N-Photo

What you’ll learn

How your Nikon’s

aperture setting

allows you to control

how much of the

subject is sharp from

near to far, which is

usually referred to as

depth of field.

What you’ll need

A scene with points

of interest at

different distances

from the camera,

such as a landscape

with several subjects

located from near to

the far distance.

Close-ups and depth of field

The aperture isn’t the only setting

that will affect the depth of field in

your images. The distance from your

Nikon to the subject will also alter

the amount of the scene that is

sharp. With close-ups you’ll find that

depth of field is much smaller than

when shooting at normal distances,

so you can also try repeating this

exercise, but with a smaller subject,

and focusing as close as possible

with your standard zoom.

Position your Nikon and

focus on a subject in the

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aperture-priority exposure

mode. Now take a series of images going

from the widest available aperture on your

lens to the smallest, in whole stops,

ensuring that the focus doesn’t alter

between each shot. A typical sequence for

this will be f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11, f/16 and f/22.

Enlarge the images on your camera’s LCD

or on your computer. Check that the subject

that you focused on is sharp, and then look

at objects behind and in front of it. The

results you get will depend on the focal

leng t h of you r len s a nd t he di st a nce

between the subject and the camera, but

in our shots both the background and

foreground subjects are blurred at f/4 and

f/5.8. At f/8 t he r u i ned c hu rc h i s a l most

sharp, but the foreground subjects are very

soft, while at f/11 the church is sharp. The

foreground doesn’t become sharp until f/22.

4 | Depth of field

What you’ll learn

How changing the ISO

affects the noise and

quality of your shots.

What you’ll need

You can shoot almost

any subject for this

exercise, but you’ll

find it easiest to see

the effects of noise in

plain, smooth-toned

areas such as skies,

rather than areas

where there is lots of

fine detail. You may

also need a tripod if

you want to use slow

shutter speeds at low

ISO settings.

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priority exposure mode,

and set the aperture narrow

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(around f/8 or f/11 if you are using the

w ide set t i ng on you r st a nda rd zoom).

Take a test exposure at the lowest ISO.

Now take a series of images moving from

the lowest ISO to the highest, doubling the

value for each step. So if your Nikon has a

lowest ISO of 100 you will have a sequence

of images at 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600 and

so on. Remember that changing the ISO

will affect the shutter speed if you use

aperture-priority exposure mode, so

any moving subjects may be recorded

differently during the sequence.

You can assess the noise from your Nikon

by zoom i ng i n on t he sa me a rea of eac h

image to check how much noise is visible.

5 | Learn about ISO

ISO100 ISO1600 ISO6400 ISO25600

TAKE IT FURTHER

10

mins

20

mins

f/4

f/11

f/22

http://www.digitalcameraworld.com March 2016 29

FEATURE