Digital Photography Tips - Using Depth of Field to Take Good Pictures

One of the best digital photography tips involvesAnother technique is to use a telephoto lens with
something know as depth of field, or bokeh. Thisa wide open aperture. This sounds a little techy,
is where part of the photograph is in sharp focusbut it is not really very complicated. Here's how it
while the rest of the image is out of focus, orworks. Use your telephoto lens set to a higher
blurry. This technique adds lots of interest to anumber, such as 100mm or 200mm, and set your
photograph by separating the main subject fromaperture to a lower number, such as f2.8 or f4.0.
the photograph and drawing the viewer's attentionThe lower the number, the less depth there is in
right to the area of the main subject. The blurredthe focus. In some cases, there is only a depth of
background does not compete for the viewer'sfocus of an inch or two. As the f-stop rises, so
attention.does the focus depth. So, if you take a photo
You can do a couple of things to create an imagewith your aperture set to, say f9.0, you will get
with satisfying depth of field. One way tomuch more detail in the background because
accomplish good depth of field is to separate thethere is a "deeper" focus range.
main subject far enough from the background soIf you own a point and shoot camera, you may
that the background is not in focus. For instance,have a creative setting that will help you to limit
if you are photographing a person, just havethe depth of field to create this interesting
them move toward you and away from theseparation of the subject from the background.
distracting background.