Focal lengths and different viewpoints

This exercise examines the effect the focal length of the lens has on the photograph taken with it. To do this I have photographed the same subject with my widest and longest lenses. This exercise is slightly out of sequence as I managed to grab these shots earlier in the week!

As our subject we have the market cross of Chichester on a busy weekend. For the long shot I have my 24 -105mm set to 105mm. I am far enough away to fill the frame although I admit to cropping a little on the sides as the subject ratio was slightly different to the camera sensor ratio.

What do we see when we examine this image? We all know that a longer lens compresses the picture. This is evident here in two prominent cases, the tower behind the cross and the people in front. You will have to take my word for it that the tower is actually some way away from the cross but you see the people in front for yourself. Look carefully at the picture and you will notice the people getting smaller as they get further away from the camera. Still the distance between the cross and the nearest person to the camera looks very close. Also take note of the verticals in this picture. All very tidy and straight up.

Now lets take a look at the second shot. This has been taken with a 17 -40 lens set to 17mm. This is the widest I can go with my lens collection. If you examine this picture closely there is a huge difference to the  previous one. The tower is nowhere to be seen and a steeple has crept in from somewhere. The verticals are no longer going straight up but are converging towards the top of the structure.

The whole thing has taken on a much 'heavier' feel than in the previous image, which conveys it's mediaeval delicate design much better.

Note also that we have nearly everything in focus on the latter shot whereas the first only has the cross itself sharp.

To summarise: changing the lens has affected technical issues such as depth of field and accuracy of portrayal of the verticals and dimensions of the subject. There has been a very noticeable difference to the depth of the image between the two lenses. Finally there has been a more 'artistic' difference to feel of the images where in this particular situation the wide shot seems to have increased the mass of the structure.

Looking through the viewfinder: A sequence of composition

This exercise is about composition and in particular, composing the shot in in the viewfinder. I looked for a suitable subject in my growing list of locations and picked this sculpture in the middle of the town where I live.

Here we see the subject in the distance. It is the tall sculpture in front of the white building. I take the first shot. The camera is fitted with a 24 -105mm zoom lens. As can be seen in the pictures, the conditions are making it quite difficult. We have a very bright day with very strong shadows.

I have moved a little closer. Still not really a good image.There are many distractions around the subject. It's going to be difficult to get a good shot!

From the same position I turn the camera to portrait mode to see what this looks like. Not bad but the picture is still very cluttered and the sculpture doesn't stand out as the main subject of this image.

I need to try something different so cross the road. How does it look from here. Not perfect but the sculpture is becoming larger in the frame and it appears more obvious this is the subject.

I zoom in a little to see what that does. No, still not what I am after. Then a little break. I have almost literally walked into two members of the nearby Chichester camera club. Bear in mind I am doing this exercise with the camera up to my eye almost constantly!

We exchange pleasantries and I am on my way again. I cross back over the road. We are now a lot closer to the subject and I am starting to wonder if it is possible to get a good picture of it.

I am back in landscape framing so try portrait again from the same place.

I get closer still to the subject and start moving around it. Now I am starting to see some possibilities. Portrait mode works as it is a tall object. I am also starting to get some separation from the background. I try another zoom in  to see what happens.

With the camera still to my eye I move around some more, keeping the object in the viewfinder. I zoom back out but this is losing what I had a moment ago. Time to get in closer still.

Somebody stops with their dog at the base of the sculpture. Could this be a grab shot? No, they have their face covered and turn and walk of in an un-interesting manner! Onwards!

I am now almost in front of the sculpture. Maybe I will get something different here. Another zoom to see what this does. I am starting to get the main street in the right of the shot. I will try to incorporate this into the frame.

Hmm. interesting - lots to look at but I don't think it helps the shot. Glimpsing the gold of the sculpture against the blue of the sky is exciting though. In fact all the colours work well against the sky. I want to do more with these combinations of colours.

I move around again to try and separate the sculpture from the surrounding buildings and some phone or power cables that also run overhead. Finally I find the frame I have been looking for.

Standing almost at the base of the sculpture looking up, I have my shot! It is fairly abstract but then so is the art work. I take several shots from slightly different angles and using both landscape and portrait mode.




Although this has been an interesting exercise, I am not totally convinced that I have got this right. There is a lot of mention of people in the brief part of me thinks I should have been photographing people. I do think that this has addressed the objective of showing how I arrived at my final shots even if I did not manage to capture any other interesting shots during this process.

It was quite odd walking around with the camera up to my eye and I must admit that every time I lowered the camera it was apparent that people had been watching me wondering what the hell I was doing! Still, I think it will  now be easier to do this in the future!

Looking through the viewfinder: Objects in different positions in the frame

The subject of this exercise had to be an object set in a large even background. For this I really wanted to get a tractor in a field on the side of the downs but after driving around for an hour or so I had to resort to plan B!

I set up with my trusty 24-105mm lens on the life boat station in Selesy Bill so that I was high enough up not to get the horizon in the frame. There was good light and I set the shutter speed fairly high so as to freeze any movement.

