Last week, I mentioned Depth Of Field. This is a somewhat vast topic to discuss and could become quite involved, but I will make an attempt to explain it as clearly as possible. Please bear with me.
Depth of field refers to the sharpness of focus of the objects in a photo. For example, in an image of a wide-sweeping Landscape that has objects close-up and far away, the Photographer may choose to have the foreground objects in sharp focus and the far distant background images soft and out-of focus. (Known as bokeh) Conversely, the Photographer may choose to have a sharp background, perhaps several Kilometers away, while the foreground is soft and out-of-focus. Most Landscape Photographers prefer to have the entire image in sharp focus, from foreground to background. All of these choices are controlled largely by the Aperture. Sharp Landscapes are most easily achieved by an Aperture setting from f-11 to f-22. (*Give or take a few f-stops, depending on the Camera and lens) Bokeh is achieved by using Aperture settings from f-8 to the lowest number your lens will show. A little time spent experimenting will give you a better idea what is best for the results you are seeking.
In fact, this is a good time to mention something that every Photographer needs to do, and that is to get familiar with your kit. Start with your camera on a stable surface such as a Tripod or Table top, (or even a fence if there is no danger of your camera falling off and getting damaged) Open your aperture as far as it will go; (the lowest number) and take a photo. Then increase the f-stop by 1 increment and take another shot. Continue this practice until your aperture is closed down to it’s smallest value. (The largest number) This is where it becomes a bit confusing, because the smallest number means the aperture is more open and the largest number means it is more closed. In other words, the “hole” in your lens is wide open at f-1, and it’s very closed at f-32. The more open it is, the more light can reach your camera’s sensor, and not only will the image have a shallow depth of field, (only close objects will be in sharp focus) but the image will be brightly lit, perhaps even overexposed. The more closed the aperture is, the deeper the depth of field (far away objects are in sharp focus too) but the less light will reach your sensor and the darker the image, perhaps to the point of being underexposed. Correcting the exposure can be done by changing the Shutter Speed. (Faster = less light; Slower = more light)
I realize this is very confusing, and at first I was so discouraged I nearly sold my camera and gave up, but I kept at it, stumbling over the learning curve until It made sense to me and I was able to grasp how it works. Perhaps the best way to explain it is to look at the f-stop (aperture’s opening size) as a fraction. By changing the letter f to the number 1, we then have a fraction of ¼ instead of f-4. ¼ is larger than, say, 1/20th (f-20) If a window is ¼ open, more air will flow into the house than if the window is only 1/20th open.
I just heard someone say “Huh…? Okay, how do I change these numbers and how do I even find them on my camera?”
Excellent question. If you’ve turned your camera on, you’ve probably noticed an L E D screen on the back. That screen gives you a read-out of your current settings. You can also use it to view the menu. In this example, we can see that the camera is set to Aperture Priority (Av) as indicated in the top left corner. The Aperture is set to f-5.6 as indicated in the top center, and the ISO is set to “Auto.” Remember, I said before that I have my ISO set to a specific value of 100 to 400 most of the time. “Auto” is acceptable in many situations as well, especially during night-time shots when the background is buried in darkness. *Note: The blank space between the Av setting and the F-stop setting is where the Shutter speed setting would appear if the camera were set to Tv (Shutter Priority) or M (Manual) mode.
The next row of icons below the top row, is where you will find the Exposure meter. In this example, you can see the little mark at the bottom of the scale is at “0” meaning the exposure is balanced between light and dark. I consider this to be the “ideal” exposure setting but there will be times when one may want to over-expose or under-expose an image for Artistic Value or to make post-production editing easier. For now, we’ll just leave it at “0.” Next to that, is the Flash metering icon. This is also a setting I have never used, but it controls the amount of light emitted by the flash when it is engaged. Again, for Artistic value, one may choose to use a flash but at a very low intensity. That’s something I haven’t even begun to delve into yet.
The third row of icons begins with what looks like a ceiling fan and the letter “A.” That means the camera's Picture Style is set to “Automatic.” Other picture styles are: Standard, Portrait, Landscape, Neutral, Faithful, Monochrome, User 1, User 2, and User 3. I generally leave my camera set to “Faithful,” since that setting seems to give me the most accurate reproductions of the colours I see. Next to the Picture Style icon is the White Balance control. It too offers a number of options beginning with AWB, which stands for “Ambiance Priority.” This means the camera takes it’s White Balance from the surrounding light conditions. The light an hour before sunset is MUCH different from the light at noon, and the camera makes these adjustments automatically. This is followed by Daylight, Shade, Cloudy, Tungsten, (the old-fashioned incandescent light bulb) White Fluorescent, Flash, and Custom. Again, I rarely touch these settings since Ambiance Priority does everything I need it to do. Next to the white balance control is what appears to be another form of White Balance icon. This is blank on my camera, so I can’t discuss it here. (or anywhere for that matter lol) Following that is the Auto Lighting Optimizer which I have also never used. Finally for that row, is the control to raise the built-in Flash. This is another function I rarely use; if I choose to use a Flash, I’ll attach a Speedlight to the top of my camera. The Speedlight gives me more options of where I can aim the light, thus making the subject less likely to “wash out” from direct lighting. (I don’t think I’ve used my Speedlight more than a few times in the 2 years that I’ve had it.)
There is another row of icons on the L E D screen of your camera, but I’ll let that go until next week for the sake of brevity. I would like to take a moment here though to recap the first little bit of this week’s Blog; the part on Depth of Field. For Landscape Photographers, clear focus throughout an image, from front to back is usually the most desirable. Occasionally, in order to bring the viewer’s attention to a particular feature within the Landscape, the Photographer may choose to place that object in clear focus while allowing the rest of the image to go slightly out-of-focus. This is perfectly acceptable, and can be controlled by the Photographer. Sharp, clear focus throughout is found with Aperture settings of smaller value such as f-11 to f-22. Some cameras will allow lower f-stops to remain accurate, but there is always the possibility of Optical aberration, which is a distortion of colours at the edges of the image. The most important thing to remember is to try it and see what happens. The Ancient Chinese talked about the “Ten Thousand Things.” They said ten thousand hours of practice were needed for someone to become good at something. This included making ten thousand mistakes; so go ahead and make those mistakes. Try everything you think of, and if you make a mistake, you’ve learned from it. So far I only have six thousand, eight hundred and seventy nine mistakes left to make!
This week’s shout out goes to Steve McNenly, who is not only a remarkable Photographer but a better-than-average Blues Harmonica player. I’ve known Steve since 1992 and find him to be an incredibly good person. I don’t see any evidence of a website, but if I find out he has one, I’ll let you know.
Thank you for taking the time to drop by and read this. As always, I appreciate your thoughts and comments. Until next week, keep your shutter finger warm and always remember to pack extra batteries!