To gain the most of your depth of field you can use a hyper focal distance chart for each individual lens to maximise the depth of field for any aperture / focal length combination.

Depth of field and focusing distance

The shorter the focal length of your lens the more depth of field you get for any set aperture.
For a set focal length and aperture the depth of field shrinks as the focal distance is reduced.
so:-
a 35mm lens set at f5.6 will give more depth of field than a 90mm lens set at the same aperture at the same distance.
and
a 90mm lens set at f16 at a distance of 15m away from the subject will give you more depth of field than if you were focused at 5m away from your subject.

 typical depth of field table

different for different lenses

http://www.dofmaster.com/doftable.html

good place to review various lenses

Walter Schells - carried out a portrait project entitled 'Life Before Death'

A few portraits by Bryan Schutmaat from his 'Grays The Mountain Sends' project, using a shallow depth of field

L'Inconnue de la Seine

My research for portraiture took me to -

L'Inconnue de la Seine was an unidentified young woman whose death mask became a popular fixture on the walls of artists' homes after 1900.

First lesson and it was the same concept as my project over the weekend - shooting images directly on to paper.
At home I'd used positive paper and also cut up some Ilford resin coated paper to capture both positive and negative images of the same subject, to be framed together as a final presentation.
I used a 150mm lens at home set at f32 with a timed shutter speed of 8 seconds, whereas during our lecture I opted for a 90mm lens and an aperture of f5.6 with a shutter speed of 1/4 of a second to get a correct exposure.
I was happy with both outcomes, although completely different in style, composition and subject matter; the 90mm lens and composition giving a wider view and almost giving the image more of a social identity as well as a personal identity of the sitter.
Next time I'd probably use a 210mm lens, which will allow me to get closer to the subject, filling the frame more, with out being to obtrusive. This will help to isolate the subject a lot more, make it a bit more personal and will rely on trying to bring out the essence of the subject.
The majority of the lenses available to me for the field camera start at an aperture setting of 5.6, where a setting of f2.8 would be more preferable to show the differences in depth of field for presentation purposes.
I would opt for an image at f2.8, f8 and a final image of f32 to help show my understanding of depth of field, along with the corresponding shutter speed to obtain what I chose to be the correct exposure for my images.

So
Start of new term, Portraiture the genre for the year.
Glass or 2 of Prosecco will get the creative juices flowing, but start off with a bit of research and looking thru a few books.
Starting with Daguerre, Margaret Cameron, David Octavius Hill and Nadar.

Few books to read over the weekend
Photography - Stephen Bull
The Key Concepts Photography - David Bate
The Photograph - Graham Clarke

decided to keep a journal too for all my ideas, writing them down as they jump into my mind whilst reading and watching the tv / films etc.

Not one of my favourite genres and so at first thoughts - a little daunting

Few small projects for the weekend, couple of experimental shoots, it's great to be back. LoL