Focus question

[meierk]

Hi everyone,

I was hoping someone would be able to explain to me the technique used for the below photo. I have been playing around recently with manually selecting my focus point and aperture, but don't know how the foreground of this photo was put out of focus as well as past the focus point?
View attachment 71584

 

[EIngerson]

Simple shallow depth of field, and a single point auto focus. No special technique at all, just some simple settings. I hope this helps.

Also, if the photos not yours, only post a link to it.

 

[meierk]

Great thanks for the tip, looking forward to going out and practising!

Ohk, will do next time

 

[vintagesnaps]

As Eric said, a larger aperture gave a shallow field of view, and the camera being focused on an object that's not in the foreground made things in front of or behind the object appear out of focus.

 

[minicoop1985]

One key to that is having a lens capable of a large enough aperture for that thin of a DOF. Some of those types of shots require apertures in the f2.8-1.8 range. If you experiment with that and like what you're doing, a 50mm f1.8 or thereabouts (system equivalent) may be a good investment.

 

[bratkinson]

As others have indicated, the thin 'layer' of what is in focus is Depth of Field, or DOF. Unlike our eyes that can adjust its lens to concurrently focus on subjects at multiple distances, a camera cannot, and has only one point of focus. More accurately, the 'thickness' of the plane of focus where everything is acceptably focused (DOF) varies depending on aperture, lens used, distance to subject, and size of the camera sensor.

Here is a good online DOF calculator. Simply plug in the numbers and it will calculate the DOF:
Online Depth of Field Calculator

For a clear explanation of DOF, here's a good online tutorial:
Understanding Depth of Field in Photography

 

[timor]

Hi everyone,
I was hoping someone would be able to explain to me the technique used for the below photo. I have been playing around recently with manually selecting my focus point and aperture, but don't know how the foreground of this photo was put out of focus as well as past the focus point?

Why select manually focus points ? Rather select manual focusing, get rid with AF in such a case and you will be master of DoF. At least of DoF specific to your lens and camera.

 

[timor]

Unlike our eyes that can adjust its lens to concurrently focus on subjects at multiple distances, a camera cannot, and has only one point of focus.

Not true, optics of an eye work in the same way as any other optical system. Eye can only change the focal point very, very quickly.

 

[480sparky38 37]

A telephoto lens was most likely used as well.