Prelim Photography (Realism)

Surrealism vs Realism

(My Interpretation) 

Camera used: Nikon D3100 (55mm lens)

Realism  

 When thinking about realism photography, I instantly thought about nature and purity that is untouched. Flowers were the perfect way to explore this. We used the close up mode on the Nikon camera to take this photograph, the aperture setting was F.5.6 which is quite large, giving us and shallow depth of field. This means that the vibrant flowers were the main focus of the shot, with the greenery in the background slightly out of focus. We then decided to try out a few of the additional camera settings and used the filter effects setting to enhance the green on this picture. I really like the effect it gave the image more vibrancy and life. Overall, I think that this picture is really what I envisioned when I thought about realism.

 We then adjusted the aperture slightly to F.3.6 to create a larger depth of field so we could get a wider image all in focus. I think the aperture could have been even lower because some of the flower in the background are still slightly out of focus. I definitely prefer the close up image, however I do think that this image still capture the essence of realism. The Nikon was on the landscape mode when I took this picture and I think it worked well to create the image I wanted.   

Due to this photography task being about realism and surrealism, I wanted to capture the realism in form of a person. In order to create the image I wanted, I increase the aperture to F.5.6 to create a shallow depth of field so I could have a close up of the face with the background out of focus. I also turned the camera to portrait mode which is supposed to be for taking pictures of faces. Overall I think it worked well, I especially like how the hair is blurred because it creates an extra dimension. However I think that the aperture could have been lower or that the image should have been even more of a close up because I would have preferred the foreground to be slightly more in focus.
We then wanted to try out some of the other camera settings and found a monochrome setting that turns pictures black and white. I really liked the effect it gave, especially because when I was researching realism, the majority of images were in black and white.