Beyond Beyond - Day 2 : Patience and Aperture Priority

For this lesson, Kim talked about the virtues of shooting in AV-mode with special focus on aperture priority.    The photo above was shot with f/2.5.  Now I have a better idea of what that really means, and how I can call up this effect when I want it.  F/2.5 refers to a shallow depth-of-field with just a small part of the image in focus.  In this case, the foreground is in focus, while the background is dreamy and blurry.  Aperture priority is kind of like the iris in your eye. If I had bumped it up to f/8.0, all parts of the bowl (near and far) would be in focus. 

Here's the processing on today's image :
Layer 1) Background image
Layer 2) Copy background image ; Screen blend mode at 14% opacity
Layer 3) Kim Klassen's Aurora-bl Texture - Multiply 26%
Layer 4) Kim Klassen's Sweet Treat Texture - Multiply 22%
Layer 5) Text - My Underwood Fint - Normal 58%

As for the subject matter, it's been a long winter.  I see spring blossoms elsewhere in the US, but it seems that's still weeks away in Wisconsin.  So I am reminding myself to be patient - Spring will come.  All we have blooming at the moment is pussy willows.  This crystal bowl makes me think of apple and cherry blossoms--all in good time!

I also made myself an f-Stop Aperture Priority key so that I'd have examples of each setting on my little Canon S90.    These are "slices" from 2 journal quilts I made.  The stitching shows the clarity of each f-stop setting.