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Creating an HDR Image

July 8, 2010 / Bruce posted in Lightroom, Photomatix, Tutorial / 3 Comments

If you are like most photographers, creating an HDR image is like stepping off the edge in the world of the unknown. Taking the plunge doesn’t have to be scarry though, and in reality it can be a lot of fun!

In this article, I’ll take you through the steps to create an HDR image simply. By this I mean that I will keep the process simple and easy. So let’s take a look at the steps involved, and then discuss each of these steps.

1. Take a series of bracketed images of the same scene
2. Merge the series of bracketed images into an HDR image
3. Tone map the HDR image
4. Do normal post processing on the resultant tone mapped image

There they are, all the steps needed to create an HDR image in the simplest way possible. So let’s get started, but before we do maybe we should revisit or explain what HDR is. HDR stands for High Dynamic Range which simply means more tonal range that what your camera can capture in a single image. Camera’s today do a really good job of capturing tonal range, but they are limited in what they can do. Your eye can see about 12 stops of light, yet the best DSLR’s on the market today can only capture about 6-8 stops of light in a single capture. This is one reason why your pictures are disappointing and don’t look like what you saw. It’s not your fault, it’s the camera’s fault. It just can’t see what you see.

So if the camera can’t see what I see, then how do I capture the image I’m seeing? This is where HDR imaging comes to the rescue. With HDR Imaging, you will take multiple images of the same scene at different exposures, generally at -2ev, 0ev, +2ev. Canon cameras allow you to set these bracketing steps in camera, however, Nikon cameras only bracket in up to 1ev steps. So on a Nikon camera, you would bracket to take five exposures at -2ev, -1ev, 0ev, +1ev, +2ev. I’m not familiar with the other camera makes, so for you Sony, Pentax, or other camera makes you will need to refer to your users manual to learn how to set up bracketing. Anyway, taking a series of backeted images like this allows you to extend the dynamic range of the camera by four stops of light (two stops under, and two stops over the normal exposure range). So now instead of six stops of light with a single exposure, we have 10 stops of light through our bracketed exposures. If you wanted to extend the range to 12 stops of light, on the Nikon you would dial in seven bracketed exposures. The Canon cameras require some manual intervention though because they only bracket three exposures. How to do this on a Canon is beyond the scope of this article (I’m a Nikon shooter). The Nikon cameras can bracket up to nine images at 1ev stop intervals, more if less than 1ev intervals. Any way, I digress…

Step 1. Take a series of bracketed images of the same scene

To do this, you will need to set your camera up appropriately. There are two modes that work, aperture priority and manual. I recommend using manual mode, but this is a personal preference as either mode will work. You will need to set your base exposure (the 0ev exposure) as you would for any normal scene using which ever metering method you prefer. I prefer spot metering as I feel it gives me more control over the exposure. Then set your camera to bracket for the number of exposures you need to capture all the detail.

Pearl Lake - 0ev

Pearl Lake - -2ev

Pearl Lake - -1ev

Pearl Lake - +1ev

Pearl Lake - +2ev

There are a number of ways to determine how many exposures you will need. One of the best ways is to use spot metering and meter the darkest area you want to retain detail, then meter the lightest area you want to retain detail in and calculate the difference between. If the difference was nine stops, then setting the camera for two over and two under will capture the entire range of the scene if your camera normally captures 6-8 stops of light. Just don’t forget to set the camera for the middle exposure or you won’t get the full dynamic range of the scene.

Before you press the shutter and capture those bracketed images, mount your camera on a tripod and use the cable shutter release. Doing so will ensure you get good sharpness throughout in your images. If you don’t have a tripod handy, set your camera to shoot continuous high speed and steady yourself as best you can. Take a deep breath in, then let the breath out slowly, then press the shutter to capture the bracketed images.

For this article, I shot five frames (bracketed images) on my Nikon handheld as seen here. I didn’t have my tripod handy when I came upon the scene.

As you can see, these images are nothing special to look at in this stage of the process. They are straight out of the camera – raw. That’s another thing I forgot to mention above, when shooting to do an HDR, always shoot in camera raw. Doing so will ensure you have all the detail to work with in the later stages of the process. Before anyone has a problem with this, yes, it can be done with a jpeg file, but you will get significantly better results with a raw image.

