Shooting shallow depth of field

We've already talked at length about aperture and its impact on depth of field,…the amount of depth in the image that's in focus.…You have seen how you can make your aperture larger to make shallower…depth of field, and that's what we're going to do here.…We've left the studio, we are out in this beautiful location, and I am going to…take a shot of Ben here. And I want to blur out the background. Even though it's…this beautiful vista back there, I want to shoot it with shallow depth of field…to bring more focus onto his face.…Now, depth of field involves--shooting shallow depth of field involves more than…just opening your aperture up all the way.…

As you're about to see, camera position has a lot to do with the perception…of depth in a scene.…So I am going to just take a shot here.…I have got a reasonably fast lens.…I can open it up to f4.…So I have got my aperture open all the way.…Now, this is not a nice thing to do to your friends, to get real close to them…and shoot with really wide angles.…