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6 Tips: How To Blur The Background To Compliment The Subject

poonam — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:00:49 +0000

Presence or absence of a background has a huge impact on your composition. A cluttered background draws the eye away from the subject. A complimenting background aids the eye to focus on the point of interest in the photograph. When taking a photograph, at times you may want to place your subject in the context of the surroundings, at other times you may want to compliment your subject with a beautiful background. However the last thing you need is a cluttered, distracting background. Previously we shared some tips on how to make effective use of backgrounds. Let’s explore some ways to eliminate background distractions. One solution to this is to effectively “blur the background”. Here are some easy ways through which you can eliminate the clutter of a distracting background:

Aperture Settings: The ultimate credit of the blurred background goes to the DOF (depth-of-field) effect by controlling the aperture. When you decide to eliminate the background or complement your subject with the background hue, all you need to do is to tweak your camera to two simple settings:
1. Set the camera mode to “Aperture Priority”: This is (A) in Nikon’s camera and (Av) if you’re using a Canon. Check your camera’s manual for details.
2. Adjust the aperture: Set a wide (large aperture or low f-number) to obtain a narrow depth of field. This ensures focus on a very narrow plane in the entire depth of the scene there by taking the focus off the background.
This works best for stationary or immovable objects.
Medium shutter speed: For moving subjects use the panning technique to eliminate the background clutter and yet achieve a complementing background perspective to portray motion.
Lens’ Focal Length: Given that all other settings remain constant, a higher focal length achieves shallower DOF. Thus at times varying the focal length alone can assist you in obtaining the blurred effect.
Subject’s Distance: A subjects distance from the camera also affects DOF. The closer the subject, the shallower the DOF and the blurrier the background. Additionally, since the subject is closer, it fills more of the photograph frame there by reducing the coverage of background altogether.
Use Zoom: Zooming in through a lens is also a way to increase the subject size and have more of the subject fill the frame thereby reducing the area covered by the background.
Off Camera (Post-Processing): Backgrounds can be selectively blurred using photo editors like Photoshop etc. The basic step is to select the background and apply the blur effect. When doing this through a photo-editor take care to ensure that the photo doesn’t feel over-touched or pimped up.

While you are blurring the backgrounds, remember that backgrounds make interest subjects too, especially abstract ones. And creatively employing the backgrounds in the context adds a perspective… a narrative to the picture.

How To Photograph Pets And Children: 11 Tips

poonam — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 09:49:02 +0000

by creativesam (CC)

Photographing children can be fun. They have entirely different reactions to the camera, are very unpredictable yet lovely in their own ways. And most of this is true for pets too. Here are a few tips to help you make the most of it.

Be Patient: In photography patience can be ultimately rewarding (or frustrating on a bad day). Children and pets are unpredictable so it may take quite some time to get the shots you want. Things are mostly out of control and waiting it out is the key to success. So, don’t be irritated,try to be cool and get familiar with child.
Be Ready: Don’t let your patience get the better of you. Be alert and prepared. Keep your eye on the viewfinder and don’t hesitate to shoot. In the days of the digital you can always delete the unwanted shots. Set your camera to continuous-auto-focus (or the sports mode) so that activity and movement doesn’t throw the subject out of focus. This setting is present on almost all consumer and DSLRs nowadays.
Maintain Distance: If you are not family and not a friend it’s advisable to maintain a distance to avoid distracting your subject. Also there’s a technical angle to this reasoning. Shooting pics from too close may induce unwanted geometrical artifacts and distortions. Thus rely on a zoom lens.
Come Close: Against the exact opposite of the above, sometimes you may intentionally want to get close to get some geometrical distortion to get a funny look to the shots and the faces of you pet(s).
Capture Natural Poses: While kids can be directed to pose, try to freeze some natural moments to eternity. You’ll cherish these for the times to come.
Keep Friends and Family Close: When shooting pets or kids it’s good to have one of theirs close ones to assist you. When you are holding the camera it can become quite difficult to make the child smile or pose. This also can induce reassurance to kids who are not comfortable with a stranger following them around with an scary something.
Use Props: Children either love to pose or hate it. In such a situation you can use props and toys to engage them.
Expression: Most important feature of the photograph, keep the expression natural and original.