Now after I have captured the images, I will load them into Lightroom to organize, catalog, etc… From Lightroom I will select the five images and export them to Photomatix. There are a lot of HDR software applications out there and most will do the job really well. However, what I found after doing a lot of research is there is one application that stands out and is used by more professional photographers than any other HDR software application available. The HDR software application of choice by these pros was Photomatix. This is the application I use, and after comparing the results with several others, it has quickly become my HDR software application of choice. Besides, it integrates with Lightroom very well and makes my work flow smoother. So now it’s on to step two of the process.

Step 2. Merge the series of bracketed images into an HDR image

As soon as I select export to Photomatix, I’m presented with the following options:

When this dialog box opens, there are some default options already selected. Since we are creating an HDR image, the Generate HDR Image option is selected. It’s a good idea to make sure that the options to reduce chromatic aberations and to reduce noise are selected. Sometimes during the merge to HDR process additional noise finds it’s way into the image as do some aberations. With these two options selected, Photomatix will attempt to reduce both, and you will get better results.

The option to reduce ghosting artifacts is not selected by default. If you have any moving objects caused by wind, people, cars, etc… it’s a good idea to select this option. This option also has two sub-options. One for background movements, the the other for moving objects or people. I always select the option for moving objects or people. I’m not really sure why the background movements option is there or even what it does. I’m sure there is a reason, I just don’t know what it is and have not found a situation where I thought I might need this option. The next option tells Photomatix to go straight to Tone Mapping after generating the HDR. I will generally do this except in some instances where I might want to play around with different settings in Photomatix creating multiple HDR files of which I can blend together in Photoshop for some really cool looks. However, since most of what I do is to generate the most realistic and natural look, I will leave this option selected and let Photomatix go directly into tone mapping after generating the HDR file.

The next option is for alignment of the bracketed images. My suggestion, always, always, always select this option even if you used a tripod. The end result will be much better if you allow Photomatix to align the images. Here again there are two options, select the option that fits best with the type of images you are asking Photomatix to align. For the types of images I do, I have found that the option for matching features gives me the best result.

The other options deal with file naming and how the file should be reimported into Lightroom when the HDR file is created. Always select 16 bit tiff for your file size option as this will maximize the detail that is created.

A note on the stacking option. I used this when I first started using Photomatix and quickly got frustrated. It is not a fault of Photomatix, it is a Lightroom option which will stack the created HDR image with the first image in the bracketed series. For some this might work, for me, I found it to be an exercise in frustration trying to get back to the HDR image I just created. I know it is just me, so experiement with this setting. If you don’t select it, the HDR image is reimported and displayed in Lightroom as the image before the first image in the series. Ok, I know, it’s just me and I don’t work well with the stacking option in Lightroom. It just doesn’t fit into my work flow.

Once the options are set, I click on Export and let Lightroom export the selected images as tiff files to Photomatix. Once Photomatix opens, it will automatically load the tiff images and generate the HDR image. If I left the option selected to go straight to tone mapping my HDR image will open up in the tone mapping screen, which takes us to the next step. See this isn’t that hard, is it?

Step 3. Tone map the HDR image

In this step we have a lot of options available to us, and the number of options and sliders can be overwhelming. However, the good folks at HDRSoft have provided some presets to help us out.

You can see at this stage the image is nothing spectacular. In fact it looks rather washed out and not a lot of contrast. That’s ok though, we’ll fix that later. What we need to do at this stage is to make sure the tone mapping is able to compress the vast amount of information available in the HDR file down to a manageable file that can be displayed on the screen and printed.

Since I want this image to look natural and realistic, the first thing I will do is select the natural preset from the list of presets. The result of this selection is what you see in the example image. The only other thing I will do here is to adjust the strength slider up to around 70 which gives a richer, deeper look to the tone mapped image. When you’re at this stage with your image, I suggest you move each slider and watch what it does. This seems to be the best way to learn what the sliders do. The main sliders I work with in the tone mapping screen are the strength, Microcontrast, and Smoothing. Sometimes I will adjust the Luminosity when I’m seeing the halo effect, but most of the time I will just click on the natural preset then adjust the strength slider to my liking.

Even though you can create a fully finished product in Photomatix, I have found it easier to let Photomatix do what it is really good at – which is merging multiple images into an HDR file, and let Lightroom or Photoshop do what it is really good at – which is adjusting color and editing. So again, for most of my images (and the one shown in this article), I will select the natural preset, increase the strength to my liking, and click Save and Re-import to finish up the editing process in Lightroom and/or Photoshop. For more details on tone mapping in Photomatix, watch the tutorial and refer to the HDRSoft support and documentation. Additionally there are literally hundreds of articles and documents on how to use Photomatix. Do a search on Google and you will find plenty to read.

