Light And Depth Of Field
By Jakob Jelling, Fri Dec 9th

By Jakob Jelling http://www.snapjunky.com

With such a fantastic device as the digital camera for therecreation of magic in arts, a lot of care needs to be taken soas to maintain the perfection of the end product. Thisperfection is not only obtained by the artistic feeling of thephotographer but also with the intricate knowledge of everyminute aspect of the medium of creation of art (in this case thedigital camera). And these minute aspects play a vast role indefining the ultimate perfection. The digital camera, light anddepth of field are one such factor that would come into light inthis subsequent discussion. Basically, the depth of field is ameasurement of the acceptable sharpness. Yet this is verystrictly a personal preference, and varies from person toperson. Thus to be more formal, the depth of field can bedefined as the area inside an image that demonstrates an amplesharpness that can be considered more or less in focus. So thedepth of field is the range of distance, measured along the lensaxis, as per which the image is caused to be sufficiently welland sharp in the photograph. The rest is as follows!

The depth of field defines the zone where all elements showclearly from foreground to background. Three factors control thedepth of field in an image, they are the distance of thesubject, the focal length, and the aperture used to capture thephotograph. For people using compact digital cameras, one of thesubjects of out of the ordinary interest is the depth of fieldbecause depth of field is more easily said than done to controlwith a compact digital camera than with

earlier conventionalanalog film cameras. The minute imaging sensors of compactcameras need the use of short focal lengths, and this insequence gives these compact digital an extraordinarilylong depth of field when compared to other cameras. Thereby,with intent obtaining a shallow depth of field is morecomplicated.

Considering a general acceptable fact, the depth of fielddecreases, as the image gets nearer to the camera. This meansthat as the focal point reaches closer to the lens, theachievable scope of the depth of field ebbs. On the other side,if the image is far enough distant from the camera, and fordigital cameras, this must not be very far, the depth of fieldapproaches out to infinity. Another important point to be notedis that the depth of field is proportional to the lens opening.

Having discussed the above important aspects of the light anddepth of field of a digital camera, it is clear that the minutedetails make such great subjects whose knowledge becomes equallyimportant for making appropriate use of the fantastic device,the digital camera! And the digital camera, light and depth offield comes out to be such important factors that can make allthe difference if a photographer remains oblivious about thisknowledge. A small factor thus can meal a big divergence!

About the author:Jakob Jelling is the founder of http://www.snapjunky.com. Visithis digital camera guide and learn how to take better pictureswith your digicam.