exercise Panning with different shutter speeds

picture1 shutter speed 1/2500 of a second F4, this picture looks like the dog has been frozen, this shutter speed shows no sense of movement whatsoever,
Picture 2 shutter speed 1/640 of a second F5.3 again there is no sense of movement in the dog, its just  a bland photograph .
Picture3 shutter speed 1/400 of a second F5 this is still a sharp picture but it looks a bit more fluid.
Picture 4 shutter speed 1/160 of a second F5.6 the dog is mostly sharp there is some blur to the front of her and the background is starting to look streaky.
Picture5 shutteer speed 1/125 of a second F8 the dog is still fairly sharp but again the background is slightly out of focus this is starting to give the impression on movement.
Picture6 shutter speed 1/50 of a second F14 movement of the dog can be seen although it is still fairly sharp but the background is very streaky.
Picture7 shutter speed 1/30 of a second F16 the whole picture is blurred now although you can still make out the dog.
Picture8 shutter speed 1/20s F18 the whole picture again is very streaky.
Picture9 shutter speed 1/10 of a second F25 the background is very streak but it is still possible to make out the dog.
Picture10 shutter speed 1/4 of  a second F25 the entire picture is blurred you can't really make out what is in the picture.

My favorite two pictures from  the last two exercises are : from the first one photograph five, My thoughts on this one are you can see the golfer clearly but the club is blurred showing a sense of movement as it is swung, there is also movement to the hands. I prefer this one for the above reasons but also i think it is slight more realistic than some of the others any shutteer speed above about 320 of a second froze the shoot, which is good if you are photographing a golfer who wants to check their position or swing, if the shutter speed is too slow i found that the club would be the first thing to blur then the hands and finally the whole body of the golfer.
My favorite photograph from the last exercise was number six, I liked the fact that there was plenty of movement shown in the photograph, by shooting at 1/125 of a second the background was nicely blurred and although there is blue to the dog it is still easy to see what the picture of of about, i liked the sense of speed and enjoyment of the dog in this one, when I looked back over the ones taken at a higher shutter speed they appear to be almost posed. 

What have I learned from these last two exercises?
i have learned that firstly it depends what you are photographing and what you want to achieve from the photograph, do you want movement but it still be clear what the photograph is all about or do you want to freeze the picture as if you are freezing a moment in time.

I looked at other photographs of golfers and decided that although I liked the frozen look I actually prefer a slight blur to portray a sense of movement.

As far as the panning photographs are concerned I found this quite difficult at first to achieve what I wanted, it took me several attempts and I think panning will be a learning curve for me.

shutter speeds

Image one golf swing This was one of the first shots I took it was at f7 with a shutter speed of 1/3200s this isn't the fastest shutter speed on my camera which is actually 1/6400 of a second so double this speed, but it just didn't look right.
Image two this was also shot at 1/3200 but with at f8, not really sure why I took two at the same speed.
Image three I have started to slow the shutter speed down now this was taken at 1/800 of a second f11 there appears to be slight blur on the end of the club which is slightly strange as image four was shot at 1/500 of a second f13 and there is no blur, this is the slowest shutter speed I was able to use to freeze the photograph.
Image five shot at 1/400 of a second f14 you can see blur on the golf club on this photograph.
Image six shot at 1/320 of a second f16 you can see blur on the end of the club and also on the golfers hands as he brings the club down.
Image seven This was shot at 1/2 of a second f29 this time there is so much blur it is difficult to make our the golfer clearly, although the circle of movement made by the club being swung downwards looks quite impressive., it clearly shows the speed of the swing.
Image eight A slower one again this was 1/160of a second f25, on this one the club is a blur and also you can see movement in the golfers hands and arms, i like this one.
Image nine shot at 1/200of a second f22 this one still shows movement to the end of the golf club.
Image ten shot at 1/30 of a second f29 this one the club,arms and hands are really blurred there is even blur to the body, this one just looks like a shot that has been badly focused I do not really like this one.

I used various iso numbers mainly iso 400 and iso 800.

focus and different apeertures

Image one was taken at f4.2 iso 640 and the shutter speed was 1/1000s I noticed that there was only a small area that was in focus which was  in the middle of the photograph. I also noticed that as you look at the photograph you notice that the leaves on the trees are indistinct it almost looks as if the camera has been moved but only on the outside of the camera.

Image two was taken at f11 iso 640 shutter speed 1/25s this time more of the fence and the leaves on the trees are in focus, making the picture slightly more interesting if a little flat still, I do not like this picture.

Image three was taken at f29 iso 640 and a shutter speed of 1/25s, this is the best photograph of them all, tit is only the very edge of the photograph that is going out of focus so 'I did not mark this one, the leaves and the fence are more clearly defined and even the sun light shining through the trees looks sharper.

All three photographs were taken nr Faversham Kent at an old gun powder mills that has now been turned into a country park giving plenty of scope for all kinds of photography, including plenty of wildlife.

Focus with a set aperture

Image 1 Front focus, By focusing on the glass at the front of the photograph the eye is lead into the photograph, it also shows the small detail around the base of the glass where there is some crackle glass effect to the front of the glass. I prefer this photograph as I like the way the eye is drawn into the photograph. it leaves you wondering what else the photograph has to offer.
Image 2 Middle Focus The centre glass is in focus again showing the curve of the glass however the base is not quite as sharp as image one I think this is because more of the main body of the glass is in focus which could have been my fault I may have moved the camera very slightly.
Image3 Rear focus. Once again the curve of the glass and the stem are in focus but I don't really like this photograph very much as the eye is drawn straight to the rear of the photograph and you get the feeling that either the photographer was trying to take the eye straight out of the picture without you really having a chance to look at it as a whole.

What have I learnt about focal points: I think that there is an obvious focal point in most situations however I also think that at times you can bend the rules slightly and move the focus point off centre.

Focal length and angle of view

7th May 2011
Project one Focal length and angle of views.
I took three photographs, one at 32mm one at 18mm and one at 200mm.  When I printed the photographs off and stood back in the same position I had taken them I noticed that I could hold the one taken at 32mm at a comfortable distance from my eye (approx one foot), the one taken at 18mm I needed to hold closer, probably closer to 6 inches from my eye, and the one taken at 200mm I needed to hold at arms length to get anywhere near to seeing the same with the photograph and the scene in front of me.

So what have I learned from this exercise?

I have learnt that if I use a wide angle lens (eg 18mm) I will get more of the scene in from of me but not so much detail. If I use a longer focal length I will get more detail but a narrower depth of field, in other words less of the screen in front of me in the photograph.

OCA Photography The art of Photography

3rd May 2011 Understanding my camera.
Q what do I want to achieve from this?
ATo be able to use the camera more confidently, I understand the basics like changing the f stop, iso, shutter spped and white balance, but I am not too sure on things like exposure componsation and braketing to give a couple of examples.
What have I started to learn so far, well I have now read the instruction book that goes with my camera and now understand about choosing the correct focus lock and release mode depending what you are photgraphing and whether it is moving or not also whether the lense is being used in manual or autofocusing,I then went on to learn about flash and exposure compensation.