Step 4. Do normal post processing on the resultant tone mapped image

Once I have the tone mapped image back into Lightroom (and it doesn’t look all that good yet), I will start to apply a standard set of adjustments which will have a dramatic effect on the image. The first is to adjust the exposure. This is only needed if the right edge of the histogram is not touching the border of the histogram box, and this is image dependent. You may not want to adjust the exposure. The second adjustment is that of black clipping, this will cause the left side of the histogram to come in contact with the border of the histogram box. This adjustment is almost always needed, and when you make this adjustment you can watch the washed out look give way to a rich and colorful image. These two adjustments in Lightroom are the same as doing a Levels adjustment in Photoshop.

The next adjustment is to add in some vibrance and clarity, then do a tone curve to increase contrast just a little. After that, what adjustments you make are pretty much a matter of taste, but up this point, this is all you need to do to create an HDR image in as simple a way as possible.

For my example image, I cropped it a bit to raise the horizon line to the third line, added a gradient to both the top and bottom of the image to enhance the color, then dodged areas in the trees where the gradient made it too dark. This last step was done in Photoshop. The resultant image looks like this:

Pearl Lake

That’s all there is to it! Hope you enjoyed this article.

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Update: The good folks at HDRSoft have provided a coupon code for readers of this site to receive 15% off on their purchase of Photomatix. Just enter the coupon code “HDRPhotoZone” in the coupon box at checkout! Many thanks to HDRSoft!

A little trick to get more “pop” in your images

May 15, 2010 / Bruce posted in Tips, Tutorial / No Comments

Well this isn’t really a trick, just a technique that seems to boost the color and adds that little extra “pop”. What I’ll show you here is a very simple process. So let’s get started.

First we need an image to work with. This image came from my recent trip to Taos NM and this is what it looked like straight out of the camera (after a little cropping).

Courtyard Entry

Next I open the image in Lightroom which gives me access to the same sliders and controls found in Camera Raw. To do this, you need access to Camera Raw settings. You can do this in Lightroom as I show here, or you can do this in Photoshop within Camera Raw, but you need to be working with a raw file from your camera.

Post Processing in Lightroom

What’s important to note here is what I have circled – the history in reverse order. If you view this image large, you will see that the first thing I did to this image was to adjust the black clipping. Lightroom defaults to about 5. For this image I adjusted this to 10. As you adjust the black clipping slider, you will notice the washed out look gives way to a richer more colorful image. Just don’t adjust this too far as you will lose detail in the darker areas of the image. There is a compromise to be made. Just remember, small adjustments go a long way. If this were an HDR image I was adjusting, I might push the slider to 30 or more depending on the image. This is a key point, these adjustments depend on the image and should not be a hard and fast rule! I have other images where the adjustment on black clipping was only adjusted to 8, and others at 7. It all depends on the image. So the “trick” is to bump up the black clipping to get rid of the washed out look and add back a little life in the color. Which works really well and hand in hand with the next adjustment.

The next adjustment made is to the clarity and vibrance sliders. Lightroom has a general preset called “punch” that gives a good starting point, and for this image just seemed to work pretty well. So I didn’t adjust the “punch” of the image after applying the general preset – which is clarity +50, vibrance +25. After making this adjustments, I felt the image could use a little more saturation so I adjusted the saturation slider to +5.

The next adjustment in the post processing for this image was to add in a subtle contrast by adjusting the highlights +5, darks -5, and shadows -10. This adjustment is very subtle, but just enough to give a little contrast where it is needed.

At this point I thought the earth tones in the adobe wall needed adjusted, there was just not enough orange, so I adjusted the orange saturation +11, and the orange luminance -7. Looking pretty good at this point, but a little dark, so I adjusted the exposure +0.29 and the final result looks like this:

Courtyard Entry

Hope you found this useful.

Getting good exposure with spot metering

May 6, 2010 / Bruce posted in Tips, Tutorial / 1 Comment

When it comes to getting good exposure, we’ve all made plenty of mistakes. You know, like setting the camera for what you thought would be a good exposure only to find out the camera had something else in mind when you clicked the shutter. This happens to me all the time when I don’t stop to think about what I’m trying to accomplish, which is when my camera takes over and tries to figure it out for me. My camera is possessed sometimes, and I’m sure you can say the same about your camera.

