Question about Shift of Focus

[jmed86]

Hi all,

I'm doing an assignment for class and I am not sure what "shift of focus" exactly means. The syllabus states "near and far" but can someone tell me what shift of focus is and give me some examples of it?

Thanks

[sk66]

Not me, sorry....
I would interpret that to mean an image with two points of focus...(usually a less "strong" image) distinctly different and causing a dichotomy of interest...each unique...I would think this would be very hard to accomplish well....

I'd be interested in seeing what you come up with.

[lisakathleen1961]

Hi. I'm not sure how much knowledge you have on this topic. I want to help, but I don't want to insult you either by providing an explanation that is too dumbed down.

If this is a beginning photo class, maybe your instructor is simply asking you to manually focus your lens on a subject in the *foreground*... and then take the same picture only focusing on a subject in the *background*. For example, a man standing in front of a bridge. The man is in the foreground. The bridge is in the background.

That said, aperture settings (f stops on your camera) can shorten or lengthen the depth of field.

For example, a short depth of field (smaller number f-stop) would enable you to focus on a person in the foreground but have the background blurry. A bigger depth of field (bigger number on your aperature dial) would enable you to shoot the same person... only this time with the bridge in focus.

Does this help at all?

[jmed86]

Thanks to both of you for answering my question.

This is a Summer Photo 1 class - nothing too complex in the class, so don't worry about insulting me with a dumbed down explaination.

I think I'm sort of getting the idea of it.

Thanks again

[lisakathleen1961]

Hope it helped a bit. I plan to take a few photog classes next year myself.

[Elmo]

Seems to me a poor instructor that did not explain and/or illustrate the concept before assigning one to implement it.

[Agata]

Seems a little confusing to give so little detail to students.

Maybe she's asking you to take a couple of photos of one subject and in each one you change the focus a bit. Say if you have a photo with 2 object in it, at an angle, one is close to the camera and the second is a few inches behind it (in the background). In photo one you focus on the subject near you so that the background if blurred. In photo 2 you focus on the second subject from the background, that way the foreground subject is blurred.

The teacher may just want to see how you handle focusing. :-P Not sure if this was helpful
but good luck!

[Mukul Singh]

Hi guys i'm a hobby photographer new to slr photography just brought Nikon d3000. I've tried various techniques with it n got satisfactory results. I want to learn how take a photograph of person in the foreground and a scenery in the background. I tried both the method of focusing the foreground with blury background and vice-versa.
Now i want to click with both the objects into focus with clear foreground and clear depth of the field of backgroung scenery in the same shot.


I tried AF-lock but failed to use this feature.

If anyone use Nikon D3000 thn plz guide me about this feature.

[IABoomer]

Mukul, you want to research depth of field. A shallow depth of field is where you have the person clear in front, but a soft blurry background. A deeper depth of field will put the foreground and background more in focus.

Most of the time, this is accomplished by stepping down the aperture, making the opening smaller, or a higher f/stop. There is a practical limit for stopping down a lens, as too small an opening causes some issues.

Another thing to do is move your subject closer to the background which will make it easier to get both in strong focus, if that's your intent.

All of this can be done on the D3000. It's probably easiest to do in aperture priority mode "A" on the mode dial. You can use the wheel to adjust the aperture down and the camera will tweak the shutter speed and/or ISO to get a good exposure. You might want a tripod just in case the exposures get too long to hold by hand.

[Mukul Singh]

Thnx Boomer i hope i hv understand u n will definately give it a try...
Plz also tell me how to lock focus at two different object or point ....