Tabletop Photography

While scanning through the blogs I suscribe to I came across an example showing depth of field and how it can be controlled by adjusting the aperture.  The demonstration used a piece of timber with nails partly hammered in about 5cm apart with the timber running away from the camera.  With wider apertures (lower f/stop number) the depth of field was more shallow than when the aperture was closed down (higher f/stop number).  This was illustrated by how many nails were sharply in focus as the aperture changed.

I have been aware of this for some time as Depth of Field and the Focal Length of the lens used is so critical in macro photography.  But it made me think how I could use depth of field creatively and it occured to me that if I used a knife and fork on a plate I could have tips sharp and fade off to the back of the plate and the handles of the utensils.  I set up my el cheapo trusty cardboard lightbox with some desk lamps and got to work

This first shot illustrates my initial idea of the knife and fork sitting on a plate.

Canon 7D, Canon 50mm Lens, Av Mode 1/100sec @ f/2.8, ISO 100, No flash, Tripod.

It then occured to me that it could be improved with an additional element so on raiding the freezer some peas were found:-

Canon 7D, Canon 50mm Lens, Av Mode 1/60sec @ f/2.8, ISO 100, No flash, Tripod.

Was one pea enough?

The fork was also turned over to make the tines more prominent
Canon 7D, Canon 50mm Lens, Av Mode 1/30sec @ f/2.8, ISO 100, No flash, Tripod.

I am quite pleased with the excercise and already have plans to try more variations on the theme.