One Child is Gone
One child is gone Two stayed behind One child’s moved on Two pass the time With idle thoughts And daily chores No longer fraught Their tears no more
One child does write Two read with glee One child sheds light On life to be With friends anew New places gone And school too It won’t be long Your heart is there Your thoughts are too We send our care And hearts to you
Coming along… and on, and on…
It’s amazing how many photographs one can accumulate over the years. To narrow it down to the very best to display on a website has always been a difficult task for me. That’s why my websites have never reflected what I am really capable of because I lose focus before I have really come up with a good, well planned portfolio. Well not this time.
I am killing two birds with one stone, so to speak. Tanya (my wife) has wanted me to add all of digitized film images (from CD) to our iPhoto library for some time now, and this made for the perfect opportunity to skim through all of our previous work to add to my new online portfolio. If by some fluke chance you are reading this on blogger than you can’t see how the site is coming along but I can assure you I am in love. Those of you that have been my colleagues in the web design world have only heard vague tales that I was, at one time, well immersed in the photographic world. Well now I intend to show them exactly what that meant to me.
From paid gigs to pet projects, I intend to spill it all out here to showcase the best, the quirky, the moving and the breath taking imagery that my wife and I have been involved with for so many years. So far I like what I see and I am so very glad I started down this path. It’s a journey I won’t soon forget.
Depth of Field vs. Shutter Speed
In the first installment of Merrifield Photography Tips, we talked about basic composition and the rule of thirds. No doubt this improved your picture taking a great deal, but hopefully it has left you hungry for more. Well I just happen to have a few more tricks up my sleeve that I am confident you will pick up with no difficulty. Now understand that this next technique is a little more advanced, and will require that your camera be equipped with a few more advanced features, but we will get to that later.
As you have figured out by the title, we are going to discuss depth of field, shutter speed, and the intertwined relationship they share with light. A comment I often hear is, “My picture didn’t turn out the way I thought it would when I shot it.” This is a common complaint by many photographers, amateur and pro alike, and there are many factors that contribute to this phenomenon, but I feel the strongest cause for this is depth of field. For those of you that are unfamiliar with this term, depth of field or DOF as I will refer to it from here on out, is the range or distance in front of, and behind your point of focus that still maintains relative sharpness. For example, if I take a picture of your face, I will focus on your eyes (which will always be the point of focus in a good portrait). If the end result shows that the tip of your to nose to the back of your ear is in focus than I am shooting with a greater DOF than if only your eyes were in sharp focus.
Still confused? Try this: stand at one of a room, pick an object somewhere in the middle of the room, and with your naked eye, focus on that object. Without taking your eye off the object, try and notice your surroundings. How much is in focus? Very little, right? Your eyes are demonstrating a shallow depth of field. Now, take a look at a painting. A nice landscape painting, like the kind you find being sold out of the back of a van at the corner gas station, by a “starving artist” (come on, we all have one of those kicking around in the closet somewhere). As you let your eyes wonder across the painting, you’ll notice that every object in the painting is in focus; from the little flower beside the cottage in the foreground, to the snowcapped mountains in the background. This is an example of maximum DOF. Shallow DOF = very little in focus. Greater DOF = lots in focus. Got it?
Now with that being said, you ask, “How do I control the DOF?” Well if you look into your cameras operating manual you will hopefully find a section about aperture settings. Now don’t worry about what an aperture is at this point, just try to remember that your aperture is represented by an f-stop. If your camera is equipped to adjust this aperture (or f-stop) then it is by this adjustment that you can control the DOF. Now, a more complicated text would go on to explain that an f-stop is a ratio of focal length to aperture diameter, where f2 = 1/2, and if applied to a lens with a 100mm focal length would be the equivalent to an aperture diameter of 50mm, and f4 would be 25mm and so on… but what does this really mean to you? Instead, I would like to spell it out in a way that make total sense and is very easy to learn. All you need to remember is that like quantitative terms belong together. So far, I have taught you that:
A shallow (or small) DOF = very little in focus
A greater (or big) DOF = a lot in focus
Now let’s add the next part of the equation:
A small f-stop (i.e. f2) = a shallow (or small) DOF = very little in focus
A large f-stop (i.e. f32) = a greater (or big) DOF = a lot in focus
Seems easy enough right? So what’s the catch? The catch is that the DOF you desire must be attainable within the light you have available to you. If you are working with a flash, then you have more flexibility. If, however, you are working with the natural or available light around you then your choices become fewer. This is due to a nasty thing called exposure. A proper exposure is made up of three components; your f-stop, your shutter speed, and the amount of light you have at your disposal. Add all of these up and factor in a few light sensitivity ratings expressed in iso values (i.e. iso 100, iso 400 and so on… I’m sure you have seen this before), and you have the makings of a University masters degree in obscurity and confusion.
