strange question

[mtb'n ski]

Can someone explain to me why DOF exists in a mirror? There is no acctual physical distence between the "objects" in a mirror, they are all on the same plane, so why can you bring some of them into focus and draw some of them out?

(Yes I do know this is a rather pointless question I was just wondering)

[Asylum Steve]

This may be stating the obvious, but a mirror is simply an accurate reflection of what you see, and as the human eye cannot (under normal circumstances) discern a large DOF, a mirror image would reflect (pun mostly intended) the exact same imagery and corresponding DOF as you would see simply gazing upon the original scene...

[Michael Fanelli]

Can someone explain to me why DOF exists in a mirror? There is no acctual physical distence between the "objects" in a mirror, they are all on the same plane, so why can you bring some of them into focus and draw some of them out?

(Yes I do know this is a rather pointless question I was just wondering)

It's not a pointless question. Your eye has a lens and thus a DOF. What you see in a mirror is totally symmetric so the DOF doesn't change from reality.

[Asylum Steve]

Gee, Michael, I was really hoping for a more detailed "brainiac" explanation. Ya know, something that would "blind us with science"... ;)

[walterick]

I was out shooting rain drops today trying to capture the "image" that you see in the raindrop itself as part of the composition (http://gallery.photographyreview.com...cat=500&page=5 for an example from the past) and I was reminded of how tough it is to get the image in the rain drop in focus given that that image has got a lot of "depth" to it! The drop itself was in focus, the image in the raindrop wasn't. It took a lot of experimenting to get it right (assuming I did - I'll let you know after I get the slides back) but the results are hopefully pretty cool

Your post reminded me of this phenomenon (no explanation needed here fellas)

Rick