When the aperture of the lens is wide open, which happens when selecting a small F/stop number i.e. F/4 or lower, the depth of field shrinks meaning less of the shot is in focus.

Try it out for yourself. Place the camera on a tripod and put it in Aperture Priority (A/Av) mode. Start off at F/16 and slowly lower the F/stop number. Watch how more and more of the photo becomes blurred. The background will lose detail and the area that you’ve focused on starts to shrink a little.

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Depth of field definitionmicroscope

Depth of field is an important consideration for photographers. Once you’ve set your exposure and placed your focus where it needs to be check over the depth of field. Look at what’s in focus and whether it needs to be or not.

Some microscopes include extra low power 1x or 2x objectives for an even wider field of view to help orient the largest samples. These have become more common on inverted microscopes.

A shallow depth of field may also be called narrow by some photographers. A shallow DoF is created by using wide apertures (small F/stop numbers i.e. F/2.8). The effect of a shallow DoF is that the area in focus is very small. Macro and portrait photographers use shallow depth of field to isolate their subjects in scene.

DoF controls what looks sharp and what doesn’t. When someone looks at your photo, they’ll be naturally drawn to the elements that are sharp to help them understand the scene. Making sure the depth of field is appropriate for the scene is the photographer’s job. If it’s wrong, it can include or blur out things that are important.

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The standard compound light microscope has 3 objective lenses to provide different magnification powers, resolving abilities, and fields of view to visualize specimens in increasing detail.

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Image: Notice the difference in the blurriness of the background when shooting lower down (left) than compared to being higher (right).

The multiple objectives with parcentered optics allow users to quickly switch between lenses and magnifications to obtain just the right view. This facilitates efficient and intuitive workflows.

You can control the depth of field using your camera a couple of different ways but the most common way is to change the aperture. The aperture of the camera lens opens and closes depending on the F/stop setting you choose.

Given that a photograph aims to be a 3D representation of a scene, a sense of depth is important to help engagement. The term is mostly used by landscape photographers, hence the term ‘field’, but the term will be used by all photographers (outside of landscapes) at some point.

The changes in the depth of field are placed into two categories (shallow and wide) depending on which F/stop number you are shooting with. These categories are no exact when it comes to mid-sized apertures, but most noticeable at the extreme ends of the scale.

Depth of field or DoF is a term you’ll hear all the time in photography. It’s an integral part to controlling how your photo looks. It’s not only a technical element of a photo, but it also has impact on the story too.

Depth of field photographysettings

While the basic 3 objective arrangement still dominates today, some microscopes incorporate additional objectives or special enhancements for increased performance and capabilities.

The backgrounds will look heavily blurred making it hard to distinguish detail – but that’s the purpose of a shallow DoF – it’s all about drawing your eye to a single subject and not much else.

The provision of 3 objective lenses with differing optical properties confers important complementary advantages that enhance the microscopy user experience and workflow efficiency.

The 40x or 100x high power objective produces the highest magnification and resolution to reveal subcellular structures and other intricate details not discernable with the lower powered lenses but has an extremely narrow field of view. It is used for critical inspection of key areas after initial surveys with lower-powered objectives.

The 10x or 20x medium power objective delivers comfortable viewing magnification and reasonably high resolution to see some finer details in the context of the larger specimen structure. It is commonly used for routine examination, counting cells, measuring proportions, and making sketches.

Proper illumination from below is vital for viewing clarity. The maximum resolution or resolving power is limited by the wavelength of light and optics. Higher quality objectives provide greater usable resolution to see fine details.

High-performance objectives may have adjustable correction collars to optimize the optical correction for viewing specimen slides with different coverslip thicknesses, allowing the best possible image.

Shallowdepth of field

The range of magnifications enables users to choose the appropriate level for their particular application, whether surveying tissue architecture or examining subcellular organelles. No single objective lens can provide optimal performance across this wide range of viewing needs.

Deepdepth of field

Certain instruments are designed to accommodate additional high-power 60x or 100x objective lenses when extremely high magnification and resolution are critical, such as for cytology or microbiology applications.

Practically, low magnification facilitates efficient scanning of the overall specimen to find areas of interest to study further, saving significant time compared to searching blindly at high power. It provides necessary contextual orientation.

Once you focus on a subject the depth is appropriated as ⅓ in front of that focal point and ⅔ behind it. This means the background needs to be further away from the subject for it to look blurred.

When the aperture of the lens is reduced to be a small hole, which happens when selecting a big F/stop number i.e. F/11 or higher, the depth of field increases meaning a lot more of your scene will be in focus.

