DAYLIGHT TO SHOOT PICTURES

In the last blog, I was talking of the light during day time.....Here is a picture taken in the morning in a lake. The light is rendering good effect since the sun was at an angle, nearly 9.30 AM...What we see in the light during day or night....The features are clearly shown....Yes this example will take you to that direction...The water is sufficiently of deep colour giving the best of contrast between the bird and the surrounding...

2) Now recollect or go back to my last post where the guy's photo was taken at the time of overhead sun....Do you think the light is correct to find out clearly all the details needed in a good profile...there is all shadow from forehead to chin....So this time of day is to be avoided while doing serious type of photography.....For visiting tourist places, all light is good, since you are not to stay long there....Therefore this is a sort of emergency clicking....Or if you are at ease there and wish to stay longer, wait for nearly 3.00 PM onwards, when again the sun goes angled.....Besides one hint I would suggest to use your camera's builtin flash when the sun is high at noon time to fill in shadows...In other words reducing them to have better picture closeups---Pl remember the flash has a limited range of 10-15 feet and the intensity of light of flash is further reduced in front of the shining sun.....So upto 10ft coverage is sufficient.

3) You are at the evening time now....The picture at side was taken nearly 5.00 PM....The light evenly lits the faces...and shadows are making good modelling on the face.....Here and morning also you are at liberty to use cameras's flash....It won't kill the original skin tones but rather fill-in the shadows or lighten them.

4) So we can divide morning time from sun rise to 10 AM FOR GOOD PICTURE TAKING, be it portraits or landscapes......Noon time when the sun is high on head....Avoid portraits or use fill flash.....Evening 3PM to sunset the best time with or without using fill flash.....Yes in the morning or evening when your subject faces you with back to sun, the camera's flash will be of great help to light up the face or faces....BESIDES a good advice is to keep sun at your back, left or right side during morning or evening so half shadow on the face can be a tolerable feature of people you are taking photographs.

5) An old saying goes.....when photographing a person/persons, keep sun behind you...It was true, as the cameras had less inbuilt facilities....Not like today's advanced cameras...

6) To add good picture taking, you can use shadows of wall near houses, under the trees....so there is even light on the faces....Verandahs/porch are also good places...to avoid squeezing of the eyes...hahaha...and having plain lighting...GO on CLICKING.....THERE IS NO LIMIT.....to continue.

CAMERA does not take PICTURES but the PERSON BEHIND THE CAMERA TAKES THE PICTURES.

Photography is painting with light..!

Here  one photo is shown taken in sunlight...and another during evening in large shadow of evening in a park....The first picture tells you to avoid such sort of light as the eyes, the most important part of a portrait, look squeezed because of facing to sun..that has to be avoided.....In another though the child looking uncomfortable in order to reach to her mom, the picture is good in all respects...(skin tone,her pose, colour of clothes,diffused background etc)..I wish she cud see in camera....now you do not avoid.

We talked about cameras in last blog.....There is no limit to people's likings and no limit for companies to manufacture, as good as cameras.....You may have a compact camera or other with higher zooms and features including a DSLR.

What is the purpose of manufacturing a camera? Yes to take pictures.....But how you will take pictures? They are not made to shoot aimlessly......To take a good picture you will have to depend upon 'Lighting'....As is said , without lighting there is no picture....How true it is said....In general terms a picture is 'painting  with light'....Shutter and aperture acts as brush and thru correct recording of light a good painting....errr, sorry , a good picture is made.

As photography in itself is a vast subject it may take months to understand the lighting....But for simple and good pictures, simple and good lighting will be required....As you all know daylight is the best light source....but depending on the sun's position....It is not that we come out with camera in one hand and find out lots of sunlight spread over the atmosphere....Does it good for photography? Yes, if you have a vast field and beautiful scenery, it will be delight to snap good pictures then and there....More pictures of the same area you need....Yes, that is possible....you will have to move to change angles and you will be amaged viewing through LCD panel or viewfinder that the beauty was so near to you and you never noticed.. YOUR INTEREST IN PTOTOGRAPHY MADE IT POSSIBLE..

