Great Nature Photos with Selective Focus and Depth Of Field
Nature photo of sunlit flowers at the Palace of Versailles, France.
Nature photos showcase the beauty of our natural world, and our place within it, in the most visually compelling and evocative manner. Over the years I’ve found creating nature photos to be a great release from the pressures of our modern world.
Great nature photos showcase interesting subject matter, great lighting and strong composition to direct viewers attention to the primary focal point within the image. By employing selective focus and a shallow depth of field you can ensure viewer attention is placed exactly where you want it to be.
Nature Photos with Selective Focus at Versailles
I made the above image of beautiful, sunlit flowers in the gardens of Versailles on a warm summer's day.
Being the middle of summer, the crowds inside the Palace of Versailles can be unbearable.
After being jostled around for about an hour, and only making a handful of photos in the process, I felt a sudden argue to escape the chaos and find some peace in nature.
Fortunately, once outside, my anxiety was quelled and I began to relax in the large, open spaces Versailles offers.
I enjoyed photographing the fountains and water displays, for which the palace is famous. However, making beautiful nature photos was what I enjoyed most.
The image of the sunlit flowers is a great example of how selective focus and a shallow depth of field can combine to create really emotive nature photos.
Here’s the process I use to achieve this effect:
Ensure the lens is focused on your primary focal point. You can use focus peeking, if your camera incorporates that feature, to achieve more critical focus when creating nature photos of stationary subjects.
Employ a shallow depth of field to de-emphasize the surroundings and, thereby, allow the primary focal point in the scene to stand out against the defocused background.
Wide-angle nature photo of moss covered trees at Paradise, New Zealand.
The Concept of Focus in Photography
Think of focus as a measure of distance between your camera’s sensor, or film plane, and the subject that the lens is focused upon.
The sharpest part of an image, assuming either the subject or the camera doesn’t move during the exposure, will always be the exact distance into the scene at which your lens is focused.
I’d define depth of field as an impression of sharpness, both in front and behind the actual point of focus in the image.
As a case in point, let’s deconstruct this lovely, wide-angle nature photo of moss covered trees in Paradise, near Queenstown, New Zealand.
I employed a focal length of 24 mm, at a very narrow aperture, on a full frame Nikon camera to achieve the large depth of field showcased in the photo.
However, there was so much detail in the scene that, to avoid losing viewer attention, I felt I needed a subtle anchor point to draw the eye towards.
I achieved this by focusing my lens on a clump of moss on the tree trunk at the very bottom of the picture.
The use of selective focus is why that little clump of moss is actually the sharpest part of the image.
I then selected a physically narrow aperture (i.e., f/16) to bring the rest of the scene into relative focus.
Sounds good! Well, not exactly.
Unfortunately, a loss of critical sharpness, across the entire image, can occur through the phenomenon know as diffraction.
To prevent diffraction from occurring, I usually avoid making photos at the two narrowest apertures on what ever lens I might be using at the time.
As a general rule, a lens will deliver the sharpness result possible at an aperture that’s physically two to three stops smaller (i.e., narrower) than when it’s wide open.
In the case of an f/4 lens, that would be f/8, f/11, or a value in-between those two apertures.
But, don’t sweat it, any of those three apertures (f/8, f/9.5 or f/11) should produce really sharp results.
However, a problem arises when your point of focus is really close to the camera’s sensor or film plane.
At such times it’s hard, if not impossible, to achieve a depth of field that extends, from the near foreground right through to the distant background, at the lens’s optimal aperture.
In such circumstances, taking the photo at a very narrow aperture, like f/16 or f/22, is a compromise that’s worth considering.
Nature photos: How To Create A Shallow Depth Of Field
Folks often complain to me that they're unable to blur the surroundings to the degree they'd like to.
The reasons for this are a little complex, although the solution is, sometimes, quite straightforward.
The three factors that determine depth of field are as follows:
Aperture selected
Lens Focal Length
Camera-to-subject distance
Let's examine each of these factors, one at a time.
Selective focus separating women dancing at the Temple of Heaven, Beijing, China.
1. How Aperture Contributes to Depth Of Field
A physically wide aperture, such as f/4, will produce a relatively shallow depth of field.
In fact, the wider the actual aperture, and the smaller the resulting f number (e.g., f/2.8 compared to f/4), the more shallow the depth of field will become.
I made this photo of a lovely, elderly lady, dancing in the grounds of the sublime Temple of Heaven complex in Beijing, by critically focusing on her eyes and employing an aperture of f/4 to achieve a relatively shallow depth of field.
The shallow depth of field allowed me to rendering the surrounding dancers out of focus, thereby placing further emphasis on the primary subject in the photo.
Large depth of field photo of tourists, Perry Sandhills, NSW, Australia.
Conversely, a physically narrow aperture, such as f/11 or f/22, will generally produce a large depth of field.
This image of three Aussie tourists at the Perry Sandhills, near the town of Wentworth in rural Australia, is a great example of a large depth of field.
I made the photo at an aperture of f/11. Doing so allowed me to render all of the image, from the immediate foreground all the way to the distant background, nice and sharp.
Just be aware that the textured foreground in this picture is not as close as to my camera’s film plane as the clump of moss on the fallen tree trunk I photographed in Paradise, New Zealand.
That’s why I was able to make this photo at an aperture of f/11 and achieve a really sharp result with such a large depth of field.
Actually, the Perry Sandhills is a relatively small reserve in a largely barren landscape.
Because of the heat, and the difficulty trudging through the sand in the middle of the day, a sunrise or sunset photo shoot is recommended for anyone wanting to create really evocative landscape or nature photos.