by Sebastián-Dario (CC)
Multiple Shots: Children and pets are always moody, unpredictable and very active. Thus it becomes quite a task to get it in a single shot. Always shoot in continuous mode and if your camera doesn’t come with this feature, be prepared to hit the shutter-release every few seconds. Later when you sort them on your computer you can pick and choose to keep the best.
Color: Lively and energetic as children are peppy, vibrant or soft colors compliment them and the entire scene. Try to avoid dark and dull colors unless you know what you are doing.
Angle and Perspective: It’s important to get your camera to the level of your subject for a vast majority of the shots and normally means being on your knees at the very least. But feel free to break the rules and try some crazy angles to portray the madness in the scene.

6 Suggestions for Photography Hobbyists

Shivanand Sharma — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 17:51:07 +0000

Here are five quick tips for those of you starting out with photography.

Hold your camera right

Holding the camera right means many things. It aids you in the composition and a firm foot helps you keep the motion artifacts down. Use your left hand as a base to hold and support the camera while the thumb and forefinger controls the lens rings. With the right hand you grip the camera and use its forefinger to fire the shutter. Keep the horizons straight. Stand firm and if required lean or take support for your camera against the walls and the trees in absence of a tripod.
Plan your photo

Very important. You must know what kind of results you want. Sometimes it purely a matter of luck that a photo comes out to be a surprisingly amazing. But do your homework. Visualize what the camera will see and how you’d want to capture it. Planning your photos goes a long way in getting you photographs that leave a lasting impression.
Use the right equipment

While there’s nothing that will keep a creative pro from getting the results they want, but all other things being equal the equipment that you use can make all the difference. Of all the digital cameras available you want to pick an SLR. That’s the camera the professionals use. It captures light and detail well while keeping artifacts to a minimum. It gives the control you need over your equipment over things that make or break the appeal in a photograph. The same goes for a lens. Investing in a good quality lens is a must. The camera only captures the photograph. However it’s the lens which all this light travels through. Never undermine the optics. Check out a few digital cameras at Test Freaks .
Shoot till you are satisfied

The beauty of digital is that you never run out of film. You don’t have to take shots in dark and speculate the result. It’s instant. Thus the more you shoot the more you learn and experience. Shoot as much as you like and of all the shots pick the best. The below was shot handheld – nope it was also the lotus that was plucked-handheld. I had already taken several shots but I didn’t give up even after it was plucked. Later while analyzing I found this to be the most appealing.
Don’t hesitate to give a few finishing touches

In the days of the film, retouching was more dignified than it is today in the world of Photoshop. While you can make the clothes transparent and do all kind of trickery as a photographer you must use these tools to give a natural finishing to your work. It was there in the days of the film and it will be there in the days to come. If there’s something you couldn’t correct while shooting, try to fix it in the post-production. Here’s what I did to the above to get the feel I wanted. Nothing much but just black and white.
Experiment

Or the more misused “break the rules” if you will. Nothing can compensate for experimentation, experience and creativity. So every once in a while take a moment to experiment and see what works for you than what works for others.

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7 Things you can do today to fall in love with photography

Shivanand Sharma — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 20:15:41 +0000

The thumb rule is – you fall in love with things that you can do right. If you can get some astounding pictures you’ll fall in love with your own art. But just in case you haven’t made it there yet here’s a list of things you can do today and see yourself shooting like a pro.

