Wide Open

[Seltzer]

This weeks assignment is "wide open". This may have a few people asking what exactly shooting wide open is. Basically it refers to the size of the opening in your lens to let light pass through. The smaller the f-stop the larger the opening. For example, if your lens is the standard 18-55mm kit lens it probably has options of f3.5 to f5.6. The f3.5 is a larger opening than the f5.6. So for this assignment we are trying for smaller numbers to have a wider opening.
A great intro for this is in the blog:
http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/aperture/

I wasn't planning on initiating this assignment so I had to dig through my photos. Not the best, but anyone that has seen fencing knows just how fast the action is so my 50mm f1.8 works nicely for this with the fast shutter speed and large opening to let a lot of light in quickly.



As always EXIF data needs to be intact if you wish to participate in the mini contest!

The image you submit should be taken between the 30th April and the 13th of May 2008 (before the end of the mini-contest).

Your post must include "Assignment: Wide Open" to show your permission to count it for the contest.

*** From SuperMod Wulf: "The challenge is to open the aperture as wide as it will go. To maximise the challenge, use your fastest available lens (although, as you can see from my entry, this isn't essential - my 50mm f/1.8 was the only lens I didn't take on my recent holiday). When the moderators do the judging at the end of the week, we will go through our shortlists and disqualify any shots where the aperture doesn't match the wide open setting for the lens used (therefore, it is useful to mention both those bits of information on your entry - eg. "taken at at f/2.5 with my Vivitar 90mm f/2.5 lens").

If you haven't got a camera that allows you to demand a particular aperture then either give yourself a week off (how about picking a section of the site you haven't contributed to, like "Before and After", and seeing what you can come up with for that instead) or do some experiments to see what conditions and settings force your camera to take a wide-open shot.

Wulf" -- Hope that helps clarify things.

Again, remember, only one image per user can qualify for the mini-contest, if more than one is listed for the assignment (with assignment: wide open) all of that user's images will be disqualified.


Next week's assignment is Low Light/Night photography

[candleman]

Next week's assignment is Low Light/Night photography

DARN! i hada really good one this week for that.. oh well.. probably still elligable for "wide open"

[RussHeath]

Just to clarify, are we trying to shoot at our absolute max aperture, or are we just playing with narrow DOF? It's easy to tell from metadata if a shot was taken at max aperture, so for example, does a shot taken with my 50mm f/1.8 that was shot at f/2.5 qualify? I really don't care, I just want to know what I'm aiming for this week!

[MikeM]

DARN! i hada really good one this week for that.. oh well.. probably still elligable for "wide open"

The eligibility date starts from one week before the assignment is posted, so maybe you still qualify. For instance, photos taken on April 30 count for this week's contest.

[Teewinot]

Just to clarify, are we trying to shoot at our absolute max aperture, or are we just playing with narrow DOF? It's easy to tell from metadata if a shot was taken at max aperture, so for example, does a shot taken with my 50mm f/1.8 that was shot at f/2.5 qualify? I really don't care, I just want to know what I'm aiming for this week!

Russ, last week when NaturesPixel initiated the Converging Lines assignment, she said this:

"Next weeks is "Wide Open" f1.4 - f3.5 whatever - just wide open!""

Maybe it's flexible then?

[mseigafuse]

My question before was more geared towards zoom lenses (like my kit lens) which has a variable relative aperture (to quote wikipedia) across it's range. So at 18mm I can use f3.5, but at 55mm wide open is f5.6. Like RussHeath I just want to clarify. I can always just shoot with a fixed focal length lens if need be

[Seltzer]

For my part, I'd go with the wider the better as a general rule.. As with my 50mm, I can't zoom so it's all a matter of moving my body and I think that is part of the purpose of this particular assignment. Granted, everyone has a range that they can do with their lenses but try to keep near the larger (smaller #) end if at all possible.

[aclamann]

I just happened to be playing around with DoF this past weekend. Lucky me!

[Igor]

Taken at f4.0, which looks like the bottom end of my lens, was thinking about "wide open." This is a piece of art that's "Open Wide!" Lightened up a bit in PSP.

The art studio is the Bungled Jungle in Colorado. Penguin is from someplace else. Thought the cowboy hat added a touch of class.

Exif on Flickr

[--Deb]

Assignment: Open Wide



And--this is a stupid question (but I've only had my Nikon for 24 hours--how do I GET the exif data to post?? I'll come back and add it, but I need to know how, first (grin)

I took this last night when I'd had the camera in my hands for less than an hour. The aperture was f/5.3, which was as wide as it would go. (I was just so happy to have a camera that could DO this....)

--Deb