Shallowdepth of field

Peter has been a dedicated Olympus shooter for nearly 40 years, and has found a way to combine his passion for photography with his love of teaching to develop photography workshops with a focus on landscape, wildlife and astrophotography. Peter’s work has been published in a number of magazines including Canadian Geographic, Shutterbug and Outdoor Photographer. He maintains his own blog with an emphasis on tutorials that assist others in bringing their photography up to the next level.

Depth of field equationexample

One of the biggest advantages to using a telephoto lens for your macro-style shooting is the ability to capture a bit of 'wildlife' along with the beautiful blooms. It is a lot harder to sneak up on a butterfly sipping nectar using a macro lens. With a telephoto lens you can be several meters away and still have your subject fill up much of the frame. This will require a closer look at your camera settings since having a faster shutter speed may be important, depending on whether you are trying to capture the insect or bird in flight versus at rest.

The depth of field (DOF) is the range within which the object can move away from or towards the camera without resulting in a blurred image. The depth of field depends on the adjusted lens aperture, the distance to the test object, the focal length and the pixel size of the camera. the double pixel size is often set taken permissible unsharpness, i.e. one pixel image unsharpness is accepted.

Depth of field equationcalculator

When you want to get in real close to your subject, you are entering the realm of the macro photographer. Usually this means you need a specialized macro lens, one that allows for extremely close focusing distances and provides a reproduction ratio of at least 1:1. For some subjects this may be your only choice, for example, capturing the minute details of an insect. For situations like that I will grab my M.Zuiko Digital 60mm F2.8 Macro lens. But often I want to capture a great close-up of my subject, giving it the macro 'feel' without actually being all that close. That's when I put on a longer lens and turn to telephoto macros.

One technique that I like to use on occasion is to add blur in front of the subject as well. This adds a creamy softness to the foreground and the illusion of extra depth. This is achieved by placing your camera in amongst some foliage or flowers, often just a few inches away from the front lens element.

Republished with permission from Peter Baumgarten's Creative Island Photography Blog. View the original article or leave comments for Peter here.

Circle of confusion : User def. (µm) 1 µm 1.7 µm 2 µm 2.2 µm 3 µm 3.4 µm 4 µm 5 µm 6 µm 7 µm 8 µm 9 µm 10 µm 11 µm 12 µm 13 µm 14 µm 15 µm 16 µm 17 µm 18 µm 19 µm 20 µm Focal length of lens: User def. (mm) 2.8 3.2 4.8 6 8 9 12 16 17 23 25 35 50 60 75 85 100 125 150 Aperture of the lens: User def. f/mm f/1 f/1.4 (1.41) f/2.0 f/2.8 (2.83) f/4 f/5.6 (5.66) f/8.0 f/11 (11.31) f/16 f/22 (22.63) Working distance in millimeters: Imaging scale: Effective f-stop number: Hyperfocal distance for lens + f-stop number: Near distance for depth of field: Far distance for acceptable depth of field: Total depth of field: Further details on optical calculations can be found in chapter Optical basics.

OM SYSTEM makes a variety of telephoto and supertelephoto lenses. Given their minimum focusing distances they are excellent for macro-style shooting even if they aren't true macro lenses.

Depth of field equationpdf

I often use macro photography as a quick escape. Whether I use a true macro lens or one of my telephoto lenses it is a great way to get out of the house for a short period of time and explore my immediate surroundings. It also helps me focus on the details when I'm out shooting landscape images. If you are new to this style of shooting it is good to experiment using a telephoto lens that you already have. You can practice good field technique before making the investment into a dedicated macro lens.

One option is to use the focus bracketing and stacking built into the OM-D line-up of cameras. This allows you to use a larger aperture to achieve nice bokeh yet still have your entire subject in focus. With this technique however, having a subject that is quite still is key to getting good results.

​The best compositions are often the simplest ones. The easiest way to isolate your subject and make it stand out is to have a blurry, or defocused background. In large part this is determined by your choice of aperture, which not only establishes how much of your subject is sharp, but will also determine the degree to which your background blurs. A large aperture will create a softer background, but may not provide you with enough clarity throughout your subject. So achieving the perfect result is a bit of a balancing act and may require some experimenting with different aperture settings. Selecting a subject that is set a fair distance away from the background will also help isolate it in your final composition.