How Aperture Selection Affects DOF and Background

[James Shadle]

How Aperture Selection Affects DOF and Background

Nikon 600mm Lens at about 30' This image is F4

[James Shadle]

Nikon 600mm Lens at about 30' This image is F5.6

[James Shadle]

Nikon 600mm Lens at about 30' This image is F8

[James Shadle]

Nikon 600mm Lens at about 30' This image is F11

[James Shadle]

Nikon 600mm Lens at about 30' This image is F16

[James Shadle]

Nikon 600mm Lens at about 30' This image is F22

[James Shadle]

Here side by side, is a real world example.
Do you want a smooth background or do you prefer a little more texture?

[James Shadle]

Here they are side by side, all in 1 stop increments.

[Alfred Forns]

Love the series James !!! Great examples !!!

[Kerry Perkins]

This is excellent, thanks so much for posting! I am always looking for the f/4 setting on my 400mm lens, but it just isn't there. :( Maybe some day!! :) Thanks Captain.

[Harshad Barve]

Cant get better tutorial than this James
TFS

[Lance Peters]

Nice James!!!
Thanks for taking the time to do this for us.
:)

[Jay Gould]

Cool series; you can see a change in the sharpness in the top of the piece of wood from aperture to aperture. Where was the actual focal point; in the center of the wood measured both ways?

[kostas nianiopoulos]

great series , we can lern from those ... well done

[Thanaboon Jearkjirm]

Thank you for posting this, definitely help.

[David Smith]

James:

Great post.. That should be made a "sticky"..

Dave

[Jeff Donald]

Very well done, James. Your test shots also show the effects of diffraction. The limb is not near as sharp at f/16 and f/22 as f/8.

[Doug Brown]

Excellent stuff James!

[Julie Kenward]

If this doesn't help someone understand better why their background looks the way it does I don't think anything will. It just doesn't get any simpler than that!

[Xristos Zo]

The side by side shots are very informative, thanks

[Arthur Morris]

Well done Frog-teacher :)

[Dave Mills]

James, very useful and the examples making it self explanatory

[Stephen Stephen]

James, "seeing is believing". A lot of photographers could benefit from this visual tutorial.

Thanks,

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Thanks again for this lesson, much appreciated.

[Dave Leroy]

I have been back to this to check things out a couple times.

Tks James.

Dave

[Akash Panchbudhe]

thanks for such a great lesson.

Sir, plz keep on posting such threats

Rgds
Akash

[Arthur Morris]

I am thinking that I like the smooth BKGRs :)

[Herb Houghton]

Great examples James. Thanks for the info.

[Dinesh Kowshik]

Bokeh and the sharpness of the subject at given aperture seems to differ with every lens. Your lesson on the 600mm is as informative as it can get. Thank you.

[Eric Weaver]

Very nice examples of the effects. Wanted to add to the comments that it also depends on how far away the background is to the subject. At different background depths each f stop will give a different effect than the ones shown. Things like lighting, blade shape and configuration, lens quality also come into play. My Canon lenses gave a much different bokeh than my Leica or Schneider lenses do as will a Nikon lens. This gives a good general visual representation of how it works. A nice starting point for folks to consider.