Vignetting

Sisters by bragur

With older cameras and cheaper cameras, you may see this effect of black corners. This is known as vignetting. It is caused by light falloff from the center of the negative, and is usually the result of the lens. However, it can also be used for photographic effect.

See in the above image how the subjects are emphasized by the darkening of the corners.

There are lots of different ways that you can achieve this technique. One is the camera itself. Using 'toy cameras' will often give this image without any effort. It can also be done in the darkroom by dodging and burning (under or over exposing parts of a shot). Digitally, suites like Photoshop have dodging and burning tools.

However, the trick to vignetting is figuring out when to use it, and that's a lot harder to figure out. Portraiture makes sense though, and I think the above example works well.

What is bokeh?

Bokeh train tracks! by churl

When you use a narrow depth of field, there is a significant amount of blurring of the background, and some lenses are more keen about this blur than others. Bokeh is a Japanese term meaning "blur" and it refers to the aesthetics of the blurred background.

Some lenses are much better at this effect than others, and I've found that my 50mm Nikkor is quite excellent at it, but the kit lens sucks. There's some skill required too, as you need to have good focus and good lighting, and the key is always narrow DoF.

When you have complete control...

Watch your backgrounds by churl

So, I thought it was about time that I took my car and did some decent shots. I went over to a bank parking lot on Sunday and made a day of it, shooting about 200 shots. I put this picture here as an example of a shot that came out well (I hope you can agree with that assessment) but still has some significant issues that could definitely be improved.

First, what I did well. The car is shot at an angle, from a low point of view, with the wheel turned. All these touches give the vehicle a novel and deep view, adding a 3D quality to the image that front or side views can't. I placed the car off center. I metered to get good exposure on the side of the car. I shot at a low f/stop to isolate my subject.

Here's what could be improved. Look at the background. There is a lamppost in the middle of the car. There's a trash dumpster to the side. The building is in only 3/4 of the shot. It would've been better to have all building or none.

The sunlight angle is casting a big shadow from the rear view mirror. It would've been better to reposition the car.

So you can see that when you have complete control over your subject, there are a lot of considerations that come into play when crafting your shot. And for a little humor on the subject of watching out for your backgrounds, take a look at this photo.