Aperture and Depth of Field

Aperture (measured in f/stop) controls the size of the lens opening that allows light into your camera. You can blur the foreground and background that bracket your subject (known as shallow depth of field) by opening up the aperture with a low f-stop number; alternatively, you can keep your photo sharp from the foreground through to the background (known as wide depth of field) by closing the aperture down with a high f-stop number. Depth of field is defined as being the distance between the nearest and the furthest objects giving a focused image – a small depth of field comes with a lower aperture value, and leads to very little being in focus whereas a larger depth of field comes with higher aperture values and makes more of an image be in focus.

Focal Length

Focal length (usually measured in mm) is defined as being the optical distance from the centre of a lens and its focus. This determines what you see when using the camera, for example a shorter focal length captures more due to a wider angle.

Auto vs Manual Focus

Auto focus is typically general use due to its simplicity, whereas manual focus is used more when close ups and fine detail are needed in an image. When using manual focus, you should use the focus ring on the end of the lens and adjust for each shot as necessary.

Example photos using aperture:

Aperture of 2.8:

In this photograph, the toy plane is noticeably much more in focus compared to other objects in the background, highlighting it as the main subject of the image. This low aperture creates a very shallow depth of field, creating this low focus effect on the background.

Aperture of 5.6:

When compared to the previous image, this one is very similar in terms of the plane still clearly standing out as the subject/main focus – however, a slightly higher aperture value has enlarged the depth of field which consequently has made the other objects captured in frame more in focus.

Aperture of 11:

As the aperture value continues to increase, the depth of field clearly becomes larger which as a result makes even more of the objects captured be in focus. Due to the depth of field not highlighting one particular aspect of this image, there is no singular main focus which implies everything captured in this image is of equal importance.

Aperture of 22:

Finally, with a very high aperture value, the depth of field is very large leading to every object being completely in focus which further emphasises the effect of equal importance first noticed at an aperture value of 22. Blurs are also minimised, which can be useful for capturing images where you want everything to be in focus (such as landscapes, nature etc.)

Artist Research: Uta Barth

Over the last twenty years, Uta Barth has focused her art on how we perceive visuals. Known for her “empty” images that focus on painterly abstraction, she skillfully creates blurred backgrounds, cropped compositions, and plays with natural light to seize those quick, almost unnoticed moments that usually linger at the edges of our vision. By intentionally stepping away from traditional photography and the typical use of a camera, Barth’s work thoughtfully breaks down the norms of visual representation, highlighting the boundaries of what we can actually see.

Some of my work, inspired by Barth:

To achieve the soft focus effect Barth uses, I used a low aperture value as well as manual focus. However, I feel like this wasn’t very successful at capturing the abstract nature of Barth’s work since my image’s focus was slightly too sharp to achieve this – furthermore, I believe the scene I have captured was a poor choice for trying to achieve an abstract effect due to a large variety of things present in the image (chairs, blank walls, door with a light that clearly stands out). To improve next time, I will adjust the f/stop value to be even lower to really try and strive for a shallow depth of field and I will photograph a less vibrant scene with less objects and things to look at to maximise the chances of me capturing the abstract effect used by Barth.

Above is the same image but edited using Photoshop – I found the original image to be too vibrant and colourful to qualify as abstract, so I toned down the saturation to better achieve an abstract effect. Furthermore, I cropped out most of the image to reduce the amount of things present to try work towards more of an abstract effect; overall, I think I could definitely do better if I had adjusted my aperture values properly to achieve a low focus effect.

My work compared to Barth’s:

My work against a picture taken by Uta Barth. My work is clearly not very abstract since the objects captured can be clearly identified and the colours are vibrant which makes the scene even less abstract; in comparison, Barth’s image uses softer colours which blend together naturally as well as a much shallower depth of field, successfully creating an abstract effect.

Manual focus = close ups and fine detail

Autofocus = general use

focal length

The focal length of a lens is the optical distance, which usually measured in mm, from the centre of a lensand its focus

this shows that changes from a very large aperture, which almost nothing in focus, to a very small aperture, with almost all in focus.

the depth of field is the difference between the closest and furthest objects such as in 18mm the edges are in focus and the 200mm is zoomed in on the middle where you can see a couple boats clearly.

camera simulator

22 – this is a very small aperture and a large depth of field

in each photo you can tell a clear difference from the first to the last one, the first one its mostly all in focus and the last one only the plane is in focus and the rest in blurry

Ralph Eugene Meatyard

Meatyard made his living as a optician, born in 1925 and died in 1976. he was a member of Lexington camera club, which he perused his passion of photography outside the mainstream. he experimented lots of different strategies including exposures, motion blur and more methods of photographic abstraction. two of this worked are concentrated in focus and depth of field, which of of this works stretched expressive photography, film and cameras when looking at a normal world.

these photos on them one wouldn’t look like anything special but grouped together, which shows human figures in another view

these photos show that a large aperture has been used when taking these, and that the focus in only in one area and rest is blurry. also these photos were inspired and formed by the artists deep study of zen Buddhism.

some photos in his style that took

tried out other styles

Focal Length

The focal length of a lens is the optical distance from the point where the light meets inside the lens to the camera’s sensor.

