Project One: Depth of Field

The first project for my Introduction to Photography course was to utilize the depth of field technique. Before adventuring out into the field to complete this project, I decided to practice using depth of field in my apartment. At first, I used the aperture setting on the camera to attempt to capture depth of field. I had a lot of trouble getting the f-stop and lighting correct in order to capture depth of field. Since I had so much trouble with the aperture setting, I switched to manuel. Then I manually altered the f-stop and lighting to capture each level of depth of field. The manual setting worked much better, and I was able to take photos with shallow, medium, and deep depth of fields.

After figuring out how to work with my camera to capture depth of field , I decided to go out into San Antonio. For this first project, I decided to travel to Brackenridge park to take some photographs. During this photographing session I was focusing on getting to know my camera. Also, I attempted to get comfortable taking different types of shots from all different angles. I realized afterward that I concentrated a little to much on the subject of the ducks at the park. Instead, I should have expanded the amount of objects I was photographing.

I learned from this project that I need to be more aware of my surroundings when I photograph. For example, I had a very beautiful photograph of a baloon, but a trash can was in the background. Now I realize I always need to be aware and concentrate on everything surrounding the image I am photographing.

At first, I was very overwhelmed with photoshop, but as I began to play around with the various tools I became more comfortable. I learned a lot about brightness/contrast, color, hue, vibrance, and curves. Also, I played a lot with the burn and dodge feature. With these features I learned that they must be used sparingly and carefully.

Overall, I was very pleased with my results for project one, and I can't wait to continue learning more about my camera.