Exercise Two - Focus with a set aperture

For this exercise find a scene which has depth - a wood full of trees, for example, a row of cars seen from an acute angle, or a crowded market. From the same place, take two or three pictures, each focused on something at a different distance. (For this to work, the lens aperture must be wide - at its lowest f-stop number.)


For this exercise a number of images were taken of a glass chess set.


All three images were taken with a 50mm lens with the aperture set at f1.8 for all images, with the Autofocus Point (AF Point) set to the centre to ensure that camera focused on a particular section of the image .

The first of these images has focused on the chess piece furthest form the camera. With the aperture fully open, in this case f1.8, the chess pieces closest to the camera are not sharp.

In the second image, focus was set on the chess pieces in the centre of the picture, now only those pieces in the centre are sharp, those pieces closest and furthest from the camera our out of focus

The final shot in this set, focuses on the pieces closest to the camera, as such those pieces that further from the camera become increasingly out of focus.

Of the three, my personal preference is on the first of these, the sharp image of the furthest chess piece against the slightly blurred background, leads the viewers eye from the blurred images in the front of the image to the sharper images back of the picture, giving the viewer more experience as they explore the image as their eye moves from front to back.

Exercise One – Focal Length and Angle of View

This exercise required three photographs taken at differing focal lengths, the first a near life like, the second with the camera at is shortest focal length, and the final image wit the camera set to its longest focal length. For this exercise the camera was set to automatic and only the focal length was changed.

Starting with an image of the Chimonanthus praecox (Winter Sweet) that grows outside of the house, this was taken with the view through the viewfinder looking the same to that seen by the unaided eye.

Much of the detail and interest of the primary object of the picture, the shrub, is lost, due to the inclusion of the background.

The result is what comes across as a messy image.

ISO400
40mm
F8.0
1/125 sec



 
 

 

A second shot was taken, with the lens set to its widest setting, this time at 18mm. Compared to the previous image that overall picture seems much better inasmuch at least the entire shrub is visible. The initial photograph did not show all of the plant, this image allows the viewer to see the overall plant in respect to its surroundings, giving a better understanding of the plant, but still lacks impact.

ISO 400

18mm

F8.0

1/160sec

 
 
 
 

 

 

The final shot in this set was taken with the lens set to its furthest telephoto setting. This focuses the attention on the flowers of the plant, and eliminates much of the distracting background that surrounds the plant that was seen in the previous two.

Also, zooming into the image has had the effect of throwing much of the background out of focus, again, allowing the primary area of interest, the flowers, to grab the viewers interest.

While this improves the overall effect of the picture, this could have been improved by moving the camera to have less sunlight of the branches behind the flowers to further highlight the flowers.

ISO400

200mm

F7.1

1/250sec

 
While zooming in improves the overall effect of the third picture in the above set of images, this may not always be the same for a different set of images. The set below was taken looking out across the fields at the back of our house.
 

ISO400 18mm f11 1/320sec

This image shows a good view of the fields taken from the garden, with the foreground forming a frame that leads the viewer to the objects seen in the distance.

More light on the foreground may have improved the dark areas that are a bit harsh compared to the background.

ISO400 59mm f13 1/400sec

ISO400 200mm f10 1/500sec

My First Attempt ...

At the Colchester Photographic Society I was persuaded to enter some pictures for a competition, below are the images that I submitted.

I'll let you know how I got on!!!

Eschscholzia californica

(taken in our garden - no edits on the colour, only cropping)

Choir at Kings College Cambridge

(One image had to be monochrome)

Kite Boarding at Frinton on Sea

(We came across two guys Kite Boarding on some grass at Frinton)

Willy Lott's Cottage - Flatford

(Not sure about this - but it was suggested that I entered it)

We will see how we get on when they are judged on Tuesday, I wont be there as I should be in Basle for a couple of days.

Out in the Garden

Yesterday the weather was nice so I wandered around the garden, the result was these two shots.

This is Eschscholzia californcia, or Californian Poppy, and it is the contrast between the yellow and blue that caught my eye. The only changes I have made is to crop the image.

The second, not really a photograph, is of three leaves from one of the trees, some sought of Cherry I believe, that were scanned on my Epson scanner.

I thought it made a good picture?

A couple of things, one good one sad...

Something Good!

I surprised myself a bit earlier this week, recently I joined the Colchester Photography Society, and this week they had a Still Life studio evening. This is an area that I have not looked at before, but with a little encouragement anf some assistance from a couple of people that know about setting up lighting etc., i took the shot below.

I was so impressed when I printed this out at A4, that I am going to have another go over the weekend, I hope to have something to post here sometime over the next few days.

Something Sad.

It was with much shock that I heard of the death of Richard Wright of the band Pink Floyd, I have been a fan of their music for some time, first seeing them in concert at the Empire Pool at Wembley in 1974. The last concert I attended was at Earls Court in 1994.