Great depth of field vs. shallow?
Depth of field refers to the amount of a photo that is in sharp focus. With a shallow depth of field, there is one distance from the lens that is in extremely sharp focus and then the focus drops off sharply as other objects get farther or closer to the lens. Great depth of field is just the opposite. Objects much farther or much closer to the lens than the distance meant to be in sharp focus are also in sharp focus.
Shallow and Great Depth of Field help?
Here's a photo of shallow DOF. A macro shot set around f/4.0 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/DOF-ShallowDepthofField.jpg Here's one with a great DOF set around at f/14 http://flickr.com/photos/33260398@N05/3102785438/ You can really see the difference between these two images. The lower the aperture the less that will be in focus or a more shallow DOF. The higher the aperture the more everything will be in focus or a greater DOF. Low DOF is mainly used to focus on one thing so the background isn't so distracting (mostly for macro shots, portriats, close-ups) while a High DOF is used so everything is in focus.(mostly used for landscapes)
How do I get the shallow depth of field with an 18-135 mm lens?
For getting shallow DOF, following points are very important:ApertureISOSensor Type (Cropped/Full Frame)Total Area covered in a frameMF/ Overriding AF1. Aperture: Wider the aperture, shallower the DOF, as simple as that. Aperture is the simplest way to achieve shallow DOF. Which means 1.4 have shallow DOF than 1.8, and so on.2. ISO: Yes ISO. Higher ISO means the setting camera for higher sensitivity to light and will result in the camera selecting a faster shutter speed and/or a smaller aperture. Its an added advantage from Aperture, for getting shallow DOF.3. Sensor Type (Cropped/Full Frame): Cropped sensor means you are basically zooming everything in a frame by 1.4/1.5/1.6 times depending upon your crop factor. DOF too. So, full frame camera will have shallower DOF at the same aperture than cropped sensor camera. 4. Total Area covered in Frame: This is totally on how truly you understand your gear. You have to know how much area you are getting in DOF at a certain aperture and after that you can calculate DOF and focus accordingly. There are some mobile apps are also helpful for the same.5. MF/ Overriding AF: AF is one the best technical advancements in photography in digital era but its combination with manual techniques can do magic. Use back button focusing instes of pressing half shutter button settings. Don't use AF servo. Lock focus once on subject, then rotate the focus ring to to shift DOF.Here is a small illustration to help:
How can we get the shallow depth of a field?
A shallow depth of field is achieved through maximum aperture (small F-number).If you are new to photography, here are few tips to achieve it better,Use aperture priority mode to have control of your aperture and let the camera decide your ISO and shutter speed. This let’s you learn how depth of field works.If you can afford few more dollars, get a good prime lens for achieving the best shallow depth of field. There are prime lens that has F/1.4, F/1.8 , F/2 as their F numbers but their zoom is fixed (fixed mm lens). It lets you exploit more on how to capture a subject by moving yourself and not just by using zoom.Once you get used to the aperture, use this link How to Shoot With an Extremely Shallow Depth-of-Field for analyzing how the optics work. It has good content on shallow depth of field. The article will make you realize more on what gears you need.Shallow depth of field is always preferable for taking photos of people, product or any other subject and not for landscape. Hope this will help you to start of with aperture training.
How do I achieve shallow depth of field?
DOF is highly depended on Aperture value. Lower the value shallower the DOF going to be. So yes you will get better shallow DOF with f/1.8 or f/2 . But you should also remember that this can vary with the Focul length. you can still get shallow dof with f/4-f/5.6 with a 400mm or 500mm lenses. Macro lenses also help you achieve the same due to their maximum aperture would be f/1.4- f/2.8 range. Another tip is that, use manual focus, it is always better to get the desired result. Autofocus tend to cover a narrower range when focusing.
What's the difference in shallow depth of field and greater depth of field in photography?
Depth of Field (DOF) is defined as that area that is in acceptable focus in front of and behind your subject. DOF is a product of lens length and f-stop chosen. With digital cameras, especially compact digicams, the size of the sensor also comes into play. DOF is easier to achieve with a DSLR due to its much larger sensor. A full-frame (24mm x 36mm) sensor DSLR is even better at achieving the desired DOF. To show the focal length/f-stop relationship I'm going to use examples based on a 24mm x 36mm frame. Results with a non full-frame DSLR will be somewhat different. 16mm @ f2.8, focused to 6' : DOF is from 3' 9" to 15' 8" 16mm @ f16, focused to 6' : DOF is from 1' 2" to infinity 16mm @ f16, focused to infinity : DOF is from 1' 4" to infinity 21mm @ f2.8, focused to 6' : DOF is from 4' 5" to 9' 2" 21mm @ f16, focused to 6' : DF is from 2' 2" to infinity 21mm @ f16, focused to infinity : DOF is from 3' 1" to infinity 50mm @ f2.8, focused to 7' : DOF is from 6' 8" to 7' 6" 50mm @ f16, focused to 7' : DOF is from 5' to 11' 7" 50mm @ f16, focused to infinity : DOF is from 16' 9" to infinity 100mm @ f2.5, focused to 6' : DOF is from 5' 11" to 6' 1" 100mm @ f16, focused to 6' : DOF is from 5' 6" to 6' 6" 100mm @ f16, focused to infinity : DOF is from 61' 10" to infinity 200mm @ f3.5, focused to 8' : DOF is from 7' 11" to 8' 01/2" 200mm @ f16, focused to 8' : DOF is from 7' 10" to 8' 2" 200mm @ f16, focused to infinity : DOF is from 246' to infinity As you can easily see, the shorter the focal length and smaller the f-stop the more DOF. An excellent DOF aid would be the ExpoAperture2, available at http://www.expoimaging.net You can calculate DOF based on focal length, f-stop and sensor size.
