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GDS 251 APPLIED PHOTGRAPHY
Exercise #1: Focus & Blur
Instructors: Bonnie Burgund and Paul Young

Objective

To utilize soft focus and blurred images as a compositional device. To learn how to control the shutter speed and aperture of your camera. Once you understand these controls, you will be able to make better aesthetic and compositional decisions when creating images.

Discussion

What you see with your own eyes looks different than what the camera sees for one very important reason — everything you see is in focus. Depending on your aperture setting, the camera lens may NOT see everything in focus. This can actually be a benefit: a soft background can be used as a compositional device to focus the viewer's attention on the sharp subject in the foreground. The next time you watch a scene in a movie with two people talking, make note of the background. In still photographs, a blurred image implies motion. In photographs of race cars, for example, the more blurred the background, the faster the cars seem to be moving. Look for this in other sports photographs as well.

Procedure

Shoot at least one 24-exposure roll of film using the manual settings of your camera. Use color print film with an ISO of 200. You will need strong daylight for this assignment. Record the aperture and shutter speed of each picture in your sketchbook, then transfer the information to the back of each print.

First, shoot 12 exposures with your aperture wide open. This will give you a very shallow depth of field. Make deliberate out-of-focus compositions. Look for interesting shapes and colors. Pay careful attention to unity (proximity), balance (cropping), depth (highlights and shadows) and color schemes. Make sure nothing is in focus. Remember to change your shutter speed so that it corresponds to the reading on your light meter and to record the information in your sketchbook.

Then shoot 12 exposures of 4 different moving objects using a range of shutter speeds. Keep your camera stationary for the first 2 subjects, and pan the camera (follow the moving object) for the second 2 subjects. Shoot each subject three times using these shutter speeds (4 subjects x 3 exposures each = 12 exposures):

1. 1/2 second or slower
2. 1/30 second
3. 1/60 second or faster

Remember to change your aperture according to the light meter reading and to record the information in your sketchbook.

Have the film commercially developed and printed (4x6 prints). If the first roll did not turn out, try again. Present only your selects for critique.

Schedule

See Calendar

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Last updated: 5/19/02 • Webmaster: Paul Young