Another way you can change the depth of field is by altering the focal length of your lens. Wide angle lenses such as 18mm show a deeper depth of field in comparison to a longer lens (ie. 100mm) with the exact same camera settings. This is due to what photographers call lens compression.

To change this, you will need to alter the angle and get lower down. This means the background to the same shot isn’t the pitch anymore and therefore it’s further away. The further away the background is from your subject the more blurred it will be.

A deep depth of field may also be called wide by some photographers. A deep DoF is created by using small aperture sizes (big F/stop numbers i.e. F/16). The effect of a deep DoF is that the area in focus is large in comparison.

Phase contrast and fluorescence microscopy require specialized objectives with matched condenser optics to image transparent specimens. These are often incorporated as a fourth objective or replace one of the standard ones.

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Lenses with lower power and larger fields of view can have optics optimized for brightness whereas high magnification lenses with narrow fields are optimized for resolution at the expense of brightness.

Bookmark and save this article about depth of field so you can find it again in the future. If you’ve got any other questions about photography chances are you’ll find the answers in our other articles and tutorials below.

It’s best to use a wide aperture combined with a telephoto lens for the shallowest depth and a small aperture with a wide-angle lens for a deep DoF.

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Image: Position the camera to face the subject (step 1); Focus on the subject (step 2); The depth of field is set by the aperture size (step 3); a ‘corridor’ of focus is created by the DoF (step 4). Everything inside that ‘corridor’ will be in focus. Anything outside of the DoF will be blurred. The further it is from the corridor the more blurred it will be.

The lowest magnification objective is typically a 4x or 10x lens. Its primary purpose is to provide a wide field of view of the overall specimen on the slide for initial orientation and scanning. The low magnification reduces aberrations from optical imperfections.

This guide about depth of field for beginner photographers will tell you everything you need to know about how to use DoF, how to change it and what’s the best type of DoF for different types of photography.

Depth of field definition photographyexample

Take football photography for example. Standing high in the stands watch a game and taking shots of players means the background (the pitch at a high angle) won’t be far away from the player. And because DoF falls 2/3rds behind the point of focus, the grass will look fairly sharp.

You won’t need to change the aperture size or focal length in this instance, just by changing the angle (from high to low) of the camera can alter the perceived depth of field.

Image: Notice how the background blurs more behind the model (left) and appears more detailed as the aperture size gets smaller (right).

Landscape photographers use a deep depth of field to capture more detail and texture at the front, middle and background of their photographs.

The set of 3 objective lenses on most compound microscopes elegantly fulfills the range of observational needs in microscopy, from scanning the big picture to examining the most minute details. Their differing optical properties and fields of view provide efficient and flexible viewing capabilities not possible with a single objective lens. The specific numbers and powers may be tailored for particular applications, but the core triad arrangement remains ubiquitous out of logical necessity.

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The standard compound microscope contains 3 objective lenses with different powers, resolutions, and fields of view to provide a tiered viewing experience.

Having a continuum of magnifications allows the microscope to accommodate samples of vastly different sizes from whole insect bodies down to single cells. A single high-power objective cannot cover this entire range.

The level of microscope magnification depends on the optical properties of both the ocular and objective lenses. The ocular lens magnifies the primary image 10x. The objectives provide progressively higher magnifying power of 4x, 10x, 40x, and sometimes 100x.

When you zoom in on a subject (or move closer) the background appears compressed (closer to the subject) and further blurred.

The whole photo will look like it’s all in focus, making any sense of depth hard to appreciate – but that’s the purpose of a deep DoF – it’s all about showcasing the full view.

The compound light microscope is an indispensable tool used ubiquitously in science disciplines to visualize small objects in fine detail. Unlike simple magnifying glasses, the compound microscope uses two lens systems to enlarge specimens up to 1000x their actual size.

Shallowdepth of field definition photography

You need to be very careful when shooting with a shallow DoF as small movements in your subject or camera can cause them to fall outside of the focus area meaning they’ll look soft in your final shot. It’s always best to re-focus if you think the movement has occurred.

The major components of a compound microscope are the ocular lens in the eyepiece, the objective turret housing multiple objective lenses, the condenser lens below the stage, the illumination system, and the mechanical arm. Each part plays a critical optical or functional role.

Higher magnification requires higher resolution to realize the full benefit. The higher-powered objectives have correspondingly greater resolving power to take advantage of the increased magnification whereas the lower-power lenses have comparatively less resolution which is ample for their magnification level.

A question commonly asked about compound microscopes is: What’s the purpose of having 3 objective lenses attached to it? The answer is quite simple.

Knowing this means that shooting at F/1.8 on an 18mm lens for example won’t necessarily show a shallow depth of field as you are using two approaches that counteract each other.