Light, Lines & Color

D is for Differential Focus

Nikon D60 with lens at 200mm: 1/400 second @ f/5.4 and ISO 400

Differential focus is when only a small area of an image is in focus and the remainder is blurred, allowing the subject to be isolated. This is one of my favorite techniques and I intentionally blur portions of many of my images in order to emphasize my subject or to add to the story without shifting focus away from my primary subject. By using a wide aperture like f/4.5 or 5.6 (or f/2.8 if you're lucky enough to have such a fast lens) and focusing carefully i.e. manually, you can separate your subject, like this crocus's stigmata, from the background of it's blurred petals. This also works to blur an otherwise messy background into a sea of color that surrounds the subject. (Wasn't I lucky that purple and yellow are complementary colors thus providing a very pleasing contrast in the photo below.)

Nikon D60 with lens at 200mm: 1/125 second @ f/5.6 and ISO 200

In "C is for Composition", I said that "Photographers have a multitude of decisions to make about light, lines (leading or otherwise), balance, motion, space, focus, perspective, and framing." Focus, differential or otherwise, and its partner depth of field can play a large role in the composition of an image.

Nikon D7000 with lens at 112mm: 1/13 second @ f/5.6 and ISO 100

In this image of the cocktail nuts, I wanted to ensure the focus was on the nuts but within the context of entertaining and what better way than to show some hors d'oeuvres but allow them to be blurred while ensuring the nuts are in sharp focus. A shallow depth of field created with the f/5.6 allowed the blur I wanted while I focused on the nuts.

Nikon D90 with lens at 90mm: 1/250 @ f/5.6 and ISO 400

Lastly, I used differential focus in this image of the sunflowers to tell the story ... to focus on the bloom with the colorful images of what it will become blurred in the background.

Play with differential focus and share your images on the Light, Lines & Color Community in Google+. If you're not a member, join - it's free. Then just ask to become a member of our little community - we love to share and learn.

 

C is for Composition

Composition ... the first definition of the word composition in Merriam-Webster's Dictionary is "the act or process of composing; specifically: arrangement into specific proportion or relation and especially into artistic form".

Once you learn how to technically operate your DSLR, you must then apply those techniques to composing an image that conveys what you feel or want to say - make an image that tells the story you wanted to tell, the one that drove you to pick up that camera in the first place.

Composition is not simple although it looks that way when you see an image that speaks to you. Photographers have a multitude of decisions to make about light, lines (leading or otherwise), balance, motion, space, focus, perspective, and framing. What stays in an image and what stays out? To make the images that are in your mind's eye, you will need to learn about composition and the rules that we all have had to learn, in order to know when they could be broken. Every painter must learn these basics as well in order to know when to use or when to lose one of these rules.

You could probably earn a degree in Composition, so it can't and won't be covered in just this one post but rather over several. For now, I'll leave you with the most important "rule" I've learned about composition, and that is "You are responsible for everything in your photograph." That means everything. So think before you press that shutter release button. Make your eye rove around the image in your view finder - look left, look right, look up and look down, persuse the perimeter. Is there anything that detracts from your subject? Can it be eliminated? Sometimes it's as simple as moving just a step or two to exclude something detracting or to add emphasis to your subject. 

We all click so quickly in this digital age - it certainly costs us nothing, monetarily that is, but I would argue it costs us greatly in time - time that will be required to cull through mediocre images that probably shouldn't even have been taken, if only we had thought before clicking. Next time you go out to shoot, try to come back with half as many images as you usually do because you truly worked on composing the images you wanted.