I took pictures of the little boat composing in the view finder to put it in different positions in the frame.

The images on the left are shown in order of preference, from top left to bottom right. I feel the first image works best. The boat sits comfortably for me just off centre. Importantly, it has 'looking space' ahead of it , i.e. more space in front than behind - space for the boat to move into.The space on the left hand side of the boat shows that the craft is isolated in the expanse of the sea. In many ways the same can be said for the second image although the angle of the boat to the viewer is a little more awkward.

The next three images can almost be inter-changed. Each time I look at them I could put them in a different position! For me it's not so much the relationship with the background but the relationship with the edge that is causing the problem.

The last image is the 'punctured' image as mentioned in the book. I agree that the background loses it's importance with the boat in the middle of the frame. As the eye is drawn to the middle we seem to pass over the background. This doesn't happen in the other pictures.

Looking through the viewfinder: Fitting the frame to the subject

So we are on to the first exercise of 'Part 1, The Frame'. For this exercise on composition and framing, I drove my car to the top of a multi storey car park where there were no parked cars. As required by the exercise the first image was taken with very little (read 'no'!) thought. I simply parked the car, got out walked away and took the photo.

For the second picture the car had to fit the frame as tightly as possible without going beyond the edges. I took many images from lots of different angles and heights.The chosen image is from a lower point of view which is cutting out the buildings that could be seen over the wall if I had chosen a higher angle. The shape of the car did not allow me to fill the frame completely. This angle also makes the car more imposing.

In the third shot we move in close so that we cannot see any of the edges of the object. Again I took many shots but selected this one as it has an interesting angle to it.

Finally, I took a shot where the car only occupied a quarter of the frame. Again I moved about checking the view finder for a good composition. I then set about experimenting with various crops in Photoshop.

I found the close-up image was not really suited to cropping as, in a way, it already has been in the view finder. The first image is also difficult to crop into something interesting. I do like the crop of the final image though.

The last image cropped.

The car occupies about a quarter of the length of the frame. There are leading lines by way of the car park wall drawing us in to the picture from the left. I think there is a certain amount of tension between the car and the wall. The car stands out due to its shape not fitting with the rest of the image, whilst the wall is trying to dominate the shot with its strong lines and simply because there is so much of it!

After this... no more cars!

End of the introduction

So, I have reached the end of the introduction section. I am starting to get used to coming to my desk and PC after dinner to edit my images and write up my learning log. Along with the exercises I am spending time reading some of the posts in the OCA flikr group and checking out some of the other Blogs.

One thing I have seen come up on more than one occasion is that students think they are not showing enough imagination in their subjects. I must admit to feeling the same way at the moment. Although I have already carried out the photography for the next two exercises, I am going to address this in further work!

On to part one, 'The frame'!

Photographing movement: Panning with different shutter speeds

Panning at various shutter speeds.

Following on from the previous exercise, I took the camera off of the tripod. Here we are going to follow the movement of the cars using different shutter speeds.

On the same stretch of road I started with a shutter speed of 1/800 and took shots panning with the cars and changing the shutter speed until I reached 1/5 of a second.

The first clear signs of background blurring appear at 1/320 although background blur is present if you look very closely at the 1/500 shot. The background gets progressively more blurred until we get to around 1/60. Form here the background starts to streak and become less identifiable for what it is and more abstract with every shot. Of course, there can be a variation in the blur at a set shutter speed, depending on the speed of the car.

Note that the wheels of the cars are starting to blur up at approximately the same shutter speed as in the previous exercise.This is around the 1/200 - 1/250 mark. Also worthy of note is that at 1/15 and slower, I have reached the maximum aperture value of F22 and the images become over exposed again. Additionally, I have started to have trouble panning at the right speed to keep the cars sharp.

My favourite images from the last two exercises

From the shutter speed exercise, this is my favourite. The car is just becoming blurred with the wheels more so. There are also other elements that appeal to me. I like the silver against the darker background and the shape of the car itself is very dynamic and in keeping with what this picture is portraying - motion and forward movement at speed.



The panning image I like best is this one. The red of the car again stands out against the background and the background blur is conveying the right amount of motion. The vehicle wheels are showing a good deal of rotation indicated by the blur and the car is nice and sharp.

After this I really like the abstract shots where the car is really blurred but didn't choose them due to the over-exposure issue.

Photographing movement: Shutter speeds

Shutter speeds from fastest (top left) to slowest (bottom  right)

With the camera mounted on a tripod and the 24-105mm lens fitted, I set out to explore shutter speeds. After some thought and I bit of investigation I decided to set up along a stretch of road near where I live and photograph the cars going by. This is in a thirty mile per hour speed limit so I was hoping for some reasonably consistent speeds. The weather was very bright and sunny which will of course have a bearing on the exposure.

I usually use my camera on full manual, so this was a good opportunity to try shutter priority for a change. It was interesting to see that the camera light meter varied the exposure quite a bit. Maybe because of the colour of the cars?

