Photographic Techniques

Panning Shot

These are examples of what a panning shot is. The distinctive traits of these sorts of photographs are:

- The subject is in focused

-The background in blurred

This is good because it can control where the photographer wants the viewer to look.

To do this you would need a DSLR camera, you can do this in manual but to make it easier set the camera to TV (Time Variant). This would make the Shutter Speed of your camera completely in your control but the Aperture is controlled by the camera, optimising the lighting to Shutter Speed you set. 

Preferably you should set the Shutter Speed to a low setting, something around 1/20-1/30 because it would increase the motion blur effect to make the background look more dramatic, helping to distinguish between the subject and the background. Once set, the goal is to focus on the subject and to match its speed. To focus on the subject it is best you don't actually focus on the subject but where you suspect your subject to be. I focused on the lane the car was going to be on. With my Shutter Speed set to 1/30 and my focus set, I waited for a car to go by, when it did, I followed it with the camera and pressed the capture button while still moving. Continue to do it as you follow the subject through the eyepiece multiple times.

Below are examples of this technique being used, it takes some time to get it right.

Large Depth of Field

A large depth of field photo consists of the foreground and background being in focus.

To begin for taking a large depth of field photo its easier to set your camera to AV mode which stands for aperture variant which makes aperture the priority. This would allow you to have full control of the aperture setting while everything else is in automatic. Having control on the Aperture, make it as high as you want, the higher it is the more background you'll have in focus, although it does make the image darker. You can get around this by either setting a slower shutter speed or turning up the ISO. I suggest turning down the shutter speed if you have a tripod to hold the camera steady, but if you don't then there is nothing wrong with turning up the ISO instead but don't turn it up too high otherwise you'll have noise on the image. Luckily this day was particularly bright so I didn't have to slow the shutter speed too much so I could take the photo while holding onto the camera. Below are some examples of photos I've taken.

Shallow Depth of Field

A shallow depth of field is a photo where unlike a long depth of field, the background is out of focus, sometimes it can be referred to 'bokeh' but it just means the background is blurry in comparison to the foreground. To achieve this look, you want to begin by turning the F-Stop down. In this case I turned it down as far as the camera would allow me, which was about 3.5 - 4. The lower the number the brighter the image but it doesn't affect the quality of the image like the ISO would, which I set to 100. This day was quite sunny so there were some difficulties but I just made the shutter speed faster and that makes the amount of time that light is allowed through the lens shorter, resulting in a darker outcome.

Below are some examples to shallow depth of field but I set my camera to manual because I didn't want to use the AV setting.

The leaves on the ground photos show examples of lens flare, which are those lines of light you see to the left of the frame. It occurs when light is shattering or reflecting in the lens' system.

Above is a good example of shallow depth of field as there is a clear distinction between the leafy greens and the bark of the tree to the green of the grass in the background.

Some lens flare and shallow depth as field. You can see it by how sharp and in focus the subjects' silhouette is compared the the smeared details of grass.