Photo Insights Nov. '20

Page 16

Sharpness versus Depth of Field M

any times when I’m in the field with clients on photography tours and I suggest they use the smallest lens aperture for complete depth of field, they will question my rationale because, they argue, the sharpest aperture on a lens is f/8. Using f/22 or f/32 degrades the quality of the image, they say.

f/stops down from wide open. So, if you are shooting with a lens with a maximum aperture of f/4, the sharpest apertures are f/5.6 and f/8.

The conundrum, though, is that f/5.6 and f/8 are relatively large apertures and, as such, don’t offer complete depth of field when the camera position is close to the foreground. The picture below is a good example. In order for the large Actually, the sharpest apertures are one to two rock to be just as sharp as the distant ruins and

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