DOF Question.

[l2jperry]

Hey all,

I wonder if this is the correct place to post this? But I find no other place that makes sense!

Last night I tried getting those pictures where the subject comes in very sharp and the background blurred. I was only a little happy with them. With the lens out as far as possible, my camera will only allow me to get to f5.6, am I doing this correctly?

And also,

What do I need in order to get the aperture to come down further??

Thanks for any help!

-R.J.-

[Swisstony10]

If you have a look at the writing on the lens that describes it, you'll probably find that it says something like "f4.5-5.6" - this means that with the lens at its widest zoom setting, the biggest aperture you can have is f4.5 (or whatever the first number is), and with it at its most zoomiest zoom the biggest aperture you can have is f5.6 (or whatever the second number is).

If you want to get a shallower DoF, then you need to get in closer to your subject, and also have the lens at a wider setting, or buy one of those deliciously expensive lenses that has a fixed maximum aperture across the entire zoom range. The other way to do it is to invest in a prime lens - lots of people (me included) love a nice 50mm or 85mm prime, with a maximum aperture of f1.8 or even f1.4 - although I seldom use my 50mm wide open, it's nice to go wider than the 4.5 that my zoom maxes out at.

Also, google yourself up a Depth of Field calculator - you should be able to find one where you can fire in your zoom setting, aperture, and even camera model, along with the distance between you and the subject, and have it tell you all kinds of useful stuff like where your limits of acceptable focus will be, and also where your hyperfocal distance is.

Russ.

[l2jperry]

Thanks Russ, much appreciated!!