I started the experiment at my fastest shutter speed of 1/8000. Wow! Not enough light for that! Slowed down to 1/2500, 1/2000 and finally 1/1250 which was starting to give a correct exposure.

The blue car in the first image was shot at 1/1000. As can be seen this is absolutely sharp. This is the slowest speed at which the movement is frozen. The next image at 1/500 is starting to show a little blurring on the wheels whereas at 1/250 this has become quite pronounced. The wheels are showing signs of blurring before anything else due to the extra speed of their rotation.

From 1/200 to 1/80 the car has become fairly blurred and finally when we get to 1/50 and 1/30 the car is becoming very blurred.

I have further shots at slower speeds but as the smallest aperture of my lens is F22, the shots get progressively brighter. When the shutter speed gets to 1/5 the car is little more than a streak across the frame. The image is very over exposed though.

This was an enjoyable experiment with a few 'hidden' variables such as the speed of the cars and the exposure set by the camera's auto metering. It was also useful to experiment with the shutter priority as well as the aperture priority in the previous exercises. In certain situations this may prove a faster way of 'getting the shot' than the full manual setting.

In the meantime

As I have been working my way through the exercises, I have been having some concerns about work flow. As the evenings are starting to draw in I don't want to fall behind through lack of light. After giving this some thought I am going to try working on the photography of the longer exercises at the weekends. This should give me the weekday evenings to process the shots and write up my learning log.

I have also ordered two books from the recommended book list, "The Photographer's Eye: Composition and Design for Better Digital Photos" and "The Photograph as Contemporary Art ".

Focus: Focus at different apertures

The weather wasn't being to kind when I got home from work today which put a damper on my planned excursion for this exercise! Not wanting to get held up at this stage I searched the house and came up with a row of bottles as a substitute. The object of the exercise was to observe the limits of sharpness at specific apertures.

The camera was fitted with a 35mm F2 Prime lens and mounted on a tripod. Aperture priority was used and focus is set where the first tall bottle meets the last short one.

The first shot was taken with the aperture set to F2. The second had an aperture of F8 and the final shot an aperture of F22.

The limits of sharpness have been marked in red on the pictures. They all radiate out from the point of focus.

Focus: Focus with a set aperture

Aperture set to F2.
Focus near (top), middle (centre)
and far (bottom).

In this exercise we are looking at the importance of focus within the frame. Using a wide aperture, in this case F2, I have focused on different parts of the railing.

In the first image I have chosen the first upright of the railing, in the second image, the second upright which is approximately at the centre of the frame. The last has its focused between the third and fourth uprights, so about two thirds into the frame. The F2 aperture is giving a fairly shallow depth of field.

The final part of this exercise is to express a preference. I am finding this quite difficult. The first image comes across as the strongest to me. The focus is clearly on the front of the railing. There is no doubt about what is important in this shot. Unfortunately the railing is not very interesting!

The second shot, although focused on the second upright, again doesn't have much going for it. Most of the image seems to be a little out of focus.

The third shot has a lot more in focus but you do get distracted by the out of focus railing on the left of the frame.

My preference would therefore be the first shot if the foreground was a little more interesting. With the images as they are though, I would have to opt for the third image.

Getting to know your camera: Focal length and angle of view.

For the first exercise I am exploring focal length and angle of view. I took my camera outside with my first lens fitted, a 24 - 105 mm. My point of focus is where the wall meets the window about half way up the wall. With one eye looking through the view finder and the other open looking at the same scene, I attempted to get the two views equal. I found it pretty tricky but eventually the two views seemed to align at just under 50mm. This should be the 'standard' focal length for this lens and most similar to my normal angle of view.

From the same location I then took a shot at the most extreme telephoto setting and a further one with my wide angle lens (17 -40mm) set at 17mm. The images were printed on A4 paper and the prints taken back outside to the location where they were shot.

Holding up the 'standard' shot and matching it to the scene, it appeared about the same size at arms length. The close-up from the telephoto lens needed to be held a little further than arms length and the wide angle shot needed to be placed about ten to twelve inches from my eye to become the same size as the scene.

Books Arrived

My books arrived yesterday. It's all very exciting! I have taken a look through the course materials and read the student handbook My first task is to write my student profile and contact my tutor.

A New Venture

My name is Simon Lawrence and I have been a keen photographer for many years. My first photographic memories are from when I was about fourteen. I used to stay at my grandparents and I can remember my Granddad showing me how to load 120 film into an old black camera that had and expanding front section. The pictures were black and white and all over the place but that didn't matter.

I'm now 46 and still love photography. There have been a few lapses over the years where time and circumstances have put things on the back burner but I have always come back to it. I am now an active member of the local camera club and sit on the committee.

If there is one thing I have learnt, it's that there is always MORE to learn and although I think my photography has come a long way I know that it can go a lot further. More than ever I am feeling the urge explore fine art and my favourite subject, photographing people.

So, I have taken  the plunge and signed up for the OCA 'Art of Photography' course! I intend to stick it out to the bitter end, the Photography Degree and can't wait to get started. I hope the course is going to open up a new way of thinking and a different way of looking at things.