January Photo Assignment

[Mandy&Bailee]

Here is what I came up with....
It seems like aperture is the hot topic lately, so let's utilize that and explore aperture!
Take two photos this month using two radically different Fstops of the same scene so we can all see the compare/contrast difference between the two. Go as sharp & high as you can with maybe F22, and then as wide open as you can with a low F# like 3.5, or even 1.8 if you have lenses capable. I attached a picture that explains aperture below. Use the "A" or aperture priority mode on your DSLR or go wild and manual if you are fearless :)
In an effort not to exclude point & shooters, take 2 pictures this month using two different settings on your camera of the same scene. For example, one picture with the camera set to landscape, and one of the same scene with the camera set to portrait. Let's see what those point & shoots can do!
Oh, and of course - the two pictures must have a doodle in them :)

[Linda and "Toby"]

This is a nice first assignment, Mandy! (And that was a great way to include those with point and shoots.) It will be fun to see the pix that people post.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Now I need to re-read all the this information and actually look at what settings my camera has. What fun!

[Mandy&Bailee]

Oh, and I just thought of this - please include the type of camera and/or lens you used, along with the settings you used when you post pics so we can see the variety in cameras and settings that people choose! Also if you "photoshopped" at all you could include what you did there too.

[Debbie Penny]

This sounds like fun, my new year gift is a Nikon 5000 with a 18-200 Nikon VR lens. I am looking forward to learning how to use it, I am upgrading from a Nikon cool pix point and shoot and have done no manual settings yet. Best of all.. I have two doodles to shoot : )

[Adina P]

Oh fun! Now this will be my reading assignment of the weekend in my camera's manual. At least I'll get started reading it...we'll see how far I get in depth and understanding =) F-stops here I come!!!

[Sue]

I hope the sun comes out tomorrow so I can get out and get some good pics! I hate it when it's so grey all day.

[Mandy&Bailee]

Okay, here are two examples of kinda what I was looking for. These are of a gift on a table with the Christmas tree behind it. Both taken with my Nikon D300s with a 50mm fixed 1.8 lens attached using the "A" aperture priority setting on my camera, which means that I dial in the aperture # that I want, and the camera adjusts the shutter speed to make the best of the situation.

The first image:
1/30 second shutter speed - ISO 1250 - f/1.80 aperture (basically as wide-open as this lens can go). Note the image is sharp at the point of focus (the box) and how out of focus the background is. This is called Bokeh. In photography, bokeh is the blur,or the aesthetic quality of the blur,in out-of-focus areas of an image, or "the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light." Differences in lens aberrations and aperture shape cause some lens designs to blur the image in a way that is pleasing to the eye, while others produce blurring that is unpleasant or distracting— "good" or "bad" bokeh, respectively. Bokeh occurs for parts of the scene that lie outside the depth of field. Photographers sometimes deliberately use a shallow focus technique to create images with prominent out-of-focus regions. (I stole the Bokeh definition from Wikipedia).

The second image:
0.77 second shutter speed - ISO 1250 - f/11aperture
Definitely not as pleasing to the eye. Here is a good example of "bad" bokeh (at least, to my eye - everyone is different). Also the image is blurred despite my photoshopping the hell out of it with unsharp mask. I didn't hold the camera still enough during this exposure, especially for the shutter speed that my camera chose to work with this aperture size. I probably would have been better off on a tripod or holding my breath to steady myself.

Feel free to email questions/comments - and get out there with those cameras and start posting some stuff!!!!

[F, Calla & Luca]

Fear not. We are all probably crammers.

[Adina P]

Since I'm still in the planning stages of reading my manual for my Canon Rebel XSi... do we need to keep track of the shutter speed or is that recorded somewhere in the camera's memory...(feel free to LOL at my questions)...or do you want just the f-stop stuff? What about the ISO you listed? Want that too?

[F, Calla & Luca]

Where was ISO mentioned? Not in this assignment I think. Also, having just reread the assignment, I saw the part about must include a doodle. I think it will be very difficult, to say the least to get the same shot with the doodle at 2 different F stops. Of course some doodles obey better than others and stay still : )

[F, Calla & Luca]

Well, she didn't say it had to be our doodle or even a live one.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Oh, I see the ISO was in the example Mandy gave.