Depth of Field

The depth of field is the difference between the nearest and the farthest objects that are in sharp focus in an image captured with a camera.

Camera Focus

There are two ways of focusing a camera; autofocus (AF) and manual focus (MF). Autofocus is for general use while manual focus helps with close ups and detail.

Aperture

Aperture is the opening in a lens where light passes through to enter the camera. It can shrink or enlarge in size to change what reaches the camera sensor.

Canon Camera Simulator

Ralph Eugene Meatyard

My Raw Photographs

Edited Pictures

Ralph Eugene Meatyard’s collection of photographs named ‘Zen Twigs’ inspired my focus experiments due to his use of a small depth of field within these photos. His photographs have nothing in focus but the twigs and I tried to reflect this by using a very wide aperture when taking my photos. After, I edited a few of my best pictures into black and white to copy the contrast and tone seen his photos; this is highlighted by the sharp focus on the plant in view. I also cropped them into squares to really recreate the composition of his work within mine.

Ernst Hass was a colour photographer born in
march 1921 in Vienna and died on 12th September
1986.

Just after the war Hass took up
photography. After being recognised
he started photographing for LIFE,
Vogue, and Look.
Ernst Hass’ parents always encouraged him to pursue his
creative talents and gave him confidence to start his career in
photography. He saw the world in colour, and refused to copy
most photographers back then so started taking photos in colour.
He bought his first camera at the age of 25 and since then he became an avid
documentarian. He was the first person to publish a colour photo essay for
LIFE in 1953 on Returning Prisoners of War. After that he joined the circle of
celebrity photographers. They helped him to pursue his dreams.

In autofocus the camera focuses automatically to some point on the photo which either the camera or the user selects. In manual focus the user focuses manually until the image is sharp. The camera may offer aids to manual focus like image magnification or focus peaking witch makes focused part show in different colour.

Focal Length

Focal length is the distance (measured in millimetres) between the point of convergence of your lens and the sensor or film recording the image. The focal length of your film or digital camera lens dictates how much of the scene your camera will be able to capture. Below are a few examples of different Focal Lengths focusing on the same thing/image.

Aperture

Aperture plays a big part in Photography too as it is able to blur the foreground and background around an Object (shallow depth of field) with a low f-stop number; or keep the photo sharp from foreground to background (wide depth of field) with a high f-stop number.

The diagram below shows/gives a clearer understanding of how Aperture works.

For Example; if we changed the Cameras Aperture was 2.8, the Lens would be wider producing an image such as…

This allows the Camera to focus on a distinct Object while it Soft Blurs the background, producing a plain but beautiful image.

Another Example is when we adjust the Cameras Aperture to 8, the lens will get smaller producing an image such as…

This allows the Camera to focus on more than one Object producing a somewhat clearer and decent image.

Lastly, if we increase the Cameras Aperture to 22, the lens will be significantly smaller producing a smoother, better, and clearer image such as…

Depth of Field

Depth of Field is interlinked with Aperture as Aperture is the cause and Depth of field is the effect when taking an Image. Depth of Field is the portion of that distance or ‘depth’ that is ‘in-focus’. A higher depth of field would see the whole image from foreground to background sharp and in focus, a lower depth would result in blurry backgrounds and blurred elements in the foreground too.

Photographers who used Depth of Field

Ralph Eugene Meatyard was a visionary photographer known for his dreamlike black & white photographs of family members in masks, elegant portraits of bohemian friends and radical experiments in abstraction.

Meatyard’s work spanned many genres and experimented with new means of expression, from dreamlike portraits—often set in abandoned places—to multiple exposures, motion-blur, and other methods of photographic abstraction. He also collaborated with his friend Wendell Berry on the 1971 book The Unforeseen Wilderness, for which Meatyard contributed photographs of Kentucky’s Red River Gorge. Meatyard’s final series, The Family Album of Lucybelle Crater, are cryptic double portraits of friends and family members wearing masks and enacting symbolic dramas.

School Camera Photography

Focusing on a camera

AF (auto focus) is more typically used when taking photos as the camera will focus its self. MF (manual focus) is more effective when trying to get a specific light or focal point.

Aperture

the aperture setting controls the size of the lens opening that allows light into your camera. You can blur the foreground and background that bracket your subject (known as shallow depth of field) by opening up the aperture with a low f-stop number; alternatively, you can keep your photo sharp from the foreground through to the background (known as wide depth of field) by closing the aperture down with a high f-stop number.

Focal length

The focal length of a lens is the optical distance (mm) from the point where the light meets inside the lens to the camera’s sensor.

