Deep & Shallow

By Kaden Stephens

This week, I captured images with both deep and shallow depths of field. This was done through the use of my camera’s aperture. A deep depth of field is caught with a narrow aperture, and a shallow depth of field is caught with a wide aperture.

Deep Depth of Field 

STONES: 05/04/22, 1:00 pm, BYU-Idaho Campus, FL: 30mm, f/16, 1/1000 sec, Canon M50 II, Natural Lighting

This first image was caught as I was walking around the BYU-I campus. I noticed a large pile of rocks and thought it would be an interesting shot. As I caught this image with a narrow aperture of f/16, I was able to keep every detail of the rocks in focus.    

AN EVENING WALK: 05/08/22, 8:45 pm, South Branch Rexburg Canal, FL: 30mm, f/16, 1/60 sec, Canon M50 II, Natural Lighting

The other evening, my friends and I went for a walk around Rexburg. As it started getting late, the sky began turning a beautiful shade of blue. I was lucky to have my camera on hand to take a few pictures. This image was caught with a narrow aperture of f/16.

TREES IN THE SAND: 04/30/22, 1:00 pm, St. Anthony Sand Dunes, FL: 15mm, f/22, 1/15 sec, Canon M50 II, Natural Lighting

Along with the pictures of motion I shared in my previous post, I was also able to capture another image that demonstrates a deep depth of field. This is a picture I caught while at the St. Anthony Sand Dunes. I found a small cluster of trees at the edge of a large dune. This gave it an amazing view of the sand dunes in the distance. I was able to capture this image with a narrow aperture to keep each detail sharp in the background.

Shallow Depth of Field

BRICK WALLS: 05/08/22, 8:50 pm, The Towers, FL: 15mm, f/3.5, 1/160 sec, Canon M50 II, Natural Lighting

I was happy with how this image turned out. The same night that I was walking with my friends, I spotted a brick building that I thought would be fun to take a picture of. I was able to position my camera where I caught several different angles of light reaching the walls. With a wide aperture, I was able to slightly blur the out-of-focus bricks that filled the background.  

FLOWERS: 05/04/22, 1:00 pm, BYU-Idaho Campus, FL: 30 mm, f/2, 1/1250 sec, Canon M50 II, Natural Lighting

To capture this picture, I found a patch of flowers on the BYU-Idaho campus. I had to get up close to them to get an angle that I thought would best show off the subjects. I used a wide aperture of f/2 to get a lot of bokeh in the background. By doing this, I could keep the focus on the flowers rather than what was going on in the background. I was happy with how it all turned out. 

RAILROAD TIES: 05/02/22, 12:30 pm, US-20 Railroad, FL: 30mm, f/3.5, 1/1000 sec, Canon M50 II, Natural Lighting

This photo ended up being one of my favorites. On a drive from Rexburg to Ammon, my friends and I noticed a railroad bridge that was sitting close by the highway we were driving on. I was able to climb onto the tracks and capture a cool picture of the crossties. I thought it created an interesting effect as I lowered the aperture to f/3.5. This created a large amount of bokeh in the background that directed the focus to the railroad ties.