Getting a good exposure means understanding how your camera works, which is really quite simple. This is a good thing for simple minds like mine . Anyway, your camera’s metering system thinks of everything as 18% gray. So if you meter off of something white and set the exposure to the middle where the camera says you have a good exposure, the resulting photo will be underexposed and gray or dark. Inversely, if you were to meter off of something dark and set the exposure to the middle like your camera is telling you to do, the resulting photo will be overexposed and washed out. Why, because the camera wants to adjust the white or dark you are metering off of to an 18% gray. Why 18% gray, if you divide black to white in ten steps, the middle block will be about 18% gray. Incidently, this division of black to white is what Ansel Adams did to create the Zone System.

As it turns out, the Zone System can be very helpful in getting a good exposure on a digital camera. However, to do so you will need to be in spot metering mode. Why spot metering you may ask, why not matrix metering? Well let me put it this way, in matrix metering, the camera looks at a number of areas within the frame and meters them, then it takes this information and chews on it, wads it up, stomps on it, meshes it together, runs it through some voodoo (see camera’s really are possessed), pushes it through the wringer, and processes it through several black boxes of magic that require a top-secret clearance to even look at…and then decides what the best exposure is after considering a number of factors from each area metered. If you want your camera to make exposure decisions for you, then you can use matrix metering. Now before the flood of hate mail starts, let me just say that I’m not against matrix metering. It has it’s purpose, but as I’m going to show you, in difficult lighting situations, spot metering is a better choice. Why, because spot metering is just what the name implies. It meters only a small area around the focus point only and is not influenced by all the other lights and darks within the frame. This means you have more control, and with that control you can apply simple adjustments to what the camera thinks is a good exposure and actually come up with a good exposure! This means, an exposure that is based on what you want, not what the camera wants. Let me show you a couple of examples.

Fetchin House

In this image, I used spot metering and metered off the bed rail which is on the dark side of things. Now considering I didn’t want this part of the image to be lighter than it is, I set the camera’s exposure to what it thought was a good exposure, then applied the zone system to this and adjusted the exposure down a stop (-1ev). The key thing here is when metering off of dark items or objects, adjust the exposure down, and when metering off of light items or objects, adjust the exposure up. I then framed the image for composition and took the shot. The result is what you see here. As you can see, detail is retained throughout the image and the mood I felt when entering this room is captured.

You might be asking, so why only 1 stop, why not 2 stops or more. Well the answer to this is found in the zone system developed by Ansel Adams, wherein he determined the exposure adjustments for certain objects. So with the application of a little knowledge in applying the zone system, and a lot of trial and error (and I do mean a lot), you will get to a point where you just know how many stops to adjust up or down.

In this next image, I spot metered on the white of the fireplace just above the mantel. Since I wanted this white fireplace to remain white in the final image, I adjusted the exposure up 2 stops and took the shot.

Fetchin House Studio

As you can see in this shot, some of the darker areas where compromised and detail was lost. Even so, the mood of the shot is retained and the lost detail didn’t matter to the overall shot anyway. There will be times when compromises will need to be made, and when you just can’t live without all the detail to create that masterpiece – then there’s HDR.

For more information on the zone system, do a google search for “zone system” and have fun reading!

Depth of Field Explained – Part 4

March 9, 2010 / Bruce posted in Tutorial / No Comments

In this the fourth and final part of this series of articles we talk about the fourth (no pun intended) and often overlooked factor that affects depth of field. This is the circle of confusion (CoC) and it is used to help us determine the optimal focal distance to use at a given focal length if we want to have relatively sharp focus throughout our composition – or basically the hyperfocal distance. So let’s state this another way – the hyperfocal distance is the point at which we should focus if we want to have relatively sharp focus throughout our composition, and we have to know the CoC in order to calculate this distance. So what is this CoC anyway?

The CoC basically defines the smallest image element that can retain detail, and this subjective (note it is not an absolute) factor is used to calculate the hyperfocal distance based on the focal length of the lens. We’re not going to get into the math behind the CoC because it can get a little confusing (hehe). Suffice it to say that for most full frame sensors the CoC is ~0.03, and for most “DX” or 1.5 factor sensors the CoC is ~0.02. There, we avoided the confusing math behind the CoC. Remember this is not an absolute, but is rather subjective which means the hyperfocal distance is an approximation or estimation of how far into the scene to focus. Unfortunately, we will need to get into a little math to show how the hyperfocal distance is determined. Don’t worry, if I can handle the math, so can you.

