southerndownhill.com - Forum

What aperture is normally used to get a depth of field? or to blur the background but not the person your focusing on?

I'm only asking this because I got a s7000 and there's no diff. between f2.8 and f8 - prob. because it keeps everything in focus - lol.

Cheers guys!

Depends on whether you want a shallow DOF or a deep DOF

(http://www.windowsphotostory.com/Photography/images/aperture-slides.gif)

As for blur, it's more to do with panning than aperture.

Oh and also.

F19
(http://www.windowsphotostory.com/Photography/images/depth-of-field-f19.gif)

F5.6
(http://www.windowsphotostory.com/Photography/images/depth-of-field-f5.6.gif)

so the smaller the apeture - the more it focuses on the foreground?

Basically yeah

As the picture shows, the smaller the hole (larger f number) the more of the picture is in focus.

And just to complicate matters, focal length affects depth of field, you can have 300mm f5.6 and have far less depth of field than a 28mm f2.8

Not only that, but your point of focus makes a difference, the closer you focus, the smaller the depth of field. :)

ive got an s7000,love it to bits! have taken some wicked pics with it,such as this:

http://www.pinkbike.com/photo/?op=view&image=661237

have a look through my pinkbike,all taken with an s7000!

The shallower the depth of feild. It will focus on whatever you've told it to focus on. If you focus on something in the middle of a composition, you can throw the background AND foreground out of focus using a larger aperture (smaller f/number). Like so,

http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/24912233/


But as Roo said, focal length also plays a large part. f5.6 at 50mm will have a depth of feild (Area in focus) of 2cm, whereas f5.6 at 300mm would be 0.2cm. (Those figures aren't accurate by the way, just using them to demonstrate a point.)

Okay cheers guys.

Roo, would u say tht the apetures on the s7000 don't differ that much?

I think you should take a photo of the same object, one at 2.8 and one at 8

Then post them up for us to see :)

I would, because it only has a 3 stop range (f2.8 - f8) but even more importantly, there is no true focal length, the lense may be equivalent to a 270mm one but it isn't a true 270mm focal length. So even zoomed fully in, the depth of field is quite large, useful for some things, but not others. If you want max depth of field on the S7000, just zoom all the way in (not including digital zoom!!!!) go as close to the subject as possible, and use the largest aperture (I think it's f3.2 fully zoomed in)

But as Jim says, just have a go, see what does what...

Cheers for that tutorial there guys, gives me a bit more of a clue as to what I'm doing. Also in the S7000 club  ;D

There will be some proper tutorials coming along soon hopefully but more bike orientated :)

i have to shoot everything with my fuji at f2.8 unless its uber bright anyway.