THERE ARE MANY SITUATIONS OF LIGHT BUT HERE I AM TALKING OF BRIGHT DAY WITH SUNLIGHT from morning to evening...And you will wonder that 99 percent of the photographs are made using this light, throughout the day.

Here I am talking of India of sunlight where sun is bright almost round the year otherwise in many countries the sun shines for few months only...So the best advantage is taken there also of the sunlight.......to continue

More on Cameras

The cameras used for Studio, Fashion, Modelling, and Commercial photography have lot of difference from the cameras, we were talking hitherto, I mean in last blog.....They are good for home and occasional function photography, and if you area good hand at photography, you can make immortal photographs from them.....that is your creativity...There was a price tag with these cameras for people who cannot afford cameras more than 10k....Above 10k, their versatility increases and the cost too...There are good cost cameras i.e. above 15-20k and more, which even the Professionals keep as a standby camera.......Please do not be disheartened as the DSLR cameras start 30000 and above, they are entry level cameras and pro cameras will normally be 60000 & above., however rendering great results with their kit lenses...(In the pic is a DSLR with 18-55 kit lens).

That is why I told not to be disheartened as the small compact cameras take good photographs, which I showed of a baby and let u know more from them......Yes the DSLR cameras are made for professional and interested enthusiasts. They have the facility of interchanging lenses from 18-55 kit lens to 70-300 zoom lens, macro lens, and all sort of lenses the company has released for their cameras and besides. subsidiary companies are mfg them with less price.

The changing of different lenses make use in wildlife photography, bird photography, studio portraits, in weddings,stage programmes...So with one DSLR and a good telezoom you can cover lots of subjects.....Yes the cost will increase to nearly Rs.40000/- or above.

Before getting into commercial, industrial,product,fashion photography etc....the two companies are more popular since many years. The are Nikon and Canon....Best consult your photography friend or expert, which camera to buy...In small towns the cameras are not immediately available. Get to authorised dealer, and learn which camera fits your pocket and which is more selling....Or go to yourself Delhi, Mumbai or Chennai to choose the best from long ranges they have on display.

Yes previously I told you about compact cameras with less money, still giving good results....Now there are pro range cameras for purpose of money-making or for livelihood, as there are many coming generation gals and guys to make  photographty a bread earner, like selecting RJ,VJ..........continue

How to shoot hussle free pictures & camera's capacity.

3 days son of my nephew(in picture)......Who wud like to miss this opportunity, once in life time?...Next AS TIME PASSES your child is grown up....I heard of a parent who took one photo each day of his son....With digital it is just only possible....For example IF YOU USE YOUR CAMERA's MEMORY CARD REGULARLY AND FORMATTING EVERY MONTH....IT CAN TAKE THOUSANDS OF PICTURES. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT BENEFITS FOR PROFESSIONALS, WHO USE 10000 TO 1 LAKH FRAMES EACH YEAR with their cameras.......Then they can buy another cameras, as there is a change of model every 3-4 months...with good capabality....No this is not our intention at present to talk top gears....lest my new friends are threatened by their prices.

The compact cameras have a small body, which can be slipped into the pocket, handbag or briefcase.....The lens comes out when you press a start button and after taking pictures, it will go back into the body by pressing same button...So no hussle....As soon as the lens comes out, there are beep signals for focusing and you squeeze the button thus capturing the pic....One important thing to understand is that when the lens comes there are focusing signals in the form of squares on LCD panel when you HALF PRESS the shutter button and keeping the button half pressed you can compose picture and when satisfied, just fully press the shutter button slowly to take the picture.....The picture is recorded and viewed on the LCD panel...If you feel dissatisfied take many shots for no cost?...and select one or two...In case of children, there may be many, so your heart fills with pride and you are able to make a good album...OR buying a digital frame, just insert the memory card in it and view slide show, individual pictures, enlarging them also.

There is a zoom lens facility in your camera  so you can shoot distant subject's photographs, just turning zooming button towards left and right.which is generally located around the shutter button.

There is no definition of a good camera...Every camera that takes sharp pictures and renders good colours is  the choice of the users.

.........more with camera features.....aperture/shutter................next............

