How to achieve this effect?

Hello all,
I was browsing through some shots from Bahrain F1 weekend and I noticed this shot. It look amazing to me. Maybe it is a very easy thing for most of photographers, but I would never know how to achieve such a DOF effect. If you look at it, it gives you a shallow DOF infront of the subject and also behind the subject. You literally see only the fellow that is sharp and nothing else.

I know that there is a DOF Calculator. But how people do that on the fly? I mean how do you achieve this effect not knowing where the person is going to be, etc....?

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No one does the calculations in the field. It's a combination of experience and a bit of luck. If you want a shallow DoF then you need to use a wide aperture, a long lens, and remain as close to the subject as framing will allow.

Turn your Tamrom through to 50mm and open it up to f/2.8, shouldn't be a problem. The more you shoot and read about DoF and what affects it the easier it is to judge.

You don't even need to think about it.

Maximum aperture, using centre-spot AF will get you there. Wide separation between foreground, subject and background is also a factor.

What he said ^

As others have said, open your aperture nice and wide and use the telephoto end. The closer the subject the more pronounced the effect. You really don't need to consult tables or do a load of maths in the field for shots like this.

Here's one taken handheld at 400mm, 1/400 and f/5.6. Full Exif is available in the image. I don't remember the distance to the subject - maybe 7m or so. That would have given me a DOF of 6cm.

I've added another, again handheld at 400mm and f/5.6 but this time at 1/160 (thank heaven for IS). Distance to subject was quite a bit further but I've still got nice isolation of the subject.

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There is no image in your message, so I can't actually see the effect you are talking about. However, the DOF preview will show you what your DOF will be, if you have the time to use it. Otherwise, it is just a matter of experience with your equipment, learning what DOF to expect.

I understand how to achieve the shallow DOF when I am close to the subject, but in this case a photographer is most probably 10 meters from the subject and somehow whatever is in front and behind is shallow DOF and only the subject is sharp.
This is what difficult for me, not achieving a shallow DOF in case the subject is close....

You need a lot more than 50mm focal length to get shallow DOF at longer distances. Your example image was probably shot at something like 200mm, or maybe even 300mm and f/2.8 or f/3.2.

Also, if you look closely, it looks like he is in the middle of a path/road/track and there is actually a fair bit of distance - maybe 3m - to the flowers behind him. The plant in front of him could easily be 5m in front. The foreshortening effect of the telephoto lens compresses the appearance of distance, so thing look closer to each other than they really are.

Telephoto lenses have this effect of "compressing" the focal plane somewhat.

This one is taken at 400m @f/8

Interesting. I understand now. I need to get a telephoto lens to practice
Thanks for sharing knowledge and shots!

The first one is great lol. great expression

This fellow is great. Why do people kill them? I would never do that....such a nice animal! Great shot

tdodd wrote in post #5257391
As others have said, open your aperture nice and wide and use the telephoto end. The closer the subject the more pronounced the effect. You really don't need to consult tables or do a load of maths in the field for shots like this.

Here's one taken handheld at 400mm, 1/400 and f/5.6. Full Exif is available in the image. I don't remember the distance to the subject - maybe 7m or so. That would have given me a DOF of 6cm.

I've added another, again handheld at 400mm and f/5.6 but this time at 1/160 (thank heaven for IS). Distance to subject was quite a bit further but I've still got nice isolation of the subject.

This is one of my favorite pictures I've ever taken. It was taken a while back with an original Canon Digital Rebel (300D) ISO 400 with a really slow zoom lens at f/5.6 with 1/400th SS. This is straight out of the camera, no PP or Crop it was only resized.

Cyth0n wrote in post #5257320
No one does the calculations in the field. It's a combination of experience and a bit of luck.

You could use a java app on your phone ...
http://www.jibble.org/​dofcalc/
http://www.curved-light.net/software/
http://www.dofmaster.c​om/iphone.html
I have the first two installed on my phone and they are very easy to use.I dont have a lot of experience of calculating DOF yet but these are useful tools.