Control Depth of Field For Better Digital Photos

In the modern era of the digital camera, you seldom hear the term “depth of field.” However, this is a very simple technique to improve the quality of your digital photography.

First, lets define depth of field. Quite simply, it is the nearest and most distant point of acceptable focus in a picture. That is, it is the area that is sharp and in focus. For most digital camera owners it is something that they never try to control. But, used properly, depth of field can add dramatic impact to your photographs.

Depth of field is a product of the combination of the aperture and the shutter speed. This being the case, you will probably want to set your camera to manual controls to gain control over depth of field. The smaller the aperture, the greater the depth of field and the larger the aperture, the smaller the depth of field. Of course, by changing the aperture, you must also change the shutter speed to match for proper exposure.

At this point, you are probably saying: what does this have to do with the price of gas. Nothing, of course, but it can have great impact on your digital photos.

If you are shooting scenic photos, you will probably want the greatest possible depth of field. Remember the work of Ansel Adams. Those beautiful sweeping panoramas with everything in critical focus. This is done by using the smallest possible aperture and a slow shutter speed. You may want to carry a tripod to insure that your photos do not become blurry due to camera shake.

At the other extreme is selective focus. You use a wide open aperture and a faster shutter speed to create the narrowest field of focus. This is commonly uses in portrait photos and extreme close-up photos. The idea is to keep only the subject in focus while blurring out the other areas of the photograph. This isolates the subject so that the background is not distracting from the subject. This type of selective focus can create tremendous impact in a photograph.

These are very common techniques used by professional photographers but, I rarely see these techniques used by today’s new breed of digital photographer. If you want to create something more than a snapshot, this is one of the tools that you should be using. Not using these techniques is the equivalent of turning your expensive digital camera into a Brownie Hawkeye. For those of you who don’t remember them, just take a look at Ebay under the antique camera listings.

Stan Pontiere has been an avid photographer since childhood. Having worked for the likes of the Associated Press and The New York Times and an instructor of photography at a college back east, I have enjoyed the transition from film to digital photography. For more information on digital photography, please visit: http://digitalphoto.net46.net or my blog at: http://stansdigitalphoto.blogspot.com/