David Bailey weds Catherine Deneuve

31 January 2010

Aperture










Aperture is used in portraiture to control depth of field and determine how much of the scene appears sharp. For portraits a wide aperture can be used so the background behind the subject is thrown out of focus. (ie. F3.5 – 4.5)
The amount of depth of field is not a constant – it depends on three main factors; the aperture, the focused distance, and the actual focal length of the lens.
The size of the aperture used is the most important factor in the control of depth of field. Making the aperture smaller increases depth of field, while widening restricts it.
The distance to the subject also has an effect. At close distances, all lenses offer less depth of field than when they are focused further away.
The focal length of the lens affects the range of distances that appear sharp. The amount of depth of field dramatically reduces as focal length lengthens.

Click here to see a few more experimental images

I took some pictures of beer bottles to try and explain aperture. I focused on certain bottles to get different depths of field. I found that if I focused on the first bottle the rest gradually became more unfocused and vise versa if I focused on the last bottle the the ones closer to the camera were more out of focus. I sat quite close to them and used the zoom on my camera so that it would make more of a noticeable difference. If I sat further away and used less zoom there wasn't as noticeable difference in the depth of field shown here. I used aperture 4.5 and 5.6 on all of the photos and altered the ISO and shutter speed to get the right exposure. I started off with aperture 4.5 on ISO 200 with a shutter speed of 1/250 which made the picture too dark so I increased the ISO to 400 kept the aperture the same and used a slower shutter speed of 1/125 which gave a good exposure. The following images were taken with an aperture of 5.6 and ISO 800 and to get the best exposure the shutter speed was set at around 1/200.

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1 comment:

  1. Mr Steve4 March 2010 at 13:16

    Hi
    Good to see your own writing supported by your experimental images
    You have documented the settings of your camera, I will show you how to record the metadata for each one and that will help you to adapt your technical way of working 2.2

    steve

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Techniques, materials and resources used for portrait photography 1.1

There are many different formats and techniques that can be applied to portrait photography.

Framing is a technique where by you draw attention to one element of an image by framing it with another element of the image. This gives an image depth and draws the eye to a point of interest in the image.
You could do it by placing your subject in a window or doorway, have them look through a small gap or even use their hands around their face.

Shooting with a wide angle lens attached to your camera can help create some memorable shots when you’re doing portrait photography.
At very wide focal lengths you can create some wonderful distortion. Using these focal lengths will enlarge parts of the face or body that are on the edge of the frame more than what is in the centre.
It can also give a wide open and dramatic impact when your subject is in an impressive setting.

The person in your portrait is the main point of interest – however sometimes when you place them into different contexts with different backgrounds you can dramatically alter the mood in a shot.

Having parts of a portrait in focus draws attention on certain parts of the face or body, or a completely unfocused portrait can add a dreamy effect and make a picture quite abstract.

Black and white portraits can be just as dramatic as colour. By adding a shot of colour can draw attention to certain parts of the photo.
"When we shoot in color, we do not depart from what we see everyday, so our eye expects certain details in order to fill out the image. Black and white photography gives us the opportunity to diverge from this norm, and in a way view reality as an abstraction."

Equipment I have at home and what is avaliable to me at college 1.1

I have at home the Canon 450d camera which comes with the standard 18-55mm lens.


At college there is a wide range of lenses avaliable to use along with higher quality cameras. There is a studio which contains a wide range of backdrops, studio lights, reflectors and soft box.

Canon 450D

Canon 450D

Canon 450d

This is the camera which I have started out with, the basic entry level canon 450d.  For specification details click on the image.
I don't really have any experience of digital SLR's, the only cameras I have used previously are point and shoot digital and film SLR's.  
I don't have an opinion on my camera yet as I haven't really used it enough to comment other than I find it fairly easy to use and understand. 

Standard 50mm lens

What makes this lens ideal for portriture is its angle-of-view is the closest to our own eyes and the easiest to use to get the most natural looking shots. You can even visualise shots without putting the camera to your eye. This doesn’t mean this lens is boring compared to the extremes that a telephoto or wide-angle will give. On the contrary, it’s just a lens that works well and keeps your photography simple. It is also ideal, as long as you remember not to get too close to your subject, which will lead to unflattering distortion to your sitters face. It works especially well with full-length portraits, but you can get some very nice head and shoulder shots.

Standard 50mm lens

70-200mm Lens

The telephoto lens allows you to take tightly composed pictures of subjects where it is impractical to get any closer and to use a wider lens, therefore they are useful for candid photography, this lens is small, lightweight and unobtrusive.
Short telephoto focal lengths are widely used in portraiture for their unnatural, non standard view makes objects at different distances appear closer together than they are in reality. Using a wide angle lens for head and shoulder close ups makes people's noses and other facial features more prominent - while a slight telephoto focal length flattens the features a touch, to give a more flattering result.
Telephotos are also useful in portraiture because when used with largish apertures, it is easy to throw a background out of focus thus drawing the viewers attention to certain parts of the scene.

70-200mm lens f/2.8 IS