Time for some C&C..gotta start somewhere

[vansnxtweek]

I'm a beginner, so I guess this is the right place.

Here are some of my favorite pictures that I have taken since I got my camera..I think it will be easy to see what interests me. :mrgreen: I stayed in manual mode, or at least aperature priority/time priority mode for each of these. I'm having a hard time getting the extreme narrow depth of field I'm looking for. For some of the action pictures I really wanted to blur the background. I tried slowing the speed down some and panning but the result wasn't what I was looking for. Also on some of the car pictures I also wanted to try to get a shallow depth of field and still the background was almost in focus. How do I only keep the subject in clear focus? I at least tried to keep a good composition for each of these.

Thanks.
1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Thanks again.

 

[vansnxtweek]

Did I do something wrong? I'm new so I just read the stickies and went for it. If I did please let me know.

 

[mwcfarms]

I like number 3 and number 5. I wish some of the details in 3 were a bit more crisp but I understand these were moving shots. Sorry the car pics did nothing for me. The first one had too much along side it, behind it for me to really be interested in it and the other one was just a shot of a car. The lighting from behind the trees threw reflections on it that I thought were harsh. Im not a pro so I really cant comment on the technical merit of these shots just what I perceive. Anyhow thanks for sharing and keep at it.

 

[vansnxtweek]

I like number 3 and number 5. I wish some of the details in 3 were a bit more crisp but I understand these were moving shots. Sorry the car pics did nothing for me. The first one had too much along side it, behind it for me to really be interested in it and the other one was just a shot of a car. The lighting from behind the trees threw reflections on it that I thought were harsh. Im not a pro so I really cant comment on the technical merit of these shots just what I perceive. Anyhow thanks for sharing and keep at it.

You are def. right on the details being crisp. I tried to keep everything in good focus but I'll tell ya action pictures are harder than they look! lol. Using the light from behind the trees was kind of my goal to make those relections but I guess to each his own. I was trying to hide the crap paint .

Did I do something wrong? I'm new so I just read the stickies and went for it. If I did please let me know.

Yeah, you didn't give people enough time to wake up/go on lunch at work/get out of work to comment

Welcome to the forum! :hug::

Be patient and someone will give you some good C&C!!

I don't really have the ability to be constructive... or think... right now, or else I would. (It's been a LOOOOOOOOOOOONG rough week at work )

You can get some really good input on here though! :mrgreen:

EDIT: See! Mwcfarms is here!

Lol okay okay I'll take that . I posted this up last night and it seemed that at the sametime 10 other threads went up but nothing but views on mine. Not trying to piss off everyone on the first day hahah.

Thanks for the welcome!

 

[bazooka]

To decrease your depth of field, you must increase your aperture. Another way to cause the background to appear more out of focus is to use a longer lens. This compresses the subject (car) against a smaller portion of the already soft background which makes it appear softer. You can also move your subject further away from the background (trees) which will allow them to fall further out of focus. This can also be done quite well in PS with a depth map.

Creating motion blur while panning with a moving subject, requires that you actually pan with a moving subject. If the subject is not moving perpendicular to you, then decreasing the shutter speed is only going to make the subject blurry because it's moving into or out of the focal plane. Also, it appears that your shutter speed still wasn't slow enough. #4 was shot at 1/1000". Perhaps 1/25 would be a good place to start. This is dependent on the the speed of the subject relative to the sensor. A long focal length will pronounce this effect.

 

[vansnxtweek]

To decrease your depth of field, you must increase your aperture. Another way to cause the background to appear more out of focus is to use a longer lens. This compresses the subject (car) against a smaller portion of the already soft background which makes it appear softer. You can also move your subject further away from the background (trees) which will allow them to fall further out of focus. This can also be done quite well in PS with a depth map.

Creating motion blur while panning with a moving subject, requires that you actually pan with a moving subject. If the subject is not moving perpendicular to you, then decreasing the shutter speed is only going to make the subject blurry because it's moving into or out of the focal plane. Also, it appears that your shutter speed still wasn't slow enough. #4 was shot at 1/1000". Perhaps 1/25 would be a good place to start. This is dependent on the the speed of the subject relative to the sensor. A long focal length will pronounce this effect.

Wow thanks Bazooka!!! I really appreciate all of your help. That is more knowledge than I have gotten all along combined. When I did pan with the subjects it seemed to get out of focus to where everything was blurry. I tried every reasonable shutter speed from 1/30 all the way up to 1/1000. I think I may have been panning to slow or maybe too fast I'm not sure. I didn't post up the pictures with the slower speeds because they were plain pitiful lol.

As far as moving the subject away from the background, that makes a lot of sense. I have been doing a lot of reading to understand how aperature value works with depth of field and I understand 100x better than I did before, but I still can't seem to get it to work correctly when I try. I'll put the aperature value all the way down to f/4.0 and I still seem to get most everything in focus. What you said about seperating the subject and the back ground makes a lot of sense though because if the subject is close to the back ground than the background has a much better chance of being close to the focal point.

