Felix Hug
won the Image of The Year 2008 by American Photo NYC, the Runner-Up of the Travel Photographer of the Year 2007, and the Grand Prize of the ASIAN Geographic Photo Competition 2004. Felix currently conducts travel photography workshops in Singapore and travel photo getaways in locations such as Chiang Mai, with more to come in 2009.
Visit www.eyesonasia.net for more details.
What Is Your Focus On?
Why depth of field shows you how it’s good to be blurred
We looked at ways to influence images through slow shutter speed last time: using a tripod to achieve motion blur in subjects like flowing water, walking people, and speeding traffic; and conveying movement by smoothly “panning” your camera to follow a subject in motion. This time let’s focus – quite literally – on its counterpart for a correct exposure: the choice of lens aperture.
When we see out-of-focus pictures, we usually point the finger at the inability of the photographer to make a subject look “sharp” or “crisp”. Our immediate instinct in our attempts to correct this is to reach for the shutter speed dial. But from the bewildering array of tools our photography gear offers us to express our artistry and creativity, the lens aperture is often overlooked in this context. So why worry about aperture?
Aperture – the size of the hole through which light enters your lens – doesn’t just affect the amount of light hitting the camera sensor. It also controls the depth of field, the range of subjects in your scene that will appear in focus. You don’t have to worry about the physics; you just have to keep in mind the rule of thumb: a lower f-number (or a larger aperture, say f/2.8) means a shallower depth of field and less of your subject or subjects in focus. Conversely, a higher f-number (or a smaller aperture, say f/16) gives you a greater depth of field and more of the subjects in your scene in focus.
