Fun with aperture control

There is a knack to knowing what aperture control to set so that you get everything you want in focus whilst still blurring the background. I had a few disappointments when areas I wanted to be sharp weren’t for example in the butterfly photograph at the top of the post. What I needed was for the whole butterfly from wing tip to wing tip in focus. Although photography is 2D it’s necessary to consider the z-axis when playing with aperture control. I took a series of photographs of a candle holder which offered a lot of depth to play with.

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All of the above photographs were taken at a variety of focal lengths and apertures. The point of focus is important. The background was about 1.5m from the foreground object.

Image 1, the focus was on the foreground and the focal length allowed for a lot to be seen in the frame, it gives a good overall shot but is a little uninteresting.

Image 2 less in shot and subject was larger, focus set on background and aperture worked from that point of focus making the foreground soft and background sharp.

Image 3 the focus was reversed and the cane candleholder was clear against a soft background.

Here the first and second images have the same focal length and F number but the point of focus was different, being on the inside surface of the candle holder in the first shot and the outside in the second. This also altered how blurry the background was. Both shots were interesting, but the second was easier on the eye.

The third image with its focal length of 44 enlarged the subject matter

Everything about the last three images was the same except for a change in my position.