To determine the hyperfocal distance:

H = ( F² / ( fs * c ) ) + F

where

H = Hyperfocal Distance
F = Focal Length
fs = f/stop
c = Circle of Confusion (CoC)

The result of this calculation is in milimeters, so to convert to meters divide by 1000. To convert meters to feet multiply by 3.28125.

Using this formula and my camera (CoC = 0.03) the hyperfocal distance for a focal length of 20mm at f/4.0 would be about 11 feet. So if I focus about 11 feet into the scene I can be reasonably sure that everything from 5.5 feet to infinity would be fairly sharp as can be seen in the following image.

Beach at Lake Loveland - ISO 200, 17mm, f/4.0, 1/5000 sec

If you were able to see this image at a larger size, you would notice that the far side of the lake is not really in focus at all. However, it looks like it is in focus because the detail in the image is so small that the CoC causes our eyes to see it as being in focus. So basically, the hyperfocal distance allows us to focus our camera on a point that will reasonably replicate what we see (focus wise) with our eyes. When we look into the distance, our brain adjusts what we see and fools us into thinking it is in sharp focus. When you look at the above image, your brain fools you into thinking the far side of the lake is in sharp focus when in reality it is not.

Landscape photographers understand hyperfocal distance and the depth of field obtained by its use, and they will use this in their composition to ensure everything they want to be in focus is. Your assignment this time is to determine the hyperfocal distance for your setup at varying focal lengths, and shoot some images by focusing at the hyperfocal distance. Then study the results. Also, study the images of others and see if you can determine where the hyperfocal point is for the shot. Just for fun – see if you can determine where the focal point was for the above image and post your response as a comment to this article.

I hope you have enjoyed this series of articles, and if you would like, I’m always open to suggestions for other articles.

Depth of Field Explained – Part 3

February 22, 2010 / Bruce posted in Tutorial / No Comments

In the first two parts of this series of articles we learned about how aperture and focal length affect the depth of field. In this article we will look specifically at how distance affects depth of field.

If you recall, there are three basic factors that affect depth of field or the area of reasonably sharp focus in an image. These are aperture, focal length, and distance. We learned in part 1 of this series that the wider the aperture (smaller f/stop number) the narrower the depth of field, and the smaller the aperture (larger f/stop number) the greater the depth of field. Also, in part 2 we learned that the larger the focal length the smaller the depth of field, and inversely the smaller the focal length the larger the depth of field.

So, now that you have a good understanding of aperture and focal length’s relationship to depth of field, let’s look at distance, the third element in the depth of field equation. Simply stated, the closer the camera is to the subject the narrower the depth of field, and the futher away the camera is from the subject the larger the depth of field.

Again, I have some images to help illustrate how distance affects the depth of field. In the following images, I have added a red line at both sides of the depth of field so you can see it clearly. I also marked the focal point with a circle containing an “x”. The setup is basically a wooden fence with posts approximately eight feet apart. I started four posts away or about 32 feet away from the focal point for the first image, and moved closer to the focal point by about eight feet at a time. Study these images carefully and note how the depth of field is narrower in front of the focal point than what it is behind the focal point. This is a key point to take note of and understand. This is important so let me say it again, the depth of field will always be narrower in front of the focal point than what it is behind the focal point. This usually is about 1/3 in front and 2/3′s behind.

Ok, here’s the first image:

#1: f/2.8 @ 70mm, 32ft

f/2.8 @ 70mm, 32 ft

Notice how the start of the depth of field is about 8-9 feet in front of the focal point (I miss marked the image – you can see that the post in front of the red line is still in reasonably sharp focus and begins to blur just before the post) and the end of the depth of field is about 16-18 feet behind the focal point (note: the lines are approximations for illustration purposes only). For this next image, I move closer to the focal point by about eight feet.

#2: f/2.8 @ 70mm, 24ft

f/2.8 @70mm, 24 ft

Notice in this image that the depth of field has narrowed to about four feet in front of the focal point and about eight feet behind the focal point (again the lines are approximations for illustration purposes only). From these two images we can definitely see that as we move closer to the subject the depth of field also narrows or gets smaller. So if I move even closer to the focal point will the depth of field get smaller? You bet it will as seen in the next image.