Cheap Cameras and Photography--For Homes

...IS your child that much naughty?...Or you were naughty at this age?....haha....This is in contunuation of previous blog....The camera's capability is to ptotograph the subject before it.....While doing an amateur photography and starting it with new camera, there are faults to occur....Many of your photographs get over/under exposed and many you get worthy of praise by your friend circle and family.

When buying cameras, the question arises, whether to buy a lesser price camera or a higher price prosumer or dSLR. The thinking depends upon the use of camera. Is it for family purpose, e.g. for birthdays, picnics, or small functions and festivals?....Yes there are festivals galore in India and all 12 months are occupied by small or big festivals in all castes and creed....THERE is a wrong notion that a costly camera can take good photographs...Now with digital cameras  also, as in film days, good pictures can be taken by cheaper cameras....There are good companies like, Nikon, Canon, Sony, Olympus, Panasonic, who are making good affordable cameras in compact design....These cameras too used with some understanding can take award winning pictures....There is a manual with every camera or a CD and going through it will give you sufficient knowledge of operating the equipment.....THOUGH I WILL TRY MY BEST TO COVER THE MANUALS  features which sometimes, many people try to avoid reading.

For home purpose photography, a compact camera will be a good bargain, with a 4x zoom facility and builtin flash and AUTO mode to cover your 99% subjects, as u do not wish to go into the intricacies and features built into the camera, as you are already engaged in other home works,kitchen, children/men with late coming, early going, getting time of rest or other household works,  friends etc.....next

Understanding Photography

This is the desire of every one to keep the past memories alive in the form of photographs. When they see them it seems the gone time has come back....What can be the best medium than the photography.

Today also we see the old photographs of school days, our relatives, father, mother, grand father/mother and the friends we enjoyed the life with.Many of the friends have uploaded their class photographs of KG, Class I onwards and their family photographs in colour and black & white on the Facebook and other friendly sites.. Fond memories come alive and we become emotional.

Today many of you already have some sort of digital camera. (Sorry, the film cameras have become the things of past, which you cud buy a good Kodak camera even in Rs.500/-)....Anyhow the time changes and we have to follow its footsteps....Yeaa--Digital cameras....They come well in Rs.3000/- and above and your Mobile has a builtin camera, which is more handy to capture memories of marriages, picnics,travels, child births or any other functions in school/colleges.

Photography in itself is a detailed topic, which goes as courses in Schools and Colleges....Thus a photographer learns throughout his life....if he is a persistent follower of the art....For Common man it may not be an art, but as I said, the subject to capture vivid memories of day-to-day life, which he can store as a soft copy, in PCs, Laptops, while making a small album of chosen photographs to share with the visiting guests, or enjoy himself.

The above photograph of Lord Ganesh idols, I took on Ganesh Chaturthi, on the road side,ready for sale to devotees---see the beautiful colours.....So it is a good subject to have 'Darshan' of Lord Ganesh in the beginning of your album.

Expo: 1/400, f11, ISO 200........................to continue

Wildlife Photography in Zoo.

The richest animal in beauty.......The animal is a king of jungle.....Are you interested in wildlife photography? Yes but you cannot go to Wildlife safaries....If you live in a city that has a zoo or a wildlife park, you will get the opportunity to photograph the great tiger....If you live in a small town or village, have one time during the year, particularly winter, to visit the city having a zoo, you will get the ample time to shoot and preserve the pictures of the tiger and other animals, birds, reptiles and a nice pictorial view of the jungle.

To take picture in the zoo, you are well equipped with a compact with 4x zoom, a prosumer with more longer focal lengths e.g. 10x to 36x...With a DSLR you will need a long focal length zoom as 80-200, 70-300mm etc.and a stable hand as it is difficult to move with tripod amongst lot of visitors, the children and elders running to have a look, if the tiger is near the fencing....With zoomed at 300mm, you have the benefit of having the fence almost invisible and a  15 to 30 feet distance is good enough to have closeup views of tigers..The cheetahs are cunning and rather more dangerous animals of jungle at close range and are generally kept apart and in cage...so difficult to photograph....Doesn't matter just have a higher ISO of 400/800, to obtain higher shutter speeds and aperture of f5.6 when the tigers move fast, here and there....You may be lucky when there are more than one, thus you can have more shots of the animal in different moods......as his every posture speaks.....

