Depth of field trick ?

N

noahyamen

New member
Just got a dvx100. I'm relatively new to shooting and trying to get familiar with all this fun stuff...

I'm doing an interview today and Id really like to pull of a good depth of field feeling in it. I'm just wondering if I'm setting it up right or doing it the right way given what I have to work with.

I dont have any special lenses or anything like that. So far what I'm doing is simply just adjusting the focus on the interviewee. Im not aware of a way to change the depth of the focus though.

Any pointers in the right direction would be great! Thanks guys, great to be on board here.
 
Best way to do it stock is get the subject further way from the background and you as far away from them as possible, then focus right in Z99 and adjust focus on subject which will blur out the background somewhat.


Steve
 
timbook2 said:
yup: full zoom will get you a shallow depth of field, plus lots of light so you can open the iris!
Click to expand...
You want the lowest aperture you can get. I think it is 1.6. So lots of light will make it harder to keep the shutter low and still get this look. I think you have it backwards.
 
Lowering DETAIL and raising CORING can help avoid an oversharpened look, and help you with your depth of field.

Depth of field is really going to be controlled by your iris. You want it as wide open as possible. You can get the iris to F1.7 all the way up to Z40-something. As you zoom further in, the iris closes, down to F2, and finally to F2.8.

If you are doing an interview Z76 is a good equivilant to a portrait lens. Set the zoom, position the camera, get the iris as open as possible, then control your light so it looks right. You may need some ND filters to fine tune the lighting.
 
Wide aperture, longer focal lengths, and a shorter distance between the camera and your principal subject of focus. There's not much else you can do unfortunately, but those three things combined can make for some good images.
 
Another useful trick is to raise the shutter speed which forces you to shoot wider open. Alternatively, you can use ND1 forcing you to shoot wider open. Or a combincation of the two. I use this trick all the time with interviews on different cameras. With higher shutter speeds you just have to be careful of things moving through the frame quickly. They start to take on a hyper shutter look (especially noticeable when someone's hands move through shot while talking). This only works when you have the right amount of exposure.
 
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