As always it pays to think in advance what you want to do and how in advance. Given the weather is hot I've selected bottles of lager as an apt set of subjects. I've lined them up in a row and positioned the tripod at a sharp angle to the row. I've set the camera up in portrait mode and have used a 50mm f1.8 lens. I shot a set of 3 images but in processing realised I had not factored correctly for the light background and dark room, this resulted in foreground correctly exposed and subjects underexposed else subjects correctly exposed and foreground over exposed.
I decided to shoot in the opposite direction to avoid this issue and reset my subjects. Of course I had predicted this in advance then I could have avoided this error but that's what learning is all about, learn from your mistakes.
Image 1:
I've selected a wide aperture of f/2.2, whilst not its widest it is still wide enough to give a narrow depth of field for each subject, a lager bottle, which I have spaced 6 bottles out at about 3 inches between them. You'll not from my earlier post I realised I could set the same camera position for each subject without moving but could adjust the focus manually to bring each subject I wanted on sharp focus and thus the point of attention. Anything in front of this first bottle would also be out of sharp focus but the viewer would not see this from the image. The bottles behind the first are outside the apertures depth of field when manual focus is targeted at the first bottle. I notice the once the eye reaches the first bottle it tends to ignore those behind.
Image 2:
Adjusting the focus manually I've targeted the middle bottle as the subject of attention. The eye is drawn through the first 2 out of focus bottles to the 3rd bottle where the number "6" is seen as sharp, those immediately in front and behind are blurred and those at each end are blurred. This is because those bottles in front and behind are outside the depth of field for this aperture based upon the distance from camera to subject in focus. I notice here that the eye travels through the first 2 bottles before stopping at the middle bottle; looking at this image the row of bottles also "appears" longer than in image 1, though in reality it is the same distance.
Image 3:
Further adjusting the focus manually to select the last bottle in the row as the subject in focus I note how the eye is drawn through all the bottles. In this image there appears to be movement created in the image and I think this is created by the eye / imagined by the mind due to the blurring effect of those bottles in front.
Preferred Image
I prefer Image 2 since the eye is drawn through the first 2 bottles, it rests on the 3rd in the middle but then the eye moves on to notice those 3 remaining. The key to this for me is that this looks like a longer row of bottles. In addition the image is given depth as the eye moves through the image. The centre placement of focus gives a sense of balance to the image
From a creative perspective, in image 3 had I had a human hand at the end of the row, per my notes for image 3, the dynamic "movement" effect created could have been taken advantage of by giving the appearance of a waiting hand into which a bottle is sliding. Given the bottles are static this is an effect I will remember.
Exercise leanings:
Elements I've learnt from this exercise:
a) a wide aperture can result in a small depth of field
b) the viewer's eye can be quickly taken to the subject in focus, and therefore exactly what the photographer wants the viewer to take notice of.
c) an image can be given depth by making the eye travel through the image
d) dynamic movement in a static image can be implied, especially if using diagonal lines
e) creative use of aperture and depth of field can give the photographer many creative opportunities in creating images
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