Week 3: Aperture and Shutter speed Workshop task

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In this weeks workshop our focus was to play with Aperture and learn how it can control the outcome of an image. The aim was to have two contrasting images, one with a large depth of field, and one with a shallow depth of field.  At this point in the term, taking images through manual mode feels quite daunting and confusing so this task especially helped me understand the process of aperture and how it can benefit an image.
Before we took any pictures the camera focal length was set to 50mm and image quality onto JPEG fine. In pairs, we chose a room and placed random objects in front of the camera. Throughout the task, the objects and the camera stayed in the same place, the role of the camera was to change the focus without moving it. 


The first part of the task was to create a shallow depth of field. After numerous attempts the best settings for the lighting and conditions of the room were having a shutter speed of 1/3 and an aperture of f4.8. Refer to image below:


The outcome was quite successful, i was able to achieve a shallow depth of field in the foreground and background while having a sharp and in focus subject. The advantages of this is that the images draw attention to the subject. When trying to create effects of empathy or wanting to draw the spectator to your subject of interest, having a smaller f number will help focus the image onto your main point of interest. On the other hand this image is slightly over exposed, this is maybe due to having a longer shutter speed. In future attempts or images, i should pay more attention to shutter speed or try different lighting conditions. Or if i had more time, i would make the shutter speed faster to avoid too much light travelling into the image.  


In the next part of the task i focused on having a longer depth of field. The aim was to have everything in the image in focus to contrast the image above. In this attempt i had a much larger f number of f32 and a shutter speed of 3". The outcome of this can be seen in the image below:


As you can see these settings proved also quite successful. By having a larger f number it meant that the camera lens was small, this meant that i had to pair it with a longer shutter speed, so my image had enough exposure to light. Having a longer depth of field can help attract the spectator to immense amounts of detail throughout the entire photograph rather than focusing on one certain aspect. However, when reflecting on the image myself, it is slightly underexposed, leaving my image to be slightly darker than i aimed for. To correct this in the future i could leave the shutter speed on for a second more or have a smaller f number to widen the lens. Either way, more light will travel into my image and would hopefully balance my exposure.



Not every shot was perfect, so below are some mistakes when practicing with different settings.

Shutter speed: 6" Aperture: f4.8 Focal length 50mm
Above, it is clear that my shutter speed was far too long and aperture was way too large, therefore dramatically overexposing my image. I had obviously gotten confused when deciding whether to create a shallow or long depth of field.




Shutter Speed: 1/125 Aperture: f4.8
This image is very underexposed and this is due to having a fast shutter speed compared with a large aperture. To correct this i should have either lowered the aperture to around f28-32 or slowed my shutter speed.

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