Brice Digital Photography

Perspective Photography

This long corridor one point perspective photo was taken in the stunning grounds of St John’s College, Cambridge. I made use of the strong diagonal shadow at the top of the arches to draw the eye in from the right towards the distant door in the lower left hand side of the shot. The high contrast helped to accentuate the 3D effect obtained. A small aperture of f22 was used to maximise the depth of field along with an ISO of 400 to avoid camera shake at this small aperture setting, given that I didn’t have a tripod or image stabiliser. To improve the composition I could have perhaps made better use of the rule of thirds which would have resulted in the distant door being positioned slightly further down from the top and marginally to the right.

Perspective can add dimension and also a sense of motion. Whilst on a touristic walk around the city of Budapest I remember seeing a tram stop briefly along side me. By adjusting the zoom and the angle I managed to get all the lines from the building and tram converging in the bottom left hand corner of the photograph. The full set of Budapest photos can be found on my Pbase site.

Paris at night

Paris at night is an awesome sight to behold. Night photos of Paris are rarely dull, except the typical ones you see of the Eiffel Tower. This “headlights in the city of lights” night shot was taken on a bridge overlooking the River Seine and the 14th Century Conciergerie – the oldest prison in France.  With the camera set in manual mode I used a long exposure time of 30 seconds to achieve the streak effect on the headlights.  I clearly had to use a tripod for this and also a remote shutter control to guarantee any sharpness. I played around with small aperture settings to maximise the depth of field and ensure all the background detail was in focus, and finally ended up with the smallest aperture of f22.  For a scene with such a high level of contrast it was very difficult to maintain balance i.e. achieve a decent exposure of the river and buildings while avoiding over-exposure of the car headlights. I took several exposure readings with varying levels of traffic then used the exposure lock facility on the camera. After many attempts I ended up with this result. The beauty of digital photography is that you can try many things and avoid being disappointed with a great opportunity. Later I learned that I could have taken two shots using two exposure settings – one using a suitable exposure for the river and the other for the headlights, then merge them together on Photoshop, had I known how to do it.  This technique is explained in an excellent article on exposure lock at:
http://www.all-things-photography.com/exposure-lock.html


For more night photos of Paris, please visit my Paris By Night gallery at http://www.pbase.com/brice/paris_by_night

Depth Of Field

Depth Of Field is the range between the nearest and farthest parts of a photograph that appear to be in focus. Depth Of Field is controlled mainly by aperture size, focal length of the lens, and distance from the subject itself. Understanding how to control depth of field is vital in defining the subject matter and provides the overall “feel” of the photograph. Shallow depth of field is great for portrait photos for example, while greater depth of field is better for landscapes or perspective shots covering a greater distance.

Controlling Depth Of Field

I usually keep the camera in aperture priority (Av) mode and vary the aperture size, or f-stop number, depending on the level of depth I wish to achieve and then vary my distance from the subject. Lastly I zoom in or out to compose the shot, knowing that a greater focal length (zooming in) will give me a shallower depth of field. Digital SLR cameras give you the benefit of being able to take several shots at different settings and positions in order to arrive at the desired result. The following macro examples show the effect of different aperture settings at the same distance from the subject, using the same focal length:

This photo was taken with the aperture set at f8.0 (1/50s shutter speed at ISO 100). A few of the petals are in focus however the background is a little distracting.







The same subject was then taken with a larger aperture of f2.8 (1/500s at ISO 100) to give a shallower depth of field and make the subject stand out more against the background, however there are less petals in focus.

Calculating Depth Of Field

Here is a useful calculator for depth of field http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html

Useful Links

More detail on depth of field can be found at the following links:
Hubpages Article On Depth Of Field
Online Video Tutorial
Depth Of Field Tutorial
Tips For Controlling Depth Of Field


Also, here are some useful books that give in depth (yes, pun) know-how on controlling depth of field with plenty of examples…

Here, I was messing around with a 10x macro screw on lens adaptor. If you can’t justify purchase of a macro lens these close up lens adaptors are a cheap option to achieve a similar effect.  I could have used a tripod to obtain a sharper image and allow a greater depth of field, which would have perhaps even needed a low powered flash. Instead I had to use the widest aperture possible, in this case an f3.5 and wait for the slightest of breezes to disappear.

Depth Of Field Online Tutorial

This is a very informative YouTube photography tutorial by Shelton Muller explaining the importance of depth of field to highlight subject matter clearly, with specific reference to portrait and landscape photography. Shelton focuses (pun intended) on lens aperture control and focal length and provides plenty of examples.

For more info on depth of field, go to http://hubpages.com/hub/depth-of-field