Another depth of field example

The photos I showed on my previous post only had a stop difference of 3 so I thought it might be useful to show something of a wider gap so these two photographs were taken at f2.8 and f22 a 6 stop difference. Hopefully you can tell which was which!

Depth of field

I thought you might be interested in looking at how changing the aperture can affect depth of field. These two photographs were taken using my Olympus Pen micro four thirds camera with a 50mm macro prime lens.

For the first photograph I used the lens wide open at f2 and as you can see the background has hardly any detail at all emphasising the conker case. You might also be able to see that not all of the case is in focus just the area around the right hand spike. This is obviously the downside to using such a large aperture at such close range.

The second photograph was taken at f5.6 three stops smaller and you can see the marked difference on the background and on the conker itself with much more being in acceptable focus. I could have tried an even smaller aperture but the shutter speed was already down to 1/30 and as I was hand holding the camera I would probably have suffered from camera shake but the photos illustrate the difference you can create in a photo just by choosing a different aperture.

If you would like to learn more about this and other aspects of controlling the result in your photos have a look here - http://www.drphotography.biz/workshops/index.html

Workshops for winter

I have now put together some ideas for winter workshops, have a look here http://www.drphotography.biz/workshops/index.html and let me know if you are interested.

I'm more than happy to organise workshops to cover any other aspects of photography that you might want, please ask.

Apologies for lack of posts

Bad boy! I really should have added more posts before now but somehow the time just slips by.

As you may know we are away on our narrowboat and at the time of writing this have just left Chester and are heading for Middlewich.

My photography has not been as prolific as I had hoped mainly due to the weather but I'll try to add some shots of interest.

Firstly a couple of pictures illustrating the use of shutter speeds for both sharp photographs and creative results. You don't need a super expensive DSLR to take these sort of pictures. The first of the train was taken with my Olympus Pen -E1 with the exposure time set to 1/10 of a second and IS 400, letting the camera set the necessary aperture.

The blurred result gives a sensation of speed which would be lacking if I had used a very fast shutter speed to freeze the movement.

The second was taken with my Zorki 35mm film camera. This has no automatic controls and needs to be focused manually. If you have a digital camera which is a bit slow for getting the focus to lock on a moving subject then you could approach this sort of subject in the same way. You need to prefocus on the spot where you will be taking the picture (In this instance I watched a few laps first to decide where I was going to shoot the bike and rider) and then when the camera has focused change the setting to manual focus so that it will not alter when you depress the shutter button. Then to get the sense of speed, pan the camera with the subject. That is follow the subject in the camera viewfinder or screen and press the shutter release where you had decided to shoot and you should have this sort of result! Remember to follow through with the camera though. Don't suddenly stop as you release the shutter. The shutter speed was 1/1000

I'll post again shortly but if you would like to see a few more photos from our current trip our blog is at thehodmadod@blogspot.co.uk

On our travels

We have started off on our narrowboat for, hopefully, the summer and I hope to be able to add a selection of photographs as we go. Here are a few from the first week.

Lock gates at Watford staircase locks, taken from the stern of the narrowboat whilst the lock was filling

I thought this made an interesting composition from beside the towpath

Pumping station at Snaresbrook. Built in the late 19th C to pump fresh water to the village, built next to the canal and using and old mine shaft.

Bridge 40 Grand Union canal Leicester arm

This one sneaked in, its actually trees at the back of Bungay Golf course!

Apart from the last which was taken with my Zorki 35mm camera the other photographs were all taken with my Olympus Pen-E1. I have come equipped with 4 cameras The Pen, my Zorki 35mm film camera, my Bronica medium format film camera and a very old bellows folding camera which belonged to my father in law and which probably dates from the early 1930's. I've also brought my developing kit with me so hope to be able to develop the b & w films from the 3 film cameras and scan them in - brought that too! - watch this space! At least it will be something to do on days like today when the rain has been incessant. If you would like more photos and details of our trip have a look at http://thehodmadod.blogspot.co.uk/

More from my Zorki

I've just developed the second black and white film from my Zorki 35mm camera and am really finding it very satisfying to see the results appear as if by magic after development. I've now got the scanner functioning and have to say that the results for a flatbed scanner are pretty good. Once we get back next time from the boat I plan to send a few negatives for printing the old fashioned way to see what difference there is compared to an inkjet.

I was so pleased with the results that I have splashed out on a quite expensive lens for the Zorki, a 28mm wide angle lens, well, it is my birthday in a couple of days time....

 I did find that only having a 50mm focal length was a little restrictive so thought I'd try a wide angle lens. As the camera is a rangefinder you do not view the scene through the lens so having a different focal length also meant getting another viewfinder for the camera. This fits in the shoe on the top of the camera and you can swivel the turret round to get different focal lengths. I tried the lens on my digital pen this morning and the image looks really clean and crisp although as everything is manual the focusing on the Pen is tricky as one only has the rear screen to use and theres no way of enlarging the image as there is on the dedicated lenses.

Anyway here's a couple of photos from my latest roll of film.

The first from our last trip on the boat at bridge 40 Leicester Arm of the Grand Union Canal:

Trying still life again with the torches, a little trickier with the Zorki as there's no preview!

Some trees on Bungay Marshes at the back of the golf course:

Famous images

In an odd few minutes I've been surfing the net to look at some icon images of past photographs and thought that as a project it would be good fun and a great exercise to try to copy/emulate a few of them.

My first is an image by Andres Kertesz (1894 - 1985) There's plenty of examples of his work scattered around the web.

The Fork, or La Fourchette, was taken in 1928 and is one of Kertész's most famous works from this period.

So here it is and my interpretation.

It was interesting to recreate what is seemingly a simple composition but when you come to it it take more care and thought than might be imagined.

I'll let you decided who's is who's!