There is an ancient Chinese proverb that goes something along the lines of, "I hear and I forget, I read and I remember, I do and I understand." Wiser words could not have been said when concerning photography and our equipment. We are inundated with magazines, books, and DVDs showing us exactly how to do something and its effect on our photographs but how many of us actually go out there and set up our own experiments?
We might try a few different f/stops when we are out in the field looking to get just the right depth of field. We may play around with shutter speeds and struggle with the LCD to figure out if we got the motion blur we wanted. And who even knows what, "Second Curtain Synchronization" means? But to actually set up an experiment and check the results? It's a rare person that does such things.
The reason why I am writing this today is to encourage you to get to know your camera (and the physical qualities of photography in general) better. And the best place to start is with your owner's manual. Just start out at page one and as soon as the manual describes a mode or function and its result, recreate their experiment utilizing the environment around you. Take the time to go through the whole manual this way. But don't move on to the next chapter until you completely understand the one you are in. This exercise alone will elevate your photography skills to levels you probably never dreamed of.
The manual for my camera does not go into Depth of Field very deeply at all. The manufacture assumes we understand this and for the most part, most of us do on a superficial level. But there is nothing like setting up an experiment to see exactly how your lenses react at different focal points and aperture settings. The best way to start really understanding depth of field is to start at the nearest focal point the lens can focus to. Place a yard stick perpendicular to the camera/lens with the "1" closest to the camera and the "35" furthest away. With the lens set at its closest focal setting move the yard stick or camera/lens so that "18" is in focus. Your lens is always at its widest opening (narrowest depth of field) for focusing so what you see when you view the scene through the viewfinder is the narrowest you can get with that lens. Now start taking pictures of the yardstick beginning at the widest aperture (f/1.8, f/2.8, etc) and stop down until you achieve the smallest aperture (f/22 or so). You will have to adjust shutter speed to achieve proper exposure for the changes in aperture. Review these captures on your computer to see exactly what happened.
After that try doing it with the lens focused to infinity. You will need a lot more than a yardstick when focused to infinity but a row of houses, a line of cars, or any continuous repeating pattern will work just fine. Repeat the experiment above and review in the computer. Also compare the infinity focus pictures with the pictures taken at the closest focal point and note the difference. You will notice that as you focus out further, the depth of field gets wider. Now try this experiment with a different lens.
After you have tested all of your lenses for depth of field and understand the effect on your particular camera kit, move on to experimenting with shutter speeds. The best way I find to do this is to sit on the side of the road and start taking pictures of cars passing by. Use a normal lens and start out at about 1/25sec and shoot each shutter setting up to around 1/500sec (this will depend on the speed of the cars). Download your captures to the computer and review the findings. Once you see that the cars are stopped, start looking at the tires to see if they are frozen. You can further refine this experiment with kids on bikes provide they will cooperate. Another place to try this experiment is at running/jogging events most communities have throughout the year. You won't need to go anywhere near 1/500sec though.
After you do these two experiments, new experiments will come to mind naturally through your photography. Don't miss an opportunity to do a new experiment as you will learn things at a completely different level than by just reading about it. This will also expand your photography capabilities and give you the confidence to say, "Yes, I can do that." Happy shooting!
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