We talked a little about clarity last time – how to get that crystal clear shot. Now we’re going to get a little more “in-depth”…literally! Depth of field is what gives your shot a certain “thickness” or scope and its contingent upon the settings on your camera. Again, you want to be able to send the best photo possible into My Pop Art and maximize your photography abilities, so depth of field counts too.

Now don’t be overwhelmed. Sometimes when people hear “depth of field” or “aperture,” they freeze up. Remember, these are simple adjustments you make on your camera. The best part? You can experiment all you want! Once you see a shot, you can begin to realize if its too shallow.

Here’s some other photographic advice on depth of field:

This can be easily overlooked, and is crucial. Let’s say you have a lens that goes down to 1.4 or 2.8. This means that at those settings you get a lot of light, but the depth of field (focus) will be shallow. You can certainly get great shots, even without a pod and on the go, and have them come out well. It just takes some practice. Don’t get discouraged when some of these are blurry. If you focus on a person 6 feet away who is slowly moving towards you, they might be blurry in the time it takes you to press the shutter.

One solution is to raise that aperture setting to 5 or higher. That will help give you more DOF, but will also require a slower shutter speed. Sometimes that shallow effect is good however, so to help you get it, take lots of shots and then pick the best ones. When you can, use a tripod help keep that camera still, and remember the focus will be shallow at those low aperture settings. If you want someones eye’s to be in focus, then you need to set the focus point right on their eye and nowhere else. Practice makes perfect.