"Separation," Weekly Photography Assignment for 2 - 8 August 2010

[keithsnell]

This week's assignment was inspired by Lars' New Angles image.  Lars took the image while testing his new Sigma 20mm f1.8 lens.  What struck me most about the image was how well the sharply defined detail, texture and color was separated from the background.  This type of separation makes the primary subject "pop" from the screen and adds a 3-dimensional feeling to the image.

New Angles
Photographed by Lars

We also had several discussions during our wildflower photography workshop about looking for a scene with enough (physical) separation between the foreground and background in order to successfully create this effect.  If the background is too close to the primary subject, then the background will be in that distracting zone between being sharply in focus and pleasantly out of focus.

Here's another image where I was able to successfully position the camera (and choose the correct aperture, in this case f3.2) to get enough separation between the foreground subject and the background.

Tulip and Friends
Photographed by Keith

And here (again at an aperture of f3.2):

Blue Hyacinth
Photographed by Keith

You can also use lighting to separate the object from the background, as in this shot of a backlit Columbine:

Backlit Columbine
(Aperture of f11)
Photographed by Keith

It is important to note that your depth of field gets significantly smaller as you increase the magnification of your subject (either by getting closer to the subject or using a longer focal length lens).  In the columbine scene above, I was far enough away from the Columbine that I was able to get away with an aperture of f11, which allowed me to get all of the flower in focus while still achieving adequate isolation from the background.  I suspect however that if the background would have been lighter, I would have needed to open up the aperture a bit more in order to keep the background from becoming too much of a distraction.  Don't forget to use your depth of field preview in order to judge how soft (or distracting) the background will be in the final image.

You should also be careful about overlapping your subject with a background object (of the same color) that is out of focus.  This can become confusing to the eye, and distracting to the viewer, as illustrated in Sheila's image of The Buzz.  In this case I might have tried shifting the camera position so that the foreground flowers were placed between the two out of focus stalks in the background.  (I recognize this would have been difficult to do without causing the bee to fly away.)

 The Buzz
Photographed by Sheila Ancheta

The assignment for the week of 2 - 8 August 2010 is "Separation."  Please upload your images to the "Separation" album in the Weekly Assignment category of the Gallery no-later-than midnight Mountain Time (GMT - 07:00) on Sunday, 8 August 2010.

I'll look forward to seeing your images.

Keith