An Outdoor Field Trip - Aperture Reinforced

Today was a good day for a mini field trip. With camera slung over my shoulder, the search began for good opportunities to practice our experiences from yesterday. Choices had to be made. The perfect practice scene to show the differences in distant backgrounds by changing the aperture f-stops were a close object with a reasonable background quite some distance away. Here is our first subject:

 

 

Who doesn't love the bark of a sycamore tree? It's fascinating how it sheds it's bark each year. I love peeling the loose pieces off, but left them here today so you could enjoy the beauty too! This shot was taken at a small aperture opening, f-29. Notice how the brush and short fenceposts in the back are fairly clear and sharp as well as our foreground subject.

 

Meanwhile this shot of the sycamore taken at f-4.8. The big opening of the aperture blurs not only the brush and fence posts, but also the leaves from the other tree in the background. This leaves only the sycamore in focus. Let's do another one!

 

Above, we have a shot of the branches of a pecan tree in the foreground. The background is a tractor, farm trailer and shed. These background objects are pretty much in focus because we used a small aperture opening (large number) f-22. Again, small opening, large number provides for sharp backgrounds that are a distance from the subject.

 

This same basic shot of the pecan tree is this time set with a small aperture number (large opening), f-5.6. Note that the tractor, trailer and shed are all fairly blurred. It looks like we're getting this aperture thing down pat!

 

Now on to the second part of what we did yesterday - taking photos of objects that are just one distance away from us. In other words, there isn't any major distance between our subject and the background. Below is a deserted concrete boat hull. Rather fun subject with an interesting background, but that's another story!

 

 

This shot of the boat hull was taken with the small aperture opening (big number) f-32. It's a pretty far distance away and has a backdrop of trees.

 

And, here's our comparison shot. Large aperture opening (little number) f-5. And notice, our focus is the same - as both are the same distance. You might also ask, "Well, why are the trees in back in focus in both photos?" The reason is that the trees are quite close behind the boat, so they also remain in focus. This practice is sure helping! And adding hours toward making great photos!

Tomorrow is the first effort in practicing shutter speed. If you're playing along here and want something to look up before tomorrow's blog, check out how to control your camera's shutter speed. And, I do know this, it's going to include playing with water!

Until then, great photos might be just a click away.

Time accounting:

Behind the Camera - 1 hour                                     In Study and Post-Processing - .5 hours
Total                         11 hours                                   Total -                                      9.5 hours

WOW, guess what! We're already 1/1000 of the way to our 10,000 mark in behind the camera practice!

©CynthiaG Photography
   cynthiagpix@gmail.com