In the picture the tiger was in the shade in a local zoo focused at 300mm using 1/500 at f5.6,ISO 400...In dSLR  you can move to ISO 800 and 1600 Though at ISO you may need some post-processing if there is less lighting.....

For compact users, set your dial on Auto, zoomed at 4x (as your camera has-may be 3x or 5x even) and it will set shutter speed,aperture and ISO required in the available lighting, may be under sun or in shade and squeeze the shutter gently....

Bird in action--see exposure and write-up.

Photography needs creativity as well as entertainment sometimes to get your mood fresh....That comes to what u now photograph or what you have already photographed, or what you are planning to photograph...hahaha...not long expectations....If you see this photograph, this is good at composition as a casual shoot, i.e. off centre....Yes, I was passing through this place and captured some good moments of this water-greedy creature.....They swim well and it is great to photograph them with water reflections....If you are creative and eager to learn, the ''middle of the road'' approach.....that is in saying---do not go practically but in thinking and capturing the mood of the picture....Going sideways will do, but not always, as you improve your technical skills.....Learning than mastering, the two approaches to the goals will make you fit to take great pictures.....

The bird was shaking its wings, and here high shutter speed will work well....If you go more slow, you can capture the wings not freezed but in motion (even at this shutter speed they show some motion-compare the face and wings, in sharpness)....That will make a good picture, if you hold your camera well and having a feather-touch shutter release,without blurring the bird.

Expo: 1/400, f5.6, ISO 200.

Macro Photography, Easy Tools---(Post No.70).

Previously also you have seen 'macro' shots put up here....there are variety of subjects, immediately close to you or away, where you have to go according to lighting situations...e.g. in summer, the noon is a difficult time...or in the evenings when temperature exceeds 40 degree Celsius....Rains and winter are good months for macros.

In India we have the benefit of round the year sunlight in comparison to Europe or other western countries.....Besides MACRO photography is one of the easiest subjects, which can be practised anywhere, if you have patience and eye for detail...The subjects may be leaves with textured details, insects, flowers and their stamens in local park, your kitchen gardens, which many photographers rear to have regular look for different insects.....

For beginners,student of photography, enthusiast learners, the useful tools, I like for MACRO photograhy are, EXTENSION TUBES, LENS REVERSAL RING, CLOSEUP LENS FILTER, (Macro lens is a costly affair unless you are a regular macro photographer)....Besides above, the compacts, and Prosumer d.cameras which have 1cm to 3cm focusing capability....and the Kit lens of a DSLR having 5" focus with 3" of coverage area....Later you can magnify more your subject in your computer or laptop in Photoshop.

More to tell .......this time I again chose an indoor object with focusing on mono of the watch, with a different angle and side lighting with a good contrast of yellow and white....Just try.

Expo: 1/40, f2.8, ISO 100.

Dust-storm Sunset.

Sunset is an excellent subject for all photographers....Yes I include you too the new camera persons and I feel you too do not miss it when you go for travelling on holidays as summer vacations, vacations in December and for some it is round the year. It is a subject of Nature photography...Sunsets give the exceptional look with water i.e. rivers, lakes, sea etc. Even good photographs are taken with small and large ponds.....Many people do not have this approach. But you cannot avoid sunsets in plains, or distant hills, mountains, moreso with great bunch of trees...haha..any good location will work, as long as you try to achieve good colours the atmosphere renders when the GREAT LORD is at the horizon in the evening.....include the clouds, spreading between good sunrays...Best of all, good closeups are also essential as you have some long focal length lens.....However, as you have computer or laptop, try in low ISO (YOUR MANUAL SAYS THAT THE ISO RATINGS) and crop the image as a magnification of sole sun, so you can enjoy a full view of sun with yellow, orange, red colours...if cloudline is there, far better.

The picture above was taken in a duststorm occured in March covering mainly north India....The sun made a good halo effect.....I made it slightly more colourful so you can have a gaze at it...hahaha....Light was dull, therefore I kept  my camera on Av mode.which read very slow speed for the atmosphere and the sun, the aperture too was wide enough.

