Motion and Depth

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Motion and Depth. The photo of the whitewater was cropped so as to concentrate on the movement of the water.

[Duncan Rawlinson]

I really need to change the way the usernames are setup. I’d like to be able to say hello by name!!

Anyway, on with the discussion of these two delightful photographs.

The assignment reads as follows:

Lesson 3: Assignment Assignment
Title: Finding Depth and Motion

This assignment will have you prove to yourself that you understand how to create motion within a photograph and create a shallow depth of field. It’s a two part assignment and will require that you upload two different photo’s to our online student grading center.

The first photograph should be captured using a slow shutter speed on a moving subject which will create the illusion of motion within a two dimensional space.

The second photograph should be a shot of a shallow depth of field. The objects in your foreground should be in focus while your background should be slightly blurred.

If you don’t have manual control over your camera you should reverse the rules for the second photograph.

If you don’t have manual control of your camera your first photo should be of a fast shutter speed where you freeze a fast moving object of your choice. Most cameras that don’t have manual control have a fast shutter speed by default.

Your second photo should be of the largest possible depth of field you can achieve. Again, most cameras that don’t have manual control of this feature are usually built to capture a large depth of field.

Now before I get on my high horse and start “critiquing” this image I want to say that these are both quite nice images so well done!

Image 1:
[attachment=0:1z55eubm]nice-bokeh.jpg[/attachment:1z55eubm]
1: What in? what’s out?!
When you’re shooting a photograph like this you have to be keenly aware of what’s in focus and what’s not in focus. #1 in this case is in focus.

2: Not in.
This element is not in focus and it’s the primary element in the frame. As mentioned above be aware of what’s in and what’s out of focus.

3: Nice Bokeh!
This is very nice bokeh. If you’ve done this on purpose high five to you. If not you can read about it here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokeh

4: Nothingness
This is very nice. You’ve cleaned up the frame to allow the viewer to look at what’s important. In this case the leaves. So nice work here. This is a very critical element in photography. Being able to use negative space and clean frames to make impactful images.

Nice work on this photo. You’ve clearly shown that you can achieve shallow depth of field!

Image 2:
[attachment=1:1z55eubm]distracting-elements.jpg[/attachment:1z55eubm]

1: Distracting elements!
This is a very important topic. If the items in the frame are distracting you should try to remove them. I have highlighted some of them here.

2: Motion.
Well done on showing the motion of the water here. Slowing the shutter speed slightly more would have improved the photograph marginally.

You’ve done well on this assignment. Very well in fact. So great stuff.

I hope you’re enjoying the course as well.

Thank you.

[Author]

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