Exercise: focus with a set aperture:

 Focus with a set aperture:

This exercise required me to shoot a scene using my lowest f-stop number (f4) and to take three photographs, each focusing on something at a different distance.

I set my camera on my tripod, and the aperture @ f4, and manually focused in on the statue in the foreground. In the middle of the frame, you will notice another small statue of a rabbit, and behind this a tree. Both of these remain out of focus.

In this shot, using the exact same settings I focused in on the small rabbit statue. When this image is enlarged, it is slightly easier to view, and you can see the blurr of the statue in the foreground. However, I think the statue in the foreground is quite overbearing and distracts my attention from what is in focus. On reflection, I should have balanced or framed the scene a bit better.

In the final shot, the tree (or the trunk) appears sharper – with the mid and foreground statues out of focus. In every image though, the statue in the foreground is the dominant feature.I think I will revisit this exercise with another layout.

In conclusion, the lesson has highlighted the concept of depth of field in the photo – for eg. by focusing on the statue in the foreground, the mid and background are blurred, I think this is more interesting and the viewer is drawn into the photograph.