Depth of field

The photographer can change the settings on the camera in order to alter the amount of light entering the lens. This directly affects the depth of field of the subject being viewed

ralph Eugene Meatyard

Ralph Eugene Meatyard was a visionary photographer known for his dreamlike black & white photographs of family members in masks, elegant portraits of bohemian friends and radical experiments in abstraction. As he had an interest in Zen Buddhism it guided his intuitive process for making photographs

Auto Focus- Will adjust the cameras lens to obtain a focus in the lens. For general use.

Manual Focus- Is the process of adjusting the depth of field of the camera lens to bring the image into focus without relying on the auto focus. Used for finer details.

Focal Length

Focal Length- Is the optical distance (measured in MM) from the centre of a lensand it’s focus. Point of convergence of your lens and the sensor or film recording the image.

Aperture

Aperture-Aperture is how wide the hole in the back of the lens is, and it controls how much light is let in. It is measured in f-stops and the lower the number, the more light is let in

Depth of Field-DOF is what’s in focus in front of or behind the main subject of the photo. Lower aperture (f2.8-f4) gives a shallow DOF (minimal focus) , higher aperture (f16-f22) gives a greater DOF (broader focus)

In picture 1 there is a shallow depth of field, which has an aperture of 8, a shutter speed of 1/60 for good exposure and an ISO setting of 1600.

In picture 2, there is a very small depth of field, which has an aperture of 2.8 which means the opening on the camera lens is big. The shutter speed is 1/60 for good exposure and so you can focus on the plane and the ISO setting is at 200.

In picture 3, there is a very wide depth of field, which has an aperture of 22 which means the lens has a tiny hole in it where no light can get through. The shutter speed is 1/1 for good exposure and the ISO setting is at 100.

Artist Research

Ralph Eugene Meatyard

Ralph Eugene Meatyard made his living as an optician, born in 1925 and died in 1976. Meatyard was born in Normal, which is in Illinois. He was a member on the Lexington Camera club and pursued his passion for photography outside the mainstream. He experimented with many strategies such as multiple exposures, motion blur, and other methods of photographic abstraction. Two of his series included depth of field and focus.

 

Meatyard used a wide aperture which has a small F stop and this also has a small depth of field. which means his photos have a background with a soft focus and the foreground has a sharp focus.

Photos that I used that are inspired by his work.

Camera Obscura

Nicephore Niepce

Henry Fox Talbot

Daguerreotype

Richard Maddox

George Eastman

Kodak (Brownie)

Digital Photography

Artist Research – Henry Mullins

Aperture

Aperture is the amount of light that is allowed into the lens, this is measured in F/Stops. F/Stops is what allows how much light can get into your picture. For example at a 2.8mm F/Stop it allows lots of light in and has a small depth of field while at a 22mm F/Stop it allows a minimal amount of light through and has a large depth of field as the lens becomes a pinhole shape.

Focal Length

The focal length of your lens is the optical distance (measured in mm) from the centre of the lens and its focus. This is what determines what you are able to see when you use your camera.

As you can see in this picture the lower mm focal point is able to capture the wide area of your picture while a high mm focal point is able to capture things much further away which helps if your subject is far away.

Depth Of Field

Depth Of Field is what is in focus in your image, If you have a Deep Depth Of Focus means that everything in the image will be in focus at a low aperture while if you have a Shallow Depth Of Field it means that only one item will be in focus at a high aperture. If you would like to get a better focus you will need a high F/Stop and if you’d like a less focused image you will need to use a low F/Stop.

We can see in this picture taken at f/2.8 that the main focus is more on the centre of the image as it has a shallow depth of field

We can see in this picture taken at f/8 that the focus is starting to focus on more than one item, getting closer to a deep depth of field.

We can see in this picture taken at f/22 that the focus is mostly focusing on everything giving us a deep depth of field in the picture.

The Work of Ralph Eugene Meatyard

Ralph Eugene Meatyard (born in 1925 and died in 1976) worked as an optician for a living and pursued his passion for photography in the Lexington Camera Club. He was experimenting with many different strategies which included multiple exposures, motion blur and other various methods of photographic abstraction. Two of his series of photos are uniquely made using focus and depth of field, he used these features to make his images blurry to show the big potential of photography, film and cameras when looking at the world. His photos below:

As you can see the artist for one of his series of photos has used potentially a very low aperture to make his photos/subjects out of focused. And for his other series of photos he has used a higher aperture to have a sharp focus to show the large depth of field of his subject.

My Images

My images are inspired by Ralph Eugene Meatyard and I have tried to replicate both effects he has applied to his images.

What I like about these images is that it has the same style that Ralph Eugene Meatyard used and the images themselves have been taken and edited to try and replicate the effect of his work. What I can notice though is that some images contain too much in focus specifically in image two which I could definitely improve by finding a subject that contains less leaves or by using a much higher aperture. I also can notice that on the 2nd set of photos where the out of focus style was applied could also be better as in photo one it doesn’t seem as out of focused as the others compared to Ralph Eugene Meatyards. To improve this I could of made the photograph more out of focus by changing the manual focus dial to focus less on the subject.