DOF and Bokeh
playing around with depth of field and blurred light

In week 4 we watched Tracey taking pictures of her breakfast table, using a 50 mm lens and a large aperture (f/2.5), which results in a shallow depth of field. (DOF) She showed us how rearranging the objects in the frame and changing the focus results in completely different results.
We were encouraged to use DOF in the composition of our images, so that's what i did.
First i experimented with my iPhone. It can make great close-up shots and there is a way to more or less control the DOF by tapping the area on the screen that you want the camera to focus on. When you do that, a small square appears around the tapped area, so you can check if the focus is exactly where you want it to be, and the background is blurred, creating a shallow DOF. (exposure and white balance are also adjusted). As soon as you see the desired focus and composition on your screen you just press the button and take the shot.

I stumbled upon this branch on a dreary and rainy morning and really wanted to capture the intense shiny dark red and the glistening black of its  berries and the beautiful drops of water clinging to their underside, enclosing a miniature upside-down reflection of the green bushes around them. I spent quite a while moving around, aiming for the right composition, and tapping the screen of my iPhone endlessly, trying to get it to focus on exactly the right spot.... 

But i finally managed to create the image i wanted and am very proud of the result....!

And really amazed that i managed to do this with an iPhone. 

The midweek challenge is about bokeh. This is an effect that sometimes occurs when  working with a shallow DOF. The sparkling points of light in the blurred area can be really beautiful and they have interesting shapes. Bokeh often enhances the overall impact of an image.

We were challenged to use bokeh as a compositional element. So today i went out and tried to meet the challenge....

It is really hard to 'create' good bokeh, because you need a certain kind of light (sunrise and sundown are a good choice) that has to be dappled or filtered by leaves, raindrops or mist and you need to work with  a large aperture (with the iPhone this can only be achieved by getting real close to a subject). So the images above are the best possible given the circumstances. They all show a different kind of bokeh, varying from just a soft, light blur to a bright dappled area.

I particularly like this shot of the dark pink fruits and leathery green leaves of a european spindle (we call it by a nicer name: cardinal' s hat) that have split and shedded their (bright orange) seeds. The bokeh on the left and top has lots of different shapes and shades and dapples.