Hobbies And Interests
Maximum Depth of Field
A 35mm film camera has an adjustable lens opening, called the aperture, and a variety of shutter speeds that can be selected by simply turning a knob, which is usually located on top of the camera. Typical on most 35mm film cameras is a range of shutter speeds that vary from 1 second to 1/1,000 of a second. Also of importance is the lens opening, which might have a choice of aperture settings from f22 to f2.8. For shooting outdoor landscapes, an effective option is to choose the smallest aperture setting (that's actually the largest number f/22 or sometimes f/16) and then adjust the shutter speed to compensate for the amount of available light. By choosing the smaller opening, the resulting image recorded on film will be sharp with a depth of field that starts just a few feet from the photographer and continues all the way to the horizon. This technique is favored for landscapes, but can be used in other situations also.
Panning
Photographing moving objects such as race cars and bicycle riders involves a technique called panning that is just the opposite of using a small lens opening to create a large depth of field. First, you will need to set the shutter speed to 1/60th of a second, which is needed to both track the moving object and blur the background. The aperture will have to be set according to lighting conditions and you will have to pre-focus on the object, because you won't have time for that when the action is occurring.
All you need to do now is track the moving object, while looking through the lens of the camera. If you can keep the subject centered in the picture frame, while moving the camera, the result will be a focused object (i.e. the race car or bicycle) that is pictured against a blurry background. When correctly executed the results are quite stunning, but this will likely require practice.
Successive Pictures
Another useful technique for 35mm (SLR) photography is to use a motor drive attachment to shoot a series of photographs in quick succession. This technique is best attempted only after having achieved some success with the pan method of making pictures, for with a motor drive in operation you will likely be following the movement of a runner, sports contestant or wild animal. What a motor drive does is to advance the film at a very fast rate, usually 2 or 3 frames per second, while automatically opening the lens. Shutter speed and aperture can be set ahead of time as well as pre-focusing. Following a moving object through a camera lens will take skill, as well as precise awareness that your film canister holds a finite number of exposures that can easily be exhausted in 10 to 20 seconds of rapid shooting. Older SLR 35mm cameras usually need an extra motor drive attachment, but newer cameras often have a built-in motor drive.