Exercise - Focal lengths

In this exercise I have taken 4 photo's using for different focal lengths on my zoom lens in order to appreciate the amount of view that can be taken in at each setting.

Photo 1

 focal length 78mm

2

focal length 95mm

  

3

focal length 195mm

4

 focal length 300mm

Photo 1. This was taken fairly casually and gives plenty of view of the boat in it's setting. I would probably crop some of the edges slightly to remove superfluous detail to make this scene work slightly better.

Photo 2. I decided to take the other 3 pictures landscape as I thought the portrait orientation of the first pic wouldn't work as I got in close. Photo 2  I feel is boring because the subject is in the dead centre spot ( Freeman, 2007) and there is a lot of river foreground which too isn't particularly interesting.

Photo 3. I think this photo works really well with the dynamic tension introduced in the background with the diagonal rock strata meeting the river edge and the dynamic flow in the river. I think that if I'd taken the photo from a slightly lower position then the top of the boat would have been above the line of the edge of the river and broken that line. This I feel would have been more aesthetically pleasing. The red buoy adds some nice colour contrast and of a similar colour tone to the lifebelt balances the detail in the pic.

Photo 4. With the boat filling most of the frame but at a slight angle which means it doesn't appear static and flat. There is again a little tension from the diagonals of the rock strata which works well. I feel that again a slightly lower position as in Photo 3 would have just given that little improvement.

Ref;  Freeman, M. (2007) The Photographer's Eye A single point UK ILEX

Exercise Fitting the frame to the subject

In this exercise I am to experiment with the subject occupying different areas of the frame. I opted for a nice little boat anchored in the River Wye at Tintern, one of my favourite local beauty spots for photo shoots.

Photo 1

This is a general quick shot taken without too much thought, it pictures the boat nicely but the background of the river is not particularly interesting

 



 Photo 2

I decided to tilt the camera to get the whole boat in (including the buoy) as big as possible to almost fill the entire frame. I feel this shot works quite well and the non-level shot doesn't really detract and in fact adds to the geometry of the boat in a positive way.

 

 Photo 3

This close in takes most of the subject to the edge of the frame which is great for detail and by keeping some of the edges (which wasn't in the brief) retains the fact that it is a boat. I couldn't zoom in any further due to the limits of focal length on my zoom lens anyway as it was impossible to walk on the water! The technical answer would have been a more powerful zoom but the photo is effective anyway

 

 Photo 4

This was taken with the subject occupying approx a 6th of the frame to see the boat in it's rather beautiful surroundings. I have done two versions of this picture in Portrait and Landscape as they both work effectively. I particularly like the boats shadow on the water and the bridge in the distance on 4a and I like the dynamic flow in 4b due to the curve in the river. Critically I feel like both of these shots have worked but it would have been nice to have taken them with more atmospheric lighting either early morning or late evening as the overhead sunlight makes the photo's a little flat.

 

 Photo 4b

Summer's over

Well the summer hols are now over and it's work again tomorrow. I am well behind with this blog and now need to FOCUS. Tonight I am getting really organised downloading all my photo's and catching up with where I am and what needs to be done.
I have restarted my paper-scribble-log as I can put some more personal and less thought out enteries and scribbles there.

I have decided to include in this little post my favourite photo from the summer:
This was taken at the Annual Fete in Oradour-Sur-Vayres in the Limousin area of France.
The things I like about this spontaniously taken shot are;

1) The forward marching movement of the drummers is accentuated by the arrow shaped lighter tones of the jackets (formed due to the perspective of the distancing line of drummers) giving movement from left to right.
2)The depth of field highlights one particular character instantly and then you look around the other faces. It also adds to the blurring of the nearest drumstick which keeps the lively action in the photograph.
3 I not only like the overall colours in the picture but also the smart uniforms and drums gives an overall pleasing tonal result.

My own criticism of this shot is that it may work better by having the very top cropped as the roof isn't parrallel with the frame which is displeasing to my eyes. This could be easily corrected but I have decided to show the full frame 'warts and all'

On holiday in France and taking lots of photo's towards my 'contrasts assignment'. I have been enjoying the deeply warm light and long shadows at sunset and some colourful french fetes too.
I have also been catching up on my reading and have just finished 'The photographer's eye' Michael Freeman from cover to cover. This has already had an impact (on me!) when I am framing/pointing my camera. I keep looking for movement and flow, tension and dynamics, triangles and completed circles (Gestalt Perception), within my shots. I will judge the results when I get home again and start downloading all my work. Anyway....back to my Cafe au lait!

Exercise Panning with different shutter speeds

For this exercise I employed the help of 2 of my sons; Jack 10 and Chris 8. I had them running around in circles and playing on the Zip wire at a park in Cornwall.

I handheld the camera and used varying shutter speeds to get some movement/blurring in the shots and it's proven to be a great technique for giving the impression of speed and action.

1/100sec f/8

1/60sec f8

At 1/100 and 1/60 sec the subject remains fairly sharp with a slight blurring of the background

1/50sec f/11

1/40sec f/13

1/40sec f/13

At shutter speeds of 1/40 there is a slight blurring of the subject as well as the background which adds to the sense of movement. It can be seen quickly how movement in different directions is displayed by the camera

1/40sec f/13

1/20sec f/18

At shutter speeds of 1/10 sec and 1/20 sec there is considerable blurring of the subject and background and this gives a great sense of movement in the photo. The background can become highly distorted and smoothed and this helps focus the eyes in on the subject.

1/30sec f/16

1/10sec f24
This is a good study of the different directions of movement when someone is running.

1/30sec f/16

1/20sec f/18

I find that these photo's taken with fairly slow shutter speeds are very effective in creating an atmosphere of action and an impression of great speed.

1/20sec f/20

This last picture is my favourite and gives my son an elfish speedy look and reminds me of Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon as well.

Exercise Shutter speeds

In this exercise on shutter speeds I found a small but fast flowing waterfall to photograph. The camera was positioned on a tripod. I used my telephoto lens set to a focal length of 105mm(35mm equiv)
or 70mm on my Nikon D80. I set the camera on shutter speed priority to let the camera adjust the aperture. I found that on the very slow shutter speeds there was 'whiteout' on the highlights as the aperture was on it's minimum already and even with a tripod there was sensitivity to camera movement. I am going to purchase a remote to avoid touching the camera in these situations. On the fastest shutter speeds there wasn't enough light so I have brightened up the images using the options in the software (I'm just checking them with the windows media program)

 1/4000sec

 At high shutter speed the water looks frozen and gives a glassy hard image.

 1/1000sec

  1/500sec

 1/160sec

 At shutter speeds of 1/50 to 1/160 sec the image looks natural as the human eye would see it.

 1/80 sec

1/50 sec

 1/25sec

 As the shutter speeds get slower the water takes on a smoothed continuous look

 1/10 sec

  1/2 sec

I prefer the smoother images which to me have a less glassy jagged look and feel a more artistic impression of flow almost like a watercolour painting with a really 'wet brush'.

For the last 3 weeks I have been completing the exercises which I will be uploading to my blog over the next few days, I have been reading and mulling over the assignment 1 brief and started collecting photos for 'Contrasts'. My eagerly awaited order of the books on the reading list has arrived finally and so far I've looked at 'The photographer's eye' by Michael Freeman and 'Light Science and magic' by Hunter Biver Fuqua. All the books look fascinating and will be my summer holiday reading. I am so sick of the rain as it's held me up on getting out with my camera and it always seems to be when I have my free time! Good old blighty.