of course it all depends on the type of scene. A selective focus scene where you want one object to stand out obviously has a need for DOF. On the other hand, a landsacpe scene is best done with no blur whatsover. Re: Why does DOF sometikes make things look like miniatures? Well, if you take a close-up pic with a camera on a single object, you set the aperature to a low setting, which increases the blur arround foreground and background objects. But say on a medium-length scene, for example the front of your house, most likely a photographer (or an automatic camera) will use a higher aperature setting, which blurs the image less, so you can see more of the details over a greater distance (your mailbox and your house are in focus.) Now in a landscape scene, you want no blur, so you set the aperature to a very high setting which blurs the image the least and allows the most focal depth. However, doing so often means you must expose a picture for 2 minutes or more, especially at night, and that's why many people use tripods. Anyhoo..here's what that means: We are used to associating strong blur with close up objects, so in scenes that use DOF and are not close up shots, it's best to use a very low DOF setting. I am NOT saying not to use DOF. In fact, you should always use DOF, even if it;s just a bit. No matter the camera, a photo will always have a slight bur.