• Home
• Back to Book
• Upload Your Image
• Top Twenty Images

Assignment: Depth of Field and Selective Focus

Don't be bashful! If you want comments, give comments. You don't need to be an expert photographer to express your opinion about the work of others. You don't need to go into great depth. A simple remark about cropping, composition, color, subject matter, etc. can be of just as much help to a budding photographer as an in-depth critique.

This assignment is about learning to make a photograph with depth of field. For this assignment, try to get a beautiful photo with selective focus, meaning your subject should be sharp and all else falls out of focus. Photograph a child or children setting your camera on either Portrait mode, if you have it, or Aperture Priority. If you use Aperture Priority, select an aperture (f-stop) that is a small number, such as f/4.0 or lower. If you focus on your subject, that f-stop ensures a shorter depth of field. You will see the difference in a portrait taken with these settings compared with auto focus, where everything tends to be sharp.

Here you can see a photograph of a young girl that is all about color, but the depth of field really sets her apart from the golden background. Notice that the background is out of focus, offsetting her in sharp focus. It is a great way to hone in on your subject and separate it from the background, as you can see here. The lack of focus on the background also gives the portrait a more painterly look.