One of my favourite things about this life is that it's a true learning experience. There's the old saying - all too often used sarcastically - "you learn something new every day", and it's so true. If only we pay attention, it's possible to learn thing without even trying. Forget school (well, OK, don't... it's important in its own way), just try things out and think about the results, and you're learning.
Getting back to the point now, I've had this digital camera of mine for at least 8 years... possibly closer to 10 or more. During that time, I've done holiday snaps, pictures in the back garden and, of course, photos of my toys.
And during that time I've never once fiddled with the aperture settings. I've just stuck it on Auto Colour Balance, Auto Focus, Auto everything.
Now that I have, I'm looking back at so many photography sessions I've done and thinking "That would have worked so much better if I'd adjusted the aperture settings..."
Thing is, I remember years ago reading a tutorial in a computer magazine or photography magazine on how to get good, detailed closeups of things that are perfectly in focus. I'm pretty sure (in retrospect) that it mentioned aperture settings but, to be honest, I lost that magazine ages ago. Knowing me, I filed it somewhere 'sensible', and I'll find it next time I do a clearout... but as far as I know, it's gone, and the photography tips with it.
Yesterday's stereoscopic photography yielded some excellent results (see below, if you have Red/Blue 3D glasses handy), but the models in the foreground were always hopelessly blurred, and those in the background weren't perfect.
The above is the result of using the default aperture setting, and placing the camera 0.8m away from the middle row of models, with focus set to 0.8m. Blackout and Starscream are nicely in focus, but everyone else is blurry. The 3D effect works quite well, but the blurriness reduces the impact. Bonecrusher, in particular, looks like a fuzzy blob - no detail whatsoever.
Same deal here. With the default aperture setting, Bumblebee, Arcee and Jazz are so blurry, you can barely make out who they are. The 3D effect is excellent and they stand out well... but where's the sharpness?Well, that's where aperture comes in. It's dealt with quite strangely for a novice like me. When I did a web search for 'digital camera techniques macro' (since Macro mode is used for closeups, as the majority of my model photos tend to be), one of the pages dealt with where to focus, and how to set the aperture.
For a greater focal range, the aperture must be reduced... The article then went on to say "f/8 rather than f/2.5" or whatever. Now, call me simple, but when I first read that, I thought "Why does a higher number equate to a smaller aperture?" I was on the verge of putting it down to photographers being strange when I realised that it equates to 'f divided by [whatever number]', so dividing 'f' by a smaller number produces a larger result, and dividing by a larger number produces a smaller result. Not sure if that's what it actually means, but that's a good enough way for me to remember it...
I'm still experimenting, but the results so far are good... See here (again, only if you have a pair of Red/Blue 3D glasses handy...)
Everyone is now nicely in focus - so much so that I decided to add Scorponok and Frenzy into the mix. Not sure I've made the best use of either but, as I said, still experimenting...
Now you can see lots of detail on Bumblebee, Arcee and Jazz, and Prime is still in focus. Both he and Megatron seem to have become somehow washed out, so that'll be the next thing to fix... but I'm very happy with these two results.I shall leave you with a quick battle scene I threw together. I really need a better background than my towel...
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