Art of Photography: Exercise 1

Focal length and angle of view - all cameras.

I almost didn't put this post on because it feels like a bit of a failure.  However, my tutor has encouraged me - as he points out - its a learning experience and not all comes easy and not all drops straight in as fully understood. I appreciate that and on reflection can see that what I did was to get ahead of myself.  A few weeks before starting the course I downloaded some course samples to take a look at.  By the time the full course pack came through I felt that I had managed to get ahead of the basic intro stuff and just wanted to get right on with the practical bits.  A good lesson here for someone like me who is out of the study loop and also has no experience of the quality of study needed at this level. 

So here is my first effort.  The brief was to shoot a scene at 3 different focal lengths to enable more understanding of what is a standard, long and wide lens. Readings of focal length were taken and then the images printed on paper. I then held each image in front of me whilst standing in exactly the same position until it was the same as the scene I was seeing with my eye. 

Image 1:

This was taken with the lens at 80mm.  To replicate this with the image in front of me I had to hold the printed image almost at arms length.

Image 2:

This was taken with the lens at 28mm.  To replicate this with the picture in front of me I had to hold it closer to my face as was suggested in the exercise notes.  However, I began to feel a little confused as to what I was expected to see.  Was I doing this right?

Image 3:
                  

This was taken at 90mm - the full extension of my lens.  I couldn't replicate this image too well.  My arms weren't long enough! 

Interestingly, one of the reasons that I decided to do this degree was to be able to know how to use a camera without having to think about how it works  Of course this takes time and a lot of ground work to completely understand the basics of the operation and applications.  This is definately one of my weak spots because it becomes technical and not creative.  I will study more on this over the coming weeks. 

I was very happy with my tutors comments when I emailed him this assignement and was glad that he encouraged me to publish this exercise on my blog and not duck the question.

One interesting thing that I feel I have learnt is the reason for vignetting or "dropping off".  This is caused by the circle of light being projected onto the cameras digital sensor.  If the circle is too small and doesn't cover the whole sensor then the image kind of blurs out a bit at the edges.  Also I now understand  how telephoto lenses can compress an image giving background less focus and making the image focused on pop out. 

So, although my first steps into this subject are a bit wobbly I hope that things will become clearer along the way.