Easily master shallow depth of field with these 5 beginner-friendly tips, which are easy to understand and get started with. Get that clear object isolation with a dreamy blur effect every time using these techniques.
A photograph taken by you is essentially telling a story to the viewer. As a photographer, it is a core job to take a picture in such a way that the viewer is directed towards the elements of the photo where they should be looking. This is where the depth of field (DoF) of an image has to be in check.
DoF is usually technically expressed as the distance in an image where the objects you are focusing on appear to be “acceptably in focus” in the frame. In simple terms, it’s the measurement of how much of your image is in focus as compared to the parts that are not supposed to be in focus. If it is sufficiently focused in a narrow part of your image, we call it having a shallow depth of field, where the object is isolated or layered in the frame.
To capture ample DoF with clear object isolation, you need to first master the skills concerned with aperture, focal length, camera-subject distance, and sensor size of your camera. All these will directly affect how well your image is in focus, in other words, “shallow.”
Using DoF and bringing in a blur effect is also one of the most common techniques used both in photography and cinematic footage to yield incredible-looking frames with an immersive feel to the final cut. To get a shallow depth of field with consistent quality out of our work, we recommend paying attention to the following five points.
1. Move Closer to Your Object
This might be very obvious, but it is the most common mistake, especially made by rookies. Moving near to the object, especially when using a close proximity with a wide aperture lens, dramatically increases the blur effect behind the object and brings in more object isolation, even with the same aperture settings.
Imagine you are standing next to a space 10 feet away from you with a wall at the end, and the object you want to capture is flush against this wall. In this case, the DoF is zero, as there is no space behind the object for your camera to blur. Now, place this object two feet near your camera, and you have eight feet of space behind the object to be blurred, which your camera and camera lens can work on. This is why moving closer to the object matters in yielding DoF.
2. By Using a Longer Focal Length
When using lenses with longer focal lengths, you get more compression in the image with increased blur in the background. For example, if you use a lens with a 35mm focal length set at f/2.8, you will get moderate DoF. Switching to a 75mm prime lens set at f/2.8 from the same distance will give you much more DoF.
3. Learn How Shutter Size and DoF Work.
Smaller f-stops mean more light as the aperture opens up, and larger f-stops mean less light due to a smaller opening of the aperture. Larger openings of your aperture will create a shallower depth of field in the frame with clearer object isolation and blur in the background, while smaller openings will make more of the image in focus, making it flatter. Learning how the focal lengths of your camera lens impact shallow depth of field will eventually make you a better photographer.
4. Learn Sensor Size and DoF Work.
In the previous paragraph, we mentioned that larger apertures will bring more DoF, but they also block more of the light entering the camera and reaching the camera sensor, making it look dull and less bright. This is where your camera sensor size becomes important.
The bigger the size, the more light it can receive when at higher f-stops, and the more clarity it can bring when focusing on an object. Cameras with full-frame sensors have a bigger surface area to work with, whereas cameras with APS-C sensors have a smaller surface area, meaning they do the DoF job as well as full-frame cameras.
Pro Tip: Get a Better Lens
A camera lens plays a pivotal role when it comes to shallow depth of field for an image or video. Its shutter and optics define how well the DoF is used to create that nice blur and object isolation, especially in low light when the camera sensor needs more light to retain image sharpness. The SIRUI Saturn Lens kit is worthy of mention here to get a professional level of DoF for both video and stills.
Available in the most commonly used focal lengths, this lens kit gives you complete creative control and retains a consistent T2.9 aperture, which doesn’t sacrifice DoF levels in each focal length. The end result is clear object isolation with organic oval bokeh resembling film-like production. You also get a characteristically widescreen feel of anamorphic optics, which further elevates the images and video captured with this lens series.
Wrapping Up:
By learning the above-mentioned tips, you can get a professional-grade shallow depth of field and blur effect in your images and videos. The SIRUI Saturn 35/50/75mm Full-frame Carbon Fiber Anamorphic Lens kit is highly commendable for its professional-grade optics capable of giving complete creative control over DoF and background blur.
