f stop

The f stop on the lens determines how great your field of focus (called depth of field) will be for that lens.  A telephoto lens with a large f stop (also called aperture) of 2.8 creates a shallow depth of field  (the green Ford is the only thing in focus).  This works great for portraits also .  The larger the opening in the lens the smaller the number, (don't ask me why) so f 2.8 is the largest opening for the lens I was using (200mm).  I was shooting whats called wide open.  In the photo below I was still shooting with a telephoto (85mm) but I closed down the aperture to f 9.  By stopping down to f 9 the depth of field increased so all the cars are in focus.  A little added benefit to stopping down is you get stars wherever there is a small light source.  Look at the reflection of the sun on the black Olds near the headlight.

I'm always interested in making images of cars. This was taken at Kingdon Drags on Saturday morning September 11th.  I shot it @ ISO 200, 2000th of a second, f2.8.  Using an f stop of 2.8 with a telephoto lens is what throws the background out of focus.  Leave a comment of where and when your show will be and I'll see if I can make it.  Thanks

Return to Kingdon 5

Two heart pounding days of raw power.  I look forward to Kingdon drags every year.  This year it was a month earlier than normal and we had beautiful weather.  I also had a team of photographers covering the track.  Kaylee Byers, John Swing, James Horn and Richard Warren.  I made sure the photographers on the back-lit side of the track were shooting in manual mode because the exposure doesn't change much.  If the camera was set on auto all that white smoke above would throw off the exposure.  To see all the photos go to digitalhotrods.com