Waiting for books

Having limited experience in photography using a DSLR camera and settings other than automatic, I, sometime ago purchased a couple of books. Whilst I am waiting for my books from the book list to arrive by post, I started reading one of my book on my bookcase.
The Digital Photography Book, Volume 1 by Scott Kelby. Started reading it today and it seems exactly what I need. It seems to be aimed at the beginner and isn't full of detailed concepts but gives advise on what button to press and when. So far so good and it has helped grasp some basics which I should have already known and somehow forgotten. One example is a photo I took contained a bit of noise. I had failed to realise my ISO setting was too high, far too simple!

Project: Focus Exersise: Focus with a set aperture

Picture 4

 
 

  

Picture 5



 

Using a fence for the scene for this exercise I used a wide setting of an f-stop of f5.60. In picture 4 I focused on the closest fence post which left the depth of the garden out of focus. In picture 5, I reversed this and focused towards the plants at the length of the garden.

Both photos give a different feeling, the first seems to say it’s a picture of a fence which, by the way, has a garden of sorts next to it. In the second the focusing in the distant detail draws the eye through the length to more objects in the distance. This portrays a garden with interesting features which may be lurking in the distance if you let your eye travel the blurred fence to it.

Second attempt.

Not being totally happy with the fence/garden photos, I had another attempt at showing the changing aspects of focus on a view. Now dark outside I took two photographs of colouring pencils. Picture 6 focuses on pencils in the distance and picture 7 the first and nearest pencil. Both were taken at f5.60, which seems to be the widest angle my camera is happy with. Earlier attempts at both scenes with a smaller F-stop left the photo looking a poorer quality. I was unsure how to rectify this through the camera settings.



Picture 7



Picture 6



                                                                              

My favourite is picture 7 as this indicates to me that there is a pencil at finger tip reach and an unlimited number in the infinitive distance.

Exercise: Focal Length and Angle View

For this exercise I took 3 photographs and printed them A4 size. My emphasis was on getting to know my camera not the quality of the picture itself or the print quality, and being snowed, in the best view was from my back door into my garden. 

Picture 1: Standard. This was taken by pointing my camera whilst keeping both eyes open, one looking through the view finder and the other the garden. I adjusted the lens until both views looked approximately equal which was at 70 mm.  Being limited by my lenses, (18-55 mm and 70-300 mm) I can estimate that 60 to 65 mm would be a better setting to take a photograph at a standard focal length.

Picture 2: Wide-Angle. An 18 mm setting was used on this picture to give the widest view, therefore, the objects appear smaller than with the naked eye.

Picture 3: Telephoto. Although I believe the optimum setting for a telephoto lens would be 400 mm the maximum available to me was 300 mm so I used this setting to take the last of this exercise. This setting enlarged the items in the distance greatly.

Standing in the place where the photos were take I found that if I held picture 1 (standard at 70 mm) I needed to hold it approximately 12 inches away from my eyes to enable the view to appear the same size in the photograph. In picture 2, (18 mm wide-angle) I needed to hold the photo very close, only an inch or 2 to equal the objects. The last, picture 3, (telephoto 300 mm) was enlarged to such an extent that it became impossible to equal the object at a short arms length and needed a grater distance for this exercise.

Starting to study The Art of Photograhy

I found art when my youngest daughter took art as one of her GCSE subjects. I began using pencils to copy other works from books that I had purchased finding that I was able to reproduce drawings that actually looked similar to the object in question.
The techniques I have used in drawing to date have been limited and I’m hoping to gain insight into new mediums and to find a style I’m confident with.
I have completed a short photography course with Open University this year and achieved a pass with 74%. (Sure I could have done better!)
I've almost finished a home study course on painting and drawing with The London College of Arts, then discovered OCA at Art in Action in July and applied to study for a degree in October 2010.
Working full-time, I will be studying around my commitments and hope to be able to complete the required work on the Drawing 1, 3 levels of painting and 3 levels of photography necessary to graduate.
I’ve spent a lot of time looking art the OCA web site, blogs and reading about learning logs and feel ready to start learning!!
I have purchased a DSLR. I am now the owner of a Nikon D3000 with 2 lenses, a Nikon DX AF-S Nikkor 18-55mm and a Tamoron  AF 70-300mm tele-micro lense. I already have the Elements 8 software from Open University to process my photography and a HP all-in-one printer which may at some point need upgrading.