Depth of Field

The amount of a picture from front to back thats in focus is called its depth of field. If only one part of the photo is in focus (e.g. the foreground but not the background, or
vice-versa), thats a shallow depth of field. If both the foreground and background are in focus, thats a deep depth of field. Wider apertures (small F-stops like 2.8) give shallower depth of field, while narrow apertures (F-16 or F-22) give the greatest depth of field. Heres my friend the Smooth Green Snake demonstrating both Shallow and Deep Depth of Field:

Snake: Aerial View of the Depth of Field

Snake: Shallow and Deep Depth of Field SHALLOW Depth of Field: From front to back, only a small amount of the picture is in focus, centered around the focal point:

DEEP Depth of Field most of the picture from front to back is in focus

Heres the same picture shot shot with a wide aperture = shallow depth of field, and a narrow aperture = deep depth of field:

Sumach Leaves SHALLOW Depth of Sumach Leaves DEEP Depth of Field Field

Wide aperture ( F/4) Fast shutter ( 1/500th second) Foreground in focus, background blurred

Narrow Aperture (F/16) Slow Shutter ( 1/30th second) Foreground and background both in focus

Elmo Shows Us His Depth

Depth of Field What s In Focus FStop Focal Distan ce

Shallow
foreground in focus

Shallow
background in focus

Deep
foreground in focus, background almost in focus (focused on Elmo) F-22 (narrow aperture) 0.5 m

Medium
foreground in focus, background partially in focus (focused on Elmo) F-8 (medium aperture) 0.5 m

F-1.8 (wide aperture) 0.5 m

F-1.8 (wide aperture) 10 m

Comm ents

Good if you only want the viewer to notice Elmos face no distracting background

Not good background obscured and foreground out of focus. You have to be careful what youre focussing on if you use a wide aperture.

Good if you want to show both a foreground subject and the background too. Focussing a bit further out, maybe at 2 m, would have sharpened the background and still left Elmo in focus.

Good for showing the foreground with a little background for context.

If you notice the F-stops used in the photos above, youll see that a wider aperture (small Fstop, like 2.8) gives a shallower depth of field. The smaller the physical aperture, the more depth of field, and the less you have to worry about focusing. So if you want much of your photo as possible to be in focus, choose a high F-stop (small aperture) like 16 or 22.

Whats a common problem that happens with shallow depth of field? You have to be careful what you focus on, because only a narrow part of the picture will be in focus!

The photographer has accidentally focused on the background.

Focus on the foreground, where it was intended!

So why not just use very small apertures all the time, so everything is more in focus?
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Smaller aperture means less light maybe not enough to properly expose, or requiring too slow a shutter speed Sometimes you want the background (or foreground) to be out of focus, so it doesnt distract as much from your primary subject. This is also called soft focus, and is used sometimes in portrait photography to give a soft fuzzy effect to an otherwise harsh face.

This picture, shot at F2.8, gives emphasis to the leaf and raindrops since the background is a soft blur due to the shallow depth of field.