Depth of Field

The November issue of The Iron Horse has an article on close-up photography, which discusses depth of field (DOF). (Foregrounds and backgrounds on pictures we take of models often look out-of-focus because of shallow DOF.)

Here is a YouTube video that Brian Gould found that shows why DOF has such a dramatic effect on the apparent realism of a photo. In the video, what appear to be models are pictures of 1:1 scenes. What makes them look like models is that they are shot in a way that the film plane is not parallel with the lens. The result is a very shallow DOF, because very little of the picture is in focus.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvOppCMNS84