Instead, you have to think about both the aperture and the point of focus.Īnd, if that’s not frustrating enough, you also have to think about the focal length–because having a longer focal length also decreases the depth of field, while having a shorter focal length increases the depth of field. What this means is that you cannot rely purely on your aperture to determine whether you have enough depth of field to keep your subject in focus. So if you focus on a mountain in the distance, you’ll get a huge amount of depth of field to work with–hundreds of feet, most likely, even if you’re using a wide aperture.īut if you focus on a flower right in front of your lens, you’ll get a tiny amount of depth of field to work with, even if you use a narrow aperture of f/16. The farther away your point of focus, the deeper the depth of field.Īnd the closer your point of focus, the shallower the depth of field. That’s when you need to pay careful attention to your aperture, to ensure that you get the depth of field necessary for the shot you’ve envisioned.īut there’s actually another important factor that affects depth of field: You may want the entire scene to be rendered crisply, from a flower in the foreground to a mountain range in the background. So, you want to make sure you have enough depth of field to cover your subject.Īnd in some cases, you’ll want much more than your main subject looking sharp (i.e., within the depth of field range). The reason this is so important to photographers is that you want at least your subject to come out sharp. You set the f-stop, which controls the aperture, which controls the depth of field.Īlso see: Example Images of Wide vs Narrow Aperture It’s possible to only have a sliver of the scene sharp, such as in this photo: Now, to understand the details of zone focusing, you must understand the relationship between aperture and depth of field: Aperture and Depth of FieldĪperture refers to a diaphragm in the lens which opens and closes depending on your camera settings.Īnd the wider the aperture, the shallower your depth of field.ĭepth of field refers to the amount of the sharp scene. They’ll then be free to think about other important features, such as lighting and composition. Instead of constantly trying to nail focus, a street photographer can use the zone focusing method to “set it and forget it.” Street photographers, in particular, are fans of zone focusing. It’s all about maximizing the chance of getting your subject in focus, even if you’re shooting action and you don’t have time to focus properly. Zone focusing refers to a technique for prefocusing your lens so that you can ensure you get a sharp result.
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