Workshop 5

Part 1

For this workshop, we got the chance to use cameras to take some pictures out and about Leeds. I used a Nikon Coolpix P530 camera which I have had for several years. This helped in my understanding of how to attempt to take photos using professional techniques when altering the F stop and shutter speed. 

Aperture Priority images:

So with these images which I have taken, I have used the Aperture Priority setting which means I have focused on choosing the F stop size. With a smaller F stop number, will be a bigger aperture number and will only focus on a smaller depth of field of an image e.g. if you was to take a portrait picture of somebody, their face would be clear but the background would be blurred. However, if you was to use a bigger F stop number, this would make the aperture smaller but an image where the majority is in focus. 

In the first image, you should be able to see that the central focus is on the building work in the middle of the image yet the people walking across the road are blurred slightly as the depth of field is much smaller. I put the F stop number at F7.3 which can be recognised as not everything in the photograph can be in focus if the F stop is higher.

In the second image, I have focused on the ‘not very photogenic’ pole yet all the people in the background are blurred. I liked this idea I have created above as although the image is focused on the unhygienic pole, it also displays the bustling city life in Leeds and where you can look at each individual person in the image to observe what they may be doing just by looking at a still image.

So, this image has an F stop number of F7.5 which is slightly higher than the previous photograph and displays the similar effect of focusing on a smaller aperture with the background significantly more blurred. Obviously, I would improve this by utilising a more appealing object than a grubby looking pole to focus on and producing a more engaging image.

In this image, the F stop number is lower than the previous two at F4.4. As you can see in the above image, Sloane is more clear in focus in comparison to Amelia where she is slightly blurred. Then from behind them both, you can see that the background is even more out of focus. I think as the camera I have been using only has an aperture ranging from F3-F8.3, it can be quite difficult to distinguish between them whereas, if I was to show an image with an F stop number of F20, this would most likely be recognisable.

Part 2

Shutter Speed images:

As you can see the difference between these photos, one appears blurry and one captures the moving cars significantly well. This being due to the adjustment with the shutter speed. 

So, to achieve the first image, the shutter speed is quite low of 1/50. This basically means that due to the shutter speed being set at a low number, the cars in the image which will have already driven past will not be captured. Hence, the cars appear blurred and as you can observe, a good quality image of them hasn’t been achieved.

Although this doesn’t look professional, photographers sometimes use this technique of creating a blurry image as their work of art and usually it works effectively. This is called ‘motion blur’ which is when a photographer’s aim is to purposely capturing objects in their photograph to have a blurred effect so for example; if they were to take an image of lots of people walking across a road, or maybe a train going past or of people dancing. This can sometimes look aesthetically pleasing as the photographer illuminates an everyday setting into something intriguing through the use of motion blur. However, with the image I achieved, this isn’t the case as it doesn’t emanate the same aesthetic as some intentional motion blurs. Therefore, I would improve this further by using an even slower shutter speed to create an increased blurry image. 

With the second image, the shutter speed is significantly faster at 1/2500 which essentially is because I have prioritised capturing the moving cars in the image. This then means shutter speed needs to be a lot quicker when taking the photograph. As you can see, the quality of the moving cars has considerably improved in comparison to the previous image where the cars appeared more blurry.