Fundamentals of Photography Assignment: Motion & Depth of Field

Motion

The cameras shutter speed not only controls how long the light strikes the film (sensor), it also controls the appearance of motion.  A fast shutter speed freezes motion and a slow shutter speed will allow motion to blur.

For this assignment I was asked to create images with stop motion, motion blur, and panning.

Depth of Field

For this assignment I was asked to shoot one exposure for each f/stop.  Showing my entire range of apertures starting with my smallest f/stop and ending with my widest f/stop.

Concept of Depth of Field:

In addition to controlling photographic exposure, the lens aperture also affects the range of sharpness in the photograph.  That is the distance between the nearest and farthest points from the camera which will be acceptably sharp in the finished print.  This range of sharpness is called Depth of Field.  Depth of Field is a useful tool for composing quality photographs.  A shallow Depth of Field is useful in portrait photography.  A busy background can be de-accentuated by having it out of focus with the subject sharp.  For other types of photography, it is often desired to have all portions of the scene in focus.  In this case a large depth of field is used.

A lens will produce the greatest depth of field when the aperture is set at its smallest opening (i.e. f/22).  It will have the least depth of field when the aperture is set at the largest opening(i.e. f/1.4).

Lens focal length and distance of the subject from the camera are also important variables.