MAJOR EVENT

Depth of field (DOF) refers to that part of a photograph that appears to be in focus. It exists within a plane perpendicular to the axis of the cameras viewpoint. The photographer chooses which affect of depth of field to choose. Narrow DOF tends to separate the subject from an out of focus background while greater DOF incorporates the background as an essential element in the photo. / A photographer has three tools to manage the DOF, choice of lens, aperture and focal point. The focal length of a lens affects one element of the DOF available from that lens. Generally speaking the shorter the focal length of the lens, the greater the DOF. When set at the same aperture and focal point a longer lens will always have a shallower DOF then a wide angle lens will. A focus point 2 feet from the camera will have less DOF than a focus point of 10 or 100 feet. Aperture selection is the third tool. When a lens is stopped down to, let’s say f22 it will always have greater DOF then if shot wide open at f2.8. / An example of a depth of field chart illustrates the concepts of managing DOF. The cells give two distances the first is the closest distance to the camera that the subject will be in acceptable focus. The later number is the furthest distance from the camera that the subject will be in acceptable focus. / 24mm F2.8-—-f4-—-—f5.6-—-—f8-—-- f11-—-f16-—-—f22 / 6’ 4’9”/8’2” 4’4”/9’7” 3’11”/12’8” 3’5”/24’2” 2’11”/inf 2’5”/inf. 1’11”/inf. / inf. 22’/inf. 15’7”/inf. 11’2”/inf. 7’10”/inf. 5’8”/inf. 4’/inf. 2’10”/inf. / 50mm f2.8-—-f4-—-— f5.6-—-—f8-—-- f11-—- f16-—-—f22 / 10’ 9’1”/11’1” 8’9”/11’8” 8’4”/12’6” 7’9”/14’ 7’2”/16’6” 6’4”/23’7” 5’7”/47’11” / inf. 93’/inf. 66’/inf. 46’/inf. 33’/inf. 23’/inf. 16’/inf. 12’/inf. / 200mm f2.8-—--f4-—-—-f5.6-—-—-f8-—-—-f11-—-f16-——-f22 / 20’ 19’9”/20’3” 19’8”/20’4” 19’6”/20’6” 19’4”/20’9”19’1”/21’18’8”/21’6”18’3”/22’2” / inf. 982’/inf. 659’/inf. 490’/inf. 348’/inf.246’/inf 174’/inf. Hyperfocal distance is a focus point that will give the greatest range of DOF keeping acceptable focus only to infinity but not beyond. / Example / 24mm lens aperture of f11, focused to 9’ gives a DOF of 4’4”/infinity / 200mm lens aperture of f11, focused to 550’ gives a depth of field of 282’6”/infinity / So as the chart points out if you were shooting with a 200mm lens at f11 and the main subject is 290’ from the camera focusing on infinity would put the prime subject out of focus. But focusing to 550’ moves your DOF forward so the subject and background will be sharply focused.

Because this is a publicly viewable website, I have to be kind of restrained here, but I have to ask: what kind of company has a three and a half hour team meeting finishing at 5:30pm in an industrial park one and a half hours south of London, scheduled to finish a mere half an hour before the biggest premiere of the YEAR, when this is clearly devastating for me, personally? The anwer : the one I work for! So I’d basically written off the whole premiere because these meetings NEVER finish on time. Even though you could almost watch a Lord of the Rings movie-plus-fifteen-minute-fan-club-credits in the time they run for. Incredibly, however, the meeting finished fifteen minutes early. And I got a train that left half an hour earlier… and sat in the train for over an hour running scenarios. Would the premiere start later than planned? Would it go longer than usual? Would there somehow be a vantagepoint I could take advantage of? Well, the premiere began at 6:00pm. And I arrived onsite at 6:50pm. / It was reported that about 50 fans camped overnight in Leicester Square for this premiere. When I walked past at 7:30am there were already several hundred in two separate parts of Leicester Square.! And then, almost an hour late to the event itself…. / / It’s the biggest premiere of the year, without question. But even if you’re of the school that thinks JK Rowing’ s work is sacriligeous and objectionable, you still benefitted from the premiere: there were some nice cafes nearby with far less than the usual number of customers / “You camped out for 30 hours prior to this premiere just to get a good view? Fair call. I’ve been here since noon because I have similar concerns”. Daniel Radcliffe is probably being polite so that the people who got soaked while waiting all day felt a little better… / It’s Rupert Grint, who plays Ron Weasley in the film(s). He’s apparently had Swine Flu recently, but appears to be okay