Use Selective Focus To Guide The Viewer
When a photographer uses selective focusing, this tells the viewer exactly where to look. This can also give an artistic feel to the photo.
In the above photo, I wanted to create some mystery about the event, so I used selective focus and threw out the background. In order to be successful with this technique, below I’ve written about 4 things that you need to consider.
(1) A Low F-Stop
The lowest f-stop that a lens will ever have is f/1.4. But you may find that you don’t need a f-stop that low in order to get the results that you want.
When I am making a portrait, I don’t go any lower than f/4 because I want the person’s entire face to be in focus. If I shoot at f/4 this will get the face in focus but the ears will be slightly out of focus.
But if I am making photos of a candid street scene, I won’t drop the f-stop below 5.6. This way some of the objects in my photo will be only slightly out of focus, while I keep the subject in focus.
(2) Distance
When considering distance and depth of field, you need to think of the distance between you and the subject in focus. You also need to think about the distance between the subject of your photo, and the background.
