Sunday, October 14, 2007

Aperture and Depth of Field

Teaser Trailer:
Coming tomorrow (assuming the weather cooperates for the photos): The end of the Morrigan Saga. Yes, she's finished.

Featured Presentation:
This week's lesson: Use aperture to change the depth of field on photos.

Assignment 1: Use a large aperture to isolate a subject by making the background blurry. I'm thinking about trying some Scout photos, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. I did head to the garden center to try some flower photos. The one shown below is my favorite, though it may not be the best of the bunch. The rest can be seen on my Flickr page.

HangingPinkFlowers.JPG


Assignment 2: Use a small aperture to show a large (deep? long?) depth of field. The class instructor said to have something "interesting" in the foreground but also have things in focus in the background. I thought the alligator below would make a good photo, but was a bit disappointed when I went for the photo shoot.

Alligator.JPG


I couldn't really get a good angle on the alligator. I couldn't move to the left because there was a large utility box there. If I went to the other side of the utility box, the background became less interesting and the huge Starbucks logo became visible.

If the weather cooperates tomorrow, I'll head out to a sculpture garden. I should have gone there in the first place, but I remembered that it existed only today. And it's raining today.

2 comments:

Elizabeth said...

I think the alligator one would work if you could get the business to take down their distracting red/brown signboard that's hovering right over his nose.

I find I get my best shots with narrow depth of field when I use my zoom lens and stand back from my subjects. My shorter lens always seems to leave too much in focus, no matter how I set the aperture.

Anonymous said...

Just wanted to say that, although I may not always comment on your photography posts, I enjoy them very much. There is always something to think about or something to learn. Thanks for sharing your experience.