Photography in Archaeology

Often you are required to take general shots of either the site or trench or th

surrounding landscape.  It sounds easy and an automatic setting should tak

care of most situations.  But many shots have subjects that are both near an

far from the camera – the trick is to have it all in focus.  Too often either th

background or foreground are slightly blurred.  To sort this you will have t

increase your depth of field.

To adjust depth of field you will have to be in Aperture Priority mode.  This

set by turning the dial to A or in the case of Canon models AV.

Now you can change the f-number, often by scrolling a dial or using up/dow

buttons.  You should be able to see the f-number change on the screen.

Landscapes-and-General-Shots

A large f-number i.e f16 creates a large depth of field where subjects both

1-This shot has both the foreground subject and the background in sharp focus

near and far will be in focus.  Choose the

largest available which will be anything over f8

or even up to f16. (or  f32 if your camera has

such a setting)

You can also get a wide  depth of field by

zooming out to the widest angle your camera

can go and then add to that a high  f-number

will ensure a maximum range in focus.