Photo a Week Challenge-depth of field

I am having a hard time grokking the whole “depth of field” concept but it’s probably because I am not really fluent in “photography speak”.

These first ones are my attempts at it but I can’t really make my phone or my point and shoot Canon do what I want. I thought they were interesting pictures anyway though.

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my phone focuses equally, near and far…
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I can’t get the foreground to focus instead of the background in these next two

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My Canon Power Shot SX500 IS should be able to do it but I don’t know how so all is equally focused.

This next one is my favorite photo I’ve ever taken. BUT, it was completely an accident and I have no idea how I did it! I’ve shared this photo before in posts about perspective, or looking deeper at things.

 

Eagle Peek a boo

Any feedback welcome. Please comment. Anyone?

 

 

https://nadiamerrillphotography.wordpress.com/2019/02/07/a-photo-a-week-challenge-depth-of-field/

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choosingmyperspective

Thought a blog might help me develop better writing habits so I could finally finish my book, 16 years in the writing, but so far it's mostly photos and FUN!

7 thoughts on “Photo a Week Challenge-depth of field”

  1. They are beautiful photographs Kathie and the image with the blossoms shows a lovely depth of field, especially with the eagle in the background 💜 I have a Canon PowerShot SX60, which may work similar to yours.When I want to play with depth of field I shoot in aperture priority (Av on the selector), zoom in and adjust the f stop to the shortest possible, preferably 2.8 or 3.2 (via the dial between the shutter button and the mode selector). The camera adjusts the shutter speed and ISO automatically. Have fun experimenting and I hope this helps 🤗💖🍀 xxx

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  2. My phone camera (a flip phone) can’t be manually focused, and a point and shoot camera is probably fixed focus – like the Kodak Brownie you might have had as a kid, so that is part of your problem. If you could focus or had an auto-focus camera (digital ones aren’t terribly expensive -$75-$100/ You would have been able to see through the digital viewfinder when the bird on the feeder was in focus. Since it is in the shadow, the lens would open wider and that would mean yo would not be focused on the background. The opening in the lens is like the pupil in your eye in brighter light it gets smaller, and the smaller the opening (like the ol box cameras) the longer the field of focus. But probably not closer than 6 feet. The focus will be sharp 6 feet to infinity, but any closer, the lens can’t focus (like how you can’t read if you’re far-sighted, even though you can drive just fine.) What you have in the bird-feeder pic is the opposite of the effect you anted – the background is sharp but the main object of the photo is not. Hope his is some help.

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  3. I don’t understand “photography speak” either. I would like to take at least an online photography class sometime. I don’t even have good knowledge of what my iPhone camera can do.

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