#3: f/2.8 @ 70mm, 16ft

f/2.8 @ 70mm, 16 ft

As you can see, the depth of field has gotten even narrower. Now it is about two feet in front of the focal point and about four feet behind.

You may have noticed that I kept the aperture and focal length constant in these images. The reason for this is simple, I only want to show the affect of distance on the depth of field and if I had changed either of the other two elements, you wouldn’t know if it was distance, focal length, or aperture causing the effect.

That is all there is to it really. Where it gets really exciting and creative is when you start to combine all three of these elements of depth of field together. For example, in portraiture you want good sharp focus on the individual (particularly the eyes) and you will want the background to go out of focus. One way to achieve this would be to use an aperture of about f8, a focal length of around 90mm (this reduces lens distortions), then adjust your distance until the background is the way you want it.

Your assignment this time – should you choose to accept it – is to go out and shoot something where you vary the distance between you shots. Doing this will help you get a feel for your lens and camera and what to expect from them at various distances from the subject.

The final article in this series is coming up and addresses Hyperfocal distance. You might be wondering why, and how does hyperfocal distance come into play with depth of field? If you are, then you should re-read this series. Until next time – enjoy – and happy shooting!

Part 4 – Hyperfocal Distance and Depth of Field

Depth of Field Explained – Part 2

February 2, 2010 / Bruce posted in Tutorial / No Comments

In part 1 of this series of articles we talked about what depth-of-field (DOF) is and the basic methods available to manipulate DOF. If you read part 1, you would have learned that there are three basic things that control DOF. These are:

Aperture – which is the opening in the lens that allows light into the sensor (digital) or film for a film camera
Focal Length – which is the magnification of the lens
Distance – which is the distance as measured between the camera and the subject

In this part (part 2) we are going to look specifically at focal length and how it affects DOF.

Again, I’ve created some images to help demonstrate the affect of focal length on DOF. This first image probably looks familiar to those who read part 1, and it should. It was taken with the aperture wide open (f/2.8) with a focal length of 200mm (maximum magnification for this lens – note: the lens I’m using is a Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 telephoto lens).

#1 Shallow DOF

f/2.8 @ 200mm

Notice how there is a very narrow band through the middle of the flower that is in focus. This is a narrow or shallow DOF. Now compare the first image with this next image.

#2 Smaller Focal Length

f/2.8 @ 70mm

Notice there are two things that happened when I changed the focal length. First and most obvious is that the composition of the image changed. There is more of the vase of flowers visible in the frame, and second, the DOF has increased slightly which you may have a hard time seeing, so I cropped this same image in to show the same composition as above so you can see how the DOF has increased a bit.

#3 Smaller Focal Length (cropped)

f/2.8 @ 70mm (cropped)

If you compare this image to the first you will notice the DOF has increased slightly. Keep in mind, that for these shots, the only thing that changed between the shots on the camera was the focal length, whereas in part 1 we changed the aperture and kept everything else constant.

Did you noticed that the focal length changed from 200mm down to 70mm and yet the DOF did not increase very much although it did increase a little? Because it did increase, focal length does affect DOF, but it is not going to give you a tremendous affect in your images – at least not like aperture does. Even so, it can be used in combination with aperture to fine tune just the right amount of DOF for the creative look you are after. You just have to remember that if you change your focal length to adjust your DOF, you will need to change your position relative to the subject if you wish to maintain the same composition, but that will introduce additional change in your DOF. This is because distance between the camera and the subject also affects the DOF.

From these examples we can see that for a small focal length (like 70mm) the DOF will be larger than that for a larger focal length (like 200mm). To put this another way, if you are zoomed out (small focal length) you will have a slightly larger DOF than if you are zoomed in (larger focal length). So as you are looking through the view finder on your camera, if the subject is small and looks far away the DOF will be larger than if the subject is large and up close.

Your Assignment

To really get a handle on DOF and how it is affected by focal length, you should experiment for your self. Set up your camera on a tri-pod and focus in on a subject. Now take multiple shots of the same subject at different focal lengths without changing the aperture. After you have a series of shots for one aperture, change it and take the same series of shots again using the same focal lengths as before at the new aperture. You will begin to see how aperture and focal length work together and gain a greater insight into using your camera creatively.

In part 3, we’ll take a look at how distance comes into play in the DOF equation…until then – go take some pictures

Part 3 – Distance and Depth of Field

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