To you guys, it may seem a silly question....

[Cookie]

Hey guys Cookie here,

This may seem like such a stupid question to you 'pros' and I feel embarrased to ask it really.. but my 'photographic life' will come to some sort of end if I don't get this sorted. Many people have commented on my photos and it looked like this is critical

How do you change the depth of field on an Olympus EPL-1 camera?

I'd appreciate a simple step by step guide. I know its on the aperature setting but after that I AM CLUELESS You must think I am so stupid.

[Nemesis]

Mate I do not have one of these but Im guessing you are able to change the F number ?
In apeture mode you should have numbers from a small number to a larger double figure number.. The higher the number the greater depth of field.. I always see it to remember as backward Small number = large aperture large number small = aperture

[Tugboat]

hi Cookie just remembered a great thread in General Photography Technique by Duncan,it is a great read, I printed it out so I can read up on it when I need to.

[Cookie]

Nemsis,
Thank you! I have done just that and sort of know my way know..

Tugboat (Trena)
Thank you too. I will check out this.

[Nemesis]

I was also once told that it is pointless going any higher than f11 on a digital ????

[miketoll]

If you stop way down, say beyond f16 you will get diffraction effects which actually lessen the sharpness of the shot. This is true for all cameras as it is an effect of optics but my understanding is that it is more evident with digital cameras and that the smaller the sensor and the greater the pixel density the worse it is. Fortunately with a compacts tiny sensor you have great depth of field anyway so no need to stop down markedly for great DOF, indeed compacts like my old G5 will only stop down to f8 anyway. The problem for compacts is if you want shallow DOF. On my Canon 7D with my macro shots I tend to go no further than f16 although how much deterioration would actually be visible on normal viewing if I shot at f22 I do not know.
To go back to the original question: big hole = small f number eg f1.8 = shallow DOF; small hole = large f number eg f22 = greater DOF.
DOF also increases with a wide angle lens and decreases with a telephoto lens. The nearer a subject is to the camera the smaller is the DOF, the further away a subject is the greater the DOF.
The size of the sensor has an effect too, the smaller the sensor the greater the depth of field (everything else being equal) so your Olympus will be harder to achieve shallow DOF shots than a full frame camera, conversely it will be easier to obtain shots with great DOF. Hope that little lot helps!

[Cookie]

Originally Posted by miketoll

If you stop way down, say beyond f16 you will get diffraction effects which actually lessen the sharpness of the shot. This is true for all cameras as it is an effect of optics but my understanding is that it is more evident with digital cameras and that the smaller the sensor and the greater the pixel density the worse it is. Fortunately with a compacts tiny sensor you have great depth of field anyway so no need to stop down markedly for great DOF, indeed compacts like my old G5 will only stop down to f8 anyway. The problem for compacts is if you want shallow DOF. On my Canon 7D with my macro shots I tend to go no further than f16 although how much deterioration would actually be visible on normal viewing if I shot at f22 I do not know.
To go back to the original question: big hole = small f number eg f1.8 = shallow DOF; small hole = large f number eg f22 = greater DOF.
DOF also increases with a wide angle lens and decreases with a telephoto lens. The nearer a subject is to the camera the smaller is the DOF, the further away a subject is the greater the DOF.
The size of the sensor has an effect too, the smaller the sensor the greater the depth of field (everything else being equal) so your Olympus will be harder to achieve shallow DOF shots than a full frame camera, conversely it will be easier to obtain shots with great DOF. Hope that little lot helps!

Wow! Thank you miketoll for that little lot! I shall re-read it all and see if I can improve my pics with DOF.

Nemesis, hmmm I wonder - I haven't heard that - where did you hear it from?

[Nemesis]

Can't remember perhaps I read it ??? lol

[Cookie]

LOL. It could figure, maybe we should all try it out! LOL!

[petrochemist]

Originally Posted by Nemesis

I was also once told that it is pointless going any higher than f11 on a digital ????

As with all generalizations it's only part true.

The diffration problem with small apertures will soften the entire image, but DOF increases. In some cases the increased DOF heavily outways the softening. Macro & pinhole photography are examples where you might want/need to go smaller. (Typical pinhole 'lenses' are f/145 or smaller)