Choosing the point of Focus – Simple Photography Tips by Michael Blyth.

Five Simple Tips on Choosing the Point of Focus in Photography

1. Decide what the picture is really about

2. A different point of focus creates a different photograph

3. Use a wider aperture to separate one flower from the rest

4. Use a smaller aperture when you want the whole group in focus

5. Where you choose to focus shapes both the image and the viewer’s mental response

There is in the UK a short-lived but wonderful period when the fields and verges are a mass of yellow, the verges have been yellow with celendines, but they have moved on to another part of their lifecycle and been replaced by swardes of dandelions.

Having considerably larger flowers they are more prominent, and in only a few weeks will have changed from what my youngest daughter called Lion Flowers, to Dandelion Clocks - themselves a great subject for wacky images.

A few days ago I took a number of photographs of the same small clump of flowers, initially from the same angle, to share with you the effect of choosing the point of focus by selecting a different flower to focus on, and how that alters both the whole image and our mental response to it.

So I'm going to put up three different images, two very close in focal point, and the other, the opposite.

Image One - Very nearest blooms in focus

The first image as you can see has the nearest blooms fully in focus, and the third bllom in the group, slightly further back is just out of focus, but sufficiently so to draw the eye forwards.

Image Two - Third-back bloom in focus

Image Two with the back image of the front group in full focus has left the front ones just a touch out of focus, but that is enough to alter things slightly.

I would comment about the general images being not quite the same field of view - it was quite awkward to get the framing the same for each shot as a lent against the bank. But it doesn't alter the point I'm trying to make.

Image Three - Furthest blooms in focus

Image Three, shows the greatest difference as I've focused in the rear three flower heads, and with the depth of field that comes with this setting on my iphone, the images in the foreground are completely out of focus, and the eye is very much drawn to the other part of the picture.

If you were shooting using a conventional camera and lens you'd need to be using around F/16 or greater.

Using a zoom lens, a small aperture like this and giving a little more distance would help.

However, it's often better visually to have just part in focus. In my view images one or tow are very much better than image three.

If you would like inspiration, not just in noticing a photographic opportunity, but in recognising when to take the picture, or leave it. Seeing the small extras that can make or break a photograph, subscribe to Simple Photography Tips by Michael Blyth and I’ll send you Wednesday’s practical posts and Friday’s reflective thoughts as they are published.