Shoot a low-light scene

Your camera still can see everything in the night when you play blind. It’s just a matter of getting the settings. Go out of the city from where you can see all the city lights. Place your camera on a stand or steady surface. Set your camera to ISO100 and aperture priority mode. Set the aperture to your liking… you may want to open up the full aperture. Compose and shoot. The shutter will take some time to do it’s thing but the results will be beautiful.
Shoot wild colors

If you look around, you’ll find at least one object that has wildly saturated color(s). These subjects stand out real well in photographs and form a point of interest.
Shoot black and white

Sometimes colors tend to add unnecessary complexity to an image. If you have more to your composition than colors, wash them out. Black and Whites look classy.
Shoot from a weird angle

Unusual angles always create interest in a photograph. They showcase the subject in a new perspective.
Use an effect to create interest

A blur and bokeh are two simple effects you can achieve by shooting in Shutter priority and aperture priority respectively. Adding some blur gives the effect of movement or motion in the photograph. Bokeh gives some surreal beautiful effects in portraits. When you shoot in aperture priority, using a low f-number gives you a very narrow depth-of-field thereby eliminating your subject from the background. And if you’ve got a good portrait lens, the background is even beautified.
Use the magic light to your advantage

Here’s what magic light looks like at an extreme.
And this is how it lights up the subject.

Magic light will give you wonderful effects, color and pictures. Learn to use it.
Tweak your camera settings

People go crazy spending time reading the camera specs and doing the noise and sharpness comparision of their equipment. But the main flexibility that your DSLR allows is that you can always tweak the settings to your liking. Learn to saturate the colors and to alter the white-balance. Depending on the kind of scene and lighting that you shoot in you will almost always need to change these settings. Go for it and get creative while you are at it. Explore and discover what works best for you.

Shoot these and share your pics with us in our Flickr pool.

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Busting the megapixel myth: How much resolution do you need for print?

Shivanand Sharma — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 19:24:54 +0000

How many megapixels does your camera have? Mine has about 10 megapixels. But how much of it do you really need for a print? Here’s a small reference table to outline the pixels required to print some common sizes. This assumes that you print them at 200 dpi (dots per inch).

Print Size (in.)	Diamension in Pixels	Megapixels
3½ x 5	700 x 1000	<1
4 x 6	800 x 1200	1
5 x 7	1000 x 1400	1.5
8 x 10	1600 x 2000	3.2
11 x 14	2200 x 2800	6

So just in case you thought the pictures taken with your old 2 megapixel cameraphone were a waste, don’t give up hope yet. Retouch them to your liking and feel free to press the print button when you are satisfied. And if you want do bookmark this post – those reference tables do come in handy.

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Landscape Photography: How to shoot landscapes?

Sudhanshu Chaturvedi — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 16:44:16 +0000

I have spent my childhood in the great Himalayas. Even since from childhood days I use to look at the mountains, rivers, vast forests, which we typically say landscapes; I always tried to see them in frames. I think that’s where the photography bug had bloomed. So, when I grew up and got hold of a camera, the first form of photography I did was landscape photography.

Landscape photography is really interesting and at the same time fascinating as you capture the vast area of a subject and the real feel and mood that you experienced live. It can be fun and you can get wonderful picture if you keep a few points in mind.

Depth of Field

Most of the times in landscape photography, we recommend greater depth of field so that you can capture the whole landscape in frame with the same clarity from the center of the frame to the corners. This is achieved by using a small aperture or a higher f-stop. This brings everything from the background to the foreground into focus.

Foreground v/s Background

Great Depth of Field helps but you can always experiment with it depending on how you want to show the foreground versus background. Its very important to look at both separately to take your call.

Color Saturation

When you capture landscapes you typically capture, grass, trees, sky, mountains, water (rivers, sea, etc.) and some other things. With such variety of objects you need to ensure all these things come out in bright colors and look good. Hence, you need high color saturation for landscape photography. Make sure you use UV filter to enhance the colors especially of the sky. Also using a polarizing filter will help you cut through haze while enhancing the color saturation. These colors will fascinate you when you look at your pictures. If your camera setting allow it, do crank up on the saturation level.

