HLI PhotoNotes Volume 3 Issue 2 March/April 2005

Published by Hankins-Lawrence Images, LLC of Bethesda, Maryland

http://www.hankinslawrenceimages.com

Table of Contents

1. Happy Spring!

2. Depth of Field: Setting the Aperture to Control the Look of Your Photo

3. Gadget Corner: Gitzo G2220 Tripod

4. Hankins-Lawrence Images Show Schedule

5. Subscription Information

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1) Happy Spring!

We need to apologize for being late with the March/April issue of the newsletter. All I can say is – sorry – we’ve been busy taking photos. Between the Cherry Blossoms at the Tidal Basin, the Cheetah Cubs at the National Zoo and the tulips blooming at Brookside Gardens – April was a wonderful month for photography in the DC. I took over 3000 photos this month - now all I have to do is weed them.

Bill and I are continuing to sell our photos at local art and craft shows. The growing volume of stuff we’re hauling on a regular basis has led to the purchase of newest and probably most unusual piece of gear – a 5X8 foot cargo trailer! It’s sitting in the driveway – and we’re not quite sure what the neighbors think. But it certainly will make getting all the equipment and photos to shows much easier. We’d exceeded the capacity of our 4Runner – and that was with all the walls tied onto the top of the truck.

We’ll be heading up to Cape Cod in the next few weeks. I’m hoping to finally get a good photo of my favorite lighthouse – Nauset Lighthouse in Eastham. I’ve been there twice in the past couple of years – and so haven’t managed to get a shot with decent light. With any luck – the weather will be good – and I’ll either catch it the soft morning light or in the afternoon with blue skies and puffy clouds.

Bill and I hope you are having a wonderful spring – and taking lots of photos.

Patty

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2) Depth of Field: Setting the Aperture to Control the Look of Your Photo

By Patty Hankins & Bill Lawrence

Have you ever seen a photograph where the subject of interest is perfectly in focus and the background is blurred so as not to distract from the subject? Have you wondered how the photographer managed to get the image that way? Chances are, the photographer was controlling the depth of field – which is one of the tools that can make the difference between a snapshot and a “wow!” photograph.

Depth of field is the term used to describe the distance between the closest distance and the farthest distance that is in focus when you take your photo. For any particular focal length lens and distance the lens is focused on, the determinant of the depth of field is the size of the lens aperture (opening), measured by the f-stop. The smaller the aperture (the larger the f-stop number), the greater your depth of field, meaning that a larger distance in front of and behind the point you focus on will remain in focus. If you have a number of elements far apart that you want to all be in focus, then a small aperture (large f-stop number) will help get everything in focus. The tradeoff is that the smaller apertures let in less light, so the shutter speed has to be slower to compensate – this can be a problem if your subject is moving quickly.

Large apertures (small f-stop numbers) result in small depth of field. This can be very useful technique if you want to highlight only part of the image or blur out distracting objects in the background. The eye will gravitate to the area in focus. So if you have a flower in the middle of a field you’d light to highlight, you can draw people’s eyes to that specific flower by using a large aperture. Then the flower is in sharp focus and most of the background will be out of focus.

One thing you need to be aware of if you use a small depth of field, you have to be careful to focus accurately on the point of interest. With the small depth of field, any mistakes in focus will result in the main point of interest being blurry. Patty uses this technique frequently for her flower photography. Choosing a large aperture (often using an f-stop of about 2.8) for a small depth of field allows her to focus on a specific flower while blurring the distracting background. You can see some sample photos of flowers taken with large apertures and small apertures on the web version of this article.

If you want to try this technique with your own photos, you need a camera that allows you to set the aperture – and that has the ability to set a wider aperture to get the smallest depth of field. In general, it is easier to get a small depth of field with one a 35mm camera or a digital SLR than with one of the non-SLR digicams. In general, the digicams have smaller sensors, and use shorter focal-length lenses; this results in a large depth of field even with small apertures. It’s still worth giving a try if you are using a digicam, but the effect won’t be as dramatic

To adjust your depth of field, you need to be able to set the aperture. This means getting the camera out of full automatic mode. You can use either aperture-priority automatic mode (where you set the aperture, and the camera chooses the shutter speed), or in full manual mode, where you set both the shutter speed and the aperture. Depending on the length of the exposure (shutter speed) – you may need to use a tripod to avoid camera shake affecting your image.

Try a couple of shots of the same subject with the largest and the smallest aperture (smallest and largest f-stop numbers, respectively) to see how different the photos look.

Controlling the depth of field is a simple technique that can dramatically affect the look of your photos – and make people want to know – how did you do that?

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3) Gadget Corner: Gitzo G2220 Tripod

By Patty Hankins and Bill Lawrence

Now that we’ve talked about playing with depth of field to get emphasize a particular flower, we thought we would talk a bit about our “flower tripod”, a Gitzo G2220 tripod. Getting the right angle on a flower often involves getting the camera near the ground, and often can include getting the camera at an odd angle out over a flower. We’ve found this tripod to be very useful for close-ups of flowers and other macro photographs. The center column can be tilted out an angle so that the camera can be brought out over the flower and angled down. A tripod can be helpful in small depth-of-field macro photography (you wouldn’t believe how easy it is to move an inch or so between focusing and pushing a shutter button when you’re crouched down trying to handhold your camera over a flower), and this tripod will let us catch the subject from a number of different angles. It will also extend out to act as a typical full size tripod. If you want a tripod to use for macro photography in addition to regular photography, we can highly recommend this one. You can see some photos of the tripod on the web version of the article.

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4. Hankins Lawrence Images Show Schedule

We’re going to be selling our photos at some of the art and craft shows in the Washington DC area. If you’re at any of these events, please stop by and say hello. We’re waiting to hear from a number of shows for this year, so check out our show schedule on the web (available in the Store section at www.hankinslawrenceimages.com ) from time to time for updates.

May 14-15 Mt. Airy May Fest, Mt. Airy, MD

May 21 Virginia Wine & Craft Festival, Front Royal, VA

June 4-5 Occoquan Spring Craft Show, Occoquan, VA

September 9-11 Sugarloaf Craft Festival, Manassas, VA

September 24-25 Occoquan Fall Craft Show, Occoquan, VA

October 21-23 Craftsmen’s Classic, Chantilly, VA

November 19-20 Fairfax Holiday Craft Show, Fairfax, VA

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5. Subscription information

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All contents © 2005 Patty Hankins & Bill Lawrence, Hankins Lawrence Images, LLC. All rights reserved worldwide.