Aperture and Depth of Field

So as a beginning photographer the connection between Aperture is Depth of Field isn't always taken into account. As a beginner we mainly think Aperture only effects how much light is let into the lens. I'm going to show you a few photos i took in my home with a static-ish camera never changing focus, only changing Aperture and bumping lighting as needed. For these shots I started at an aperture of f/1.4 and went up to f/16 as that's the range of my Nikkor 50mm f/1.4.

Before I show the photos i want to explain Aperture just a little more to give a better understand of it and how it works.

The aperture of a lens is how wide it opens to let light in. Aperture can range from (on average) f/1.2 to f/32 depending upon the lens. The lower the number the wider the aperture [ f/1.2 > f/3.5] And also the the lower the number the faster. Now when the Aperture is wide open is drastically narrows the field of focus. This happens because of how the images enters the lens and is distorted by the wideness of it[ see this picture taken from wiki for a visual]

Shot at F/1.4 Yoshi is clearly in focus or within Depth of Field. While Mario and the bottle of water are outside of the range of focus



















When shot t f/2.8 Mario is still out of focus but you can see he is coming closer to focus with this photo.
















f


Here at a wide open f/16 Yoshi, Mario, The Bottle, and all of my sensor dust can be seen.



















During all of these photos which can be seen here the camera was never moved, focus was never changed, and the subjects where never moved. The only thing changed was the aperture of the lens. I think my next photo guide blog will be on shutter speed and action. See you guys when i get back from Seattle...if I ever make there.

I'm Back

So after getting home unpacking, unloading photos, and doing laundry...in that order. I'm here to post up a photo. This is one of my faves from my trip and i named it "うさぎ" which is Japanese for Bunny.[bonus points is you know the reference] i just loved how dark and evil photo looked. Its part of this park in St. Louis full of Sculptures[there is a similar park in Minneapolis] If I don't get Lazy. I'm gotta post up a blog on Aperture in a bit shooting from f/1.4-f/16 to give a better understanding on it.

( f/2.2 @ 1/4000 ISO400 Manual Focus)

Gone till Next Week

I'm getting better at this updating thing. Well i'm about to embark on a roadtrip with no laptop cause moms has it in seattle right now. sooooo i'm leave you with some shallow DOF goodness before i leave so you have something to droll over till i get back.

( f/1.8 @ 1/50 ISO800 Manual Focus)





















































(i'll post something in colour when i get back promise)

Bokeh

Bellagio Garden-1, originally uploaded by 'Sa Jamil Hogan.

Bokeh (derived from Japanese, a noun boke 暈け, meaning "blur" or "haze") is a photographic term referring to the æsthetic quality of point-of-light sources in an out-of-focus area of an image produced by a camera lens using a shallow depth of field

A few days ago i went to the Bellagio Garden in Las Vegas for some photographic therapy. Each time I go i try to give the photos a different feel. This day i wanted to shoot everything in f/1.4 giving me a nice shallow depth of field.

Shooting this shallow is a nice way to isolate objects in the photo due to the immense blur of the background. I noticed while i was there that several other people where trying to get a similar effect. While it is possible with a good selection on lenses its easier to achieve this effect with Prime, Macro, and Telephoto lenses. and the reason being

Prime Lenses: They have no zoom and only change range of focus and many come with extreme low apertures (f/1.2 f/1.4/ f/1.8 etc)

Macro Lenses: these lenses are many to focus on a very small range even at apertures as high as f11

Telephoto Lenses: With range like 70-300 anything not in the direct range of focus with be blurred similar to how the eye works.

While you can do this on a lens with a smaller soon range such as 12-24 or 17-55 it is possible if you have a lower aperture or you're at full zoom and about 2-8 inches from the object.

Formula Drift Round 4

So this weekend was Formula Drift Round 4: Las Vegas. It was quite the weekend. From Vaughn Gittin Jr smashing into a wall and coming back to place in the Top 32. And Turek getting his car AIRBORNE it was quite the weekend. Only downside to the weekend was my 70-300 dieing. But I did get some killer photos regardless and I learned the importantace of auto-focus when it comes to subjects moving at 80mph. I used my none-AF 50mm for a few photos and the ones in foucs can out very nicely. I'm really looking forward to that D300s now. But at the end of the night Tanner Foust and his NASCAR V8 powered Scion tC won. Congrats to Foust and the Rockstar Team. See you guys in Washington

You can see more of the photos on my flickr acount.