Composition: Part IV Isolating the Subject

behind the nose would also be in focus. That should mean that the entire head would be in focus. Maybe, maybe not depending on how large an aperture you are using.

By choosing the nose as the front plane you are accenting it and moving the other planes backwards. Most people would not find this pleasing. So where else could you place the focal point? The desired place to focus on a human face is the eyes. The reason is the same as mentioned above. The human head is divided into three planes with the eyes being located in the second third. This means that if you focus on the eyes, one third in front (the nose), and two thirds behind (the ears and then hair) will be in focus. The eyes are the critical points that must remain sharp.

The focus point is the point at which maximum sharpness is too be obtained, the degree of sharpness begins to fade away from this point with the degree of fall-off depending on the size of the aperture. The smaller the aperture, the greater the depth of field. The larger the aperture, the smaller the depth of field.

Here is another example, suppose you are taking photo of a large group of people and you want the background to fade away slightly. Because of the light, you are using a larger aperture. Now how do you insure that every row will be in sharp focus? Do you focus on the front row? Or on the back row? Or which row? Go back to the rule of thirds, remembering that you have about one-third in front of the focal point and two-thirds behind. View the group as a block occupying space and distance. Mentally divide the block into thirds and place your focus accordingly. Depending on how large an aperture you are working with, the group should be relatively in focus and the background should be slightly blurred.

It is always a tradeoff. What is important and what isn't. In this situation a professional will start adjusting light, changing lens, altering distances and repositioning himself all in an effort to achieve the precise results he wants. He will choose the best possible aperture under the conditions. For most amateur and point and shoot photographers this may not be possible, so keep the above rule in mind and you can begin to take great pictures with the

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