February 7, 2011

Weekly Picture Project: Week 5 (Exposure)

This week's Picture Project letter was "E," so we decided to focus on "Exposure," with a little bonus time going to depth of field again. So, here is what I came up with:

In these first three pictures, I was basically trying to do a "good" exposure, an underexposure, and an overexposure. All were shot at f/22 and an ISO of 1600 (probably shouldn't have set the ISO to automatic, but oh well):

"Good" exposure: 1/13th of a second

Underexposed: 1/40th of a second

Overexposed: 1/5th of a second

In these next four pictures, I just decided to narrow the depth of field by using a wider aperture (and a smaller f-stop number). I thought it would be interesting to focus on each bagel in turn. Each is shot at f/1.8, most for around 1/125th of a second:





I guess the following two aren't anything special, but the first is taken at f/1.8, and the second is at f/22. I was still learning about exposure, so the ISO ratings are way different, so I kind of missed the mark on the results. As I said, though, at least I learned a bit, which is the point of the Picture Project:

f/1.8

f/22

I think these last three turned out a bit better. They were all shot at the same ISO, at least (100), and they show the results of an increasingly wide depth of field:

f/1.8; 1/4,000 sec.

f/6.3; 1/500 sec.

f/11; 1/160 sec.

For these three pictures, I guess it's a matter of personal preference which looks better. I like the deeper blue sky in the latter two, but I like the narrow depth of focus in the first one, which helps some branches stand out, and lets others go blurry. However, there's not really a central subject in these pictures, so maybe the last one is better, since it's all in focus.

Any thoughts?

So, that's it for now. Thanks for checking out the pictures!

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3 comments:

Serious Youth said...

You can speak the speak. Love it.
Do you still just have the 50mm?

Serious Youth said...

Oh- and the differences in the color of blue sky has to do with exposure, not just the DOF that is accomplished from the small f/stop. If you look at the branches the color shifts. If your exposure was the same they all should be the same color - the sky would be the same color too.

Sitzman said...

@Brad - Yes, still just rocking away with the 50mm, and I love it. I guess I'm still curious to try out others, though.
And that's a good point about the sky. Hadn't really considered that.