Street photography is often about instinct—quick reactions, fleeting moments, and capturing life as it unfolds. But even in such a spontaneous genre, the choices we make behind the lens shape the stories we tell. One of the most powerful tools at our disposal is depth of field (DOF)—and yet, many of us fall into the habit of always shooting the same way.

Either always wide open like f1.2 with a fast lens getting a very narrow depth of field, or at f5.6 or f8 to get much more in focus.

The images in this post are all shot with the Leica M9, and 50mm Summilux f1.4 ASPH. But at different apertures. All photos from my recent trip to Helsinki in Finland.

Breaking the Habit

Whether you’re a fan of wide-open apertures for dreamy bokeh or prefer everything in sharp focus, it’s worth asking:

What happens when you switch it up?

Wide Aperture: Isolating the Moment

Shooting with a wide aperture (like f/1.4 or f/2.8) creates a shallow depth of field, which can beautifully isolate your subject from a busy background. In the chaos of the street, this can be a powerful way to draw attention to a single gesture, expression, or detail. The closer you are to your subject and thereby a closer focusing distance, the bigger the effect will be.

Pros:

• Emphasizes your subject by blurring distractions.
• Adds a cinematic, intimate feel to your images.

Cons:

• Risk of missing focus, especially with moving subjects.
• Can oversimplify the scene, losing the context that makes street photography so rich.

In the above photo I shot it a f1.4 to have a narrow depth of field. Its a seconds to make decision or live with what you have set already, because it happened fast. The outcome is that the person just starting the car to drive, is separated from the background which you still have an idea od what is. A street with people walking. Will this image be equally good if I had a wide DOF, and everything was sharp?

Narrow Aperture: Embracing the Scene

On the other hand, stopping down to f/8, f/11, or beyond gives you a much deeper depth of field. This is ideal when you want to capture the full complexity of a scene—layers of people, architecture, and action all in one frame.

Pros:

• Tells a fuller story by keeping more elements in focus.
• Useful for compositions with strong foreground-background relationships.
• More forgiving with focus, especially in fast-paced environments.

Cons:

• Requires more light or slower shutter speeds and/or higher ISO.
• Can make images feel flatter if not composed thoughtfully.
• Demand good composition skills and can make a image that looks messy.

In the above photo I shot it a f8 to have a wide depth of field. The person very close to the camera isn’t fully focused, ebing out of the focus area cover with the 50mm lens at f8. But still most is within the range and make object’s play together, and have to be balanced to work and being interesting to look at.

Why You Should Break Your Own Rules

A good idea is to go through all your photos from a period. Look on them closely, and see what you might have missed doing one or the other. Are there pictures that would have been equally good or better having everything in focus or the other way around.

It’s easy to get comfortable with one style—especially when it consistently delivers results. But creativity thrives on experimentation. By consciously switching between shallow and deep DOF, you open yourself up to new perspectives and storytelling possibilities.

Try this: next time you’re out shooting, challenge yourself to use an aperture you normally avoid. If you’re always wide open, stop down and see how your compositions change. If you’re always shooting deep, open up and focus on the emotion in a single face.

You might be surprised by what you discover. This subject will be continued in the next blog post (and combined and saved in the Library, The Snapshot Room, about photography).

End of next week I have the photo workshop in Copenhagen, and I will teach this among many other subjects. Its going to be fun. Want to join this or another workshop? I will love to see you there.

Morten Albek Workshops