Focus: Focus with a set aperture

This exercise was to find a scene that has depth and take two or three pictures each focused on something at a different distances with the aperture set at its widest, then record which image you prefered. The following shots were taken with an F-stop of 5.6.

Using the widest aperture allows more light to pass through the lense, and creates these lovely blurred effects where the camera is not focused on a specific part of the image. It increases the intensity of the sharpness of the subject you are focusing on, making it stand out heavily and draws in your attention. The first image shows clearly the wire fence and grasses at the very foreground of the image, the background is unfocused causing the objects to almost leap out of the picture. The second image is less clear in the forground but still retains some focus, but the attention is drawn to the grasses behind the fence and the plowed lines in the ground. The third image was focused on the posts in the background, which makes the foreground blurred so that it just hints at the fence infront of the scene.

For me, the most striking is the first image as it stands out most clearly against the blurred field behind, but it is so blurred that you loose the sense of the field. It is the same with the third image which detracts from the objects in the foreground. My favourite is actually the second image, which is more focused from the middle ground to the front, allowing the viewer to still see and appreciate the field, but not to let it dominate the image. The same applies to the foreground where parts are in focus to draw the attention, but do not detract too much away from the field behind. I like the compromise between the elements of the picture and the way in which the eye is drawn from the front of the image to the back by the varied degrees of focus.