Photo Assignment 5: Depth of Field

Tessa Trivax, a junior majoring in fashion media and journalism photographs depth of field in her apartment in Dallas, Texas on Saturday, October 4th 2025. ©2025 Tessa Trivax

I planned the shoot to show how depth of field changes what you notice first. I chose a clear subject and a background with texture so blur would read. I placed the subject away from the background to increase separation. I framed tight and then wide to see how composition affected focus falloff. I shot from eye level and then low to test how angle changes background distance.

For shallow depth of field, I opened the aperture wide. I worked in the f/1.8 to f/2.8 range and kept the focus point on the subject’s eyes. I stepped closer to tighten the plane of focus and watched the background melt. To hold exposure, I raised shutter speed and kept ISO as low as possible. I checked focus on the back screen after each burst because a wide aperture punishes small mistakes.

For deep depth of field, I stopped down. I used f/8 to f/11 to keep foreground and background sharp and focused about one third into the scene. I stabilized the camera to avoid blur from slower shutter speeds. I raised ISO only when light dropped. I looked for strong lines so the whole frame had a reason to be sharp.

The hardest part was balancing light with aperture choices. In low light, a narrow aperture needed slower shutter speeds, so I braced the camera and timed my shots between subject movement. In bright light, a wide aperture risked overexposure, so I used faster shutter speeds. I learned that distance matters as much as f-stop. Moving the subject away from the background made blur cleaner than aperture changes alone. Next time I will bracket aperture on each setup and take a few extra frames to lock in critical focus.