Depth of Field

Depth of field sounds very technical and complicated but really it doesn't have to be. You can think of depth of field purely in practical terms. The 'depth' is the part of the picture that is in focus. Have you seen this effect on television? The focus is on something in the foreground and then the focus changes to something in the background. A lens is only perfectly in focus at one particular point, but the focus is acceptable within the range called the depth of field.

This field depends on the aperture (the size of the hole that lets the light in) and if it is a sunny day the aperture doesn't have to be big because light will get in anyway. This means that most things are in focus. However on a dull day the aperture is bigger and there is a smaller depth of field. This is not necessarily a disadvantage if you want to take pictures with some things in focus and others not in focus.

One tip is that the depth of focus is smaller if you focus on something close to the camera. This means it is easier to get the focused/not focused effect if something near the camera is in focus. If you have the ability to manually focus on your camera then give it a go.

Happy snapping