Why does shallow depth of field happen in photos, and how is it different from our eyesight?
Asked 9/6/2018
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2 answers
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I don’t fully understand depth of field. If our eyes are working normally, it doesn’t seem like we experience very shallow depth of field very often. So what causes shallow depth of field in photos and movies? Why do lenses produce blurred backgrounds or foregrounds, and how is that different from what we see with our own eyes?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
7y ago
2 Answers
1
Good question I think.
However, I don't agree with "if our eyes are good there are not many situations where we naturally percieve a shallow DOF". I can perceive a blurred background right now, over the top of my monitor, in the distance. If I look at the distance, it comes into focus—just like a camera can change focus. But the difference between a photo and what you see is that with a photo, you can closely examine the out-of-focus areas that the camera captured; with your eyes, you can't really closely examine out-of-focus areas, because your eye will naturally then just bring them into focus.
Originally by user38159. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user38159
7y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Shallow depth of field happens when a lens is focused at one distance, so objects nearer or farther away are rendered out of focus. In other words, only a limited zone appears sharp, while the background or foreground becomes blurred.
Your eyes do experience this too. For example, if you focus on something nearby, the distance can look blurry; if you shift your focus to the distance, the nearby object becomes blurry. That’s similar to how a camera changes focus.
The reason it feels different in real life is that your eyes are constantly refocusing, so you don’t usually study the blur for long. In a photo or movie frame, the focus is fixed in the recorded image, so you can examine the out-of-focus areas as much as you want. That makes shallow depth of field much more noticeable in captured images than in normal vision.
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