Stairway to Nowhere  by mej2011

Stairway to Nowhere

@yvonneknitsknots asked me to do a photo in which depth of field is an important factor for my get pushed challenge this week. As I've not yet mastered the ins and outs of my Nikon D3200, this was certainly a challenge. Settings that would have worked well on my Coolpix P100 don't apply, so it takes a bit if tinkering to figure things out. I think this works, yes?

Editing consisted of Photoshop Elements 12 toy camera effect and a crop in Ribbet.
@yvonneknitsknots
I may try again tomorrow on this challenge.
April 19th, 2014  
Try this, Melissa. Use whatever lens you have that will give you the widest aperture (smallest f/ number.) Set your camera to the aperture preferred mode and select the widest aperture (smallest f/ number) possible. Get as close to the subject as you can with the full set of steps in the frame. Also get low to the ground so that you're looking at the steps straight on. That should give you a photo in which the steps are shop, but the background is extremely blurred.

Here's an example from my project last week: http://365project.org/kannafoot/365/2014-04-11. This was taken with a 50 mm prime lens at f/1.2. I was about 5 feet away from the stump when I took the photo.
April 19th, 2014  
Nice shot, love the flowers in the foreground. Controlling depth of field is done with aperture. A great way to learn is to put your camera on a tripod and focus on a subject. Then with your camera in aperture priority take pictures at multiple different f-stops so that you can really see how the different apertures affect the depth of field. Here's an example of something I did years ago in learning about dof. https://www.flickr.com/photos/yvonnespix/2333446793/sizes/o/
April 19th, 2014  
@yvonneknitsknots
Thanks for the suggestions. I understand the concept quite well, executing is another matter. I've been using auto focus and a lot of times my camera says "nope, I don't feel like focusing on this subject." lol. Again, I will work on this more tomorrow.
April 19th, 2014  
@kannafoot
Thanks for the tips Ron! I will attempt to try them out as best as possible given my physical limitations.
April 19th, 2014  
A really nice effort Melissa. The colours are beautiful and the subject is an interesting one. Sometimes the camera just doesn't want to focus where we want it. You can try two different options.

Switch the lens to manual focus and turn the lens at the very end manually, relying on your eyes to tell when the right part of the scene is in focus.

The second is to tell the camera where to focus using the focus points. You are probably set on auto focus points.

Turn your camera on and push on the button bottom left on the back of the camera. Scroll until the yellow box is on the symbol with the 2 square brackets and the thick black line between them.
Press OK and change the highlighted option to the 2 square brackets with the set of smaller square brackets between them and press OK.

Now when you aim your camera at something only one of the focus areas will light up. It will be the middle one, but you can change which one you want to choose or just use the center one, push the shutter button halfway down, then recompose and shoot.

I hope you can follow all that but it will be easier if you grab the camera and follow along. If I've missed anything or a point is unclear, let me know.

:)
April 19th, 2014  
Hmmm, it must have read my button symbol as html code. The first button you are looking for is the i with < and > either side of it.
April 19th, 2014  
@obmcreations
Thanks so much for all of the information! I think I understand all of it. lol. I switched from "auto area auto focus" to "dynamic area auto focus", is this correct?
Unfortunately, my eye sight just isn't good enough for manual focus. In fact, I have to use the lcd screen and "live view" in order to get a good focus.
April 19th, 2014  
@mej2011 Mine doesn't label it that way and it threw me for a bit until I realise you said you shoot in Live View. The options for focussing under Live View are different, and not something I have played with since I typically do not shoot in Live View. I would suggest experimenting with each until you find the one which works for you best.

For shooting through the viewfinder, the option is under AF-area mode -> changing from Auto-Area AF to Single-Point AF.
April 19th, 2014  
@obmcreations
Thanks! I have that option as well, I was just scrolling too far down.
April 19th, 2014  
Leave a Comment
Sign up for a free account or Sign in to post a comment.