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Depth of Field

Lesson 7 from: iPhone Photography & Mobile Photography

Philip Ebiner

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Lesson Info

7. Depth of Field

Next Lesson: Lighting

Lessons

Class Trailer

Course Introduction

1

Welcome to Class

00:50
2

Why Are Smartphone Cameras Awesome?

02:10
3

The Course Challenge: Capture Your Day in 5 Photos

09:03

Camera Basics for Mobile & Smartphone Photography

4

Intro to Camera Basics

01:14
5

Exposure

03:56
6

Focal Length

01:46

Lesson Info

Depth of Field

What is depth of field. When we talk about depth of field, we're talking about how much is in focus and how much is out of focus. Typically in photography, an F stop or your aperture is the thing that affects that the most in addition to your lens itself now and talking about F stop and aperture, the smaller the whole or the higher the number of your F stop, the more will be in focus, the smaller the number or the bigger the hole, the less that will be in focus. I like to equate this to sort of a paintbrush. When you have a tiny little thin paintbrush, you can get really detailed things and more things are in focus. When you have a big open or whole big open brush, it's just more kind of all over the place and things are more out of focus. Also, your lens will also affect what's in focus and what's out of focus depth of field, right? The longer the lens, a telephoto lens, the less that will be in focus, the wider the lens, the more that will be in focus. Now, why is this important? Mos...

tly because to me depth of field creates a sort of higher end look, more things that are in focus sometimes necessarily don't look as aesthetically professional as your professional camera, where you have a less depth of field that means less in focus and more out of focus, you know, like that really nice portrait where someone's nice and sharp, but the background is out of focus, that aesthetically typically looks a little bit more professional. Now, when talking about mobile photography, this again is something not necessarily we can control all the time. Recently, cameras in the last few years have created what's called a portrait mode. The cool thing about that is it creates that illusion of something really in focus and something really out of focus. Now, technically, cameras are doing this using multiple lenses and algorithms and computer power and it actually isn't the real way that you create depth of field in a camera, it's doing it digitally, but it still has the same look and vibe in a lot of cameras. You can actually adjust that later on where it's making things all in focus, but then it will detect what's in the background and you can actually adjust it to be more in focus or less in focus. Now, that's what we're talking about when we're talking about depth of field. And it's something that you can use creatively when really doing close up macro shots or portrait shots or things like that. Also in thinking about depth of field just because you don't have that depth of field or you have more things in focus. Uh that doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad thing. In fact, typically a lot of landscapes, everything's in focus. And so that could be something when you're thinking about uh taking a landscape shot or even like a close up of someone. Maybe that creative style is something you're going for where you want more things in focus.

Ratings and Reviews

user-d195e3
 

Good course for everyone starting out and needed to have some more basic info beyond the common snap shot. I had wished for more info on using mobile in the more professional field like when switching from camera to mobile. Additional lenses and flashes and things like that. But this course was obviously not targeted at this. So overall still a nice brush up.

Joanna
 

Definitely geared to beginners, but the class has a lot of good information. As an advanced camera photographer still trying to get to know my phone camera better, I learned a few things I didn't know (like you can use portrait mode for selfies, what hyper lapse is and the VSCO app). Nice job!

Barbara
 

Great class. Well organized and clearly presented. Would be very good for beginners and mid level users. highly recommend.

Student Work

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