Monday, May 18, 2009

Depth of Field | Hyperlink!

I remember trying to figure out how only part of a picture could be in focus. I'd bring a skate photo to my friend and ask, "how did they do it?" He patiently taught me about depth of field.
Later I was so inspired by Brian Gaberman's photography with his 4x5 view cam that when you look through the lens the image is upside.... and backwards... and tilt-shift lens...and fill flash...shooting skateboarding! I need to find that issue of Skateboarder...

I like depth of field. I like how photos looks when not everything is in focus. The phrase depth of field sounds like poetry too.

These are a few photos with some dramatic focus or 'focus drama' I recently did. Sometimes the effect is overdone, sometimes it's just right. Other times it makes things look like miniatures. Sometimes done with a special tilt-shift lens, or in Photoshop. But hey?

Depth Of Field is also a great song by Snapcase.

5 comments:

  1. I wish that I had a view camera. I love the focal plane possibilities that are not achievable in camera with a small format camera (unless the camera has a tilt-shift lens). I think that Scott Pommier has quite a few photos where he implements a focal plane that is characteristic of a large format camera, but I am not sure if he achieved it that way.

    ReplyDelete
  2. RyGuy! Yeah I think the Mr. Pommier's photos are actually with a large format cam. Big fan I am.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Scott Pommier does it a couple of different ways. He often shoots digi with a Canon tilt shift lens (a 90mm or 35mm depending on the photo). Also, he does use View Cameras quite often and his favorite camera (although not good for fill flash) is a Pentax 67. You can get rad depth of field witha 105 f2.4 lens on those huge negatives.

    Your photos look amazing. I'm assuming they're digi (since I didn't see you lugging a view camera round at Wild in the parks?) but how did you do them? PC lens, lensbaby or just awesome photoshopping?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Good to know all that about Scott p. The photo of Weston is Lens Baby and the other 2 are "awesome photoshopping!"

    ReplyDelete