Unit One Photo Two Attempt

Photo 2- Using selective focus (and wide aperture) to create a sharp subject and blurred background.


This is my nephew at my son's birthday party this weekend. I think he stands out pretty well. There is a fence, another child and a sprinkler going on behind him. I'm not sure about the kid behind him. Is that blob of the same color too distracting because it fill almost the same amount of frame? Or am I obsessing?

f/5.6 ; SS 40 ; ISO 200
My niece at the same birthday party. There is much less in the background though the fence is still technically there.
f/5.3 ; SS 125 ; ISO 200

Thoughts?

NYIP Unit One Photo One Attempts

Panning shot of my niece on a four wheeler. f/9 ; SS 10 ; ISO 200

My youngest playing with a ball. f/5 ; SS 160 ; ISO 200

Youngest again racing with his brother and his radio flyer rocket! f/20 ; SS 10 ; ISO 200

I love this shot. HATE the tree growing out of his head! Chalk one up to needing to develop my photographers eye! f/5 ; SS 160 ; ISO 200

All of these were taken with my Nikon D80. The first was taken with my 50mm 1.8 and the last three were taken with my 18-200mm.

I personally think the first one is the sharpest while still conveying motion, but I am not thrilled about the background. I like the second one, but feel it's lacking because he's not looking at the camera and his legs are chopped. The third is blurrier than I like and I'm not sure that the background shows enough blur as the grass all blends together anyway. The fourth I have issues with b/c of the tree.

Still trying to get "the" shot. I don't think any of these are it. Panning is SO much harder than I thought it would be! I need to get a tripod. i think that might help with the "follow through".

Thank You!

To everyone who voted, many thanks. I had a slight fiasco yesterday which ended in me only being able to enter four pictures (due to time restrictions) and not being able to use the fire hat photo (the rules did not allow selective coloring. For more information, you can view the melodrama here . I entered photos 1, 3, 4 and 5. Judging is until 5 today- keep your fingers crossed for me!

I'm thinking of entering a photo (or two if I can't decide) in the local fair. If you had to choose, which would it be? I'm going to attempt a poll, but if it doesn't work, leave a comment with your choice.

NYIP Unit One Photo Assignment

Photograph One: Using shutter speed to express a sense of motion or speed. Choose a moving subject and use one of the three following techniques:

• Fast shutter speed to "freeze" the action.
  
• Use a very low shutter speed to blur the image of the moving subject while keeping the background sharp
• Use a slow shutter speed and pan the camera to keep the subject sharp while creating streaks in the background.

Photograph Two: Use selective focus to make the subject stand out. Photograph a person or thing close up and make the subject sharp, but the background blurred.

Photograph Three: Create a feeling of distance by using a great depth of field. Keep everything near and far in focus.

I'll be posting my attempts in this blog. Give me some feedback. Help me decide what's working and what's not! Thanks!