DV DOF Trick for No Budget

[cnomad3d]

This just follows basic principles from any photography 101 class but these tips really help achieve a shallow depth of field with your cheap (or not so cheap) DV camera. I used these on a recent no-budget feature and they had surprisingly good results.

The biggest problem with getting an impressive image on a cheap DV camera is the fixed lense, also some DV cameras don't make it easy to adjust the aperture. Adjusting the aperture is the standard way of achieving shallow DOF. Even if the camera allows you to adjust the aperture it's still hard to achieve a depth of field because the focal length of a standard DV lense is so little.

An alternative to adjusting the aperture to achive a shallow DOF is using a lense with a longer focal length. Since we already said we can't change the lense what do we do? Just zoom the lense. The camera I'm working with goes from 20-60mm focal length. I zoom it to what i think is about 50. Then, place the subject just far enough away from the camera to get what you need in the shot. This will work the best in a large room or outside. Two factors in this setup will help increase the DOF further. The closer the subject is to the camera and the further away the subject is from the background the greater the DOF will be. I'm talking even a matter of inches will make a difference.

Let me know how your results turn out.

-Cnomad3d

 

[oakstreetphotovideo]

One more thing ... regarding the article citing a table of hyperfocal distances ... "depth of focus" is not the same as "depth of field". Most of us don't care about depth of focus, but depth of focus refers to the area behind the lens (the CCD or film plane), and the depth of sharpness measured there (measured in millimeters or micrometers). It matters to you if you are a scientist working with specialized optics for microscopy, or if you're designing a camera. For most people on this forum, depth of field and selective focus are the operative terms.