One of the first principals of photography that must be learned is, Depth of Field (DoF). You may say, no the Exposure Triangle is, but Depth of Field is so entrenched in that, that we can’t separate the two. People say they understand it and in the most basic way most photographers do. ” It’s when your subject is In-Focus and the background isn’t”. Sounds simple enough, but unfortunately it isn’t.
I see it all the time, especially in portrait work where many proudly exclaim ” I always shoot wide open” and then I know…they don’t really get it.
In most instances, we can get away with having a rudimentary understanding and it won’t hurt our images. But when the camera get’s close, when the magnification increases, that’s when that rudimentary knowledge falls all apart. Macro enthusiast know it far too well, how trying DoF becomes and how much beyond a basic understanding of DoF it takes to produce good work. I’m not going to get into pure Macro work here because it is an article all to itself and I’m not trying to reach those people. Instead I just want to concentrate on the Close up, shooting at or near your lens Minimum Focus distance.
