Portraits

The Importance of Depth of Field {DOF}

And Focal Point

Look at this picture. See anything kinda strange about it? Lydia looks beautiful as always of course, but anything photographically off? Well, it is the depth of field or DOF and the focal point. Here, her nose is really REALLY in focus, and her eyes slightly out; which means there is a very shallow depth of field. Depending upon which lens you have, the DOF can be very shallow (or limited). The aperture is what controls DOF. The faster your lens is, the shallower the field can be. The fastest lens I have seen is a f/1.0. That is very fast and VERY expensive! To get a large DOF, you just use something like an f/22 opening and a tripod. I normally use a 18-200mm lens that has a f/3.5-6.3 aperture. When taking portraits, one should always be sure to set the eyes as the focal point; this helps the person look a little more real. I am definitely guilty of not getting crisp, clear eyes and certainly learned my lesson about checking pictures for this as I go along! 

On another note, I've started to really love the raw super close in shots like this-especially in black and white!