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Guide to Infrared
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Articles Table of Contents   Page 1: Keep and Use Classic Lenses For an Unusual Look Page 2: Shoot One and Only One Subject Page 3: Shoot One Lens, and Not a Zoom Page 4: Choosing a Lens by Focal Length Page 5: Fast Lenses—Shutter Speeds / Background Blur (Bokeh) Page 6: Shoot a Fast Lens at Dusk or Dawn Page 7: Blur Can Be Beautiful Page 8: Making Sharp Photos Handheld Page 9: Shoot Another Format (Size or Aspect Ratio) Page 10: Use Manual Exposure for Perfect Results Page 11: White Balance Tools Page 12: Understand Perspective and Size Variance Page 13: Look For Natural Patterns Page 14: Depth of Field Is Oh-So-Shallow Page 15: Depth of Field—How Far To Stop Down Page 16: Depth of Field and Megapixels Page 17: Never Go Traveling Without a Backup Camera Page 18: Don’t Assume a New Lens is Good! Page 19: Infinity Focus Requires Care! Page 20: How to Carry Large and Heavy Lenses Page 21: Shooting Tip: Use Mirror Lockup Page 22: Shooting Tip: Aurora Borealis Page 23: Shooting Tip: Grizzly Bear vs Black Bear Scat Page 24: A brief glossary of photographic terms

Depth of Field and Megapixels

See also Depth of Field.

Sometimes it’s worth reminding ourselves how little megapixels matter with some subjects—limited depth of field can eliminate nearly all of the potential resolution of an image. This example was shot with the Canon EOS 5D-IR (infrared conversion) using the EF 100-400/f4.5-5.6L IS USM at f11. Color as opposed to infrared would make little difference.

Even at this greatly-reduced size, the foreground and background blur can be seen—and this is at f11! Results are worse at f16 due to diffraction (I tried both apertures).

Below is an actual-pixels crop. Only a very narrow band of the entire frame is actually in acceptably sharp focus, no more than 300 pixels (out of 2912), probably no more than a 100 pixel band is at peak sharpness.

A 6-megapixel camera (instead of 12) wouldn’t produce an appreciably different result outside a narrow zone, something to keep in mind when considering megapixels.