Monthly Theme - Depth of Field (November 2019)

by bilbaroo on Nov 1st 2019

Looking through your amazing entries for October's “seasons” theme has really got us feeling a little jealous of summer approaching in the southern hemisphere, but pretty excited for a cold (hopefully snowy) winter ahead here in Vancouver!

Thanks to everyone who took part! We had the best time looking at your entries and choosing some finalists. Scroll down to view the six contenders and vote for a winner! (You can also check out all of October's entries here.)

But first, it's time to introduce November's theme....

We've enjoyed mixing up our topics this year, switching between challenges to learn new skills and themes that celebrate our favourite subjects! Without giving away spoilers for next month, we're excited to reveal the last technical-based theme of 2019, "Depth of Field".

Learning how to work with, and control, depth of field is one of the most desirable photography skills to master! From learning how to take gorgeous portrait shots, to creating depth and drawing attention to a specific topic in the frame, depth of field is a great tool to have in your kit!

In a nutshell, we'd like to remind you of typical ways to increase or shorten your depth of field:
To decrease depth of field, for a "shallow" look, try:

Widening your aperture (use a smaller f-number)

Move closer to the subject

Create more distance between the subject and the background features

Lengthen your focal length

To increase depth of field, for a "deeper" look, simply try the opposite:

Narrowing your aperture (larger f-number)

Moving farther from the subject

Reduce the distance between the subject and the background

Shorten focal length

While some of you are already experts and will know these rules like the back of your hand, some might find our blog post about aperture a useful read!

Whatever your level of expertise, we've pulled together a few ideas to inspire your photography throughout November.

1. Use Shallow Depth of Field for Portraits

Play with getting that emotion-packed portrait by controlling your depth. By getting closer to your subject and making sure they're not too close to something in the background, you'll find it easier to create that blurry-background look which makes a person pop. Using the rule of thirds to create a pleasing composition usually works well, but isn't essential!

Whether you're shooting on a smartphone, or SLR, the tips above are pretty universal. Take this a step further by researching how to choose the ideal lens and adjust your focal length as well as your aperture.

Another #TopTip: Focus on the eyes, to really create an engaging photograph for your audience!

We especially love this fun shot by @phil_howcroft, who is working on a 100 Strangers project.

2. Use Deep Depth of Field for Landscapes

Remember that broadly speaking, depth of field refers to the zone of acceptable sharpness within a photo that will appear in focus. Therefore, in contrast to wanting to make a portrait pop, when capturing a vast landscape we want a sharp focus across the whole scene!

Typically higher aperture settings will serve you best. If you have a gorgeous landscape and want to capture movement you can also pack your tripod and play with your shutter speed for a long exposure, like one of September's Theme winners, @moonmtn.

3. Play with Bokeh (boh-ke)

While bokeh is the Japanese translation for 'blur', shallow depth of field refers to the part of the image that is acceptably sharp, whereas bokeh refers to the quality of the background and foreground blur, whether it is smooth or harsh.

We most commonly associate bokeh photography with that softened effect on twinkling lights, as shown in @laetitiapetrussa's photo below.

While your lens will play a role in the outcome, you can follow similar steps for our first tip, to achieve a shallow depth of field, as well as making sure there are some small light sources in the background. This is a great place to start when it comes to playing with bokeh! (And a great excuse to get your holiday decorations out early!)

4. Make Macros Pop with Shallow Depth of Field

Using the same tips as what we've suggested for portraits, you can also get some great macro shots which really make a subject stand out!

We love this shot by @jong!

5. Play with Depth to Tell a Story

Using shallow depth of field doesn't always have to be about making the subject in the foreground the only thing in the spotlight! There's a lot of fun to be had in making sure the foreground and background tell parts of the story. By using shallow depth of field to catch someone's immediate attention, you can draw people in to an equally important subject in the background.

@Weezilou's photo is a lovely example of this!

It's not the easiest skill to learn (or explain in one blog post), so if you're still scratching your head about how different settings can be used to achieve different effects, this post at Digital Photography School is a great guide for beginners.

But, whatever your level of experience is we hope you have fun pushing your own photography boundaries and trying something new. We can't wait to see what you come up with!

How to enter this month’s theme

When uploading your photos use the tag section (on the edit/organise screen) and insert this week's theme tag: theme-depth.

Entry Guidelines: Photos must be your own and must have been taken and uploaded between Friday November 1st and Saturday November 30th. 6 finalists will be chosen in the first couple days of December, then you'll get to vote for the winner!

p.s. Don't worry if you spot tagged photos from a previous theme, when choosing our six finalists we'll use a special algorithm to filter all of the images from November 2019.

Vote for a Winner of October's "Seasons" Theme

We LOVED looking through all your photos for the “Seasons” theme. It's so great to see so many members embracing the change in environment, and having a lot of fun with their photography!

It was really tough this month, but we eventually managed to choose just 6 finalists. Now it's over to you to vote for the winner of the Seasons theme. To cast your vote, simply reply to this blog post with the number (in digit form) of the photo you would like to see win, before November 14th. We’ll announce the winner in a separate post shortly after!