Depth of field

Maybe you don’t care for the technical terms. A picture is a picture. Leave the rest to the tech heads.

It matters. Layers. Think of it as layers in a picture. Everything is not all in focus here. The basket at the front is blurred. The wheel in the foreground is slightly blurred. The spinning wheel farthest back is focused. The rocking chair is slightly out of focus.

Ok, so you don’t care. It’s a nice layered look. Spinning stuff and the feel of antiqueness. I like the feel. And yes, everything is in use… except the rocker. It needs a new cane seat. I am working on that. I started but have not finished. Yes, I have talent beyond the operating room.

Closer

We get bugs. I get bugs. I get to photograph them – a praying mantis and a bumble bee. Fortuitous? Luck? Chance? The opportunity occurs randomly and not frequently.

I go for the dot in the praying mantis eye.

 “A praying mantis has 5 eyes! You would think two would be enough, but not for a hunter like this. Small eyes in the middle of the head are used for detecting light while the big compound eyes are for seeing movement and having depth vision.”

Ok! You learn something new every day. I do not see more than one dot per eye.

Bumble bee?

“A bumblebee is any of over 250 species in the genus Bombus, part of Apidae, one of the bee families.”

I see one type of bumble bee? More? They sting? Nah! I swat them away from me all the time.

The shot? Get in close. Macro lens. Focus. It seems I cannot quite get in close enough. The macro lens gives me plenty of detail. I’m still working on it. The praying mantis sat on my screen for two days. Oh my?!

The bumble bee was one of several buzzing my passion flowers. It was hard to photograph. The bee was buried under the pistil and partially covered. Focus. I tried and got detail of the pollen covered thorax. Depth of field is so shallow with the macro lens. It was hard to get the bee and flower detail in focus simultaneously.

My present goal was to just get in close and focus on the details.

Low and Wide Angle

Getting low will give you another perspective that is often different. It makes the image stand out among all the others you may have. This means getting the camera to a low angle closer to the ground. The foreground will take a greater dominance. So this won’t work on everything. But wildflowers and rocks near the shore come to mind in images that I have seen. The effect makes the scene have more of a sense of depth. The flip side is that the background ship here is much less important.

Details

Sometimes it’s not necessary to see the whole object. In this case the ship is a common shot. But focusing in on a detail of the structure would bring the viewers attention in a way that is unique. It can be the difference that makes the shot stand out. With digital it’s ok to get a wide view and close up. But I find that the zoomed in shots tend to hold more interest.

Wide Angle

it’s an interesting shot. There are foreground elements and there’s the tall ship in the background. What’s disconcerting is the wide angle distortion. It looks like the tall ship is falling out of the picture toward the back. Somehow in a vertical picture the distortion seems more noticeable. But the shot does stop you for a second look. Here’s an instance where cropping can’t really save you. I like the colors, probably helped by a polarizing filter. I am still a sucker for that brilliant blue cloudless sky. Hey! I tried to get all the elements into the image. Not bad, but it could’ve been better.

Run… Pan

 

No technical info

Jennifer indicates that this is her attempt at panning. It’s a good one. The girl with the yellow hat is in focus while all around her the other elements are blurred. It’s a good way to isolate your subject from a confusing background. To do this one needs to use a slow shutter and move the camera with the direction of the subject’s movement. In this case left to right. If you are accurate, you will come up with something like this. You can also achieve this effect in Photoshop. But it’s more fun in camera.

Hurricane

 

Technical: Nikon D90, 1.200 sec, f4, focal length 18

Well you can at least tell that this is a stormy day. The lighting belies the storm. I didn’t check but presume you used fill flash as usual. This helps the exposure. But it takes away the gloomy mood of an impending storm. It’s another decision you make as to whether to get a good exposure or to play to the mood of the day. With all those colorful clothes this would not have been a shot to convert to black and white.

Stormy

Technical: Nikon D90, 1.200 sec, f4, focal length 18

Hurricane…not so close to the water as it looks! I like the light here…sand…white caps – Susan

Susan, it’s perspective. A photo is a 2D image and depth of field cannot be accurately gauged on a flat image. So yes, the waves looks closer and the effect is nice. There’s not much texture in the sky, but one can’t complain. You have a good shot of the kids. I presume the wind was not to fierce to be a danger.

Gate

‘Blurred edges because of electrical boxes but wanted to keep door ajar in photo’

Technical: Nikon D90, 1/30 sec, f4.2, focal length 18

The electrical box is not a bother Susan. It’s at the edge and not really in view. The upper corner is blurred. It is an example of shallow depth of field. The f-stop is 4.2 and not enough to keep focus on the whole gate. You can use this to your advantage. Here it’s a little distracting. The bricks are interesting. The wreathes are interesting. There’s not too much to tie this image together. I’d have focused on the details of the wreathes. Needs…work.

Love

Technical: Nikon D90, 1/80 sec, f9, focal length 18

FARNSWORTH MUSEUM BRINGS LOVE TO ROCKLAND, ME

Susan emailed that she likes the play of the leaves’ shadows over the sculpture. Another recent news story about ‘love’ in Maine revolves around a one woman brothel run from a dance studio in southern Maine near to former President George Bush’s Maine compound. She shot video (of course) and the latest news is about who’s being ‘outed.’ This image is a lot more innocent. I actually like the vertical crop of this square sculpture. The subject is isolated and distracting background is kept to a minimum. The shadows do indeed add some interest. Good job Susan.