Shallow depth of field/macro shot

Renn

This is probably a ridiculously easy thing to achieve and I'm just being stupid about it - Looking to get a shallow depth of field vertically (a bit like in the image below):




But whenever I try and do my set up (just a couple of inches away from subject) it creates a horizontal shallow depth of field which is not what I'm looking for. I've changed the focus points etc but still not getting what I'm looking for.

DaireQuinlan

uh, I don't completely understand what you mean here, but imagine your focal plane as a big sheet of paper parallel to your sensor, in front of your camera. In the macro case it'll be quite close to the front element of the lens, and focus will drop off quite quickly in front of and behind it. Where your subject intersects this imaginary sheet of paper it will be in focus.

So there's no such thing as a shallow DOF 'vertically' or 'horizontally' per say, but how your subject is rendered depends on how it's positioned with respect to that big make believe sheet of paper. The shot you give as an example contains a vertical page that is tilted away from the camera horizontally. This means that the bit where it intesects the focal plane is a narrow strip down the length of the page.