Exercise 2

Project - Getting to know your camera

Exercise - Focus with a set aperture

In this exercise I had to find a scene with depth, set to widest aperture (f1.8 in this instance), so that there is a shallow depth of field (small focus area), and then focus on 3 different points within the scene - middle (figure 1), back (figure 2) and front (figure 3). I've shot this bookshelf before to play with depth of field - it's in a place in the house which gets really nice light, especially on overcast days such as this was.

figure 1

Figure 1 lacks any real character or impact. The image looks flat and the depth is effectively squashed out of the picture. The focus looks largely unintentional and arbitrary. The fact that the book cover in focus isn't particularly interesting doesn't help give the image impact.

figure 2

In Figure 2 the eyes is instantly drawn to the back (left), of the picture. The book cover which the eye is drawn to make this feel purposeful. There is much greater depth and interest in this shot.

figure 3

For me, figure 3 has the greatest depth. The focus area has no particular subject interest, but perhaps because it is at the front of the image and slightly lighter than the left of the frame it's the most balanced of the shots.

I felt that a combination of the focus area of figure 3, with the subject matter of figure 2 would be a good combination. The following 3 images show where I attempted to get a shot by putting the book cover with the face on it at the front of the scene. I played with the subject by exposing more and less of it and also changing the book in front of it in order to provide contract and stop the word "FILTH" from distracting the eye.

figure 4

figure 5

figure 6

figure 7

Figure 7 is my preferred of these shots. However, it still feel flat in comparison to figure 2. I think this is partly because I've closed into the subject and so all the books look largely the same size, but also because in figure 2 the eyes of the subject are looking into the frame and this aids to draw the viewers eye along the row of books.

Observations & Learnings

It's interesting how the focus point draws the eye through the scene, but subject matter, colour, contrast and light also play a crucial part in the dynamism of the shot.