Lets simplify, shall we? Lets say you want to take a picture of grandma, but grandma is standing 8 feet in front of a graffiti covered brick wall (yeah, grandma’s ‘hood has taken a turn for the worse). Obviously (for me anyway) you don’t want the graffiti in focus, so you decide to shoot the picture with a small f-stop to minimize the DOF so that grandma’s face is in focus and not the graffiti. So now that you have changed the f-stop you have to account for the other two components in a proper exposure; shutter speed, and light. Lets assume that the light hasn’t changed, so all we need be concerned with is the shutter speed. At this point I could break into the theories of exposure and the reciprocal relationship between aperture and shutter speed, but instead I am going to return to the formulas we have been building, but this time we will add the shutter speed:
A short shutter duration = a small f-stop = a shallow DOF = very little in focus (a working exposure example: 1/8000 of a second at f2)
A long shutter duration = a large f-stop = a greater DOF = a lot in focus (a working exposure example: 1/30 of a second at f32)
(Incidentally, on a sunny day, with iso 100 film, both of the above examples amount to an EV (or “Exposure Value”) of zero as per the “Sunny 16” rule…but we will leave that for another lesson)
So with all else equal, what ever you do to adjust the aperture, you must also make an equal adjustment to your shutter speed. Fortunately many cameras are built with automatic options that compensate one parameter for any adjustments that you have made to the other, so you really won’t have to worry yourself with too many technical details.
In closing, let’s recap what we have learned here.
If you want your main subject to be in focus but the background to be blurry, you must:
use a small f-stop number, and a short shutter duration to get a shallow depth of field so that very little is in focus.
If you want everything in the shot to be crystal clear, you must:
-use a large f-stop number, and a long shutter duration, to get a large depth of field so that lots is in focus.
I hope you enjoy learning to use this technique, and I hope you become a better photographer for it. Happy shooting to you, and be sure to stay tuned for more helpful hints from Merrifield Photography.
Here we go again!
Well just as I got Merrifield Photography the last time, iStockPro went and shut down on me. This left me with an essentially empty, utterly useless site. And that’s how it stayed until today when I thought I had better get my act in gear and get this baby back up and running. If for no other reason, it at least serves as a feather to stick in my portfolio hat over at seyDoggy.
So what’s it all about this time? I have no clue yet but here is what I would like to do:
- I am still in love with photography, though I may not shoot as much as I used to, so I want to still showcase my work.
- I also want to share articles and tricks and tips, etc…
- Something new I want to get into is Photoshop tips and tricks. I have read so many myself but get really tired of searching for them on the intar-tubes, so I am going to write my own and collect them here.
- And finally I want to share some resources that I stumble upon in my travels.
So I am not begging you to stick around and see what happens because honestly, this site has been up and down more times than an elevator. However, if I stick to my guns and keep this thing alive I know, somehow, you’ll find your way back.
The Rule of 3rds
Do you want to take better pictures? Technique is often a topic of discussion in pro photographer circles, but rarely filters down to the average weekend hobbyist. In today’s market, pro level equipment has become more accessible to the general public. The onslaught of digital equipment and fierce competition between manufactures has forged a market where a $1500 camera is as likely to be seen in the hands of an amateur as those of a seasoned pro. With one major difference: the final outcome.
Many weekend shutter-bugs find out quickly that better equipment does not make a better photographer. Truth be told, many pros have discovered the same reality. So what is it that sets a great image apart from an ordinary snap shot? Technique!
While there are countless tricks, rules and techniques that one could spend a lifetime mastering, there is truly but a handful that really make all the difference. In this article I would like to discuss one that I feel is the easiest way to turn your snapshots into portraits.
It all comes down to composition, and what many refer to as the rule of thirds. The rule of thirds is a special concept that is born of mathematics, and applied to everything from architecture, to fine art, to interior design, and certainly photography. In its simplest form, the law of thirds states that things look better when proportioned in thirds. This can take many different forms in other mediums, but for photography, it simply means moving your center of focus off to one side, or up and down.
I would like you to take a look at the two examples on the left. The example on the top demonstrates a typical error in composition. The eyes, which should always be the point of interest, are low in the frame. In actual fact, they are dead center. This leaves a lot of uninteresting space above the head. It also gives you a sense of looking down upon the subject, as opposed to looking straight on at the subject as an equal.
The lower image shows how an image can be made more appealing by changing the position of the camera. The point of focus is still the eyes, but this is now made more powerful by filling the empty space. Also, by making the body an integral part of the image, the viewer is naturally drawn upwards, from the body to the eyes. Take a look at all of the portraits at the bottom of this page. They all follow this same basic rule.
To make an image like this all you need to do is point your camera (no matter what grade or quality that may be) at your subject, then offset in an appealing direction, so that your subject does not occupy the dead center of the frame. Remember, though, to focus on your subject prior to shifting your composition. If you follow these simple steps, you will be taking better, more satisfying pictures, whether you have a $2000 camera or a $200 camera.
I hope you enjoy learning to use this technique, and I hope you become a better photographer for it. Happy shooting to you, and be sure to stay tuned for more helpful hints from Merrifield Photography.