Exposure

This is something that never loses its importance. Keep track of how you want to capture the mood. Like in the post on how to shoot sunsets, I mentioned that you can go down on exposure a bit to enhance the look by darkening the colors. Similarly, I would suggest try out low shutter speed if you are capturing the water falls or streams. It will help you capture the water in motion and not as a frozen look – that slight blur in the water flow will bring the water to life rather than make it look still and boring.

Tripod

If you are serious about photography, I can’t emphasize it enough – invest in a good quality tripod. You would definitely need it when you go down on shutter speed. Even otherwise, it’s always recommended to use a tripod for landscape photography.

Composition

A perfect landscape should have perfect composition. Plan out the shot. Walk around and visualize how you’d like the final result to come out. Following the rules of composition will make the shot look aesthetically more pleasing.

So, what are you waiting for? Go out and try your hand on landscape photography. Do share your experience here….

Photo by Creativity+ Timothy K Hamilton

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Breaking the rules of Photography: Before you break the rules

Shivanand Sharma — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 15:31:00 +0000

I was having a casual conversation with a renowned photographer. And he proudly said that it was all about breaking the rules – he never follows any rules. He said he does that because if he followed the rules he would never have grown beyond those rules.

Though breaking the rules is creative, lately I’m getting the feeling as if it’s becoming a fashion statement – such statements seem to be lacking depth and knowledge and irresponsible. I have a more conservative approach to “breaking the rule” rule. It is this attitude that prepares you for a long haul at photography. So go ahead and break those rules; but here’s a checklist before you set out to break them.

Know the rules – You can’t break something you don’t know about. You need to understand what the rule is, why is it practiced and what is the barrier it poses to your creativity. Certainly there must be a drawback else why would you bother to invest time in breaking the rule.
Perfect the rules – Understanding the rule is not good enough. You should be perfect at following them. If you are not, you are already neglecting them. That’s breaking the rules in a sense – but it also implies what level of control you have on your art and equipment. Practice till you set some of the best examples for yourself. You will realize, at some level the rule gets in the way of your creativity and results. Now you know you can explore further.
Don’t reinvent the wheel – Most of the times people just end up reinventing the wheel. I asked this photographer “Do you make use of the rule of thirds?” His answered that he never followed any rules. The rule of thirds is a rule of composition that helps you frame shots which are aesthetically more pleasing. This and similar rules are tested by specialists and through big surveys. When you make such a statement saying that you don’t follow the rule of thirds, you are saying you don’t invest efforts in making your composition more aesthetically pleasing. You may make some great compositions and then you may make some other – but in this context they are more of exceptions than rules. At the end of the day after shooting a few hundred shots you realize all the best shots follow some or the other rule of composition.
Work to get better results – Breaking the rules is a great idea provided you get better results than you’d have got following the rules. What’s the point in breaking the rules when you end up with something which doesn’t make sense? Get better results – that’s the way creativity is rewarded.
Experiment - Breaking the rules doesn’t work by itself. You have to spend hours experimenting with light, composition and several other parameters, get creative, visualize and try again. Explore your talent and get creative. Getting creative is the way to breaking the rules. It is when rules get in the way of your visualization and creativity that you have to chose not to follow them. Creativity is what makes a photograph stand out of the thousands. Creativity gives you the edge and you realize the individuality of the photographer within. The more you experiment, the more you get experienced and the better your work becomes.

So go ahead and break the rules. But tick off this list first.

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Tips to improve the background: Are you neglecting the background?

Shivanand Sharma — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 14:22:01 +0000

Backgrounds place the subject into the perspective of its surrounding. However most of the time the attention of the photographer is mainly on the subject. But the slightest margin for error can result in a funny shot, wasted film or a moment lost forever. Let’s see how we can make the background better.

