What is DOF?

[Holly]

Im seeing this a lot here.. and now Im curious to know what DOF is.. Is it very important to use when taking photos???


Thanks!

 

[Johnboy2978]

DOF is Depth of Field. My definition of it, which will probably be better defined by others is related to the amount of background which is in focus. A shallow DOF has the subject clearly in focus while the background is very much out of focus and blurred. A wider DOF is when both the foreground is in focus as well as the background. The aperture settings control how much or how little of a DOF you capture. An aperture value of 2.8 will show a much more shallow DOF than one of say 22.
Hope this helps, and again, I would expect that someone else will come along with a much more detailed answer than I.

 

[danalec99]

"The area in front of and behind a focused subject in which the photographed image appears sharp".

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/understanding-series/dof.shtml

 

[Rob]

You can look up the f64 club for some interesting ideas on taking DOF to extremes!

Rob