Lessons from Roamin'-Depth of Field

Roamin', sitting on my tripod at Mt. Rushmore, South Dakota

It was great fun having my little gnome along on our trip. We got some attention now and then, as you can well imagine. In fact, at Mt. Rushmore there was a comment which made me stand up a little straighter: "Look! It's the Travelocity guy! What a great idea!"

Roamin' is a great exercise in Depth of Field, as well. Depth of Field is how much of your photograph is in focus from the front to the back of your scene, or subject. With a point-and-shoot camera you don't have as many options. You have a focusing area, but you can't adjust the depth of field by changing the f-stop. (F-stop is the size of the opening of the shutter, determining how much light is let in. A small number, like f4 or f5.6, is a relatively large opening, while a high number, such as f16 or f20, is a small opening. I know...who set this system up, anyway? )

If you can play with your settings at all, you can decide how much of the photo you want in focus, and how much you want out of focus by determining how much light you let in the photo. When someone looks at your photograph, what do you want them to see? That's the decision you make when you consider Depth of Field.

Consider this first photograph of Roamin' standing in front of a beautiful lake in Coeur d-Alene, Idaho. Standing back and using a smaller aperature (f 20), I was able to get the foreground and background almost in focus. But...what's the focal point of this top photo? What do I want you to see?

For the next photo I moved in closer, and specifically focused on Roamin'. The background is more out-of-focus, but you can still tell it's a lodging of some type. The f-stop is about f16 or f8. I obviously want you to see Roamin' enjoying his vacation.

For this last photo, the f-stop is more like f5.6 or f8, and I haven't moved. Now I don't care to share that fuzzy lodging...you're to see Roamin' and that's all.

And Mt. Rushmore? Here are my choices. Look at that first photo again and see that I stood back a bit, and probably had an f-stop of f20 or more. The photo below focuses on Roamin', but I've lost the story about being at this fabulous monument a bit.

So when you look through your view-finder, determine what you want to be your focus point by deciding what you really want someone to "see." It's all part of storytelling, isn't it? Photographers tell stories with their pictures, as others use their words.

And most of all...have fun! Maybe everyone needs a "Roamin'"!