Time to narrow our focus for Challenge 75: "Shallow Depth of Field"

Depth of field is an extremely valuable tool for a photographer to use in order to isolate or bring emphasis to an element in his or her photo. The depth of field is the part of the photo that appears sharply in focus. The goal for this next challenge will be for you to isolate an element or perhaps only part of an element of your photo with a shallow depth of field in order to draw attention to it and emphasize it.

The background of your photo should be out of focus. You will need to consider how much out of focus you wish it to be by making some technical decisions.

Some general, technical things to keep in mind for this challenge:
(1) Aperature: the wider your aperature, the smaller the depth of field.
(2) Closeness to Subject: the closer you are to your subject, the smaller the depth of field.
(3) Focal Length: The longer the focal length used, the smaller the depth of field.

All entries must have a title. Feel free to be creative with your title. The Challenge is open to all members of the Olympus Talk Forum who joined (that means you’ve posted in the forum) before the beginning of the Challenge period and the photos must be taken with an Olympus digital or Olympus DSLR camera.

The regular Challenge rules apply. You can find them here: https://pbase.com/otfchallenge/challenge_rules_guidelines

I will add one clarification to the rules: The shallow depth of field should be a result of the way your image was photographed. It should not be something introduced by post processing techniques. Limiting depth of field by blurring areas of your photo that were captured sharply in the original photo by post processing those areas goes against the spirit of the competition.

Challenge entries (limit 1 per member) must be taken during the challenge period starting Saturday, June 20th and ending at Midnight on Saturday, July 4th.

Check your time zone. The Host’s time zone is here: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/city.html?n=55

Everyone is encouraged to submit up to two (2) images for the exhibition Gallery. Exhibition photos DO NOT need to be from an Olympus camera.

Exhibition and Challenge gallery submissions should be sent to the following email address: mn88ko@telus(dot)net [substitute . for dot]. The submissions MUST be sized to no more than 800 pixels on the longest side and under 200 kb.

Please use the word “Challenge” or “Exhibition” in the subject heading of your email. The Exhibition gallery can be viewed here: https://pbase.com/otfchallenge/challenge_75__exhibition

Be sure to include your Olympus Talk Forum name and a title for your images. Also, send the photo as an attachment as some e-mail programs strip the EXIF data from embedded images. Images without an intact EXIF will not be accepted.

Good luck to all! :)