Pure focus. Since focus is such a primary factor in photography, I wanted to consider just the quality of an image in and out of focus.
This sequence explores both light-on-dark and dark-on-light subjects, how focus affects size of image, and whether focus in front or behind the subject matters. Due to optical laws that are entirely beyond me — changing focus also changes the size of the subject. In the white background sequence, I allowed the size differences to show, but in the black background sequence, I adjusted the sizes so they match and make an easier comparison.
Bottom Line: There are infinite subtle variations in the quality of soft focus, and those qualities make a great deal of difference, even if it is the background that is out of focus.
100mm, f16, flash, ISO 800
Left
Right
Here we are focused behind the subject against a white background. Notice that Nicole appears smaller here than when she is in focus.
When you look through an SLR camera, the quality of out-of-focus-ness you see is different if you focus behind versus in front, but the result here only looks different in terms of size — see panel 3, where I focused in front of Nicole.
In focus, at 100mm and f16, at about 6 feet not only gives us enough depth of field to keep all of Nicole's features in focus, but also means you have to push further to get her out of focus.
Focusing on front of Nicole makes her image larger, and small things, like hair, start to disappear.
Throwing Nicole far out of focus turns her into an abstract with only the major features discernible.
Nicole in focus against a dark background.
When an image is just slightly out of focus it usually appears to be a mistake, and just annoys people.
As we go far out of focus, small highlights, like the one in Nicole's left eye, create distinct patterns. Looking for bright light sources to throw out of focus is a common technique (see the page on bokeh.)
Thrown far enough out of focus, Nicole becomes so abstract that we may need to look for a moment to figure out what we are looking at.
Here we are focused behind the subject against a white background. Notice that Nicole appears smaller here than when she is in focus.
When you look through an SLR camera, the quality of out-of-focus-ness you see is different if you focus behind versus in front, but the result here only looks different in terms of size — see panel 3, where I focused in front of Nicole.
In focus, at 100mm and f16, at about 6 feet not only gives us enough depth of field to keep all of Nicole's features in focus, but also means you have to push further to get her out of focus.
Focusing on front of Nicole makes her image larger, and small things, like hair, start to disappear.
Throwing Nicole far out of focus turns her into an abstract with only the major features discernible.
Nicole in focus against a dark background.
When an image is just slightly out of focus it usually appears to be a mistake, and just annoys people.
As we go far out of focus, small highlights, like the one in Nicole's left eye, create distinct patterns. Looking for bright light sources to throw out of focus is a common technique (see the page on bokeh.)
Thrown far enough out of focus, Nicole becomes so abstract that we may need to look for a moment to figure out what we are looking at.