now. (Or, you know, highly contagious.) / The figure at the centre of this photo is Helena Bonham-Carter, who plays Bellatrix Lestrange. (We’ve hopefully built up some rapport by now, so I’m hoping you’ll take it on trust that it is!) This premiere, incidentally, took up the entirety of the centre of Leicester Square and had not one but TWO pedestrian footbridges constructed to take celebs to the TWO cinemas showing the premiere. That’s HUGE. / In the far distance: actor Daniel Radcliffe (aka. Harry Potter). You know, I’ve read ‘Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. And, sure, I was wrong about the horcrux, and I was with others who incorrectly suspected that the mysterious ‘R.A.B.’ was Mrs Figg. But I’ll probably watch the movie anyway / Yellow Cap Guy status update: uncertain. I saw a flash of yellow at one point but then with the thousands and thousands of people at this premiere, several people could plausibly have been wearing a yellow cap. And been a guy. But not been THE Yellow Cap Guy. / J.K.Rowling, author of the Harry Potter books. She’s worth a couple of billion dollars. Or pounds. (I don’t think the distinction is meaningful after you get to a certain level of wealth) / J.K.Rowling. This shot was taken about 1/3 of a second after the one above. Although my vantagepoint was enviable, the period of time I had to take each of these series of shots was kind of split-second. Yay, three-frames per second shuter speeds! / Emma Watson is Hermione Granger in the film. Several friends made the prediction that she’d be gorgeous when she grew up, even when looking at the movie poster for the first film – released eight years ago – and she was… what… ten?! I didn’t make that call back then, but I’m more convinced now / The easy and effortless confidence of somebody who knows that, as long as she doesn’t go all Crispin Glover from Back to the Future sequels and pronounces herself indispensable to the franchise, there are at least two very large paychecks left to get in this movie series / OMG it’s Frodo!! / A premiere wouldn’t be complete without people holding aloft giant posters and risking the wrath of people who just want to see the stars and not the back of a piece of cardboard after queueing for hours in the rain. I’m thin and weak myself, but I know I would be ‘displeased’. / Rupert Grint. Spiders want him to tap-dance and he doesn’t wanna tap-dance…. / “You tell those spiders, Ron…” / “It’s not a love-triangle, it’s more a love-rhombus” The plot in this film is meant to be even more complex, to better illustrate the complexities of a more ‘adult’ teen love. I call this photo Herm-own-ninny because it amuses me to do so / The weird thing is that these people had a 2metre fence preventing decent views of what was going on. And yet, here they were. It’s all about the vibe… / Park Statue says: “One more Harry Potter move and then this madness stops. ... Wait. What do you mean ‘they’re splitting the last book into two films’???” / A lot of people had unusually soggy posters and posterboards they took home with them from this premiere, because it apparently bucketed down with rain just as the stars arrived as well as several times before. And you just can’t buy that kind of loyalty. (But as Warner Bros will testify, you can certainly profit from it). So… that was that. And let’s not dwell on me not getting photos of Dumbledore, McGonnagall, Snape, Draco… and the rest. Given the size and scope of this premiere, and my time of arrival, and even the nasty things I’d said about my camera at the Transformers II premiere, this one did get me some stuff. ... and let’s instead dwell on the fact that the last work-related team event was outside of London coincided with (and made me late for) the Bruno premiere, the next one (today’s) was outside of London and made me late for THIS premiere… and the next work-related team event is on the same day as the premiere for the new Quentin Tarantino film, and also located outside of London. (Random, much?) But whatever, I’m gratefully putting it in with The Archive of Movie Premieres And it will soon become top of the list of the most recent movie premieres, which is currently made up of: / Public Enemies – Depp!!! Cotillard! Mann! / Transformers Revenge of the Fallen – Fox! LaBeouf! Turturro! Gibson! / The Hangover – Heather Graham! And some guys! / Tormented – People! Other People! / The Jonas Brothers 3D Experience – Jonas! Jonas! Jonas! Until next time!