depth of field question

[goldjake1788]

i am trying to figure out how to take a picture with a good depth of field but not make the point of focus blurry because they moved. What is a good f-stop to choose. Does a flash work really well to speed up the camera lens. is it the F-stop that gives it the best depth of field or is how slow the camera lens is

 

[metroshane]

Generally, the lower the aperature, the greater the depth of field. But your question is a little different as your point of focus is getting out of focus. The depth of focus is what is in or out of focus as varying distances in front and behind your subject...so if your subject is blurry, it really doesn't have a whole lot to do with depth. Aperature maybe, actual depth no.

In order to get your subject to remain clear...you either need to make them be still (yeah right) or increase shutter speed. Now you may need to open the aperature to get sufficient light when you snap the quick photo, but that's secondary.

Sounds like what your are asking is at what shutter speed should you take the pic at...and with the given light....what aperature lets enough light in at that speed.

take a look here for a basic lesson on depth of field.

http://www.cs.mtu.edu/~shene/DigiCam/User-Guide/950/depth-of-field.html

 

[Mask of Sanity]

Increasing shutter speed is certainly a good way to eliminate the "blurry subject" phenomenon, however, I am wondering if something more elementary might be the culprit...Perhaps camera shake might be an issue or film speed? Be careful to support your camera carefully by the way you "cradle the lens" (I say this beacuse ity is a wonder some people get an image at all on the film at times, considering how I see them holding their camera). Also, consider using faster film for less than "stationary targets".