ore DOF

[Cactusjack]

I hope this isn't the dumbest most basic question ever asked but here we go. i've only used point and shoot up to about 3 months ago and i am heading out to Glacier Park soon to take some photographs. I have a decent uderstanding on how to take the full landscape picture but this is what i am having doubts about. Having a person or a group in front of a vista point and having everything, subjects and background in focus. Where would you start with the best length of lens and f setting to get this effect?

[ElCapitan]

First off, what equipment do you have already?

Secondly, it all depends on the effect you are looking for. If you want the group of people and the background to both be in focus, you want to use a wide lens. Wider lenses offer a deeper DOF. Also, if you are shooting on a crop sensor, the DOF will be deeper even more (though I am not sure how much deeper the DOF is because of a crop sensor). A telephoto lens will compress the image and have a really shallow DOF. Your group will be in focus but the background will seem closer but not in focus.

You may also want to look into the hyperfocal distance. This technique allows you to get both your subject and background in focus and sharp.

[sourav]

Hope this helps.
Online Depth of Field Calculator

[Cactusjack]

Nikon D3100 18-55 f3.5-5.6 would this be wide angle enough at the 18-22 mm range? i would like to have both the people and the background in focus. easy to do with my point and shoot

[mikerob2334]

Originally Posted by Cactusjack

Nikon D3100 18-55 f3.5-5.6 would this be wide angle enough at the 18-22 mm range? i would like to have both the people and the background in focus. easy to do with my point and shoot

Depends, get more info and plug it into the DOF calculator link you were given. How far away from you is the group, how far is the "vista"? You need this info to know the answer. Just a wild guess, but I would say yes if you are not too close to the group and drop the aperture down to something like f11? But plug the numbers in the calculator.

[navcom]

Originally Posted by Cactusjack

Nikon D3100 18-55 f3.5-5.6 would this be wide angle enough at the 18-22 mm range? i would like to have both the people and the background in focus. easy to do with my point and shoot

Easy because a Point and Shoot is just that...point and shoot. It determines most things for you for ease of use. An SLR is designed to have more control and put the photographer as artist in the drivers seat. Depth of field is a huge visual control element in photographic composition. Having items "out of focus" in many cases can be a plus. It forces the viewer to look at the main subject (which is in focus) and not be confused by everything else in the picture.

That being said, there is no picture (even a P&S) where everything is in focus. That is physically impossible for any lens. The P&S has such a small, cropped sensor that it just "appears" that everything is perfectly in focus. If you zoom in to certain areas, you will see that it's not.

A lens can only focus on a single plane. Everything else behind or in front of it gradually goes out of focus as you get farther away from the focus plane. The rate at which it goes out of focus depends on the focal length of the lens and the aperture the lens is set to. The wider the lens, the greater the DOF. The smaller the aperture opening (larger the number), the greater the DOF. Using both of these variables, you can arrive at the DOF you need.

So knowing all that, you can see that every scene will be different. We can't just say "this lens will work" without knowing the scene and the composition. You as the artist need to determine that at the time the shot is taken. Kind of like saying how much gas will it take to go 200km. Well, are you taking a car, a truck, a train, or an airplane? And what is the wind speed? As an example, if you want to get a family of 6 standing 6 feet from you camera in focus as well as the mountain range 10 miles behind them, you will need a wide angle lens and a relatively small aperture. What the actual numbers will be is up to you and the circumstances at the scene.

Hope that helps!

[ElCapitan]

To greatly simplify things, shoot wide and with a higher aperture. Focus on your group to make sure they are in focus, and the background should be in decent focus. The hyperfocal distance can be a bit tricky, but you should be fine without it.

The reason your P&S looks like everything is in focus is because the sensor is incredibly small. The smaller the sensor, the deeper the DOF. Of course all those pixels on a tiny sensor can make for some pretty fugly images in bad lighting.

[sk66]

Originally Posted by Cactusjack

Nikon D3100 18-55 f3.5-5.6 would this be wide angle enough at the 18-22 mm range? i would like to have both the people and the background in focus. easy to do with my point and shoot

At 20mm and f/10, focus at about 2 meters from you. Everything from about 1 meter to infinity will be in focus.

Or, if your subject is at least 2 meters away and you focus on that, the subject and everything beyond should be in acceptable focus.

[earleybird]

try this online DOF calculator.
Online Depth of Field Calculator


Oops I see the link has already been posted . Why didn't I see all the posts in this thread ?