Depth of Field – Aperture – F stops

Yep.  It’s all sorta the same thing.  But most books and photographers talk about it in a way that confuses me.  A wide open aperture is also a large aperture.  A large aperture has a low F stop number.  Then authors will go on to discuss "large" or "small" apertures and "large" or "small" F stops and they speak in a manner that makes the reader wonder if the concept they have just learned is confused in her head somehow.  I’ve been spending a lot of time trying to make a connection in my brain that makes sense to me.  Today, I got it.

A higher F stop number = a larger depth of field

A lower F stop number = a smaller depth of field

Seems simple enough when said like that, doesn’t it?!  Why couldn’t someone have just said that?  It would have made my life a lot easier.  I guess we’re all different and learn in different ways.  Who knows, perhaps my little equation won’t work for anyone else.

But better than the words, I have an example for you.

This was shot at F20.  According to our equation, a higher F number equals a larger depth of field.  In the picture above, notice how the table pattern is discernible to your eye.  Also, the trees beyond the subject being photographed are mostly crisp and clear.

This second picture was shot at F5.  According to our equation, a lower F stop equals a smaller depth of field.  Notice how the pattern on the table is much less discernible and the trees behind the subject are less clear?  Only the subject is in focus.

Okay, now I’m going to rotate the pictures to a vertical position and put them right next to each other so you can compare them a lot easier. Left – F20.  Right – F5.

You can take the creative control on your shot by setting your camera to Aperture Priority.  On my camera, that is AV mode.  Another method of doing essentially the same thing (I’m told) is to set your camera to landscape (usually a mountain scene on your dial) for a larger depth of field or setting it to portrait mode (usually a profile of a face on your dial) for a smaller depth of field.   The difference is that the camera will pick exactly which aperture will be used for the shot so you will likely get the shot you want but you might not get it to the exact degree that you had hoped.

Hopefully someone will find this useful.  If not, they say the best way to learn something yourself is to learn it and then re-teach it.  So, if nothing else, I’ve cemented this concept in my brain a little better.  Thanks for reading.

 

Reflecting the light

In the book I reviewed yesterday and the book I’ve just picked up, there is discussion about using reflectors to bounce the natural light back into the face of your subject.  I’ve seen this lesson in several books but today I decided it was time to try it myself.  I was sitting in my family room with some unattractive but bright later afternoon sun streaming in a window.  I remembered a sun shade for a car windshield that was in my basement collecting dust.  Seems like a good combination to try an experiment.

Here is the shade – just to prove it was nothing professional.  Also, you can get a feel for what the light looked like.

First I put my daughter on the couch to see what kind of picture I’d get with nothing extra going on.  (Please excuse the Kool-Aid mustache.  She was a willing human subject that was capable of sitting still to pose in an effort to please her mother.  She gets brownie points from me.)

You can see that the brightness of the sun was not cast evenly over her – obvious by the white blown out portion on her right arm there.  Also, there was not much of a catch light in her eyes.  Just not a super photo.  Then I held the reflector off to the side at various angles until I saw her face light up in an even fashion that I thought looked nice.  Here is what we got.

Much better, eh?  FYI, my sweet girl is covering her ears because her baby brother is screaming bloody murder behind me.  But my sweetheart continued to sit for me!  Isn’t she a doll?

If I’d been trying to get a real portrait of her in these conditions, I now know I can do it!  Previously, I always waited for days when the light was coming in the window in a more soft and even manner that would be flattering for my kids.  Now I have the tools to do it more often!  And I didn’t even have to spend a dime.  If you don’t have a silver sunshade sitting around, the book says to buy a piece of inexpensive white foam core and use that.      

This Eclectic Life

I’m not sure how I found her, but I’m so glad I did.  I’d like to introduce you to my friend Shelly.  She runs This Eclectic Life.  I think you need to know her too.  She writes about anything and everything that crosses her mind or her path.  She will write about everything from blogging ideals to a local vintage store.  When I finish reading her posts I usually either want to shout out, "Amen, Sister" or pack my bags and head to Texas to visit the store.  Sometimes her discussions of bacon make me want to hop a plane to join her for breakfast.  She is wise.  She tells it like she sees it in a no-bull type of manner that also manages to be kind.  I don’t know how she does that, but I’d like to emulate her.  She is a storyteller by trade and she translates that into good writing.  She is fun to read and I visit her everyday.  She is smart and sassy and I bet if you visit her once you’ll keep going back too.   

It was a good idea!

Has anyone read back far enough to recall that in the very beginning I sent a proposal to a magazine?  I have just had it confirmed that they have hired someone to do the very thing I was proposing to do for them.  Given the timing of the situation, I doubt that they took my idea and hired someone else.  I’m sure the deal with this other photographer was in the works before they got my proposal.  However, at least I know they thought it was a good idea.  I’m crossing my fingers that I can learn something from this new source.

I’ve been quiet the last few days because I’ve taken my own advice and started refocusing my efforts toward studying as much about photography as I can.  Coupling that with the fact that it’s warm here and my children require supervision when playing outside, I haven’t had much time to blog.  Still, my efforts will be rewarded, hopefully.  I picked up a book called Designing with Photos by Allison Tyler Jones and Donna Smylie.  In all fairness to the authors, the target audience of this book is scrapbookers who seek to take better pictures.  Given the target audience, I think it was a good book to help someone who knows nothing learn a little something toward taking better shots.  It was a little too basic for my purpose but I did find it to be a beneficial read.  It certainly made me feel better about exactly how far I’ve come and it reinforced some things I thought. 

A couple things the book said that I enjoyed.  First -

The first thing that comes to mind after gazing at a masterpiece painting is probably not, "I bet Van Gogh used really good brushes."  Why then, when you take a really nice photo, do people say, "You must have a really good camera?"  A camera and all its accessories are just tools.  Granted some are nicer than other…  but in the end, these tools do only what we make them do.  The vision is within the photographer alone.

