Macro Depth Of Field – Beginner Video

Today we are sharing a video by CamCrunch that will help you to understand macro depth of field. As a macro photographer, it is very important to understand what depth of field is and how it affects your photos.

Depth of field is the distance between the nearest and farthest objects in a scene that appear acceptably sharp in an image. It is important to always consider the depth of field in your image when composing your shot. By composing a photo that has a shallow depth of field, the areas within your image will be less in focus. This could potentially help to focus a viewers attention to a specific area. On the other hand, an image with a deep depth of field will generally have more areas in focus.

There is no hard and fast rule in macro photography that states that your images should have a shallow depth of field or a deep depth of field. At the end of the day, it comes down to the composition that you are after as a photographer. Different depth of field within an image can sometimes tell a completely different story to your viewers.

Here is the basic summary of the factors that affects the depth of field in your image –

1. Aperture
2. Focal Length
3. Camera Distance from subject

 Aperture

Aperture is one of the factors that will affect the depth of field in your image. Aperture is the size of the opening in your lens. Generally, when using a larger aperture or smaller f/stop number (eg. F2.8), your image will be less in focus (eg. shallow depth of field). When you increase the aperture or use a larger f/stop number (eg. F22) , your image will become more in focus (eg. deep depth of field).

Focal Length

Focal length is the other factor that will affect the depth of field in your image. The longer your focal length (eg. a lens zoomed to 105mm), the less areas of your image will be in focus (shallow depth of field). On the other hand, if you use a wider focal length (a lens zoomed out to 24mm), more areas of your image will be in focus.

Camera Distance from Subject

The distance between your subject and camera will also affect the depth of field in your image. Generally, the closer you are to your subject, the less of your image will be in focus (shallow depth of field). If you then move further away from your subject, you will notice that the image will become more in focus (deep depth of field).

Here is an easy to understand video by CamCrunch that illustrates the changes to your depth of field as you adjust your camera settings…

httpv://youtu.be/iHxG1f3X1f4We hope that this has helped you to understand more about macro depth of field and how you can use it to compose your photos. If you found it useful, please share it with all your friends and family!

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