Composition tip: Choose your depth of field deliberately
Thursday 25 September 2025, 20:02 by Elja Trum | 2,492 views | 0 commentsThis article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.
The amount of depth of field you use is also part of your composition. Your depth of field determines what is and is not in focus in the frame.
A high aperture number, such as f/16, gives you a large depth of field, with a lot in focus. A low aperture number, such as f/2.8, gives you a shallow depth of field, with little in focus.
With a shallow depth of field, you can turn your background into a lovely, soft blur, if there is enough distance between your subject and your background. Distracting elements in your background are no longer visible.
With a large depth of field, you can include the entire surroundings in your composition. Pay extra attention to those surroundings when composing your image.
About the author
Elja Trum is the founder of Photofacts and online photography course website Photofacts Academy. He has been writing about photography since 2006. Elja is also the author of (Dutch) books on composition, black-and-white photography, flash photography and portrait photography.
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Elja Trum
Photofacts; everything to do with photography!
Would you like to take better photos and keep up with what is happening in photography? Photofacts publishes articles that teach you something about photography — from a product announcement to a practical shooting tip or a look at a website. Photofacts covers photography every day and is a hobby project of Elja Trum's that got out of hand. The articles are written by a team of volunteer authors. If you would enjoy writing one or more articles for Photofacts, do get in touch.More about PhotofactsPhotofacts is made possible in part by
