Photography Course - Week 2 - Aperture

Having read this weeks e-mail that Cheryl has sent out, I realise that I actually covered this part in last weeks lesson of histogram. I also found out that, according to my manual, most Professional Photographers use their camera in semi automatic mode on setting "AV", and I used mine in totally "Manual" mode last week, so hopefully it should be easier from now onwards. Talk about making it hard for your self.

Anyway, this week... aperture. I have taken several pictures very similar in context, but with different settings, and you can tell the different "depth of field" by the amount the background is blurred.

Malachi With His Eyes Shut

This photograph was taken with settings ISO 400, exposure 1/2000 and the F-Stop was F-5.6. Look at the background behind Malachi, and you will see it is really blurry, and that the camera has focused mainly on Malachi.

Malachi Laughing

This photograph was taken using settings ISO 400, Exposure 1/400 and F-Stop F-14.

Although the background is still blurry, it is not quite as out of focus as the previous picture, this is because of the different F-Stops. More of the subject is in focus.

Malachi Poking His Tongue Out

This photo was taken using only slightly different settings, and very similar to the one above it.

Settings are ISO 400, Exposure 1/320 and F-Stop is F-14.

Malachi With His Tongue Out

I really like this picture, the major problem I had on Sunday whilst taking these photographs was the sun reflecting off the water, but I think this photograph has come out really well, and the sky looks really blue. The settings for this photograph are ISO 400, Exposure 1/1600 and the F-Stop was F-9.

Waves Crashing on the Shore

The wind was pretty strong, and the sea was quite rough, and some really big waves were crashing on the shore. This photograph was taken using settings ISO 400, exposure 1/400 and the F-Stop is F-16.

Windsurfer



This photograph is not as clear as I would have liked, but unfortunately the sea spray is to blame again. I thought this photograph showed a good balance of sea, sky and shore. The settings for this one were ISO 400, exposure 1/4000 and F-Stop F-5.6


Elijah on the Shoreline

This is of my little boy, he thought he looked like Harry Potter with his towel blowing in the wind. The settings of this photograph are ISO 400, exposure 1/80 and F-Stop F-36.

Jared Digging

This was a lovely clear photograph showing every droplet of the wave, but also very clear of Jared digging in the sand. The settings for this photograph are ISO 400, exposure 1/400 and F-Stop is F-16. The higher the F-stop the more clear the background is as the camera focuses on more of the picture as the "aperture" is larger.

The Children and The Boats

Again another picture blurred by the sea spray, but I think this photograph captured the roughness of the sea, and the movement of Jared. The settings for this photograph were, ISO 400, exposure 1/1600 and the F-Stop was F-8. The higher F-Stop meant that the boats were more out of focus than the children who were the main subject.

Children Swimming in The Sea

Okay, well this was a trial photograph, I wanted the children to be the main subject, not Elijah with the spade, I dont think this worked very well though as it just looks like he is out of focus (which he is, but deliberately so), although the children and the boats are very clear. A photograph which looks too light to me also, probably due to too much sun reflecting off the water, just out of shot on the right. The settings for this photograph were ISO 400, exposure 1/1000 and F-stop F-8. So although the same F-Stop as the last picture, the focus was made further back from the subject in front this time, so appears more clearer than if the focus had been on Elijah with his spade.

Children and Canooist.

The focus of this photograph was the canooist, as his boat was a lovely bright orange colour so thought I would use him as the focus. The settings for this photograph was ISO 400, exposure 1/4000 and F-stop was F-5.6.

I enjoyed this weeks work and I do find the "depth of field" very interesting.

My Photographs

I hate posed photographs, as the amount of children I have there is always someone looking in the other direction. I am happy to sit on the outside of the children playing and snap away, no-one could understand why I took so many photos of my feet on Sunday, but I was playing with the different looks and settings, something I wouldn't have done without this course. It seems so much easier to just snap away on automatic, but I guess the more you practice on manual the quicker you become at the settings or you learn which settings are best in which situation, and I must admit, the pictures are clearer and you can focus on what YOU want rather on the part the camera wants to focus on!!!

My Photographs for Week 1

Okay well here goes, these are the photograph I took at the beach on Sunday. I have decided on the theme of "The Beach" for my diary/blog. These histograms all came out well, so here are the photographs. They are all taken on ISO 400.


The Blue Bucket



This photo was taken on ISO 400, Exposure was 1/1600 and the F-Stop was F-7.1.



The Boats

This photograph was taken on IAO 400, Exposure 1/1600 and F-Stop was F-18.

Dirty Back

This photograph was taken on ISO 400, Exposure 1/200 and F-Stop was F-16.

The Crab

This photograph was taken at ISO 400, Exposure 1/500 and the F-Stop was F-9.

The Hole

This photograph was taken on ISO 400, Exposure 1/500 and the F-Stop was F-6.3.

The Boats and My Family

This photograph was taken on ISO 400, Exposure 1/1600 and the F-Stop was F-18.



My Feet

This photograph was taken on ISO 400, Exposure 1/320 and the F-Stop was F-10.

The Red Boat

This photograph was taken on ISO 400, Exposure 1/250 and the F-Stop was F-13.

The Rock

This photograph was taken at ISO 400, Exposure 1/100 and the F-Stop was F-22.

The Shell

This photograph was taken at ISO 400, Exposure 1/2000 and the F-Stop was F-5.6.

The White Shell

This photograph was taken at ISO 400, Exposure 1/250, and the F-Stop was F-13.

I used lots of different settings as I was looking to find out the difference it made to the backgrounds etc.

Here Goes...

Okay well here goes, never had a blog before, but need one for this Photography Course, and of course once this is finished I may be so hooked on it that I will have to make one for my crafting too.