Exercise Title: Learn how aperture and distance affect your image
Purpose: When you take control of depth of field by understanding the relationship of camera to subject to background along with your choice of focal length and aperture then a world of creative decisions are available to you.
Method: Put your camera on a tripod and have the camera roughly 10-15 meters away from a background of your choice. The background needs to have detail so you can see the effect of out of focus behaviour.
Get your subject, a body is good as they can move themselves, if not, anything else you can focus on and easily move will do. Perhaps a folding chair or another camera on tripod
Place the subject halfway between you and the background and take your pics at f16 and f4 with a wide angle and a telephoto lens.
Now move the subject much closer to you and take pics again at f16 and f4 with a wide angle and a telephoto lens.
Get your subject, a body is good as they can move themselves, if not, anything else you can focus on and easily move will do. Perhaps a folding chair or another camera on tripod
Place the subject halfway between you and the background and take your pics at f16 and f4 with a wide angle and a telephoto lens.
Now move the subject much closer to you and take pics again at f16 and f4 with a wide angle and a telephoto lens.
Analyse: Review your results. Share your images of your sharpest and most blurred backgrounds, explain what is happening and when you are likely to use each scenario for your photography.
Feedback:
Well done on the assignment and getting to grips with the concept of it. My only real comment is that you need to consider photographic techniques as just that, techniques. They are simply a way of understanding what your camera can do in any specific situation to get the image you want. There are plenty of people who will tell you that for a portrait you must use an 80mm at f2.8 or that a landscape should only be taken with a wide angle lens on a tripod at sunrise/set at f14……..not true!
All we are doing is turning a three dimensional world into a two dimensional frame. The effect that a wide angle, normal or telephoto lens coupled with our choice of ISO and aperture will determine how the final image will look and deliver what you want to say.