One more question. When I am messing around with aperature value on my camera I can go all the way up to like f/36 or so. Is there some point at which the focal point just becomes infinity? f/36 seems crazy and I never seem to see much of a difference past f/8.0 or so and on.

Thanks:thumbup:

 

[Fraginator3000]

I like number 3 and number 5. I wish some of the details in 3 were a bit more crisp but I understand these were moving shots. Sorry the car pics did nothing for me. The first one had too much along side it, behind it for me to really be interested in it and the other one was just a shot of a car. The lighting from behind the trees threw reflections on it that I thought were harsh. Im not a pro so I really cant comment on the technical merit of these shots just what I perceive. Anyhow thanks for sharing and keep at it.

Couldnt agree more :lmao:

 

[white]

There is more to depth of field than just aperture. You also have to consider subject-camera distance, and the focal length of the lens.

Panning takes practice. You're not going to get anywhere by using a fast shutter speed. Even 1/30 is sometimes too fast. But as a general guideline, 1/30 or less for panning shots.

 

[sfzoo]

white, care to elaborate on considerations of subject-camera distance, and focal length of the lens? how we can manipulate it to achieve the goal of a proper panning shot?

 

[vansnxtweek]

There is more to depth of field than just aperture. You also have to consider subject-camera distance, and the focal length of the lens.

Panning takes practice. You're not going to get anywhere by using a fast shutter speed. Even 1/30 is sometimes too fast. But as a general guideline, 1/30 or less for panning shots.

Okay I didn't realize I had to have that slow of a shutter speed for panning. Makes sense though. I also read somewhere to be sure to have the stabilize mode off of the lens when taking those type of shots. As far as the DoF, what kid of subject camera distance guidlines do I need to have? I realize that is dependent on the lens and aperature setting. But say I want to take a picture of a car that is ten feet from me, and try to keep the background way out of focus, is this possible with a normal kit lens? I'm not sure of my lowest aperature value possible.

 

[pbelarge]

But say I want to take a picture of a car that is ten feet from me, and try to keep the background way out of focus, is this possible with a normal kit lens? I'm not sure of my lowest aperature value possible.

If you do not have the paperwork that came with your lens, google it online and you can get all the info of the lens there.

 

[myfotoguy]

There is more to depth of field than just aperture. You also have to consider subject-camera distance, and the focal length of the lens.

Panning takes practice. You're not going to get anywhere by using a fast shutter speed. Even 1/30 is sometimes too fast. But as a general guideline, 1/30 or less for panning shots.

Okay I didn't realize I had to have that slow of a shutter speed for panning. Makes sense though. I also read somewhere to be sure to have the stabilize mode off of the lens when taking those type of shots. As far as the DoF, what kid of subject camera distance guidlines do I need to have? I realize that is dependent on the lens and aperture setting. But say I want to take a picture of a car that is ten feet from me, and try to keep the background way out of focus, is this possible with a normal kit lens? I'm not sure of my lowest aperture value possible.

Here's an article that may help you with some panning: Myfotoguy: Panning to Capture Dynamic Photos

I actually think in some instances panning left to right the image stabilization helps, as it reduces up and down movement as you pan from side to side. you might try it on and off to see which works better for you.

 

[vansnxtweek]

But say I want to take a picture of a car that is ten feet from me, and try to keep the background way out of focus, is this possible with a normal kit lens? I'm not sure of my lowest aperature value possible.

If you do not have the paperwork that came with your lens, google it online and you can get all the info of the lens there.

I'm ashamed I didn't know it off the top of my head but I was at work and didn't want to say the wrong thing. As best I can see in my manual the kit lens has a minimal aperture value of f/3.5.

There is more to depth of field than just aperture. You also have to consider subject-camera distance, and the focal length of the lens.

Panning takes practice. You're not going to get anywhere by using a fast shutter speed. Even 1/30 is sometimes too fast. But as a general guideline, 1/30 or less for panning shots.

Okay I didn't realize I had to have that slow of a shutter speed for panning. Makes sense though. I also read somewhere to be sure to have the stabilize mode off of the lens when taking those type of shots. As far as the DoF, what kid of subject camera distance guidlines do I need to have? I realize that is dependent on the lens and aperture setting. But say I want to take a picture of a car that is ten feet from me, and try to keep the background way out of focus, is this possible with a normal kit lens? I'm not sure of my lowest aperture value possible.

Here's an article that may help you with some panning: Myfotoguy: Panning to Capture Dynamic Photos

I actually think in some instances panning left to right the image stabilization helps, as it reduces up and down movement as you pan from side to side. you might try it on and off to see which works better for you.

Thanks for this! I'm gonna read it and see what I can figure out. I'm also gonna try some pictures with the stabilization on and off.