Photo Class: Far

Since our previous assignment for our online photography class was "Near," we knew that this one would be "Far." For this assignment, I decided to photograph the tablescape for our Easter dinner. That alone would be challenge enough (for me), but it was particularly challenging because of the lighting:

Half sun; half shade.
f/2.8, 1/300, ISO/80

Almost every picture I took was half in shade, half in strong sunlight.

The theme for our dinner came from the china dishes I inherited from my Aunt Betty who passed away in August 2009. (Goodness. It doesn't seem that long ago ...) These were Limoges porcelain, from my father's side of the family, and they are so lovely. I couldn't wait to use them for our spring get-together!

But, of course, I had to photograph them as well! Here is one "Near" shot, showing the detail of the plates.

Aren't these plates just sweet?
f/2.8, 1/50, ISO/80
(As a side note, now that I've learned how to adjust the
light colour balance, the yellow tones in our
dining room walls is showing up better.)

And here is a collage of near/far with one of the serving dishes and the small floral centrepiece. [Why are all of the floral arrangements at Michael's designed so that you would need to have the neck of a giraffe in order to see your dining companions across the table?]

Click photo to enlarge.
NEAR photo: f/2.8, 1/500, ISO/80
FAR photo: f/2.8, 1/80, ISO/80

That sweet little handle is the top of one of the serving dishes. Notice how, in the first picture, the flowers in the background are in shade and out of focus?  For the "Far" photo, I changed the light metering and the focus; I probably could've notched the exposure up a bit for the flowers, but I didn't want to completely blanch out the serving dish, so it's a compromise.

In anticipation of today's assignment, I also took a Near/Far set yesterday.

You'll probably also have to click and enlarge these pictures to see the difference in focus. Or maybe it's just my old, old eyes.

I am thoroughly enjoying learning these new skills with my camera. Who knew it could do so much? I've had it for so long and have really done so little with it.