... in fact my only 2009 photo. Seedheads of a Japanese anemone, just struck me as a very wintry picture. Reminds me of part of a Thomas Hardy poem (The Darkling Thrush) I leant upon a coppice gate When Frost was spectre-gray, And Winter's dregs made desolate The weakening eye of day. The tangled bine-stems scored the sky Like strings of broken lyres, And all mankind that haunted nigh Had sought their household fires. I'm amazed I remembered that from all the way back to my 'O' level English!
I like it.... have been trying to get my camera to focus in on something with the background out of focus - do you use the autofocus for this? If so what mode do you use?? cheers
its depth of field, easy way its to use your zoom and focus in on the foreground then the back ground will be out of focus then you can play with aperture as well when you get that far.
Yes - as he says, easiest with long zoom lens, though in this instance, I used my standard lens. Used aperture priority, with large aperture, prob F4 or F5.6, and this gives the narrow depth of field required. Even all the seed heads, which are on the same bunch, are not in sharp focus and the branch behind is well out of focus. You could do the same, all you need is some sort of plant, picture from below, so you have the sky for background, then try different apertures, then when you look at your pics on your PC, you will see the difference. Remember that a large aperture is, say F2.8, then all the way down to, say F22 which is small - the numbers are fractions. And yes, your lens should auto-focus. Most modern lens/camera are auto-focus, unless you're using a macro (close up) lens, when you'll probably have to manually focus, or move your camera closer/away, till you get a sharp focus. Go and have a play and show us!
