*click to enlarge

focal length: 14 mm
shutter speed: 1/2000
aperture: f/2.8
ISO: 200
flash: none

As a warm up to my wide vs long focal length article coming up next, here is one taken with my widest lens, the 14-24mm f/2.8. I had just gotten this lens and was testing it out while the cherry blossoms were in bloom. I like to use wide to get interesting effects both for shooting people and for landscapes. Wide angle seems to be especially nice for cloudy sky shots making it seem more dramatic. When I took a look at the RAW file for this shot, I was surprised at how vibrant the colours were. I guess good glass makes a difference!

*click to enlarge

focal length: 18 mm
shutter speed: 1/125
aperture: f/8.0
ISO: 400
flash: none

I shot this last December when I was lucky enough to have seen this gorgeous rainbow. Believe it or not, I shot this with my 18-55mm kit lens. It was the widest I had at the time and I remember wishing I had a wider lens! I took two shots and stitched them together in Photoshop. I just spent about 15 minutes working on it so it’s not the best, but it’s ok. I did have to doctor this one up quite a bit as the RAW files were dull and not nearly as beautiful as what I saw with my naked eye. It was so much more amazing than this photo can depict. Next time, I’ll be ready!

Laura is a Vancouver wedding and portrait photographer. Visit laurahana.com.

focal length: 38 mm
shutter speed: 1/100
aperture: f/4
ISO: 200
flash: none

Remember the article where I talked about using selective focusing and aperture to demonstrate your creative control over a shot? Here, Instead of focusing on her face, I wanted to focus on the large piece of watermelon she was so delightfully squeezing the life juice out of. I also used a fairly small aperture (f/4) so that her face would not be completely blurred and unrecognizable. Although the focus is on the bright, red and juicy watermelon, I like that her expression is still clearly visible. I believe it gives the photo more dimension and a bit of a storyline.

Let’s see your photos where you have intentionally focused on a smaller, less obvious element for creativity. I know you have some of those!

Laura is a Vancouver wedding and portrait photographer. Visit laurahana.com.

focal length: 48 mm
shutter speed: 1/200
aperture: f/2.8
ISO: 200
flash: none

Andrea wanted to hear all the “gory details” behind our photos. You know, the parts that you don’t “see” in the final product. So for today’s daily pic, you get 4 pictures. I barely squeaked by getting the photo above there. It was a split second in time when she “let” me leave the paper crown on her head. Literally speaking, it was 1/200th of a second!

I’m going to be completely honest here and tell you how many shots I took of her “wearing” the crown. I took 36 shots in two sessions. The funny thing though, is that the photo on top was the very first photo of the 36 that I took! Not so great, so I tried 35 more times to get a better one but didn’t succeed.

A couple other attempts.

focal length: 32 mm
shutter speed: 1/100
aperture: f/2.8
ISO: 200
flash: none

focal length: 24 mm
shutter speed: 1/160
aperture: f/2.8
ISO: 200
flash: none

And after she successfully thwarted all my attempts, she flashed me this smile!

focal length: 24 mm
shutter speed: 1/160
aperture: f/2.8
ISO: 200
flash: none

And of course, the next day, her grandparents put it on her head and she happily stomped around the house with it sitting perfectly on her head, while I was busy cooking. Argh.

Laura is a Vancouver wedding and portrait photographer. Visit laurahana.com.

focal length: 70 mm
shutter speed: 1/800
aperture: f/2.8
ISO: 200
flash: none

I was out doing some shooting for my Aperture and Depth of Field article and saw this lonely pine cone wasting away on our lawn. I was still in manual mode so I metered for the dark part on the cone, adjusted my shutter speed and took some shots. Looking back, I see that I didn’t switch to spot metering. Oops! And without a flash, the inner crevices of the cone were still not visible, so I boosted the fill light slider in Lightroom to recover some of the lost detail in the shadows. I wish I could’ve gotten in closer but there is a limit to how close you can get and still be able to focus with every lens. Macro lenses allow you to get even closer, which is why I keep talking about them!

Poor lonely pine cone drying up with the rest of our lawn. Can you tell we’re not gardeners?

Laura is a Vancouver wedding and portrait photographer. Visit laurahana.com.

We know about how aperture affects exposure but how does aperture affect the depth of field? First of all, what is depth of field?

The depth of field (DOF) refers to the focal plane, or simply the part of a photo that is IN focus.

A narrow or shallow DOF can be acheived by using a large aperture (eg. f/1.8) and results in a lot of bokeh. A wide DOF is achieved by using a smaller aperture (eg. f/22) and results in most of the photograph being in focus.

Remember, aperture refers to the size of the opening in the lens. The smaller the f-stop, the bigger the opening. So, f/2.8 will be double the area size of f/4 and will let in double the light. See this article on Aperture with photos of the lens opening.

Most portraiture benefits from using a large aperture to achieve a shallow DOF in order to bring greater focus to your subject while the background is “blurred” by bokeh. Meanwhile, landscapes are usually photographed with a wide DOF so everything is sharp and visible.

Click to read the rest of this article »»

Laura is a Vancouver wedding and portrait photographer. Visit laurahana.com.