PART ONE Introduction: Getting Started

Introduction

My course materials arrived last week, and I have been busy, deciding on the form of blog to use. It is quite encouraging to hear from other students on the OCA forums and going forward I hope to make full use of the facilities available.

The first project is aimed at “getting to know your camera”. I have just changed from Nikon to Canon - so this is a perfect time for me to get to grips with the manual for my camera.

The initial exercises encourage the photographer to become familiar with the camera’s optical system and highlight the differences in the focal length of the lens and differences in the size of the apertures.

Focal length and angle of view:

The aim of this exercise is to help you understand focal length and the distance the reproduced image had to be held from the eye, in order to appear the same size as the subject. The requirements were to shoot a scene, keeping both eyes open with one eye looking through the viewfinder/the other at the scene. I used a Canon 24-105mm zoom lens for this exercise. My first shot was at the standard focal length of 50mm. The second shot, was with the lens at 24mm, ie, at its widest view. Finally, I set the focal length to its furthest telephoto setting of 105mm.

At 50mm the scooter was more or less the same as seen through the viewfinder and with one eye open. When I printed the photo out and held the print up, the distance was 40cm from my eye.

At 24mm the scooter appeared a lot smaller in the viewfinder and further away from what it appeared with my other eye. To achieve an equal view through both eyes, I had to hold the print at 31cm away from my eye. 

Finally, at 105mm the scooter appeared much larger through the viewfinder than with my natural eye. With assistance I managed to view the print at a distance of 90cm from my eye.

In conculsion - this exercise demonstrates the effect of the focal length of the lens, with the aperture at the same setting. I found this interesting, as it forced me to concentrate on the focal length of my lens. As a rule, I try to shoot in manual, but I am I am quite often preoccupied with aperture and speed settings so I found this a useful reflection.