
Just as i thought then the F range is f3.5/5.6, Time to save some pennies
Click to expand...


This actually means that at the widest (focal length) the lens can go to it will allow you to use F3.5, "Zoomed" in will only allow you F5.6.

Even at F5.6 you can generate DOF, Take your subject to a place where there can be some distance in the background for your subject to "Pop" in the picture.
 
gazedd said:
This actually means that at the widest (focal length) the lens can go to it will allow you to use F3.5, "Zoomed" in will only allow you F5.6.

Even at F5.6 you can generate DOF, Take your subject to a place where there can be some distance in the background for your subject to "Pop" in the picture.
Click to expand...


For example, Take out fellow member "Purpleclouds" in the following link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gazedd/4222824555/

4222824555_38235d2091.jpg


Exif:
Camera: Canon EOS-1D Mark III Exposure: 0.005 sec (1/200) Aperture: f/6.3 Focal Length: 70 mm ISO Speed: 500

There was some distance between him and the trees you can see in the background, but its "Blurred" and if we have come forward more that would have only increased the "Blur"
 
Thanks everyone for your help i think i need to do some photography to get a hang of it all but your picture Gazzed would be more then good enough.

Weather going to be rubbish this weekend otherwise i got my subjects my Niece and Nephew :)
 
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