Depth of field, focus & sharpness and Large Format

Last Thursday we had a workshop on depth of field, before the workshop I didn't really know much about how to control the depth of field so I found the talk really interesting and helpful. 

Depth of field- is the distance in front of and beyond the point of critical focus that the subject appears to be in focus.

A large aperture eg. F/2.8 produces a small depth of field therefore only the main subject matter will be in focus.

A small aperture eg. F/32 produces a large depth of field therefore most of the scene will be in focus.

Large depth of field- F/32

Small depth of field- F/8

The difference between these two images are very obvious, in the first photograph all of the objects are in focus, whereas in the second image onyl the kettle is in perfect focus while the surrounding objects are beginning to blur and the horizon line is very fuzzy. 

We were then able to do the same depth of field experimentation with colour negatives:

Large depth of field- F/32

Small depth of field- F/8

 Again, like the black and white images there are obvious differences between the two images however when the second image developed an issue arose. I found that it had been fogged therefore the dark slide must have been pulled out slightly when it was out in the open causing it to become overexposed. This session has allowed me to learn how to control my image and the effects I want to create, as well as the care and attention which needs to be used when using large format processing.