Our second lesson in our photography class was learning about depth of field and how you increase it by increasing the Fstop at the decreases the aperture which reduces the light hitting the sensor which means you have to increase the iso setting of the camera which makes for more graininess in the photo. It’s all connected in photography, there is no free lunch!!
Anyway I had all week to do the homework assignment which consisted of setting up objects in a line and then decreasing the Fstop from f22 down to f5.6 to illustrate how the depth of field works. The teacher said that a shallow depth of field works well with portraits, especially those outside, where one wants to “fog” the background to focus on the subject.
So anyway, I waited to do my homework until Sunday when we had a cold front hitting Oklahoma. I decided to use chess pieces for my objects but that did not work well as the wind kept knocking them over. So as we say in the oil and gas industry I decided to plug back and perforate, in other words proceed to plan b.
I moved the table up closer to the house to protect it from the wind and used a chess board and pieces from my late father-in-law that were a lot heavier. So the above is at f22 and I am focusing on the 3rd pawn from this end. So I shot the same scene at f16, f11, f8, and f5.6, the lowest fstop that my camera with the lens I was using.
So I am still focused on the third pawn and you can see that the rook closest to us might be a might bit fuzzier (we use “might bit” in Oklahoma without irony) and the pieces on the far end are quite a bit fuzzier. I am sparing you the intermediate photos.
So anyway, next class is Monday night and we will be talking about freezing action with shutter speeds.
I’m still just a lowly picture taker but I’m enjoying myself.
You’re doing great! That second image where something in the foreground and background are out of focus is very well done.
Take a look at a Tamron 24-70mm f2.8 lens. It will become your new favorite walking around lens. You can actually rent one at Bedford’s. They have a store in the Woodland Hills area of Tulsa. Take one for a spin on your next assignment. Keep up the good work.
Sounds really interesting, I know I do need to at some point research my camera’s settings more to find out what it actually does.
There is so much for me to learn! Have a great week!
a very useful tool 🙂
Love that beautiful chess board.
Being a photographer takes a lot of work. There are days when I think I’d like to go back to figuring f-stops, speeds, and such, but all in all for now, I’m happy with point and click, then edit in Photoshop. That’s a handsome chess set. Ferocious cats as knights, interesting.
You’re making me want to go take another photography class!
This makes me think of my late father, a retired printer who took up photography and revelled in learning all about it. He wrote two books, complete with beautiful black and white photos, about the rivers of British Columbia, our home province. I realized, last year, that his work should be preserved for younger generations of my family, so I set about buying up Volume 1 on Amazon. I have two of them left, for my brother’s grandchildren, and Volume 2 is still in print, for me to buy.
I’m so glad to know that, in this digital age, there are photographers preserving the old ways with F-stops, depth of field, etc. I was beginning to be afraid it had become a lost art. Bravo! Keep up the good work.
Kay
An Unfittie’s Guide to Adventurous Travel
Great idea all the way around. I too am learning from your photography class. Thanks.
Nice shots! You can really see the difference.
Well learned and photographed! Great subject matter ~
Happy Week to you,
A ShutterBug Explores,
aka (A Creative Harbor)
Good work! Must be tricky. A good wind could blow them all down! (We’ve had our fair share of that, lately!)