Real-world examples of depth of field in landscape photography

Let’s start with the kind of scene everyone pictures when they think “landscape”: a grand view from a mountain overlook, desert canyon, or coastal cliff.

You’re standing at the edge of a viewpoint. There’s a rock a few feet in front of you, a valley stretching hundreds of feet below, and mountains fading into the distance. This is one of the best examples of using deep depth of field in landscape photography.

You’d typically:

• Use a wide-angle lens, something like 16–24mm on a full-frame camera.
• Set a fairly narrow aperture, often around f/8 to f/16.
• Focus a bit into the scene (not on the very closest rock, but not on the distant mountains either) to hit the “hyperfocal” sweet spot.

With this setup, you get a frame where the foreground rock, middle-ground valley, and distant peaks all appear sharp. It’s a textbook example of depth of field in landscape photography used to tell a complete story of place.

If you want to go deeper on the optics behind this, the University of New Mexico has a solid intro to depth of field concepts in photography: https://www.unm.edu/~toolson/optical.pdf

Foreground interest: an example of using depth of field to connect layers

Now imagine a wildflower just a foot or two from your camera, with rolling hills behind it. You want that flower to be a clear star of the photo, but you also want the hills to be recognizable and not melt into a total blur.

Here’s how you might handle this example of depth of field in landscape photography:

• You still use a wide-angle lens (say 20mm).
• You choose around f/11 to get more depth of field.
• You move your camera low, close to the flower, and focus slightly behind the very front petal.

What happens? The flower is sharp, the hills are also sharp enough to show texture and pattern, and the sky has definition. The entire frame feels connected because depth of field is deep, but not clinical. This is one of the best examples of using depth of field to tie foreground and background together in a single, cohesive landscape.

Intimate landscapes: shallow depth of field in nature scenes

Not all landscapes have to be wide and sweeping. Some of the most interesting examples of depth of field in landscape photography come from intimate landscapes—small scenes pulled from the larger environment.

Picture a patch of ferns in a forest. You decide to focus on just one frond catching a shaft of light, with the rest of the forest turning into soft shapes.

To create this example of shallow depth of field:

• You might zoom to 70–200mm.
• You open your aperture to f/2.8 or f/4.
• You move in fairly close to the fern, filling a good portion of the frame with it.

Now the background dissolves into a painterly blur. The viewer’s eye goes straight to the fern, and the rest of the forest becomes mood rather than detail. Many 2024–2025 landscape photographers are leaning into this style for social media and prints because it feels more personal and atmospheric than the classic “everything sharp” shot.

Sunrise lakes: reflections and controlled depth of field

Another powerful example of depth of field in landscape photography is a calm lake at sunrise. You’ve got rocks or driftwood along the shore, glassy water, and mountains reflecting in the distance.

You have two interesting choices here:

1. Deep depth of field for a crisp reflection
You stop down to around f/11 or f/16, use a wide-angle lens, and focus a bit into the scene (around where the reflection is strongest). The rocks in the foreground are sharp, the reflection is sharp, and the distant mountains hold detail. This is a classic example of using depth of field to preserve both foreground texture and background clarity.

2. Shallower depth of field for a dreamy reflection
You open up to f/4 or f/5.6 and focus on a single foreground rock. The reflection and mountains soften a bit, creating a dreamy, painterly look. The rock becomes the anchor point, and the rest of the scene supports the mood rather than competing for attention.

Both are valid examples of depth of field in landscape photography; they just tell different stories with the same location.

Cityscapes as landscapes: modern examples include urban depth of field

Landscape isn’t only mountains and forests. City skylines, bridges, and waterfronts are all modern landscapes. Many 2024–2025 photographers treat cityscapes exactly like natural landscapes, using depth of field to control how much of the urban scene the viewer explores.

Imagine standing on a pedestrian bridge at blue hour. You have a railing in the foreground, a river below, and a skyline in the distance.

• With a smaller aperture like f/11, the railing, river, and buildings are all sharp. This example of deep depth of field invites the viewer to wander around the frame, reading signs, windows, and lights.
• With a wider aperture like f/2.8, you can focus on a single detail in the foreground (maybe a bolt or a bit of graffiti) while the skyline becomes a soft, glowing backdrop. This is a strong example of using shallow depth of field in an urban landscape to create a sense of place without overwhelming detail.

Long-lens mountains: compressing space with selective sharpness

One of the best examples of depth of field in landscape photography that often surprises beginners is the telephoto landscape.

You’re far from a mountain range, so you put on a 200mm or 300mm lens to fill the frame with layered ridges. Telephoto lenses naturally compress distance, making peaks look stacked tightly together.

Here’s where depth of field gets interesting:

• At 200mm and f/11, if you focus on the middle ridge, you might get the front and back ridges acceptably sharp, but the very distant peaks could soften slightly. That subtle softness adds depth and atmosphere.
• At 200mm and f/4, focusing on one ridge can turn the others into soft shapes. This example of shallow depth of field in a landscape isolates a single ridge or structure, almost like a portrait of a mountain.

