Beecher's Handouts >

Depth-of-Field >

As described above, there's more depth-of-field in photography now due to sensor size.

There's also more depth-of-field because we're generally using lenses that go only to f/4, instead of f/1.4.

What do you do if you want less depth-of-field?

Use a 50mm lens on your digital SLR camera.

The lens becomes about a 75mm or 80mm lens on most digital SLR cameras.

If you use a 50mm lens that has a lens opening of f/1.4, you'll have three stops less depth-of-field than your zoom lens.

You can blur backgrounds more completely.

The bottom photograph of the grape leaf was taken at f/1.4.

Note how only the leaf is in focus.

There's much more depth-of-field in the top photograph, because it was taken at f/4.

f/4

f/1.4

When using a wide aperture like f/1.4, be sure to focus carefully.