Problems with shallow dof images.. help please!

Tayfun · May 4, 2013

When wide aperture is used, generally the problem is the focusing point.
Hard to use on children but when you do adult portraiture, focus to the eyes, and of course try to be as steady as you can while shooting.

Derrel · May 4, 2013

Don't shoot wide-open at close distances...it's pretty simple...avoid wide-open when at close range. That solves about 8o% of the problem with missed focus. Moving BACK, away from subjects, gives a lot more DOF than when you are close. If you're shooting a 50mm lens from inside five feet, you'd better be prepared to miss focus at least occasionally; and anyway, if there is any light to speak of, shooting at f/1.8 or f/2 inside of five feet with a 50mm lens is just not a "best practice"...you might as well stop down to f/4 to have enough DOF to just barely cover any miscues,mistakes, or mis-placement of the focus point.

The various online DOF calculators can show you how skinny the DOF is at various f/stops and distances and focal lengths with different camera formats (APS-C, m4/3, FX,etc). But as far as for practical, real-world picture taking, you can't use the data except for the most basic concepts, like, "How much DOF do I have at 15 feet for a family group done at f/5.6?" and things like that; when actually taking portraits or other pictures, the depth of field preview button on the camera can help, somewhat, but it's not a perfect solution. The LCD screen can help, allowing you to actually zoom in and look critically at the focus that was achieved.

With most lenses, there is a marked quality improvement by closing the aperture down just one f/stop value from wide-open. Many 50's look a bit "dreamy" when shot wide-open; same with many high-speed 85mm lenses; closing down two f/stops from wide-open at close range is a general guideline that I try to follow...I do not WANT to be wide-open very often with any 50,85,or 105mm lens....I wanna be two stops down from wide-open, where the lens is crisp, and I have just a tiny bit of error protection at close distances. I like my 85mm 1.4 at f/4.0, which is three f/stops down from wide-open. I like my 50's at f/3.5 to f/4.

When shooting with telephotos, I often like f/4.5 or f/4.8 or even f/5.6.

Stacylouwho · May 4, 2013

Derrel said:
Don't shoot wide-open at close distances...it's pretty simple...avoid wide-open when at close range. That solves about 8o% of the problem with missed focus. Moving BACK, away from subjects, gives a lot more DOF than when you are close. If you're shooting a 50mm lens from inside five feet, you'd better be prepared to miss focus at least occasionally; and anyway, if there is any light to speak of, shooting at f/1.8 or f/2 inside of five feet with a 50mm lens is just not a "best practice"...you might as well stop down to f/4 to have enough DOF to just barely cover any miscues,mistakes, or mis-placement of the focus point.

The various online DOF calculators can show you how skinny the DOF is at various f/stops and distances and focal lengths with different camera formats (APS-C, m4/3, FX,etc). But as far as for practical, real-world picture taking, you can't use the data except for the most basic concepts, like, "How much DOF do I have at 15 feet for a family group done at f/5.6?" and things like that; when actually taking portraits or other pictures, the depth of field preview button on the camera can help, somewhat, but it's not a perfect solution. The LCD screen can help, allowing you to actually zoom in and look critically at the focus that was achieved.

With most lenses, there is a marked quality improvement by closing the aperture down just one f/stop value from wide-open. Many 50's look a bit "dreamy" when shot wide-open; same with many high-speed 85mm lenses; closing down two f/stops from wide-open at close range is a general guideline that I try to follow...I do not WANT to be wide-open very often with any 50,85,or 105mm lens....I wanna be two stops down from wide-open, where the lens is crisp, and I have just a tiny bit of error protection at close distances. I like my 85mm 1.4 at f/4.0, which is three f/stops down from wide-open. I like my 50's at f/3.5 to f/4.

When shooting with telephotos, I often like f/4.5 or f/4.8 or even f/5.6.