Why can changing focus reveal a background object that was hidden behind a close subject?
Asked 1/30/2021
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2 answers
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I noticed something odd while testing bokeh. With my camera locked on a tripod and the framing unchanged, simply changing the focus point made part of a background object appear that had been hidden behind a nearby subject.
Setup:
- Canon 80D with 18-135mm STM
- 135mm, f/5.6
- Aperture priority, live view, 10s delay
- Camera position unchanged for all shots
- Only the focus point/distance changed
Examples:
- Focus on a close toy at about 23 cm
- Focus on another toy at about 83 cm
- Focus on a book at about 137 cm
When focused close, a bowl in the background was hidden behind the toy. When focused farther away, part of that bowl became visible, even though the camera and composition did not change.
Why does changing focus do this?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
5y ago
2 Answers
5
Note that the same thing is occurring along the left arm as well (e.g. the text "scandinavian").
The first thing to understand is that; at every point on the objective lens there is a complete image of the scene, as seen from that point. And aperture (objective area recorded) is essentially the stacking of those multiple images at the image plain. That's how you can have a 300mm f/5.6 lens and a 300mm f/2 lens which both record the same field of view... the f/2 lens just has a much larger objective element (max entrance pupil) which can collect many more images (more light).
In this case it is primarily due to the very short distance to a small subject; and it's not much different from holding your finger up to determine if you are right-eye or left-eye dominant. I.e. the right edge of the lens can see around the left arm of the near subject; whichever image distance is focused will be primary and the others will be blurred/ghosted to some degree (i.e. transparent).
The three points on the lens in the first drawing represent three of the images available from the objective lens, w/ the blue subject in focus and dominating (farther points front focused/blurred). In the second image the far subject is in focus/dominating and the front subject is significantly backfocused/blurred.

Originally by user70370. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user70370
5y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
This is a real optical effect, not a framing change.
When you focus, the lens elements move. That changes which rays from across the lens aperture are brought together sharply on the sensor. For out-of-focus objects, points are not recorded as points but as blur circles. Those blur circles are formed from light arriving through different parts of the entrance pupil, so an out-of-focus foreground object can “cover” slightly different parts of the background depending on focus distance.
At close focus and 135mm f/5.6, depth of field is extremely shallow and foreground blur is large. Because the lens is effectively seeing the scene from across a small disk-shaped area (the aperture), the blur from the nearer subject can shift enough to hide or reveal parts of the background. It’s related to parallax across the aperture and is most noticeable with close subjects, longer focal lengths, and wider apertures.
So even with the camera fixed, changing focus can make a hidden background detail appear or disappear because out-of-focus blur is built from different viewing angles through the lens.
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