ryan7783
TPF Noob!
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I'm reading "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson and I've gotten to the part of the book that explains DOF scale. The part I'm a little confused about is the part that reads
In regards to Story Telling Composition
"But with the proliferation of high quality zoom lenses, most photographers have abandoned single focus length lenses in favor of zoom lenses. The trade off, of course, is that we are then running around with lenses that don't have depth of field scale. But we do have distance settings. The distance settings are similar to the depth of field scale in that they allow you to preset the DOF before you take your shot. And, since every story telling composition relies on the max depth of field, you would first choose to set your aperture to f/22 and then align the distance-setting mark on the lens. Your focal length will determine which distance you use."
I guess my question is - Am I supposed to know how far away something is from me before I set my DOF? or can I manipulate the way a picture looks by giving it a shallower DOF than I actually need? .... I'm so confused
Oh yeah also he says that when he sets his aperture at f/22 and "presets his focus via the DOF scale", he views the image as fuzzy until he depresses the shutter release at which point, the lens would stop down to f/22, transforming the fuzziness to sharpness - I'm confused about this as well. Why is the image fuzzy? If he presets his focus, shouldn't the image be sharp already? I hate it when I don't understand things.
In regards to Story Telling Composition
"But with the proliferation of high quality zoom lenses, most photographers have abandoned single focus length lenses in favor of zoom lenses. The trade off, of course, is that we are then running around with lenses that don't have depth of field scale. But we do have distance settings. The distance settings are similar to the depth of field scale in that they allow you to preset the DOF before you take your shot. And, since every story telling composition relies on the max depth of field, you would first choose to set your aperture to f/22 and then align the distance-setting mark on the lens. Your focal length will determine which distance you use."
I guess my question is - Am I supposed to know how far away something is from me before I set my DOF? or can I manipulate the way a picture looks by giving it a shallower DOF than I actually need? .... I'm so confused
Oh yeah also he says that when he sets his aperture at f/22 and "presets his focus via the DOF scale", he views the image as fuzzy until he depresses the shutter release at which point, the lens would stop down to f/22, transforming the fuzziness to sharpness - I'm confused about this as well. Why is the image fuzzy? If he presets his focus, shouldn't the image be sharp already? I hate it when I don't understand things.