If you're a person who shoots everything with your phone or you don't venture beyond the Auto function on your "fancy camera" then depth of field may not be a big consideration for you. But depth of field makes a HUGE difference in your food and product photography and I am going to tell you all the reasons why!

First, what is depth of field? Depth of field is the measure of how much foreground and background surrounding your subject is in focus. 

And why does this matter? Because, by being strategic with how much is in focus in in your frame, you are telling your viewer what is important in your image. You are guiding your viewer's eyes to what you want them to look at. 

Let's take this simple product photo, as an example. 

The fern behind the candle adds a nice, natural element within the image and it works because the image was taken with a fairly shallow depth of field, (F5.6) The focus is on the product-- not the fern-- which tells the viewer that the candle is what's important in the image. If the photo had been taken with a higher depth of field, (say, F9 or so) then the focus would have been sharper throughout the image and the fern would be distracting and competing for attention with the product.

Here's another example. 

Can you imagine how this photo would feel if the twinkle lights in the background were not blurry? The whole mood would change. By shooting, again, with a shallow DOF (F5), the entire vibe of this image would change from feeling intimate and cozy to something amateur and less intentional.

I also love using a shallow depth of field for personal projects, like the image below. In this shot, I wanted to create a feeling of airiness and really highlight the delicate veining on the leaf. Incorporating a really narrow plane of focus (shot at F2.8) helped me to accomplish that. 

Using a shallow depth of field can also be useful for hiding imperfections in your image or introducing color and texture to the photo without being distracting. 

The photo below is an example of what I mean.

In the background of the drink, near the metal jigger, I wanted to add an element that would somewhat fill the space and also make sense within the shot. So, I added the crystal decanter and shot the image with a shallow DOF. Consequently, the decanter is soft and out of focus, but still brings some nice reflection and texture to the back of the image without taking away from the drink in the foreground.

Of course, you can go overboard with using a shallow DOF, too. If you shoot on too low of an F-stop, you can make your focal plane too narrow (ie: there is TOO MUCH blur in your image) and the overall photo can be really confusing. For the cocktail shot above, for example, if I had made my aperture wider (ie: a lower F-stop) I would only have a narrow area of focus on my drink and that lovely twist of lemon would be blurry. I needed my area of focus to encompass the front part of the drink as well as the garnish, and show the pretty detailing on the cocktail glass. I shot this at F5 on my 100mm lens and managed to capture what I was going for.

So, what about using a lot of depth of field in your shot? When do you want that?

Well, one of the more obvious times you typically want a lot of depth of field is when you are shooting landscape photography. If you're standing in front of a gorgeous vista, you're most likely gonna want to see the whole thing in focus. Which means, you'll photograph the scene at a high F-stop (let's say F16, for example.) 

Another time I use a higher F-Stop is when I am shooting flat lays. I almost always use F9 or F10 to photograph overhead shots because typically they are wider shots that tell a story, and I want to give everything in the image equal attention, visually.

Take the image below, for example. 

This was the photo that was used as the cover for an Ayurvedic cookbook (hence the empty space in the middle for copy.) 

You can see by looking at the image that there are different heights of ingredients-- some things (like tiny spices) are placed directly on the surface, while others are taller (like the cup and the mortar and pestle.) 

Can you imagine if only some of those ingredients were actually in focus? Wouldn't that be visually confusing? That's what would have happened, though, had I shot this at a low F-stop. And if I had left the decision up to my camera by shooting in Auto mode and having the camera set the aperture and shutter speed for me, I most certainly would have shot this at a low F-Stop because my camera would read the overall scene as dark and would have opened up my aperture wider, thus creating a shallow DOF on a shot that needed more depth of field, not less.

Does that make sense?

This is all the more reason to really understand exposure and learn how to program your own settings on your camera. It will give you SO much more creative freedom and will make your images better and more impactful. And isn't that worth it? 😊