I considered that a distinctive subject was required for this exercise, and one with some background interest to demonstrate the effects of moving into the subject. A good sky could help too.
Consequently I chose the SS Great Britain and took the images late in the evening, recording the different focal lengths and other settings.
The first image is taken with 12mm wide angle lens (1/90, f6.7). I wanted some foreground interest and the background on a curve so took a position some way back to use the lifebelt as foreground. The SS great Britain at this focal length is little more than masts.
This is at 22mm (1/90, f6.7), almost halving the width of view from the first image. The ship is now in view with some background. There remain some vestiges of the lifebelt and trees on the extremes; I would normally crop these out but left in here to demonstrate.
Ship is now clear at focal length 40 ( (1/90, f5.6).. Absence of foreground leads the eye more to the uninteresting background of modern flats. The longer focal length means lead in lines are lost and consequently the image looks flatter.
Could not resist temptation to change axis to portrait for focal length 73 (1/1500, f4.0). The Auto settings should not have been used - the image was dark and only usable by virtue of considerable exposure enhancement in Photoshop. But the image works and shows benefit of off-centre position as the sides and masts come into closer view.
Up to maximum 105 mm focal length on middle lens (25-105 zoom) - photo at 1/125 f4.5.
70-200mm zoom now being used. This is shot at 131mm (1/125, f4.0) and the focus is now solely on the ship.
Without an extender, this is as close as I could get at 200mm (1/125, f4.0) and this is probably about as close as you would want to get.
Lessons learnt:
- Keep thinking about exposures, apertures etc. Restrict use of auto settings;
- Good subject choice especially at time of day;
- tripod essential - these images all sharp as a result.
