depth of field

[dwnundr]

just wondered what is the best way to practise depth of field shots.
suggested settings also would be helpful
thanks

[BigFuzzy]

The quick and cheap way to get into shots with DoF is to buy a cheapy 50mm with f/1.8 and shoot on that.

I'd practice shooting in Aperture Priority mode which allows you to control the aperture which directly controls the DoF.. then take many photos of the same thing from the same angle but only changing the aperture each shot... Then look at them on your pc and you'll start to understand the relationship between Aperture and DoF and you'll also see how it affects your shutter speed. It's a good way to learn the relationships.. well, that's how I learned at least.

[SusanH1970]

Al gave you some great advice.

Try applying his advice to taking photographs of a simple ruler. If you have a tripod, use it, so each shot is taken from the same distance (DOF will also be affected by the distance you shoot from, so if you try this experiement, you'll want to have your camera the same distance from the ruler for every single shot). Focus on the same spot for each photo.

Start at your largest aperture (smallest number), focus on one particular area, take a shot, then close down a bit, take another shot, etc. You'll clearly see the difference. The ones taken with a large aperture will have less in focus than the ones taken with a small aperture.

Here's an example I grabbed from Flickr. This was shot with a kit lens at 55mm, f/5.6.

59/365 - 33/? on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

[Swisstony10]

I'm going to sound horribly pedantic now, but also remember that EVERY picture has a depth of field. The term "depth of field" refers to the amount of the scene which is considered acceptably "in focus".

You're probably talking about practising taking pictures which have a shallow depth of field - a portrait, for example, where the subject's face is nice and sharp, and everything behind and in front of their face is out of focus. Excellent advice given above applies to that.