Depth of Field

My friend Chris Forte (stereocanvas.com) came to me this afternoon to ask about getting a specific shot with his new toy..I mean camera. He wanted to achieve one of those amazing cinematic shots where a person or object close to the camera is in focus and the background is completely out of focus. This is done by having a shallow depth of field.

Many people get frustrated by not being able to pull off great depth of field shots, but it's really not that hard to do. In fact, there's a formula to follow.

Large depth of field = short focal length (wide angle) + small aperture + high light level

Shallow depth of field = long focal length (narrow angle) + large aperture + low light level

Only a few minutes after seeing the formula and adjusting his camera, Chris was getting some really nice shots with a shallow depth of field. And you can do the same!