Choosing the background

Backgrounds are used to place the subject into perspective. Backgrounds also help create the mood and feel in the photograph. Ideally backgrounds should assist in highlighting the subject of the photograph. They should thus be simple, minimalistic and undistracting.
Background as a secondary subject

How many times have you stood to be photographed against the leaning tower of Pisa? Backgrounds are often used as secondary subjects especially in travel photography to frame them into memories. Several points here:
- Make sure that the subject does not obscure the background.
- Ensure that the subject and the background are in focus. Use a small aperture to extend the depth of field and keep the subject and the background in sharp focus.
- Backgrounds may affect the camera metering. A judicious use of flash and the various metering modes in the camera will give you the best results.
Subject versus the background

When the main highlight in the scene is the subject, the last thing you want is the background fighting for attention. Again depth-of-field comes into play. Use maximum aperture to reduce the depth-of-field. This will blur the background and soften it while keeping the subject in sharp focus.
Better backgrounds

When background is a concern almost all photographers invest in a (make-shift) studio setup. This gives you complete control over the backgrounds and also on lighting, composition and privacy. A studio allows a lot of flexibility in photographing your subjects.

Paying attention to the background as much as the subject makes a huge difference. After all attention to detail is what differentiates a photographer from just another photographer.

Photo by AHMED…

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Sunset Photography: How to shoot memorable sunsets

Sudhanshu Chaturvedi — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 16:00:09 +0000

Sunset… One word can make a lot of memories alive in a second. No matter how many sunsets I see, I still get fascinated with the view of a sunset. Who doesn’t?

The reason why sunset has been one of the most interesting subject for photography is because

Every sunset is unique with the unique set of clouds or things in foreground.
It gives you infinite variations of colors in one evening itself.

So, here are the things you need to keep in mind while doing sunset photography so that your sunsets become memorable for time to come.

Composition

The most important part of a sunset is the sun. But sun alone can not make your pictures wonderful. You need to take care of the complete view – the composition; like the clouds, when light passes from them you get various shades and as the clouds move and sun goes further down, you get different patterns. Make sure you take a longer shot to capture the whole view. It doesn’t mean you can not zoom into sun and get the frame filled with the big ball of fire. That can be interesting too. Make sure you know how you want to capture your sunset. No place is bad, be it a beach or a mountain or even in the middle of the city. What matters is how you decide on your composition and how you capture it.

Exposure

Thumb rule says, if you are clicking the sun with the whole sky, go down on the exposure. One or two stops down on exposure. It works. It can help in putting all the things in foreground to look dark and you have a perfect back lit picture. Also a slight underexposure will result in more saturated colors. But be creative. There are no hard and fast rules.

Equipment

A digital camera or a DSLR (depending on what you want) with a normal lens will do. I have seen some good outputs from a wide angle lens but I won’t suggest that. That’s your call. Also make sure you carry a tripod, if in case you need to use low shutter speed. I prefer holding it my hand. I generally don’t go so slow on shutter speed that I need a tripod. But tripod is a good option. A good estimate is anything slower than 1/20sec can use a tripod.

You as a photographer

“Patience is a virtue” makes absolute sense in photography. You need to wait for the right moment and be ready to click. If you are new click every five minutes because you don’t want to miss that special moment that only occurs once a day. At times you might have to hold the camera for several minutes in order to get the perfect picture you are looking for. Sunset is a like a process. It takes a little time for the sun to set completely. But throughout the process you get huge variations and good chances to take a good picture. You get various shades in the sky during sunset. But you need to keep in mind that one shade combination will stay for a few minutes. Once gone, it will not come back. So, as a photographer you need to by ready for the right picture.

What to you say?

Photo by mischiru

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RAW vs JPEG: Which format to shoot in

Shivanand Sharma — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 18:03:15 +0000

A wise choice of image format before taking your shots will decide the flexibility and the control you will have over the final result. Let’s put a few things in perspective first. JPEG or JPG is an image format devised by the Joint Photographic Experts Group. Pronounced “J-peg”, it is a compressed and lossy format thus giving you a image that is smaller on storage (not resolution). The JPEG format depends on the shortcomings of the human eye to do away with some of the detail in an image.

