Next project - Focus

 Three little feeders, hanging on a wall...

Olympus E-1, 14-54mm lens @ 27mm - f3.1, 1/800, ISO 100

First image - focussed on the nearest bird feeder.

Second image - focussed on the second feeder...

Third one- focussed on the distant feeder. The nearest feeder and nearby stonework is very blurred.

But which do I prefer? As they stand, I feel the first image is the more pleasing, with the foreground in focus, as I feel as if I am "looking over someone's shoulder" with the other images. This is of course a very static and artificial situation, and perception would change dramatically if our local Great Spotted Woodpecker were taking nuts from the farthest feeder.


Next exercise - focus at different apertures.

Olympus E-1, 14-5414mm - f2.8, 1/800, ISO 100

 Fence staves 5,6,7,8 and 9 are in reasonable focus.

Olympus E-1, 14-54mm lens @ 14mm - f8, 1/100, ISO 100

I would claim that staves 2 through 11 are in focus on the original image.

Olympus E-1, 14-54mm lens @ 14mm - f22, 1/13, ISO 100

I think the first 13 staves are fairly well focussed in this image. I haven't had time to print these out and draw lines on them yet, and it will be interesting to see if they look different on paper, rather than on the screen. It is reasonably clear, however, that a smaller aperture renders a greater depth of field.

Currently reading:

At the moment I am reading "Shadows, Fire, Snow; The Life of Tina Modotti", by Patricia Albers.

Modotti was Italian born, an actor. She became a model, and lover, of Edward Weston, and subsequently a significant photographer of Mexican ethnography in her own right, going on to become heavily involved in political activism and anti-fascist activity in the nineteen-thirties.

Art of photography - Exercise One.

Well this is interesting. Followed the instructions in the book. Stood outside the back door with my trusty old E-1 and looked through the viewfinder. Zuiko 14-54mm lens fitted. Given the crop factor of a four-thirds sensor I would expect a "standard" focal length to be somewhere in the middle of the lens travel. However, the image through the viewfinder only corresponded to that through my left eye when the lens was wound out to its longest focal length - nominally 54mm, recorded in EXIF as 52 mm.

Tried again with my favourite lens, the Zuiko 11-22mm. I would have expected the 22mm end to be approaching a "standard" (50mm focal length in 35mm equivalent), but the viewfinder image was much small than the scene in my left eye.

A bit curious now. One reason I have persisted with Olympus DLSRs when Canon are so much better is that I can use my old "legacy" lenses from my 35mm film days. So on with my very old Zuiko 50mm f1.4. This again gave an image very close to that in my unaided eye. So what's with the four-thirds sensor times-two crop factor? Have I missed something glaringly obvious?

One last experiment. Took an OM-2 from the shelf (I really must clean these lenses sometime) with another 50mm lens.  Again what I saw through one eye matched nicely with what I saw through the other.

Conclusion - 50 millimetres is 50 millimetres - and that is pretty close to what my eye sees without glass in the way.

14mm

 50mm

52mm

Anyway - back to the exercise... I printed off a couple of images and went outside. Two problems apparent. First, it is a windy day and the thin paper I used had to be glued to a card so I could hold it up. The second problem is that my arms aren't quite long enough to get the 52mm image to match reality. Kate is out, so I did my best, with a 70cm stretch putting it nearly in the right place. The wide-angle 14mm image was much easier, the images coinciding at around 30cm from the eye. Being distracted by the games described above, I never got round to trying a longer telephoto... Might have to have a go with my 500mm Nikkor reflex sometime!

14mm print

52mm print.

A beginning.

Major trepidation.

What have I let myself in for?

Why have I done this?

I have commenced study with the Open College of the Arts, which may eventually lead to a BA (Honours) in Photography... I have received a box full of stuff, beautifully wrapped in red tissue paper, and have made contact with my tutor, Robert. I have a target of 15th September for the submission of my first piece of work, but I'm not yet sure what that is...

I hope that some sort of momentum will develop as I tune into what the course requires - at this point I need to just do something - anything - to get things started.

So - The Art of Photography - Exercise 1 - let's have a go...