Depth of Field

I understand that its the aperture that helps to get the depth of field. Lets just say that i get a picture of a bird 100m away and i want to do it in a way that bird has sharp focus while rest of the surrounding to be blur. (lets just take it as long distance bokeh)

My question is, what other functions and features of my camera (D5200) that i can use for this purpose ? are things like 'metering' can help me on this ?

Note : May be the example i quoted (bird) may not be the best, but i hope you got the point that i'm making. I just want to know other than aperture, what other built-in features and functions can help me change DOF.

DOF also is about focal length...general rule is shorter FL gives more DOF and longer FL gives less DOF. Your bird with a blurred background would then require a large aperture, long focal length, fast shutter speed, and a steady steady hand or support.

You better hear from some other folks around here too as what you are talking about is not something that I really do very much.

Another way is have your subject further away from the background...By doing it this way you can use say F8 or there abouts...

Hi Eye-Level, Thank you for your reply. Yes, that part I'm quite comfortable with. What I'm really after is to know whether there are any built-in camera features for me to get a 'spot on' focus which results in a (or at least give the results) shorter depth of field.

Maybe continous AF??? Someone who knows the AF modes real good will reply soon I am sure...I am a manual focus person...I might be half way dangerous if I had an AF lens...lol

Just for clarity.

Metering is all about lighting right ? It has nothing to do with focus right ?

I meant about spot, center-weight and Matrix.

Metering is about exposure. You do not necessarily need a meter or any metering tool to make a picture only ISO, stop, and speed...but you probably need to at least try and get the snap in focus...lol

An aside...keep thinking about and trying new stuff to you...if you keep plugging away you will eventually nail the bird in the way you are envisioning...the vision thing and trying to make it work is one of the crucial parts of it all...you can do it I bet.

DOF bites us all...you guys shooting a 200+ focal lengths really are screwed!

Bokeh (the blurry out of focus area) is all about aperture, focal length and distance from the camera.
The only other way to blur whilst keeping your subject in focus, is in post processing. e.g. your camera has a built in feature called miniature. This effect is not suited to bird photography though.
There's no other in camera bokeh tool that I know of but increasing the sharpening and/or contrast could give the illusion of better separation.

Basically, for any given f number, the wider the angle of view, the larger the depth of field. Then, opening the aperture wider, reduces that depth of field.

Macro is similar but we are usually demanding more depth of field which requires a smaller aperture, then we can't use as fast a shutter as we would like.

Bokeh also is very dependent on a simple physical property of your lens...the number of aperture blades you have...look at #8..see the hexagon shaped blobs of points of confusion stuff...not exactly the greatest bokeh effect...it was made with the 85/1.8 Ai lens - 6 blades - if they would have used 7 or 9 blades the lens would really be legendary!

Here you go. Understanding Depth of Field in Photography