Deep Depth of Field with 5D?

F

flatlands

New member
Hey all,

I'm shooting with the 5D and have run into a wall when trying to grab a deep depth of field. Obviously the shallow depth of field is great for many things, but in this situation I really need the entire shot in focus. I'm shooting from the front of a classroom and would like to be able to see each student at their desk in focus. It seems like aperture adjustments have little or no effect on the focal length for video. I'm not sure if the AF points matter when shooting video in manual mode; I haven't noticed much of a difference.

If anyone has any tricks to achieving a deep focus please let me know. I'm currently using the Canon 24-105mm f/4L and the 50mm f/1.4.

Thanks!
 
Thanks Fellipe,

Of course closing the aperture was the first thing I did, but I barely noticed any difference - even when shooting at my widest.
 
Close down the aperture and focus to the right distance. f4 on 5D has the same DOF as f2.8 on crop like 7D.

Don't focus to infinity, too far or too close. You have to focus to the right distance and you get everything in focus, and in many cases you don't even have to use that high apertures.

For example, look here: http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html

Choose 5D MKII, 35mm, f10 and subject distance to 2 meters and your focus area is:

[TABLE="class: resultsTable, width: 100%"]
[TR]
[TD="class: textClassResults, colspan: 2, align: left"]Depth of field[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="class: textClassResults"] Near limit [/TD]
[TD="class: textClassResults, align: left"]1.35 m[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="class: textClassResults"] Far limit[/TD]
[TD="class: textClassResults, align: left"]3.88 m[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="class: textClassResults"] Total [/TD]
[TD="class: textClassResults, align: left"]2.54 m[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]


So everything from 1.35m to 3.88m will be in focus, not even near enough to get everything in focus on glassroom. Now change your subject distance to 3 meters. Your focus area will be:

[TABLE="class: resultsTable, width: 100%"]
[TR]
[TD="class: textClassResults, colspan: 2, align: left"]Depth of field[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="class: textClassResults"] Near limit[/TD]
[TD="class: textClassResults, align: left"]1.73 m[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="class: textClassResults"] Far limit[/TD]
[TD="class: textClassResults, align: left"]11.2 m[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="class: textClassResults"] Total[/TD]
[TD="class: textClassResults, align: left"]9.46 m[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]


So everything from 1.73m to 11.2m will be in focus, that would be enough to get most glass rooms in focus. You see how much the area in focus grew when only focusing 1 meters further?

Choose the lens that gives the FOV and perspective you wan't, and use the aperture and focus ditance to get the subjects into focus.

You want to read this also: http://www.dofmaster.com/hyperfocal.html
 
I've actually been shooting really deep DOF outside lately with my 5D for a short promo web advertisement. At 17-35mm at f9-f13 I've been getting very very good results.

So yeah, you're going to need to go all the way down to 24mm and light the classroom as much as possible, and/or crank up the iso and except the noise.
 
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