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Nature Pictures Final Ingredient...
Depth of Field
"Properly using depth of field in nature pictures
is what produces spectacular photographs."
Nature pictures require a specialized knowledge if you want to capture really great landscape photos. We've covered
composition
and
exposure
already. The final ingredient for capturing magnificent landscape pictures is understanding depth of field.
Using DEPTH OF FIELD to Create
Stunning Nature Pictures
 Depth of field is the range of distance between you and the farthest object in your photograph that is in acceptable focus.I use acceptable focus because in reality, there is only one specific distance from your camera that is in sharp focus. However, there is a range of focus where the eye cannot discern the difference between the exact focus plane and the area of acceptable focus. Since many objects in landscape pictures are at significant distances, the issue isn't usually obvious. However, in scenes that contain objects in the foreground, background, and in between, it gets more challenging. There are several things to remember when considering depth of field in landscape photography: - As the aperture decreases, (the f-stop number gets larger), the depth of field increases. So if you want to include something in the close foreground of your photo you would increase your f-stop as high as is reasonable and then adjust your shutter speed accordingly.
- If you want to have a subject in the foreground sharply in focus and blur the background out of focus, you would set your f-stop to as low a number as possible (example, f/2 or f/3.2).
- The further you are from your subject the greater the depth of field. In other words, if your subject is a mountain several miles away it is possible to include some foreground flowers in your photo and have everything in focus. If this is your desire, stand at least 15 feet back from the foreground object (the further, the better).
There you have it. Everything you wanted to know (actually, probably more than you wanted to know) about how to use depth of field. If it seems too confusing now, don't let that intimidate you. You can literally forget everything you just read and if you continue to take landscape pictures and learn from your experience, you’ll improve just fine. And, if you want to shorten the learning curve, try some of the pointers above, and see what happens.
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