Nadia Trapasso Green, a Newborn and Family Photographer based in Niagara Ontario, wants to help you capture beautiful moments with your children while she can’t during Ontario’s third Covid-19 lockdown. All you need is your phone, and you will learn all about Composition in this 4 week blog series!
*Trying out these tips and tricks, then use the hashtag #dreamsandtalesfineart #parentswhoclickdt
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Last week we learned about Rule of Thirds, a key element in taking your photographs to the next level. I chose to focus on 3 main aspects of Composition (rule of thirds, depth of field and viewpoint) because most parents are taking photographs of their children with their phone…so this let’s us set the technical aspects of a DSLR aside for this blog series! Each week we’ll break down a element of composition, and assign you a task to try out! Next up, Depth of Field…
- Depth of Field: The zone of acceptable sharpness within a photo that will appear in focus. In every picture there is a certain area of your image in front of, and behind the subject that will appear in focus. This zone will vary from photo to photo. Some images may have very small zones of focus which is called shallow depth of field. Others may have a very large zone of focus which is called deep depth of field.
Three main factors that will affect how you control the depth of field of your images are:
1. Aperture or F-stop
2. Focal length of the lens on your camera
3. Distance from the subject to the camera– this is the on we will be working with for this week’s task!
How to use: When photographing your child(ren) if you are hoping to create a classic portrait look and focusing primarily child’s face or a full body photograph, then it is best to create more shallow depth of field. Position yourself closer to your child than you normally would, allow the camera to catch focus on their face (or even their hands/feet while playing) and notice how the background falls away (ie. is blurred). This allows viewers eyes to be drawn to what you are focusing on in your photo, and creates a pretty visual effect.
Try it out!
Example:
