During a recent visit to the lake, as the dog and I were strolling through the forest next door, I decided to play with the aperture settings on my camera. After settling on looking up a poplar tree for my experiment, I rested the camera body on the tree and aimed my 50mm macro lens up towards the sky.
First, I wanted a very narrow depth of field, so I set my f-stop quite low. This meant the aperture was wide open, letting lots of light in:
1/400 sec at f/3.5, ISO 400, Sony a55 w/50 mm macro lens
Then, to see how the same photo would look like with a wider depth of field, I opted for a larger f-stop. This meant the aperture was narrower, not letting in as much light. I was having trouble focusing on the same spot as the last photo, so while it’s not a perfect compassion, it still works.
1/100 sec a f/11, ISO 400, Sony a55 w/50 mm macro lens
You can tell the difference in light by the shutter speed difference between the two shots. I don’t know about you, but I kind of like the abstract nature of the first shot.
Danica Staudt Photography 