Assignment Two: depth of field, shutter speed

Shallow depth of field

Composition is good but the focus was on the wrong area, only the hand but not the chess piece, which should be e main subject.

Deep depth of field

I really like this picture - very green plants and very nice sky. But after tutorial i realised that a good DOF should have three grounds: foreground, mid-ground, background. This has only the first and third.

I find taking shallow DOF much easier than deep DOF because you just need to keep one part of the photo in focus. I tried taking deep DOF but all of them ended up with a portion that is blur. I guess I have not gotten use to the manipulation of a DSLR yet.

Fast shutter speed

Slow shutter speed

Had my friends to help out quite a lot with these two shots for I can’t really produce the movement and take the shot at the same time. So I asked them to try out many different kinds of movements, like flipping page of a textbook, jumping, rolling chess pieces, spinning an umbrella etc.

Was glad to hear from Jing saying the SSS photo has a potential but it was underexpose. Yes, I admit that a lot of my photos are still badly exposed and not as sharp as it should be. I guess I need to familiarize myself with the DSLR more to figure out what degree of zoom and distance between the camera and object would produce the best picture quality.

(final photos)

During the last two weeks I managed to borrow a DSLR from my friend (in which I felt very awkward and hesitant to ask). Though it is only a Canon 350D which is an older model than what the school is loaning out, the prime lens that my friend has came as a surprise to me. Though it could not zoom at all, it has a wider aperture range than the normal lens, which was a asset to my taking of SDOF.

Retook my 'fast shutter speed' for a correct exposure n also to not have e unsightly spoon in the frame, meaning my friend got to stir vigorously and pull out the spoon fast, and I have to shoot fast as well. Created a 'splash' out of the glass, a pleasant surprise. And because I had to set the shutter speed to a very high speed to capture the freeze motion, it is very difficult to not have an underexposed photo despite setting to high compensation exposure and ISO. I resorted to using the flashlights of two handphones behind the glass of water and I was pleased with the result! It kind of has a “cooling” effect.