THR - Image Matters - Depth-of-field examples

We have looked at the ''mechanics'' of depth of field on the Photofacts page, but it seems as though some examples might be useful, to better highlight the facts.

Below are two photographs of my SP-101 from the muzzle.... they were taken using tungsten lighting and color balance is not quite ideal but this makes no difference to the demonstration of depth of field. Camera was tripod mounted.

Fast shutter speed - large aperture -

Here, we have taken the shot of the gun muzzle at 1/100 sec and the aperture open at maximum ... in this case f3.5. remember, a large aperture is NOT conducive to good depth of field, but here perhaps, maybe we might imagine that we had to hand hold the camera and so reduce camera shake by having a faster shutter speed.

Note however, that whilst the muzzle is pretty clear and sharp ... the cylinder in the background is very out of focus, somewhat of a ''ghost'' presence. This might sometimes matter.

Fast shutter/large aperture

Slow shutter speed and small aperture -

Now, same gun, same camera position but we have reversed the priorities. We have a slow shutter speed of 1/10 sec and the smallest aperture the camera supports, which is f11. Perfectly feasable if a tripod is to hand.

Notice the difference! Once more, the muzzle is quite sharp but, now we are able to pick out more detail of the cylinder. Agreed, that is not totally sharp but considering the close-up nature of this shot, that is quite some improvement, and it might be required to show better detail sometimes like this.

Slow shutter/small aperture