This post covers both assignment 1 and assignment 2 because I want to illustrate the difference between the shallow depth of field of the wider apertures and the deep depth of field of the narrower apertures.  These were all taken on Parliament Hill in Ottawa during the 2011 National Tulip Festival.  They are all similar photos of the Peace Tower.

First are two almost identical photos that both use a singular theme aperture of f/4 but focus at different distances from the camera (focus on different objects).

28 mm, ISO 400, f/4, 1/640 sec.

26 mm, ISO 400, f/4, 1/900 sec.

Though the composition and exposure settings are very similar in these two photos the shallow depth of field means the main subject changes depending on where the focus is.  In the first the focus is on the Peace tower so that becomes the main subject of the photo and the burred tulip takes a supporting roll.  In the second the tulip is the main subject and the tower a background element.  The tower is still recognizable and is included to give some context as to where the tulip is located (This isn’t just any tulip, it’s in the capital of Canada) but it is not the subject this photo.   The next photo uses a deeper depth of field to show both a tulip and the tower.

34 mm, ISO 1000, f/18, 1/125 sec.

The narrow aperture (f/18) of this photo means that there is a much deeper depth of field and while the focus is still on the peace tower the tulip is sharper than the first photo.  It still isn’t tack sharp like in the second photo, but it is much more in focus than the first.   In this photo the tulip is less of an accent and more a part of the overall story of the image.  The background and the foreground work together to tell the story of where we are and the flowers that are there.  Notice that I required a much higher ISO (1000) to get the shutter speed down to something manageable to hand hold.  The narrow aperture means less light gets in and I needed to slow the shutter speed for a proper exposure.  The speed got so slow that I had to up the ISO to keep it manageable.  Alternatively I could have used a tripod, but I did not have one available on this trip.

These last two photos a little bit wider shots that use a somewhat narrower aperture to show a bit more of the parliament buildings and the tulip beds around them.

18 mm, ISO 400, f/11, 1/100 sec.

18 mm, ISO 400, f/13, 1/100 sec.

These two photos use something closer to a “who cares?” aperture, but again the intent was a deep depth of field to maintain focus from the foreground to the background.  The apertures used were sufficient to achieve that.  These pictures give an idea of the flowerbeds around parliament hill.

I have another post of some more abstract photos that I took around the tulip festival and I will try to get those up a little later.

A couple weekends ago we were in Nova Scotia for a wedding and stopped by Peggy’s Cove on the way back to the airport.  I took several shots of the lighthouse but then I saw some pools of water trapped in the rocks and I thought I would try for some reflection shots.  This meant using a deepish depth of field to get both the refletion, the rocks around the reflection and the distant lighthouse in focus.

ISO 500, f/11, 1/500 sec.

If I were to do this again I would use a smaller aperture, but it seems to work fairly well.  The distant lighthouse could be in slightly better focus, but it works.

I saw this general picture from my car one night on the way home from ultimate and went back a few days later to get it.  I don`t think I captured it perfectly and I will try to get it again in the future.

This shot was taken handheld (I need a new tripod) at f/22, 1/60 sec., ISO 800.  The tree is located at the Ottawa experimental farm and I wanted to have a deep depth of field to capture the corn in the foreground (to give an idea of the location) the tree (the main subject) and the sun/horizon in the background all in focus.  The small aperture allows for this.

I did some post processing on this to get it to where I thought it was presentable.  In Camera Raw I applied a graduated ND filter over the sky so I could lighten the corn in the foreground without blowing out the sky and losing the silhouetted tree.  I also didn’t really like how close the crop was to the top (I don’t really like the crop on the right side either, but that is much harder to fix) so I extended the canvase and used content aware fill to extend the sky upwards.  This also moved the horizon line down from almost the middle, closer to the 1/3 line.   This is a subject I would like to revisit some time.  The corn is more mature now, and maybe I can find a more interesting sky (cool clouds or something).

I am going to move on to the next assignment soon.  I will continue to look for good opportunities to use a small aperture to tell a story with objects at different distances from the focal plane.  If I get good ones I will post them in this category.   I by no means think I have perfected the technique but it is now something I look for when composing my photos.  The next assignment will look at how to use a wide open aperture to single out subjects and separate them from their environment.

The last of the deep depth of field pictures I took at the cottage.  Another HDR attempt.  I will work on this technique in the future and discuss it more later.

