


Hello everyone!
I have set up this blog as a test in the hopes that it will helps us communicate more efficiently and share our work with one another. Since we each hand in our work separately we don't often get to see what others are doing. So feel free to use this blog to post photos, to ask questions, and enjoy one another's work. If you have any specific questions about techniques or ways to recreate effects you have seen,
please post them and I will do my best to walk you through it. I am also going to throw different "assignments" out every month to teach those that are learning to shoot manually as well as give everyone opportunity to practice their skills and show others their work. You can participate as you as much or as little as you desire. I have really enjoyed working with you guys over the last few months and I am excited to see the work that emerges from our group this year :)
So with that said here is the first exercise!
In every photo there is a foreground and a background. Shallow depth of field refers to the background being out of focus while the foreground is perfectly focused. We achieve this effect by manipulating the aperture. The aperture is controlled through the lens and is signified with numbers from F4.5-F22. The lower the number the more shallow( or out of focus) your depth of field will be. Practice setting your camera on apeture priority ( symbol A or AV on your dial). The camera will automatically select the shutter speed you need for the aperture you select. Take an up close photo of a person or object with the lowest aperture setting and then take the same image with the highest setting. Note the differences. Images taken on the highest setting should be completely in focus. Those on the lowest setting should be in focus only in the foreground. Above are some examples of shallow depth of field, Once you get a good image post it up for the rest of us to see!