Depth Display Project

Slide 8 of 17

NOTES

Now we move into the aperute and what effect it has on our photo. The aperture effects the DEPTH of FOCUS or Depth of Field in our photo. In your magazine project number 1 you were asked to find a background simplified and a background included photo for your notebook. Now we learn that the camera LENS and APERTURE control that background. If we want the background IN FOCUS we CAN simply by setting the exposure so the aperture is as large an f-stop as possible. An aperture like f16 will give a background a sharp focus and an apeture of f2 would make that same background a blur if we focus on the same subjects. In the sample photographs here we focused on the fence post at the front of the fence on the left side of the photo. Notice that when the aperture was set to f16 the trees in the background are sharper than when the aperture was set to f2.

BUT WHAT ABOUT THE METER? We still must have a proper exposure. SO, as we adjust the aperture to let in MORE light and thus BLUR the background we will need to adjust the SHUTTER to let in LESS light if we want a proper exposure. Back to our normal exposure for a film like Tri-x of 500 at f16. This photo will stop action AND it will give a sharp background. If we want to blur the background we can move the aperture to f8 and adjust the shutter up to 2000 and get a little blur, but then only if we have a 2000 top shutter speed. So, Tri-x is not a good film for a background simplified photo. Switch to the ASA 125 film where 125 at f16 is normal. Now we have 4 f-stops we can move to as we change the shutter up 4 stops to 2000. Now we move from f16 to 11 to 8 to 5.6 and finally to f4 at 2000 for a photo with stop action and a background out of focus.

Your assignment is to work with the shutter and aperture like this to produce TWO pictures. One with a simplified background and one with an included background. In EACH photo you will still need to look at the light meter and make sure you are getting enough light.