This was Tim's winning question, a very good question I might add.
"If you have two subjects, one in the background and one in the foreground of your photo, how do you choose which one to focus on?"
Step One:
First you must decide whats important in your photo.
What do you want your photo to look like? Where do you want to direct the viewer's eyes?
Maybe the person in the foreground is your precious child so you want them to stand out while the person in the background is lets say your dreaded mother in law (of course not your MIL Tim,just an example), in that case you might want to blur her out if she'll ruin your photo : ) By focusing on your child in the foreground and blurring your mother in law out you are making your child the focal point and drawing attention to him/her.
Or maybe its the reverse maybe your child is in the background and your mother in law is in the foreground. In that case now the subject you want sharp is in the back and the foreground subject now becomes the one you throw out of focus.
The third option would be if both subjects were equally important.Here you would want to have both foreground and background subjects in focus.
Step Two:
Making it happen
Once you know what you are trying to achieve, you must then grasp the concept of aperture and depth of field.
Put most simply – Aperture is the size of the opening in the lens when a picture is taken. Aperture is measured in F stops so you will see F22, F16 etc.
Depth of Field (DOF) is the amount of your shot that will be in focus. Large depth of field means that most of your image will be in focus whether it’s close to your camera or far away
Small (or shallow) depth of field means that only part of the image will be in focus and the rest will be fuzzy
DOF is a concept that confuses many. Its a lot of math and technical jargon...So if you're at all like me and you just want to know how to do it rather than how it happens here's a tip
TRY IT OUT
Grab your DSLR
Go outside to guarantee enough light
Set your camera dial to AV mode
Pull out your manual so you can figure out to adjust the aperture(F-stop) while in AV mode (hopefully you haven't thrown it out)
Isolate your subject(anything) set up far from your background. (Don't position your subject right up against a tree or fence)
Set your aperture to F16, Focus on your subject, take the photo, assuming you have enough light you should notice that the photo is sharp from front to back. If you don't have enough light your photo will appear very dark.
Now set your aperture(F) as low as it will go. This all depends on the lens you are using. Most likely your low will be between F3.5-5
Set your subject up the same way focus on your subject and take the photo.
Notice how your subject is in focus while the background is more blurred than the first photo.
My tip for remembering Aperture/DOF is to compare it to an IQ, the higher your IQ the sharper you are. Just like Aperture, the higher your F setting (ex.F22) the shaper your photo should be from front to back. Whereas the lower your F setting (F1.4) the blurrier your background becomes.
So think when setting aperture do I want everything in the photo sharp, then aim to shoot at a higher F stop (f8 and up) or so. If you want to isolate the subject and make them the only thing sharp in the photo then set the F stop as low as you can. (F1.4-F3.5)
Since both my children and dogs are not home I introduce to you the American Girl Bitty Baby - Kate. We seem to have a few too many of these expensive dolls floating around the house. She makes a great subject for my demo today though.
