Depth of field is one of the most important creative and technical factors in photography. Let's examine the tools at your disposal to change depth of field with any camera.

This tutorial begins by explaining the three different ways to change depth of field: aperture, focal length, and focusing distance. We then move to real-world examples of how to use depth of field in practice, including situations where the three factors may be working against you.

The final part of this tutorial covers two methods to extend your depth of field beyond the ordinary limits of your lens: focus stacking and Brenizer method panoramas. Although there are a few other methods of extending your depth of field artificially (such as manually blurring the background in Photoshop), these two techniques are the most versatile and natural-looking ways to do so.

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This video is not sponsored! You can support Photography Life and Spencer Cox Photography by buying anything through my affiliate links!

Here is all the photo equipment I use: https://bhpho.to/3XUv32a

And here’s my video gear to film this video: https://bhpho.to/3Yt8th1

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I said in the video that I'd provide links to some more advanced topics that are beyond the scope of the video. Here are the pages I recommend:

Wikipedia on depth of field: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depth_o...

Depth of Field Myths (my article for Photography Life): https://photographylife.com/depth-of-...

Why camera sensors don't directly change depth of field: https://fstoppers.com/education/under...

Equivalence (getting identical looking photos despite different camera sensor sizes): https://photographylife.com/equivalen...

That should tide you over for a while :)

~Spencer
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#DepthOfField