Depth of Field in Photography - Explained in 2 Minutes!!

This photography tutorial will explain depth of field or DOF in 2 minutes! What is depth of field? How do you control Depth of field? And how can I create images that show a long or shallow depth of field? All these questions will be answered here as well as explaining the definition of DOF.

Video summary
Depth of field in photography is the distance around the focus that is sharp, not what’s in focus or the depth of focus.
There are 3 things that control DOF:
1 – The Aperture. The wider the aperture, the more shallow DOF you will get. The smaller the aperture the longer the DOF you will get.
2 – The Focal Length of the lens. The more zoomed out you are (wide angle) the longer the depth of field the more zoomed in you are the shallower the DOF.
3 – The distance of your focus point to your lens. The closer the focus point the shallower the DOF. The further away the longer the depth of field.

All of this with example images and diagrams are explained in just 2 minutes!

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[VedavashPradhan]

Damn! Impressive how he explained something others can’t explain even in 30min! Thanks man.

[earavichandran]

It really hard to explain within 2 minutes. You are done a great job. Being a lecturer, I know how much preparation required for this. Big salute.

[ceciliasalas]

Thanks, short and easy to understand.

[hudis]

Thanks for sharing and providing me with a quick and to the point explanation!

[Fremen]

Excellent! Very clear and concise explanation!

[RobertBosworth]

Yep, you did it. I now understand. Very to the point and well explained. Thanks.

[rumswildlife]

What a perfectly comprehensive video! Thank you.

[janenedavis]

Thank you. Finally able to grasp this concept.

[Jasmin]

This was so brillant and no nonsense explanation. Thankyou so much.

[jacquilayton]

Thanks Marc.  Knowing focal distance is the next challenge!

[carmenssita]

very well explained and on point examples.

[petahoskinson]

Thankyou, this makes sense - Short and to the point!

[dimitrisxatzis]

One of the best to the point describer!

[omarfayyad]

really helpful.. Just subcribed... thanks for sharing

[ivanmelo]

Thanks for talking clear and slow, not everyone is english

[SteveBedell]

This perpetuates a common misconception that different lenses create different DOF, ie, wide angle lens, greater depth of field, long lens, less DOF. I looked this up hoping to have a short explanation for someone who doesn't understand DOF and am disappointed. Instead of mixing things up with lens length and distance, DOF is just about the IMAGE SIZE. Take a pic with a lens, say 100mm of a person at f/4, move in with a 50mm lens, get same image size at f/4, DOF will be the same. The PERSPECTIVE will be different but that's for another time.

[jacquilayton]

I was experimenting with DOF using a chess set.  Even though I had an F22 setting, the pieces closest to me were out of focus.  I can't work out what I did wrong.  Was I too close to the subject? Should I not have focused on the most distant object? I've tried a couple of times, but I just can't get all the pieces into sharp focus.

[samwelly]

Used your video in my latest blog on the depth of field. www.wellypictures.com. I will publish it tomorrow