How to Get the Best Depth of Field: Wide Angle Vs. Telephoto
Thursday, December 31st, 2009
Alex Don asked:
As someone who is passionate about, you are probably interested in knowing how to include more depth of field in your photos. There is a lot of literature on this subject. If you’re a professional photographer, you’ve probably learned some things about wide angle (shorter focal length) and telephoto lenses (long focal length). For years photography textbooks and magazines have been promoting the idea that a wide-angle lens provides more depth of field compared to a telephoto one. However, if you type ‘depth of field’ on Google, you will soon come across a lot of articles arguing this assumption.
Recent tests taken by experts, including several photo magazines, have proven that, technically speaking, a wide-angle length does not provide more depth of field. These tests are quite easy and you can conduct them yourself to verify the conclusions. But how does this impact your work as a photographer? All these tests assume that you keep the picture size constant. They go like this: take a photo of some subject using a telephoto and then zoom out and use the wide angle lens. You can also use interchangeable telephoto and wide angle lenses. Then take the photo made with the short focus lens and enlarge a selected portion of it until is the same size as the same portion in the other photo. You will see that there is no significant difference between them. This proves that wide angle lenses don’t actually provide more depth of field.
Now, let’s see why you actually zoom out. Say you are in front of an amazingly beautiful scenery, such as a mountain landscape beautifully colored with sunrise light. You zoom in and take the picture with a telephoto setting. Then you zoom out and take the photo using the wide angle setting. You expect to get more depth of field with the last photo and that’s what it looks like. You would never think that if you enlarge a portion of it this apparent depth of field will disappear. When you use a wide angle setting, you zoom out because you want to capture more things in your picture. You are aware that the objects will look smaller and it doesn’t bother you. In the same way, when you zoom in you want to focus on a certain aspect of the photo even though you know you will loose depth of field. Zooming in and out and using different focal length setting makes you perceive that the depth of field also varies. Photos taken with the wide angle appear to include more depth of field compared to those taken with the telephoto. This may not be true technically. But what is in fact a photograph? What appears to the viewer. If you don’t place technical correctness above everything else, you should stick to what you’ve known and has proven right for years. As long as you like what you get, why drop it? Your photos will prove if you are on the right path or not.
As someone who is passionate about, you are probably interested in knowing how to include more depth of field in your photos. There is a lot of literature on this subject. If you’re a professional photographer, you’ve probably learned some things about wide angle (shorter focal length) and telephoto lenses (long focal length). For years photography textbooks and magazines have been promoting the idea that a wide-angle lens provides more depth of field compared to a telephoto one. However, if you type ‘depth of field’ on Google, you will soon come across a lot of articles arguing this assumption.
Recent tests taken by experts, including several photo magazines, have proven that, technically speaking, a wide-angle length does not provide more depth of field. These tests are quite easy and you can conduct them yourself to verify the conclusions. But how does this impact your work as a photographer? All these tests assume that you keep the picture size constant. They go like this: take a photo of some subject using a telephoto and then zoom out and use the wide angle lens. You can also use interchangeable telephoto and wide angle lenses. Then take the photo made with the short focus lens and enlarge a selected portion of it until is the same size as the same portion in the other photo. You will see that there is no significant difference between them. This proves that wide angle lenses don’t actually provide more depth of field.
Now, let’s see why you actually zoom out. Say you are in front of an amazingly beautiful scenery, such as a mountain landscape beautifully colored with sunrise light. You zoom in and take the picture with a telephoto setting. Then you zoom out and take the photo using the wide angle setting. You expect to get more depth of field with the last photo and that’s what it looks like. You would never think that if you enlarge a portion of it this apparent depth of field will disappear. When you use a wide angle setting, you zoom out because you want to capture more things in your picture. You are aware that the objects will look smaller and it doesn’t bother you. In the same way, when you zoom in you want to focus on a certain aspect of the photo even though you know you will loose depth of field. Zooming in and out and using different focal length setting makes you perceive that the depth of field also varies. Photos taken with the wide angle appear to include more depth of field compared to those taken with the telephoto. This may not be true technically. But what is in fact a photograph? What appears to the viewer. If you don’t place technical correctness above everything else, you should stick to what you’ve known and has proven right for years. As long as you like what you get, why drop it? Your photos will prove if you are on the right path or not.
