Art Photography

Monday, 31 May 2010

Exercise 7: Focal Length & Character

Exercise 7: Focal Length & Character

The aim of this exercise is to explore the differences between various focal lengths on a portrait. I have set up a simple background and a mains flash indoors. My father is visiting and agreed to be photographed. I thought it would be interesting for him not to look at the camera, so he is reading a book and looking down through his glasses. I have used focal lengths from 17mm (x 1.6 conversion factor) to 200mm (x 1.6). The wide angle emphasises the front of his face and makes his nose unflatteringly large. I was also very very close to him which would have been slightly uncomfortable. As the focal lengths increase, his features flatten and begin to look more like we are used to seeing. I found the optimum distance to be somewhere around the 70mm (x 1.6) mark. Any focal length longer than this didn't seem to change the photo much, but it was not so practical to be so far away from the subject.

Photo 1. 17mm

From Exercise_7

Photo 2. 27mm

From Exercise_7

Photo 3. 35mm

From Exercise_7

Photo 4. 51mm

From Exercise_7

Photo 5. 70mm

From Exercise_7

Photo 6. 200mm

From Exercise_7

Wednesday, 19 May 2010

Spring is Here

and is beautiful indeed. Here are some shots from nearby Harrison park taken late one evening last week when I managed to sneak out of the house when the wee one was asleep... photography of anything other than him has rather taken a back-seat lately! Hope to be back onto it soon though...

From Miscellaneous

Sunday, 16 May 2010

Project 66: Juxtaposition

This project has a simple aim - to use juxtaposition to make a photograph interesting and suggest a connection between two things - in this case a person and his hobby (birdwatching, so binoculars). I chose to use a very wide angle lens and posed my subject with his hands more outstretched than would be usual for bringing the lenses up to the face for use. However this meant that the binoculars were larger in the photo and thus more prominent. This adds drama to the photo and I think it works really well.

From Project_66

24mm, f/11, 1/250s, -1EV, on-camera-flash,

Wednesday, 14 April 2010

Project 54: Outdoors at night

The aim of this project (which I actually finished a while ago but seemed to have missed writing about on my blog) was to photograph a city at night, capturing a variety of lighting effects and colours in artficial light. It was a fun project to do, I went out a couple of times in the evening, some particularly colourful ones caught over the Christmas break with the markets and show rides, to photograph the city of Edinburgh. I was surprised with how quickly the light disappeared from the sky, but luckily I had my tripod, so there is still hints of blue in the photos, if I pointed the camera in the right direction! Here are the photos:

Photo 1: Canal at night