English Language Teaching in Japan
Depth of Field, Aperture, and 'Portraits'
| This is my favourite topic in photography. It's not just for portraits, but also to make your subject stand out, and 'jump out' of the background. All to often, a great picture is spoilt by the subject not appearing special, and is hidden in the background. Read on, below. |
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| For the first image below, I set the camera to 'A' for Aperture
Priority. So, I control the DOF (Depth of Field). This means, I can make the
background blurry, and keep the subject in sharp focus. Note, I always focus on
the eyes... unless artistic requirements require otherwise. For the picture below, I've set the aperture to F6.3 to get the right amount of depth-of-field (background blur). 'F-stop', is a measure of how open the aperture is. (f5.6 is wide open, and f22 is like a tiny pin hole, see below). Also see DOF Explained, here. |
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Click on these pictures to view them |
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| > f 6.3, 1/125, iso100, 75-300mm lens at 90mm |
| Notice the toys in the mobile stand out, so does the baby,
and the background is blurry. You can do the same on a point-and-shoot camera by
selecting the 'Portrait' setting. Now, this picture below, is with all the same settings, but f-stop is at f22, which is like a tiny pin hole. This lets much less light through; appearing too dark (see Light meter). |
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| > f 22, 1/125, iso100, 75-300mm lens at 90mm |
| It doesn't look so glamorous, appearing both darker and
with the details in the background clearer. So, another lesson is, f5.6 (wide
open aperture) lets more light in, and f22 lets much less in. So, practice using aperture priority for a while, adjusting between F5.6 to F22, and not worrying much about the other settings. Do this until you're ready to try something else (bookmark these pages). Some great ideas for DOF experimenting: friends, flowers, dogs, people standing by roads, close ups of features like a row of pool cues, etc. |
| > Also see DOF Explained, here. |
 Near a temple at Angkor Wat. Taken with an automatic camera, Minolta 303si, set on Portrait mode. |
 Apsara, a goddess of the ancient Khmer society. Minolta 303si, set on Portrait mode. |
 In an Angkor Wat temple. Minolta 303si, set on Portrait mode |
 f11, 1/125, ISO100 KM Alpha Sweet, digital |
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