Exercise: Panning with different shutter speeds

f/7,1 1/60" ISO 200

24 mm focal length

Nikon d90 body and Nikkor 18.0-55.0 f3,5-5,6

f/11 1/60" ISO 200

26 mm focal length

Nikon d90 body and Nikkor 18.0-55.0 f3,5-5,6

f/11 1/60" ISO 200

26 mm focal length

Nikon d90 body and Nikkor 18.0-55.0 f3,5-5,6

f/36 1/15" ISO 200

42 mm focal length

Nikon d90 body and Nikkor 18.0-55.0 f3,5-5,6 

f/22 1/15" ISO 200

42 mm focal length

Nikon d90 body and Nikkor 18.0-55.0 f3,5-5,6 

f/25 1/15" ISO 200

22 mm focal length

Nikon d90 body and Nikkor 18.0-55.0 f3,5-5,6 

f/25 1/15" ISO 200

22 mm focal length

Nikon d90 body and Nikkor 18.0-55.0 f3,5-5,6 

f/22 1/8" ISO 200

18 mm focal length

Nikon d90 body and Nikkor 18.0-55.0 f3,5-5,6 

f/22 1/8" ISO 200

18 mm focal length

Nikon d90 body and Nikkor 18.0-55.0 f3,5-5,6 

f/22 1/8" ISO 200

18 mm focal length

Nikon d90 body and Nikkor 18.0-55.0 f3,5-5,6 

I’ve chosen a local tram as the subject and I’ve decided to make an horizntal panning about its arrival to the station. I’ve used three shutter speeds: 1/60”, 1/15” and 1/8”.

My favourite picture in this serie is the second one taken wtih a shutter speed of 1/8". I like the background so streaked causing a great sensation of speed. I tried to sharpen as much as possible the tram’s shape and I found it very difficult.

The three pictures taken with a shutter speed of 1/60” don’t show too much movement or speed sensation, so they look like a little static. The fist three pictures with a shutter speed of 1/15” don’t work so well in my opinion because they are close-ups and it’s more difficult to get a minimun quantity of sharpness to make the picture work better.    

Exercise: A sequence of composition

 

f/11 1/50" ISO 200             f/11 1/25" ISO 200

     40 mm focal length           55 mm focal length

       Nikon d90 body                 Nikon d90 body

Nikkor 18.0-55.0 mm lens   Nikkor 18.0-55.0 mm lens

 

      f/11 1/20" ISO 200             f/11 1/30" ISO 200

     55 mm focal length           55 mm focal length

       Nikon d90 body                 Nikon d90 body

Nikkor 18.0-55.0 mm lens   Nikkor 18.0-55.0 mm lens

 

     f/11 1/125" ISO 200                      f/11 1/80" ISO 200

     40 mm focal length                    42 mm focal length

       Nikon d90 body                          Nikon d90 body

Nikkor 18.0-55.0 mm lens         Nikkor 18.0-55.0 mm lens

  

              f/11 1/80" ISO 200                      f/11 1/100" ISO 200

              42 mm focal length                    40 mm focal length

                 Nikon d90 body                          Nikon d90 body

           Nikkor 18.0-55.0 mm lens         Nikkor 18.0-55.0 mm lens

I didn't have any idea for this exercise but one day I went for a walk with mom and while we were going back home, she saw wild strawberries. She was excited, so I took my camera and without thinking about preparing the camera settings (the main reason is that there was no time for that). So in all the sequence the aperture is the same, f/11, because the last picture was taken with this aperture. The first pictures of the sequence are out of focus, the composition is also poor, but it gives an idea of what is happenning. The third picture shows action, because of the blurred hand. At first I thought that the fourth shot was really awful. I don't know exactly what covers the most part of the frame (I think it's my hair but I'm not sure). But when I put more attention on the picture I realized that it leads the eyes towards the couple of strawberries on  the hand. Anyway I don't like the picture at all but it's a problem that can occur when shooting a sequence quickly without thinking about it. 