Telephoto landscapes are everywhere in modern portfolios and social feeds because they feel bold and graphic. They’re real examples of depth of field at work in a way that looks very different from the usual wide-angle viewpoint.

Night skies and starscapes: depth of field under the Milky Way

Astro-landscape photography has exploded in popularity, and it offers some fascinating examples of depth of field in landscape photography.

You’re shooting the Milky Way over a desert rock formation. To capture the stars, you need a wide aperture—often f/1.4 to f/2.8—and a relatively short exposure to avoid star trails.

Here’s the tradeoff:

• At f/1.8, you can get bright stars, but your foreground rock may only be sharp if it’s far enough away and you focus carefully.
• If the rock is very close to the camera, you might need to focus stack: take one frame focused on the rock, one on the stars, and blend them later. This gives you an example of deep depth of field across the entire scene, even though each individual frame had a shallow depth of field.

Focus stacking for landscapes is discussed in various university and technical photography resources; for a general introduction to image stacking ideas, the National Institutes of Health has material on image combination techniques in microscopy that echoes similar concepts: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4831573/

Seasonal details: snow, leaves, and weather as depth-of-field subjects

Some of the most memorable examples of depth of field in landscape photography come from using weather and seasonal details as your subject.

Think of:

• A single red leaf on a log with a forest behind it.
• A snow-covered fence post with distant trees fading into white.
• Raindrops on a window framing a moody coastline.

In each case, you can choose how much of the scene you want sharp:

• With a narrow aperture like f/16, the leaf or fence post is sharp, but so are the trees and background details. This creates a documentary-style feel, where the viewer can study the environment.
• With a wider aperture like f/2.8 or f/4, that leaf or post pops sharply against a soft, abstract backdrop. The scene becomes more emotional and less literal.

These are subtle but powerful examples of how depth of field shapes the story of your landscape images, especially when the scene itself is simple.

How to recognize and create your own real examples of depth of field

Let’s pull the thread together. When you look at real examples of depth of field in landscape photography—whether in books, galleries, or online—start asking three questions:

Where is the sharpest point?
Is it a foreground rock, a mid-distance tree, or the distant mountains? That tells you where the photographer focused.

How quickly does sharpness fall off?
Does the scene stay sharp front to back, or does it transition to blur quickly? That gives you a sense of the aperture and distance choices.

What mood does that depth of field create?
Deep depth of field feels open, informative, and expansive. Shallow depth of field feels intimate, moody, and selective.

Once you start seeing these patterns, you can go outside and intentionally create your own best examples of depth of field in landscape photography instead of leaving it to chance.

If you want a more technical, math-focused discussion of depth of field, hyperfocal distance, and circle of confusion, the MIT OpenCourseWare material on optics is a solid reference point: https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/6-637-optical-engineering-spring-2005/

FAQ: Examples of depth of field in landscape photography

Q: Can you give a simple example of depth of field in a landscape for beginners?
A: Sure. Stand in a park with a path leading away from you. Put a rock or flower a few feet in front of your camera. At f/16 with a wide-angle lens, both the rock and the distant trees will look sharp—that’s an example of deep depth of field. At f/2.8 focusing on the rock, the background trees will blur—that’s an example of shallow depth of field in a landscape.

Q: What are some everyday examples of depth of field in landscape photography without fancy gear?
A: Use your phone at a scenic overlook. Tap to focus on a nearby railing or sign and watch the distant view soften—shallow depth of field. Then tap on the distant mountains and notice how more of the scene appears sharp—deeper depth of field. Even basic smartphone cameras now simulate these effects, which is why you see so many portrait-style landscape shots on social media.

Q: Do I always need everything in focus for a good landscape?
A: Not at all. Many of the best examples of modern landscape photography use selective focus. Isolating a single flower, rock, or tree with shallow depth of field can be just as powerful as a full, front-to-back sharp vista. The choice depends on the story you want to tell.

Q: What is an example of using depth of field to fix a distracting background?
A: Imagine a beautiful tree on a hill, but behind it is a busy parking lot. If you move closer to the tree, use a longer focal length, and open your aperture (say f/2.8–f/4), you can blur the parking lot into shapes and color instead of readable cars and signs. This is a practical, real example of using shallow depth of field in a landscape to reduce distractions.

Q: Are there health or eye-safety issues when shooting bright landscapes, like snow or desert scenes?
A: Yes, very bright environments can cause eye strain and increase the risk of UV damage over time. While this isn’t about depth of field directly, it matters for anyone spending long hours outdoors shooting landscapes. For reliable guidance on protecting your eyes and skin in bright conditions, you can check resources from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/skin/basic_info/sun-safety.htm

When you study these real examples of depth of field in landscape photography—and then go out and practice them—you start to feel in control of how your images look. Instead of hoping everything turns out sharp, or accidentally blurring the wrong part of the scene, you’re making deliberate choices.

That’s the difference between taking a snapshot of a landscape and actually composing one.