I just had someone say something similar to me this past weekend.  Truth be told, I was offended that she didn’t see that the picture in question was more than just the output of a good camera.  The second thing I liked was their discussion of proofs.

A photographer works with proofs, taking lots of shots per subject and then using the resulting prints (or proofs) to determine which shots are best.

They go on to suggest taking your digital images to a one hour photo lab or a warehouse lab to have them printed on real photographic paper.  They also discuss the cropping "Ls" to create or buy in order to get a better visual on where to crop your prints.  This was a new thought for me and I think I might try it the next time I do a photo shoot.  There is just something about holding the prints in your hands to get a better feel for the final product.   

The third lesson was actually an answer to a question I’ve posted here previously.

We used three rolls of film during this photo shoot.  Out of all those pictures, we really only expect to get one that captures the moment magically.  Most professional photographers average one to three usable shots per roll of 36 exposures.  Doesn’t that make you feel good?

My answer is YES!  The pressure is relieved now.  Not every shoot will produce something portfolio worthy.  Whew!  What a happy moment it was for me to read that!  Then they go on to quote Ansel Adams who said,

Twelve significant photographs in any one year is a good crop.

I liked some of the assignments and I thought some of the pictures were really super.  I particularly enjoyed seeing one photograph before it was cropped and how much better it was after they cropped.  Obviously, I’m familiar with cropping a photograph but with this particular picture the after crop made it a superb picture when the before was just good.  I’m not sure I would have seen the potential in the before shot had they not shown it to me.  I think learning to see the potential of a photograph was the lesson I got out of this book that will be the most value to me.

Photo Hunters – Childhood

Sorry to those who will see this as a repeat.  I thought and thought and this was the best representation of childhood that I came up with this week.

Tractor

I’m working on my house (for a change) today so I’m just going to post a quick favorite pic from this past fall.  We went to the pumpkin patch nearby and they had this fantastic old tractor out for the kids to sit on.  I love the colors and the texture that it adds to the picture.

And one more – just because I found it while getting those first two up.  It’s my one and a half year old saying "bye" to one of the farm workers who drove by us on that road while we were shooting tractor shots.  He had just learned to say "bye" and wave like that at the time of these photos.

All of these are ROOC except the last one which was only cropped.  I really need to start learning to edit with a software program.  Have a good day! 

Defining why I need to know more

A truly great photograph is a combination of skill, vision, and intention. Sometimes it even involves a little bit of luck. But if you have to rely on luck to get great photographs, you’ve yet to master the craft.

-Wendy Schulz

I’m a Genius!

So, I was playing around on Stumble today and an article called Thinking like a Genius came up.  It turns out, I’m a genius!  Strategy number three of thinking like a genius says

Produce! A distinguishing characteristic of genius is productivity.  Thomas Edison held 1,093 patents.  He guaranteed productivity by giving himself and his assistants idea quotas.  In a study of 2,036 scientists throughout history, Dean Keith Simonton of the University of California at Davis found that the most respected scientists produced not only great works, but also many "bad" ones.  They weren’t afraid to fail, or to produce mediocre in order to arrive at excellence.

Well, that strategy has been working well for me.  I’ve been practicing and occasionally getting something good.  I have a whole lot of mediocre pictures and some bad ones that I can just delete.  Maybe I shouldn’t be so hard on myself for not getting more great shots?  Is this a well kept secret that many successful professional photographers have?  Take a bunch and you’ll get a few? 

I think I’ll continue learning to take a technically good photograph, thereby lowering my number of mediocre shots and minimizing my bad ones.  Today I took 180 shots.  Upon reviewing them, I immediately eliminated about 40 of them.  About 40 more will be eliminated upon closer inspection.  Some of them were taken purely to capture the moment as a snapshot of my children in the moment – so those are okay.  I’ll keep them for what they are.  About 15 shots were made on a contrived practice set.  I spied a spider web outside my back door and I misted it with water attempting to capture a water-glistening-in-the-sun-on-a-spiderweb photo.  Didn’t turn out at all like what I was going for, but I’ll at least study them before I delete them.  About 50 more frames were shot trying to capture "snow" as my children call it… little bud leaves being blown down to earth from the huge trees above in our yard.  I don’t think you can see the "snow" in any of them. 

Will any of what remains turn out to be art?  Perhaps one or two.  But the genius in me says it’s okay if none do.  Tomorrow is another day to achieve excellence!  Just pick up the camera.

So there is a cropped portion of one of my spiderweb photos converted to black and white.  Does it speak to you?  Yeah…  me neither.   

Wordless Wednesday – Children’s Gifts of Affection

Distracted

Well, I allowed myself to be driven to distraction.  Jim Collins said "Good is the Enemy of Great" in his book Good to Great.  This was in the back of my head as I noticed myself losing focus but Chris Humphrey’s post helped me to remember why I’m here.  I started this blog as a way to journal about what I’m learning in my journey towards being a great photographer.  I did it for me – not anyone else.  Somewhere along the line, I got distracted.  I started to care what my stats looked like.  I felt I need to learn more about blogging to make this site look nicer.  To make people want to come share my blog with me. 

I would still like to have company as I move toward better photographs but I need to remember that my goal is the better photographs, not the best blog.  I need to focus on what I really want the most.  So, with that, I’m back to the study of photography.

Today I stepped away from the computer and put down the library book about blogging.  An amazing thing happened, I saw an opportunity to pick up my camera and practice!  I saw this little woodpecker in my neighbor’s dead tree.

And then something amazing happened… he was joined by a friend!

Had I not been available for the thing I really want – practice – I would have missed it all.