Expo. 1/60, f 4.8, ISO 200

Shooting at higher ISO.

Birds are generally be known as creatures of habit. This is particularly true during the breeding season, when they will be driven by impulses to come back to the same spot time and again....The bird photography is a part of nature and wildlife photography....I also have posted bird pictures here and this or any subject may come again with a different outlook.

However, if the birds are acquainted with the people and place, you can shoot them at 20 to 30 feet on trees/electric wires....Electric wires? Yes a common habit of these creatures as they are closer to tree branches......You need some study of their habits, if you see them in the morning and evening in localities. But give preference to bird's interests I mean not disturbing them. As you have longer focal length lenses on your camera it becomes easy.

As I captioned Shooting at higher ISO, IT APPLIES TO BIRD'S PHOTOGRAPHY, WHEN IN FLIGHT, particularly in evening low light, so you can use higher Shutter Speed to capture the bird as it arrives, or takes off, or in slow flight (to ease camera to focus and trigger)....As in the picture above the bird takes off and was more than 100 feet away from camera and sun was going down, I used ISO 1600. Though if you cover full frame with the bird, the noise is less disturbing, but when it comes to longer distance and cropping the bird to magnify it....in higher ISOs, the noise will be  apparent in the picture. This is so because, using lower ISO and SS, u may blur the picture....I waited for this few minutes having the eye in the viewfinder looking each side of frame and, lo, as it took off, pressed the shutter....My intention, this may happen sometimes, not to miss picture at any cost, yes at the cost of grains and heavy cropping because of longer distances....The tree was nearly 60ft high....You can imagine, bird 60 ft  from ground and 100 ft away from camera and not to miss. At 1/2500 the wings are still faster....Handling on tripod was difficult as more one or two birds kept coming and clicking them too, but the wings are difficult to catch...as they cover the face of the birds while moving....so it is sheer luck to be trigger-happy...haha... to share with you people here...This is satisfaction.

Expo: 1/2500, f6.3, ISO1600, at 300mm.

Centre of Interest in a Silhouetted pic.

Do you shoot without caring for some simple outlines of composition....As we get a cloth stitched for our dress, we are careful about its correct fitting-in case of shirts for men, we are conscious that the pocket should be at left, so we can take out the pen/diary easily by use of right hand, since there is sufficient space to move our hand to the left pocket, rather than having the pocket at right---right plus right is equal to difficult handling of things in right side pocket......

This photo I put up to let you have understand of focal point or centre of interest...For example, in the picture there is an empty boat, where the attention goes immediately, because there are other boats with people in them.....Here it is reverse, generally we expect empty boats and a boat with people in it to attract our attention....or even a single boat crossing the sunlight and you may say, wow what a silhouette picture......so also here is beautifully spreading of light onto the lake and people are enjoying boating, while we see an empty, haha, unfortunate boat with no passengers in it....that is the point....I explained both ways....You will more enjoy taking pictures in lake, river, or sea, making good silhouettes.

Expo: 1/4000, f6.3, ISO 800, Aperture priority.

Flower with fire......?

Last month I have gone through an article to lighten the flowers with backlighting...giving an edge over normal shooting. This indicated using an off camera flash, which will be throw light from back....creating rim lighting effect, thus keeping the subject detached from the background....Yes this technique is effective in many types of photography. You must have observed the good effect of side lighting or backlighting from the high powered halogens on stages, be of marriage, or of theatre...Good examples can be viewed in TV serials using two to three types of lighting.

Here the flower, though not backlighted on the petals, but has a fiery effect in the middle,bright orangish instead of whole pink, which is the natural colour of flower....I took this picture three months back and while reviewing, I found the total different effect we generally see when photographing flowers from front.....Only thing was that THE FLOWER WAS SLIGHTLY UNDEREXPOSED ON MY AUTO SETTING....There was half portion of wall in the background and half flower leaves. Since the flower was underexposed the leaves took to dark while the wall white-grey was distracting the attention. Therefore I used vignette effect on the photoshop. The result is almost full attention in the middle to the beautiful pink edges.

Expo: 1/100, f.2.8, ISO 200.