Session 4 Depth of Field (DOF) and Aperture (Photography Class)

VALUE OF OPENING Depth of Field (DOF)

MC310: Basic Photography Class Mass Communication Program

Ateneo de Davao University

DOF Defined

§  The distance in front of and beyond the subject that appears to be in focus.

DOF Control: f number

§  the f-number (sometimes called focal ratio, f-ratio) of an optical system expresses the diameter of the entrance pupil in terms of the effective focal length of the lens.

§  Quantitative measure of lens speed.

Narrow DOF

Circle of Confusion

Circle of Confusion

§  The points in focus (2) project points onto the image plane (5), but points at different distances (1 and 3) project blurred images, or circles of confusion.

§  Decreasing the aperture size (4) reduces the size of the blur circles for points not in the focused plane, so that the blurring is imperceptible, and all points are within the DOF.

Sample: 35mm lens §  A 35 mm lens set to f/11.

The depth-of-field scale (top) indicates that a subject which is anywhere between 1 and 2 meters in front of the camera will be rendered acceptably sharp.

§  If the aperture were set to f/22 instead, everything from 0.7 meters to infinity would appear to be in focus.

Various Aperture Value

f/22 f/8

f/4 f/2.8

F 3.2

F 3.6

F 4.0

F 4.5

F5.0

F 5.6 F 6.4 F 7.1 F 8.0 F 9.0

Compare f3.2 and f9.0

Effect of DOF

§  At f/32, the background is distracting.

§  At f/5.6, the flowers are isolated from the background.

At f/2.8, the cat is isolated from the background.

Hyperfocal Distance