Assembled from 3 photos taken at f/22 and ISO 200.   I wanted to show the nice sunset with some clear objects in the foreground.  I think the top of the rock wall makes for an interesting line that draws the eye towards the setting sun.  The boat adds some context, telling us where this was taken.   I think it could do with a little less grass at the left and some more adept HDR processing, but overall one of my favourites from the weekend.

This is one of my first attempts at using HDR.  I still have some issues using it and I am going to work on the technique in the future, but that is not the point of this post.  HDR is a task for another day.

This image uses f/25, ISO 400, and three exposures (-1, 0, 1) to bracket the suggested exposure.  I know this may not be the proper way to do HDR, but I’m learning and will do it differently next time.

This image really suits itself to a storytelling aperture (small aperture, deep depth of field) because there is a lot going on at varying planes parallel to the lens and sensor.  The cottage in the distance is one focal point.  A little closer is the impressive rock retaining wall and then there is the boat and the dock leading towards the stairs in the foreground.

Having the cottage in focus is important because it is a major focal point, the dock is important because it leads the eye from the foreground towards the cottage, and having the boat in focus gives a sense of where you are and adds to the cottage life atmosphere.  If this were just a simply composed image of the cottage with no foreground a wider aperture would be much more appropriate (say f/8 or f/11, but more on that in a future assignment).

This image is not perfect in terms of composition and I will work on my HDR, but this is a good example of how to use a small aperture to tell a story of where you are and create atmosphere.

Another deep field of view shot.  I wanted to show the entire kayak, beach and rock wall in focus.

f/22, ISO 200, 1/240 sec.

Though not the best composition, it is suited to a small aperture or otherwise the kayak would only be partly in focus (which could also be neat).

At the cottage on the long weekend I decided to take a few photos with the first assignment in mind.  I usually find that it is difficult to capture the scenic view of a wide open lake in photo and for it to have the same impact it has in real life.  Distant shorelines all start to look the same after a couple photos so an item in the foreground can make for a more interesting photo.

In this one I tried to use a small aperture and deep field to show the monolithic granite stairs down to the dock as well as the dock, boat and the distant shore.  The small aperture (f/22) allows for this.  It was a sunny day, but I put the ISO to 400 to allow a reasonable shutter speed (1/160 sec.) with the wide angle (18 mm).

This photo suits itself to a storytelling aperture because the stairs lead you to the dock and out to the boat and ultimately out into the lake.

I have a few more assignment 1 pictures coming in the near future.  I feel like I need a lot of work on my composition, but that will come in later assignments.  I am having trouble with this first assignment, I think my mind sees more uses for larger apertures.

I took a couple pictures on my bike ride in to work the other day.  These are of one of the barns in the experimental farm in the middle of Ottawa.  This is one of the few angles I have noticed where you can’t see apartment buildings, houses or other urban buildings in the background.

Both photos: ISO 250, f/18, 1/100 sec.

In both cases I used a small aperture to ensure that the barn was in focus as well as the empty field in the foreground.

I sometimes stumble around the photography blogs looking for interesting tips or inspirational photos and I think it’s a good idea to link to and discuss some of the interesting or inspirational posts that I come across.  Eventually I’ll link to the ones that I check regularly, but I’ll just mention one I came across today.

Today I came across this new post by Varina and Jay Patel about using elements in the foreground of pictures to try to give more of a sense of ‘being there’ rather than just a far off landscape on the horizon.  Though this is more of an article on composition it relates to the current assignment on small apertures and deep depth of field because a small aperture is needed to ensure both the foreground and things in the background appear in focus.  They provide several nice examples and explain how the foreground objects can give you a better idea of where you are if the background landmarks are kind of ambiguous.

I haven’t had time (or nice weather) to go out and shoot anything for the first assignment so I went through some of my recent photos looking for some that fit.  The only decent example I came across was this.

This is from the Dominican Republic, just outside of Puerto Plata.  I wanted to get both the roadway and hilltop house in relatively sharp focus so I used a small aperture of f/18.  My ISO was set to 400 (it was a dreary day and we were often in shaded areas)  and the metering indicated a shutter speed of 1/80 sec.  I was hand holding the camera and was zoomed to 170mm so this may have been a little too slow for hand holding and this is evident in the larger file because it is not at all sharp.  Just as I was getting ready to take the picture the guy on the motorcycle came around the corner so I took a few shots with him and a few without.

The overcast day muted the colourful house on the top of the hill and also made for a boring sky, but I am using this more as an example of when a smaller aperture and the associated long depth of field can be used to maintain somewhat sharper focus throughout almost the entire photo.  In this case the winding road, motorcyclist and house are all in focus and tell a little bit of a story about the local countryside and the people who live there.