Capturing Depth in Photography

Capturing Shallow Depth of Field

Natural Fireworks – BYU-I Orchard – 50mm – f/5 – 1/250 – Canon 70D

I discovered a new technique with this photo! It can sometimes be a pain to get pinpoint clarity on shallow-depth photos. To combat this, I set my camera to a high continuous drive and my focus to manual. I focused until the front of the plant was clear, then slowly walked forward while holding the shutter. The result was a crystal clear macro.

Hello There! – 5/10/2022 – 2:11PM – BYUI Orchard – 105mm – f/4 – 1/400

I heard this little guy climb up into the tree next to me, so I went within the branches and found the perfect opening to the critter’s face. I started with the rule of 8s, but quickly adapted when I saw I wasn’t getting enough light. I tried to keep the shutter as quick as possible to freeze movement.

Capturing a Deep Depth of Field

Post & Lintel – 5/10/2022, 2:04PM, BYU-Idaho – 24mm – f/16–1/80-Canon 70D

I’ve been wanting to get a good composition here for a long time, and I think I finally figured one out. I’m grateful I was able to get a partly cloudy sky to add a little interest. I closed the aperture to f/16 to get a deep depth of field, and bumped the shutter speed down to 1/80 to get enough light.

Orchards – 5/10/2022 – BYU-I Orchard – 24mm – f/16 – 1/250 – Canon 70D

Normally I try to avoid shooting in mid-day. However, the direct lighting created some really cool shadows around the trees and on the ground. Like the last photo, I used f/16 to get a deep depth of field, but I was able to use a quicker shutter speed due to the abundance of light.