3.1 Produce a series of images showing controlled use of F-stop and shutter speed

Depth of Field using aperture control

In this image I used a wide aperture f2.8 to create a shallow depth of field and emphasise the foreground of the image. This is my favourite image a took in my depth of field series as I created an ‘autumn’ look by focusing on the leaves in the foreground and the leading lines of the bench naturally led my eyes to the background of the photograph.

In this image I used the same aperture as the previous image but I changed the plane of focus to the middle of the image to demonstrate how changing the area of focus can completely change the feel of an image in the same composition. Here the leading lines on the bench become more prominent but I feel start to distract the viewer from the overall image.

Here is the same image as before but now with the background in focus. I feel this is the weakest of the depth of field series of images as there is no prominent subject and due to most of the image being out of focus the viewers eyes are drawn to the background of the image which is not very interesting.

In this I used a much narrower aperture f18, to demonstrate how by changing the aperture affects the depth of field in a photograph. The previous images shot in a wide aperture have a very shallow depth of field which allows the photographer to choose a plane of focus. Be it the foreground ,middle ground or background. When I use a narrow aperture the whole image is in focus which leads to a very flat looking image, good for landscapes but not for the look I was going for in this image. One thing is that the leading lines on the bench are very prominent when using a narrow aperture which did not show as prominently shooting in a wider aperture.

Here is another example of using a wide aperture to highlight different aspects of a photograph. The image on the left I focused on the subject’s finger which led to her face being blurred out, bringing the viewers focus to the pointing hand and not the subjects face. On the right hand image I focused on the subjects face still using a wide aperture which led to her hand being out of focus. I personally prefer this photograph as it an interesting portrait with the subjects face in focus and hand out of focus creating a sense of distance in the photograph.

Playing with Shutter speed

Here I used a slow shutter speed 0.6″ to create an artistic portrait of the subjects hands appearing in front of the subjects face. I told my subject to look in to the camera with her hands down at the start of the shot and as soon as I pressed the shutter I told her to cover her face with her hands. It took a few attempts using different shutter speeds to achieve to photo I wanted but shooting in shutter priority helped as I just had to focus on playing with the shutter speed and not worry about the other settings of the camera.

In this image I used a high shutter speed 1/200, to freeze an object in the air. I ended up using the flash on the camera as it was a low light setting and using any higher shutter speed led to very dark photographs. It took some directing from me and several attempts at taking the photo as I had to tell my subject to throw the object in the air just before I pressed the shutter. Due to the fast shutter speed I had to make sure I timed both pressing the shutter and telling my subject to throw the object in the air which took several attempts, which in the end created a very compelling image.