But I think the last shots of the sequence are funny, she starts playing with the camera when she realizes that is being photographied. 

My conclusions about taking sequences is that it's a very difficult task because you have no time to think or worry about changing camera settings, reaction time is very short and it can be a problem. But the good part of the seuence is that you can create a story and a picture can become exciting because of a situation,  when it can be boring if it's an only shot. 

Exercise: Cropping

 

 

    f/ 5,0 - 1/30" - ISO 200

    32 mm focal length

    Nikon d90 body with Nikkor 18.0-55.0 mm f/3,4 - 5,6 lens 

    f/ 5,0 - 1/30" - ISO 200

    22 mm focal length

    Nikon d90 body with Nikkor 18.0-55.0 mm f/3,4 - 5,6 lens 

    f/ 5,0 - 1/30" - ISO 200

    32 mm focal length

    Nikon d90 body with Nikkor 18.0-55.0 mm f/3,4 - 5,6 lens 

Cropping images can be an useful tool when the composition doesn’t work as well as expected. But the truth is that when you crop an image, the resolution of the image is reduced so when you print large copies, these have less quality.

I use to work with the largest image size and RAW format because of that. So when I need to crop an image, I try to do it as less as possible and it’s preferably to avoid cropping and make a good composition at first. So the more you crop, the more you lose quality in your copies, and even more if you want to enlarge the image.

But it can be a way to save a good picture in a bad composition.

Exercise: Positioning the horizon

Exercise: Focus at different apertures

f/4,2 1/25" ISO 200

27 mm focal length 

Nikon d90 with Nikkor 18.0-55.0 mm f3,5-5,6 lens 

f/8 1/8" ISO 200

26 mm focal length 

Nikon d90 with Nikkor 18.0-55.0 mm f3,5-5,6 lens

f/11 1/4" ISO 200

26 mm focal length 

Nikon d90 with Nikkor 18.0-55.0 mm f3,5-5,6 lens

f/29 1,30 sec. ISO 200

26 mm focal length 

Nikon d90 with Nikkor 18.0-55.0 mm f3,5-5,6 lens

For this exercise, I’ve put three different candles on a table. One of them is very close to the camera, while the other two are in the back part of the image. I’ve set my camera in aperture priority mode and made several pictures, starting from the biggest aperture (f/4,2) and finishing with a smaller one (f/29).

In the picture taken with the biggest aperture, we can see that the sharpen area is reduced only to the closest area. The foreground candle is sharpen but the rest of the images is very blurry/out of focus. The conclussion is that, the smaller the aperture is the sharper and deeper the picture will be. In this case, I needed a f/29 aperture so that everything in the scene is in focus.

As I changed the aperture, I also needed to change the shutter speed to get the same exposure, but in this case my camera made the changes by itself because I set it in aperture priority mode, which means that for whichever aperture I choose the camera metering will select the correct shutter speed.

Exercise: Focus with a set aperture

f/5,6 1/30" with ISO 1250 

55 mm focal length  

f/5,6 1/30" with ISO 1100

55 mm focal length

f/5,6 1/30" with ISO 1250

55 mm focal length

For this exercise, I’ve put three different candles on a table, in the way that the distance between them is almost the same. Then I’ve chosen a point of view in which something can be seen in the background and the nearest candle is very close to the camera. I’ve used the same camera settings for all the pictures: 1/30” shutter speed and f/5.6 for aperture. The focal lenght is also the same (55 mm).

In the first picture, the background is in focus, so the rounded candle is sharp as well as the blanket and the cushions. 

In the second picture, the sharp focus is in the middle of the picture, so the attention is drawn towards the red candle ant its refelction.

In the third picture, the candle which is closest to the camera is in focus while the rest of the elements are out of focus.

In my opinion, here the second picture works better then the other. In the first one, the background sharpness distracts from the main subject, the candles. And the third has no depth and the  main part of the picture is out of focus (except the blue candle which is a very small part of the frame). In the second picture we can see the red candle and its reflection is sharp and although the rounded candle isn’t very sharp, it’s enough to give the picture some depth.