Exercise: Focus at Different Apertures

Here I had to choose a subject that would demonstrate the effect of focus and depth of field through different apertures. The central object would be in focus all of the time, the camera must remain still (mounted on tripod) then by changing the aperture from largest f/1.4 to the smallest f/22 its effects (focus) would be noticeable.

Photo 1

f/1.4-1/4000-400-50mm

Photo 2

f/11-1/80-400-50mm

Photo 3

f/22-1/20-400-50mm

Photos above demonstrate that when shooting with a large aperture the effective area that remains in focus is relatively small and centred around the focal point. When decreasing the aperture number (stopping down) this effective focal area becomes larger and the definition between the smaller 'f' numbers becomes more difficult to distinguish. The smaller the 'f number i.e. f/22 the more "in focus" the entire photo will become.

Exercise: Focus with a set Aperture

The idea here is to take 3 photographs of a subject where you can set the focus at different distances to demonstrate a change in depth of field.
Set 1

Set 2

Final Set

CLOSE FOCUS - f/5.6-1/1250-100-250mm

MIDRANGE FOCUS - f/5.6-1/1250-100-250mm

FAR FOCUS - f/5.6-1/1600-100-250mm

I enjoyed taking these photographs and changing the appearance of the photo by setting the focal point at different distances. Hence the reason I decided to include several sets.
I decided to put more focus on my photographs of the cats eyes and carriageway, perhaps partly because of my engineering background, although as the road bends away to the right I felt the depth of field and simplistic detail/structure of the photos blends itself together very well here.

With this arrangement I found myself drawn towards the 'Far Focus' photograph. I feel it gives more depth to the photo and a sense of personal journey.
However looking at the previous sets I prefer the 'Close Focus' shots and sharpness it brings to the forefront of the image. To my mind different subjects will give different results, different opinions and overall likeability and feeling towards the photograph.

Exercise: Focal Length and Angle of View

In this exercise I've had to take 3 photographs, one standard view (as our eyes see), one wide angle and one zoomed. After printing these on A4 the exercise was to take them back and check and measure the distance at which these image become true to life.

I decided to carry out my first exercise on Harting Down while out on a walk one day.
Photo 1

Image held 70cm from eye to achieve true to life composure 

Standard view, taken 10m away from fence and gate at 55mm

f/5.6-1/1000-800-55mm

Photo 2

Image held 20cm from eye to achieve true to life composure

Wide Angle view, taken 10m away from fence and gate at 18mm

f/4-1/2500-800-18mm

Photo 3

Image held 300cm from eye to achieve true to life composure

Zoomed View, taken 10m away from fence and gate at 250mm

f/5.6-1/640-800-250mm

Final thoughts ... I was surprised that even though my camera 'Canon 550D' which has a 1.6x crop factor that the standard view was recorded at 55mm focal length. I would have thought it would have been less.