Depth of Field

Photography teacher Eric Baylin struggled with teaching the technical concept of depth of field. After attending a workshop presenting neuroscience research that reveals the neural connection between emotion and cognition, Eric realized that his approach to teaching depth of field had been based on his assumption that it was just "something that students need to know," rather than a tool for creating meaningful photographs. He invented new lessons and discovered that, as his students developed an appreciation of how or why to keep objects in or out of focus, their understanding of the technique improved dramatically.