What do shallow and large depth of field mean, and how do you get each effect?
Asked 12/21/2010
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I’m confused by the terms used to describe depth of field. What do photographers call images where almost everything appears in focus, versus images where only a very small area is sharp and the rest falls out of focus? Also, what camera or lens settings are typically used to create each look?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
15y ago
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The focus distance is the distance from your camera's sensor in which everything is in perfect focus. Unless you use a specialized tilt/shift lens, there is only one such distance.
Objects closer and further than the focus distance are out of focus by some amount. The closer to the focus distance, the more in focus they are.
Depth-of-field is the range of distances where things are acceptably close to being in focus. This is not absolute and is inversely proportional to viewing size. In other words, the same photo has more depth-of-field when printed smaller.
Shallow depth-of-field means the depth-of-field is small which implies that things get quickly out of focus. Depth-of-field is made shallower using larger apertures (denoted by small F/numbers), using a longer focal-length (more zoomed-in) and using a larger sensor (For example, full-frame vs cropped vs compact-camera sensors).
The Hyperfocal distance is the distance at which you can focus your lens to make things acceptably focused at infinity while maximizing depth-of-field. This short article explains it and includes a calculator to compute the hyperfocal distance depending on your camera and lens.
Originally by user1620. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user1620
15y ago
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Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Depth of field is the range of distances in a photo that appear acceptably sharp. There is only one exact focus distance, but a wider or narrower range around it can look sharp.
When most or all of the scene appears sharp, that’s called large, deep, or sometimes near-infinite depth of field.
When only a small slice of the scene is sharp—such as eyes sharp but ears and background blurred—that’s called shallow depth of field.
To get shallow depth of field, use:
- a larger aperture (smaller f-number, like f/1.8 or f/2.8)
- a longer focal length
- a closer subject distance
To get deep depth of field, use:
- a smaller aperture (larger f-number, like f/8, f/11, or smaller)
- a shorter focal length
- focus farther into the scene
One related term: bokeh does not mean shallow depth of field itself; it refers to the quality or appearance of the out-of-focus blur.
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