Focus, Focus, Focus

So I had a moment to breath today for the first time in awhile, and one of DPS's posts couldn't have been more timely. It was about using focal points more effectively in photography. This is definitely an area I feel like my photog skills could use some drastic help in. Here are a few of the tips and also a few examples of my lack luster photos in need of some focal point practice.

Tips for using focal points more effectinvely:

Position: use rule of thirds, or look to place your camera in a prominent place to capture the best focal point you're trying to convey.

Focus: Learn to use Depth of Field to blur out other aspects in front of or behind your focal point.

Blur: If you want to get tricky you can play with slower shutter speeds to blur surrounding objects. This works well if your object or its background isn't moving.

Size: Making your focal point larger is not the only way to make it more promiment, but it certainly helps.

Color: Using contrasting colors can also be a way of setting your interest point apart from its surroundings

Shape: Similary contrasting shapes and textures can make your object standout, especially patterns that are repeated around an object.

Here are a few examples. I have gotten a teeny tiny better at making focal point a priority in my photos, as I hope you can tell from these horrible, not so good and maybe a tiny bit better examples.

Eek this one could us some major help in focusing on those delish turtle bites.

While the flowers may look a little droopy and sad,

the focus of the pic still draws you into them and the table setting in general.

This is a photo where I purposely focused on the pumpkin

on the right to capture the scaley and textured details.