The mission for the beginning photographer workshops is Technical Proficiency, Creative Excellence. To achieve this, though, you have to practice. Can you imagine the Lakers just running out onto the court for a game having never practiced? An actor in a play at the Old Globe walking out on stage without ever having rehearsed? Why do photographers think we can get away with not practicing our craft? We shouldn't, however, just go out and practice without purpose; spending even just a few minutes in practice will go a long way towards developing our art.
Using selective focus to accentuate and draw the viewers eye to your subject is easy to do when you have technical control over this creative technique. Unless, of course, you have the new Lytro camera. I just had a friend lend me his for a bit. Going to be fun!! Otherwise...
Managing your f-stops, and thereby depth-of-field, and dialing in your focus is easier than it sounds, but certainly takes practice. Learning how to use your camera's auto focus to your advantage (or when and how to take it in to your own hands), figuring out what the right depth of field is (maybe even using the depth of field preview), and still creating an exposure and composition that works for you... yes, you can do that. All learning is repetition. Here's something to get you started.
Find, or create, a composition that has depth to it and several subjects to select from within it (a picket fence, bikes in a rack, figurines on a table, artist holding a paint brush, etc). For greatest effect, make sure you're focal distance is pretty close.
Set your ISO to as low as it will go (this has no bearing on depth of field, but I always like to make sure I didn't leave it bumped up from the last shoot).
Set your f-stop to the smallest number available for your lens. The smaller the number, the more light you are letting in. Don't believe me? Come to the Aptitude with Aperture workshop and find out (or keep an eye out for that post in the blog). As it turns out, the smaller the number, the smaller the depth of field. Conversely, the larger the f-stop number, the larger the depth of field. Keep that little piece of information in mind any time you're creating an image where your primary concern is depth of field related.Use your shutter speed to create a balanced exposure. For this series of images, you might enjoy the use of a tripod. You'll be able to keep the framing the same from one image to the next.
With a balanced exposure and composition set, focus on the nearest of the objects in the image and take the shot. Focus on the next object in, then the next, and so on, until you've moved through the composition. There are lots of options for focusing with using either auto focus, or manual. Too many to discuss here. Ultimately, you'll find what works best for you. I like using my auto focus and recomposing before I press the shutter release fully down, but if I'm on a tripod I'll use manual focus for the most part.
Compare the images and see which of them tells the best story for your subject. Now try again with a new composition, different focal distances, different f-stops, and different lenses. Practice with purpose, and happy shooting!
