Technical Definition
Depth of field ,or DOF as it shall be referred to, refers to camera's ability to make only certain portions of the z axis going away from the camera in focus. This is mostly used in film and still frame cameras. DOF is the range of focus of light partials. The more narrow the aperture of a camera is the more shallow the depth of field becomes.(2) This translates to some things before and after a certain range are fuzzy or out of focus. Depending on how shallow or deep the area that is in focus it is called Shallow or Deep focus. These terms are mostly associated to film production. (1)
Aethetic Applications
Now that we are past all the technical stuff we can talk about how this type of thing is actually used in film production. For one Shallow focus can help draw the eye of the audience to a certain person or object without the use of a close-up.(1) This affect can draw the actions away from the distractions going on in the foreground and back ground. There is also the common use of slowly or swiftly chaning the depth of field to reveal something within a shot that was always there but just out of focus. And even beyond that fact shallow focus shots just plain look pleasing to the eye. Depth of field is also a sign of a more expensive camera. In most movie recording cameras there is no control of the aperture and therefore no control of the depth of field. It is the more expensive ones that day to day people can no afford that can be manipulated into showing depth of field and its array of uses. On thing that some hand held cameras can do is use a digital macro lenses that allows for limited use of depth of field. (2)
major edits
history of how this came to be and who used it first perhaps?
(1)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depth_of_field
(2)http://www.dennisglennon.com/PhotoTips_2_DOFMadeEasy1.html
(3)http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/depth-of-field.htm
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