The focal length of your lens essentially determines how zoomed in your photos are, the higher the number, the more zoomed your lens will be and the lower the number the less zoomed tour lens will be.
Rule of Thirds
The rule of thirds in photography
The rule of thirds is a technique that can be used in your photography to improve the composition of your photos. Using the rule of thirds means that the subject isn't centered in the image, it also means that the main focus points of the image meet up along the lines, for example in the image below the horizon approximately meets the top line of the grid and the island in the distance meets up with the cross of the lines in the corner and the boat meets up with the grid on either end of the boat, this use of the rule of thirds create an interesting composition in the photo.
Depth of Field
Depth Of Field
Google definition of depth of field - 'The distance between the nearest and the furthest objects giving a focused image.' The smaller the area of focus is the shallower the depth of field and the bigger the area of focus is the deeper the depth of field, these factors are controlled by the aperture of the camera, a large aperture creates a shallow depth of field meaning that fewer things are in focus, and a small aperture creates a deep depth of field meaning more things are in focus.
Below are some of my experiments using aperture to create different depths of field.
editing with threshold: keld helmer petersen
within this image it is edited to show black light within high saturated edits,then also turned into squares for an even overall finish.I was inspired by the artists Keld Helmer Petersen who wanted to achieve an international collection of experimentation shapes inspired by ranger patsch. He also developed poetic realism within his work and modernism within photography.
He eventually adapted and developed the intellectual structuralism to art and photography,he liked to capture leafs and trees against grey light and patterns created within nature.He started to become more abstract within the enlarging of his images focusing on the microcosm of nature.
I chose these images due to their defined lines and shape within the pieces. I thought the compositions of the pieces where also quite interesting as there are many dimensions and angles to the piece themselves.
this is a clear example of his work and how he different from using more simplistic images to more complex lines but overall still achieved the same tonal range and detailed effect of the image.
Threshold Editing
Keld Helmer Petersen
Keld Helmer-Petersen was a Danish photographer, born in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1920, he achieved his international breakthrough in 1948 when he published 122 Farvefotografier/122 Colour Photographs, a collection of experiments with shapes inspired by Albert Renger-Patzsch. Below are some examples of his work.
Below are some experiments that I did with my work inspired by Keld Helmer Petersen, to achieve this style of photo i used Photoshop, I began by firstly cropping the images to get rid of any negative space and improve the composition of my photos, i then used the threshold tool to make the images only two tones of white and black.
Threshold Editing
Keld Helmer Petersen
Keld Helmer Petersen was a Danish modernist photographer. Keld was internationally acclaimed for his images of structures, patterns and details found in industrial areas, city scapes and nature.
These are examples of his work
These are my attempt at editing photos in the style of Keld Helmer Petersen.
The first image was the original image without any edits or manipulations. The second image was my attempt to create a photo in the style of Keld’s.
How I created a photo in the style of Keld Helmer Petersen
Firstly, I cropped the image to make it square and to make this chosen image follow the rule of thirds.
Once I was happy with how I cropped the image I clicked on the image tool at the top of the screen where there were multiple options for me to use where I could edit my image. I then went to the adjustment option where it gave me another drop down option which I then scrolled down and clicked on the threshold option. Once I had clicked the threshold option it changed the contrast of the picture massively as well as changing the image to black and white. I played around with the threshold option until i was really happy with it. This was my Final image.
Keld Helmer-Petersen
Keld Helmer-Petersen born the 20 August 1920 
was a Danish photographer who got his breakthrough in the photogrpahy world when he published 122 Farvefotografier/122 Colour Photographs, this was a collection of experiments with shapes inspired by the work of Albert Renger-Patzsch and Neue Sachlichkeit. In the book was a collection of photos that he thought would only work in colour and not black and white.
Keld Helmer-Petersen was born and grew up in the Østerbro quarter of Copenhagen. He started taking photographs in 1938, when he received a Leica camera as a graduation present.[1] At an early stage, he became aware of the trends in international photography; in the 1940s he subscribed to the US Camera Annual and in this period became familiar with German inter-war photography, which had developed at the Bauhaus and in the Neue Sachlichkeit (The New Objectivity) movement. In his later life he released a series of other books which focused on a different light to other work in colour, as the books only contained black and white images.
Exploring High Contrast Images With Helmer-Peterson
Helmer-Petersen
Helmer-Petersen was a Danish photographer who looks at shapes similarly to Albert Renger-Patzch. His work, especially his book “122 Colour Photographs” brought modernism to Danish photography and earned him a grant for a years study at the Art Institute of Chicago. He looks at the natural shapes and pattern in the world around us and creates something attention-grabbing out of it. A lot of the work he did was high-contrast and this below I have created some work in his style.
The Process
I edited the image in the style of Helmer-Petersen by firstly choosing the threshold option on photoshop.
I then edited the white and black balance using the slider to create my ideal image.
I then cropped the image to produce a square so that I could present my images in one sheet. 
I looked at inverting the image to create something new but i decided not to.
I then put all four images into one page to showcase them.
Frank Hallam-Day and Aaron Siskind
Aaron Siskind
Frank Hallam-Day
Image Analysis:
I think this photo expresses Frank Hallam-Day’s theme of passage of time on works of man well. He highlights the bright colour yellow and also the brown to emphasise the weathering of the ship hull. He contrasts the work of man (ship hull) with nature (water) to express the affect nature has. The photo is split into the rule of thirds horizontally and one line vertically, creating a grid shape to show the sections within the photo of different patterns like weathering and rusting. The middle section has different levels of rust from where the sea has been, expressing that the ship hulls where once technological achievements but are now just sitting in the harbour. He contrasts the bottom of the photo with the top half, the bottom half having a lot of marks and patterns, and the top being one bold colour. The marks on the ship hull create interesting reflections on the sea and he has increased saturation to emphasise the rust in the reflection.
Bokeh Effect
The bokeh effect refers to blur or a blurry quality, and in photography it is a very recognizable technique. The word bokeh translates from Japanese as ‘blur’.
Bokeh tends to appear in the areas of an image that remain outside the focal region. Because of this the most common technique used to add it is a shallow depth of field created through a wide open aperture. It is generally considered pleasing for your eyes and your perception of a photograph, because it can add softness to an otherwise harshly lit photograph.
This website shows the different types of bokeh effects that can be achieved:
My own examples:
I raised the ISO no higher than 400 and had aperture open wider to allow a shorter shutter time.