Aperture Practice:

I shot these three videos to investigate the use of aperture in filming and to experiment with the effect it has. This first video shows my experimentation at shooting with an aperture of 2.8ff. The use of shallow focus draws the viewers attention to the object/person that is in focus, meaning that it is a good device for narrative story telling in films and other moving image texts. To gain this low aperture, I chose to use the following camera settings: ISO 200, shutter speed 1/60, 25fps, and aperture 2.8ff. This video was also shot on a 50mm lens  meaning that the aperture was able to go lower than most normal/wide angle lenses. To make sure that I got the correct exposure, I decided to change the ISO so that the aperture and shutter speed could remain the same and the overall quality of the video was not affected. 

When shooting this video at aperture 2.8, I found that it was difficult to find an area/place that would allow me to explore the full use of such a shallow depth of field. I do feel as though my choice to shoot the clips using an old plant pot on the corner meant that the desired effect of a low aperture was shown clearly. 

In this video, I shot at an aperture of 8ff meaning that there was a larger field of focus than there was at 2.8. This type of aperture is usually used when there is more to focus on in a scene, but it isn't necessary to be aware of the background. To achieve this depth of field, I used the settings: ISO 400, shutter speed 1/60, 25fps, and aperture 8ff. This video was shot on a standard/wide angle lens, meaning that the aperture could go down as far. Like the previous video, to try and gain the correct exposure for this clip I chose to alter the ISO and leave the aperture and shutter speed as they were.

Although the video is clear, in post-shoot editing I realised that the exposure is incorrect/the ISO was too high and has resulted in the footage being slightly over-exposed. This means that the overall quality of the clip isn't as good as the top video and appears to be foggy and possibly focused wrong. In the future I am going to make sure I check the footage before finishing a shoot so that I don't end up with videos that are over exposed again.

This final video, I shot at aperture 16ff meaning that there was a wider depth of field and a greater amount of the footage was in focus. This aperture is often used when the director of a text has encoded a variety of subjects in the mise-en-scene that the audience should take notice of or there is no particular object that the viewer needs to focus on. To achieve this effect, I chose to use the following camera settings: ISO 400, shutter speed 1/60, 25fps, and aperture 16ff. I shot this video on a standard camera lens, meaning that the aperture couldn't go as high and I had to shoot at an aperture of 16. 

The exposure of this video, much like that of the video above, is not correct/too bright meaning that the appearance of the footage isn't clear and appears almost foggy. If I had to reshoot this video I would make sure that I reviewed the quality of the footage before finishing the shoot, this would mean that the exposure could have been corrected before it came to editing and that the visual quality and appeal of the video would have been better.