How can we get shallow depth of field from a zoom lens like 18-55 mm like the one we can get in a prime lens (50 mm)?
For a fixed subject distance and a fixed field-of-view, DoF is dependent on one thing only, the actual aperture (not focal ratio).Focal ratio, f, is given as f=f/D where f is the focal length of the lens and D is the effective diameter of the aperture. So the effective diameter of the lens is given as D=f/f. f is usually referred to as the f-stop (but that is a different discussion).A typical 50mm prime lens will have a maximum aperture of f/1.4 - f/2.8 while a typical 18-55mm zoom lens will have a maximum aperture of f/3.5 - f/5.6 at the 50mm mark. Because of this smaller maximum aperture, the prime lens at the same subject distance and focal length will have a greater DoF.That is to say, a 50mm lens at f-stop 2.0 has the same DoF as a 105mm lens with a 4.2 f-stop (that is, they both have an effective diameter of 25mm).However, by coming closer to your subject, you can reduce the DoF. DoF is affected by the distance to the focal point and the bokeh is affected by the ratio of the distance between the subject & the foreground/background and the DoF.What does not affect DoF is focal length or sensor size for the “Same Image”, meaning, if perspective has not changed (same distance to subject), and field of view has not changed, and absolute aperture has not changed, then DoF has not changed (but this means changing your image size with focal length to affect the same FoV).So by coming closer to the subject with the zoom lens, you increase the DoF but you also change the perspective. You have to trade one for the other since your absolute aperture has changed.
How to shallow depth of field on Canon XA10...?
Two things that will be helpful here. The first is making sure that you have opened up the camera's iris/apreture to its lowest f-stop number. I believe the XA10 goes down to 1.8 so you will want to have it set there. The f-stop value of the lens will go up as you increase the zoom but you always want to have it on its lowest seting, largest aperture. Depth of field has a lot to do with your distance to the subject and the background. As an example if you were to pull up tight on a leaf on a tree with the leaf in focus the background should blur a bit. The best way to get depth of field then with a camcorder is to use the zoom function. Get in a little tighter to your subject or step back so you can zoom into them a little bit. The combination of this zooming plus the lower f-stop/bigger aperture setting will get you shallow depth of field with an XA10. The depth of field you get with an XA10 will be less then that of a larger sensor camera but it is still obtainable if you follow the above guidelines. Experiment a bit and you will find some creative ways to make this work.
How can I get a shallow depth of field on an iPhone 7 (NOT the plus)?
Yes you can get a shallow depth of field on iPhone 7 but not as deep as you're showing in the pictureNow follow the following stepsTake your phone closer to the object you want to focus on (5–6cm away from the object)Make sure that the background is well differciated (far behind) the focussed objectGenerally iPhone automatically focuses but you can also focus by taping on the object(on the screen)You'll get a depth of field effect and click the pictureSee the above picture shot with 6s !!!You'll get a slight more blur from iPhone 7Hope it helps
Is it possible to get shallow depth of field with a small sensor?
The image you shared in your comment looks like it was shot on a 35mm camera with a fast lens (1.2 or 1.4). This is hard to match if you don't have a 35mm camera.In addition to Anon's response, if there's money involved, you can get the bokeh pretty inexpensively compared to fancy pro gear:Get a digital SLR that shoots HD video - best choices on the low end are a Nikon D3100 ($550), or Canon T3i ($675), then add a 50mm F1.4 or 1.8 lens.Another option won't give you shallow depth of field, but you can get much shallower depth of field with a large sensor point and shoot camera with a large aperture. The Olympus XZ-1 runs about $400, and it has an F1.8-2.5 lens, and a 1/1.63" sensor. This gives it some ability to seperate the subject from the background. I used to have a Canon G5, which was F3.0 at the long end with 1/1.8" sensor, and if I was very careful about subject distance and background distance, I could get some bokeh at the scale of a headshot. The XZ-1 has a larger aperture and sensor, so it'll give even less depth of field. See this review which shows off what it can do (I've linked directly to the page where it is shown):http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/...Lastly, I might recommend a DOF calculator to see what is in sharp focus. Objects near the depth of field limits will still be pretty detailed, and not blurry at all. This one has options for camcorder sized sensors - as long as you're inputting the correct focal length, subject distance, and sensor size, it'll give you a good idea of what to expect, and you can also see how it might compare with a larger sensor on a dSLR.http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html