DOF - how to acheive?

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nikond100

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I`m pleased that I have a Nikon AF-S 85mm 1.4 G for the weekend to take some photos of friends new baby.

I`m wanting to acheive DOF shoots for them, as I won`t have much time to pratice please help with how to achieve this.

Most photos will be taken indoors with a light (borrowed from friend) and hope if weather good to get outside to.

Baby is 4wks old.

Cheers
 
Depth of Field is the amount that is perceived to be in focus either side of the actual focal point. A low f number will give you shallow Depth of Field and a high F no will give you deep Depth of Field.

If you mean how do you get limited or shallow Depth of Field (very little sharp with a nice blurred background) then you need to open up the aperture on the camera/lens to a low f no such as f1.4. This will give you very limited depth of field, and if you are not used to using such a shallow depth of field you may find your technique wanting. if this is the case you may well decide to use slightly higher f nos such as f2 or even f2.8.

The other variable that will have an effect on your Depth of Field will be the magnification, and by this I mean that a greater magnification (closer to the subject) will decrease the Depth of Field for any given f no.

So, to get shallow Depth of Field, you need to set a lowish f No (between f1.4 and f2.8) and get as close as you can to your subject. The closer you can get the higher the f no you can use for the same amount of blur (or Bokeh as it is called)
 
I take it you want a shallow DoF i.e. The background OOF if this is the case you need to open the aperture nice and wide, a not of caution though if you open up to f/1.4 you will have a ultra narrow plane of focus i.e. The region that will be in is rather small :eek: so be very careful with focus if you open the lens right up, say f/2.8 will still give a nice DoF but also make your life a little easier :thumbs:

Matt
MWHCVT

Edit: Ed was faster than me :thumbs:
 
Stick the camera in A mode, set the aperture to 1.4 and off you go.

You will need to pay attention to how little DOF you have, you may need to reduce the aperture to keep everything you need in focus
 
Dale_d3100 said:
Stick the camera in A mode, set the aperture to 1.4 and off you go.

You will need to pay attention to how little DOF you have, you may need to reduce the aperture to keep everything you need in focus
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There may be a touch more to it than that. You will need to make sure that your shutter speed is high enough to prevent any blur from the subject moving and/or shake from you moving the camera. Rule-of-thumb is to have a shutter speed greater than the focal length you are using. With a 50mm lens, use at least 1/50th. Don't forget to increase this to allow for any crop factor. For an indoor shot with low-ish light (ie a normal bedroom), you will probably have to set quite a high ISO to get a decent shutter speed. Set the camera to Manual and use the meter.
 
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nikond100 said:
I`m pleased that I have a Nikon AF-S 85mm 1.4 G for the weekend to take some photos of friends new baby.

I`m wanting to acheive DOF shoots for them, as I won`t have much time to pratice please help with how to achieve this.

Most photos will be taken indoors with a light (borrowed from friend) and hope if weather good to get outside to.

Baby is 4wks old.

Cheers
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How much of a DoF are you looking for, sharp all the way through use f22 of background out of focus use f1.4. The closer you get the lens at 1.4 aswell will throw the backgroung out even more than say if you were shooting focused on infinity.

I would explain it slightly different to Ed and say it how much of the image is in focus from front to back rather than either side of the focal point.
 
You might get the look you're after at f1.4 but it's also possible that you might find that that aperture gives you too little DoF so I think that the thing to do is to either practice before taking the shots that count so that you can see what aperture / framing and distance from camera to subject you're happiest with or take lots of shots at various apertures on the day. Also note the tip above about keeping your shutter speed up although the shutter speed could very well be a lot less critical if you are using flash, remember that at wide apertures any movement of the camera or subject could potentially throw the point of focus away from where you want it so try and keep still and hope that your subject stays still too
 
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Or ask your friend to let you borrow the manual as well :thumbs: ;)
 
I'd suggest trying to get the f number as low as possible and then try a higher one. As you're taking photos for a friend I'm sure they won't mind it taking a little extra time to try them out. I'm currently practicing my depth of field techniques and loving it.
 
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Most photos will be taken indoors with a light (borrowed from friend)
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What sort of light?
All the advice above is good, and will work if the light is continuous (a bright light that is on all the time) although personally I wouldn't want to subject a tiny baby to that kind of light.

If it's a flash though, there will be far too much power to use a wide aperture unless you use a really dense neutral density filter - so it if's flash you really need to take outdoor shots only and if it's a continuous light it will work on a technical level but is very bright for a young baby
 
Thanks for all the replies the light is intercept, have been using the lens and its just great. Will be hard to give back next week!!!
 
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