I did manage to get there a little before sunset, and benefited from the softer, warmer lighting at that time of day.
Unfortunately, I had a dinner engagement and had to leave just as the light was at its most beautiful.
Just be careful if any part of your journey to or from the Perry Sandhills involves driving when the sun’s down.
Kangaroos are big and plentiful in this part of the world. And hitting one can cause serious damage to your car, and put your life, and that of the Kangaroo’s, in jeopardy.
But there are good reasons to consider scheduling your visit to the Perry Sandhills around either a sunrise or, like I did, a sunset photo session.
The high degree of reflectance, occurring under bright daylight conditions, will reflect a lot of color and detail off the surface of the dunes.
That’s likely to result in featureless, white dunes displaying reduced shape and texture. Hardly ideal if you’re hoping to create evocative nature photos.
However, very early or late in the day, the light is far superior and very well suited to the creation of great nature photos.
Less intense and softer in quality, light at the edges of the day offers photographers the following advantages:
Brighter, more detailed shadows with softer edges
More finely textured highlights
Greater range of tones between the darkest and lightest parts of the scene
Needless to say, with the exception of really inclement weather, the light is warmer at the edges of the day. And that can only mean more visually compelling and evocative nature photos.
2. Lens Focal Length And Its Impact On Depth Of Field
A wide-angle lens (e.g., 18 mm) will produce a larger depth of field than a more powerful focal length (e.g., 55 mm) would at the same aperture and at the same camera-to-subject distance.
I employed a focal length of 24 mm, at an aperture of f/11, on a full frame Canon camera to achieve the large depth of field showcased in the photo of the Perry Sandhills.
As well as the wide-angle of view, produced by the 24 mm focal length, the depth of field in this image is huge, extending from the near foreground through to the background.
That’s often desirable in landscape photos, particularly when the scenes features lots of fine textures and details.
Close up nature photo of a Gentoo penguin's feet, Cuverville Island, Antarctica.
Conversely, I made this close-up image of a Gentoo penguin's feet on Cuverville Island, in Antarctica, on a full frame Canon 5D Mark II camera with a Canon EF 100-400 mm lens.
In this case I zoomed in to the lens’s maximum focal length, 400 mm, and dialed in an aperture of f/5.6, to make the photo.
As you can see, the depth of field in this image is incredibly shallow.
That fact is clearly evidenced by the penguin's left foot being sharp, while almost everything else in the image, including its right foot, has been rendered out of focus.
That’s the kind of depth of field you can expect, when working with a powerful telephoto lens at a relatively wide aperture.
I like the slightly abstract nature of this image, in that the actual subject of the photo might not be immediately obvious on first impression.
And who’d have thought penguin feet were so tough and textured?
And I had no idea that Gentoo penguin’s have such long and sharp toenails (also referred to as claws) on their orange, webbed feet.
Dandelion, backlit by sunset light, makes for a beautiful nature photo.
3. How Camera To Subject Distance Changes Depth Of Field
Here’s some really important information which, to help it sink in, you may want to read several times.
The closer you get to your subject the more quickly the surroundings, by which I mean the foreground and background, will fall out of focus.
Conversely, by moving further away from your subject, and then refocusing your lens, the depth of field in the photo you’re about to make will increase.
Both the dandelion image, and the photo of surf and mist rolling onto Inlet Beach at the tiny tourist town of Aireys Inlet, along Australia’s Great Ocean Road, were made with the same lens.
While the aperture is somewhat different, the main difference between those two photos is the camera-to-subject distance and how that’s affected depth of field in the resulting photos.
While the photo of the dandelion is a close-up study that isolates the subject from its surroundings, the beach scene near Aireys Inlet is all about the wild beauty of nature and living on the edge of the natural landscape.
Both images are great examples of evocative nature photos.
What’s more, it’s interesting to see how the amount of the scene depicted changes, from a close-up study of an individual flowering plant to a wide, sweeping view, depending upon the camera-to-subject distance.
Sunset nature photo of surf and mist at Aireys Inlet, Australia.
Fast Lenses and Shallow Depth Of Field
One of the problems folks have achieving a shallow depth of field is due to the fact that the lens they use (probably a kit lens) does not have a particularly wide maximum aperture.
While f/3.5 is relatively wide, apertures of f/2.8, f/2 or f/1.4 will produce images with a significantly shallower depth of field than would be the case if photographing the same subject with the same camera, lens focal length and at the same camera-to-subject distance.
Furthermore, the maximum aperture associated with most kit lenses varies with the focal length. As you zoom in, to bring the subject or scene closer, you loose the ability to gather light.
As a result the lens's maximum aperture is reduced from, for example, f/3.5 to f/5.6.
While zooming in should, in theory, create a more shallow depth of field, the resulting reduction in maximum aperture, from f/3.5 to f/5.6, may prevent that from occurring.
It just depends how much you zoom in.
So, while kit lenses are affordable, they involve compromise.
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If you’re working with a kit lens, and looking to produce a very shallow depth of field, it’s probably best just making your photo at a distance that’s closer to your subject than you otherwise would have.
Let me say that again, in more straightforward language.
If you want to blur the background, move in closer.
It's a great solution which, to all intensive purposes, appears non-technical. And that's the beauty in it, wouldn't you agree?
Do you live in or around Melbourne, Australia and are interested in learning more about how to use your camera to make really great photos?
Be sure to click the image above for details on a special, private Melbourne photography class with me.
In the meantime, please enjoy your upcoming adventures creating beautiful nature photos, whether that be around the house, or traveling to far flung locations around our world.
Beauty is everywhere, and it awaits the respect and attention enthusiastic photographers like us pay it in the form of our very best nature photos.
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