Tips for Better Photographs - Part 5

Shallow Depth of Field

As you have probably figured out by now, there is almost nothing that I love more than using a shallow depth of field. And since it's only been about 5 months that I've known what that actually means, I shall explain.

A shallow depth of field means that only a small part of your picture is in focus, such as only the objects four feet away from you, and everything in the background is out of focus, or only the objects ten feet away from you, and everything in the foreground is out of focus. There are a couple of ways you can do this.

First, it's super-easy if you have a camera that has an manual aperture adjustment. The wider the aperture, the smaller area of focus you will have, which is what I'm almost always aiming for. A large aperture means having a smaller f-number, by the way.

Now, if you have a simple point-and-shoot camera, it is possible to achieve this effect as well. If you set your camera to the "portrait" setting and get really close to the object you would like in focus, you can get some beautiful shots, like these, taken by the 15-year-old girl, with her $99 Exilim....

That being said, it's much easier (and more fun) if you have a camera with a manual aperture setting. I love using a shallow depth of field because it helps keep the focus on what's important. Here are some of my fave examples...

The following photo of an iris from John's garden was taken in full sun, which is normally a no-no, but I love how this turned out, with the faded shadows of the grass in the background adding an interesting texture to the photo...

This next photo has be to one of my favorite all-time food photos...

I love this because the ice cream cone is so clearly in focus, while the background of the different flavors of ice cream of blurry. I think what I love most, though, is that the ice cream is sitting on glass, so it looks like it's floating in mid-air.

I love the following example, because it shows the effect of an out-of-focus foreground (the hammock) and background (the grass), while getting the 3-month-old in perfect focus...

Here's one of my favorites...

This is a geranium shot in John's garden. What I love about this photo is how the flower fades from focus as it rounds to the back. And just for your info, I don't know how I got this shot with a black background. I was simply taking a picture of one geranium flower in a pot of others, and I just got lucky.

Here's just some funny feet examples of shallow depth-of-field...

And this one, another favorite, because the bracelets are in focus, but the foreground and the background are blurry, although you can see she is filming a graduation ceremony... (Plus I just love the colors of her bracelets!)

One of my favorite things to photograph is food. And since the twins and the 4-year-old boy know nothing else but a life of being blogged, they have been well-trained on how to hold food samples so that I can get the perfect shallow depth-of field shot. Remember, the object in focus has to be at a different distance from the camera than everything else, so I've taught them that when I say, "Show me the... (so and so)", they hold it out far from the bodies and close to the camera. It works every time! Check out how they show me food and other important items...

...and here are some other people who have learned to hold things close to the camera for the perfect shallow depth of field shot...

...and one last favorite...

I love this so much, especially because of the spots of sunlight coming through the honeysuckle vines in the background.

What about you? Show us some of your favorite shallow depth of field shots by posting links in the comments. Thanks for listening!