The RAW format on the other hand is literally the raw data captured by the camera sensor. To be precise, it is the minimally processed data captured by the camera sensor and holds information of every pixel of the sensor. RAW files are huge in size since they hold a lot of data in an uncompressed format (not actually true since some RAW formats do compress minimally). So where does this leave us?

Image Quality

JPEG is lossy. The loss may not be evident at the first conversion, but when you digitally modify the image and save as JPEG again, the changes will be apparent.
RAW is lossless. No matter how many times you read and save the RAW file, there is no loss of the image quality.

Image Size

JPEG is compressed. This results in a smaller file size at the storage level though the measurements of the image area remain the same. Shoot JPEG when you are running low on storage.
RAW is uncompressed. Each RAW file eats up several megabytes of storage. If you are carrying extra storage you will want to shoot RAW.

Post-Processing

JPEG is lossy and results in the loss of detail on every save. However JPEG is a standard format and can be read by the majority of imaging software. The post-processing required is none or minimal.
RAW is proprietary format and depends of the camera manufacturer. Though RAW plug-ins exist for software like Photoshop, they are generic and do not necessarily allow you to get the best out of the RAW image. You’ll need to use a proprietary software to get the exact color rendition and details.

Shooting Speed

JPEG files are small in size and can be written to the storage very quickly. The camera buffer gets freed very quickly and the camera is ready to shoot the next image in continuous mode (given that you are not waiting for the flash to recharge).
RAW files are large in size and take time to be written to the storage. The camera buffer is occupied during this time so if you are shooting in the continuous mode, the fps or frames-per-second rate drops down.

Image Control

JPEG format contains the final image which is arrived at after all the processing has already been done inside the camera. Suited when you don’t want to do much post-processing.
RAW is well raw. You can open it up in its software and you have access to all the controls and various parameters. Its virtually like being able to take the shot again – you can vary the sharpness, exposure, contrast, brightness and a whole range of other parameters. This comes in very handy when you don’t want to miss a particular shot – you can open the RAW file and do any adjustments that you couldn’t do then.

I generally shoot in RAW and I delete images all the time trying to retain only the best. Even when I’m out shooting I make sure I have enough storage and I shoot in RAW. JPEG is only a last resort if I risk missing a particular shot. Which image format do you shoot in?

Photo by Chaval Brasil

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Lens Maintenance – Protect your priced possession

Sudhanshu Chaturvedi — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 17:19:32 +0000

Have you ever been worried about the maintenance of the lens you have been using? Its obvious for two reasons. One, you have invested so much of money in buying a good quality lens, you can’t afford treat it badly – you shouldn’t. Second, good lens becomes one of the major factor behind good quality photographs. Lets have a look at some tips on how to take care of your Lens and how to do regular maintenance. Before any tips, follow this rule of the thumb, few years back when I was still learning the basics, a professional photographer told me “Whenever you use a camera the first thing you do is hang it around your neck with a good quality strap. It will avoid the camera and the lens from crashing or hitting any object unless you fall flat on your face”.

A lens accumulates dust and grit all the time. If you visit the sea coast you’d notice the moisture settling down on the lens. Good maintenance can avoid (or postpone) the need of cleaning the lens. Let’s see what precautions we can take for the maintenance.

Lens Hood

A lens hood or lens shade should be attached to a lens in order to block the bright sunlight or other light source to reduce the impact of glare on the lens when you take pictures. Apart from this, a hood also protects your lens if by chance you scratch the lens to any wall, or anything else while you are carrying it in your hand.

UV/ light filter

It’s recommended to use a UV filter or any plain sunlight filter on the lens. UV filter blocks the UV rays getting into your camera and changing the colors of your photograph. Also, protects the outer glass of your lens from scratches. You will have to clean the filter only not the lens. But one thing to keep in mind, if you have invested good amount of money in the lens, make sure you buy a good quality filter. And don’t worry, extra glass doesn’t spoil your pictures but can improve their colors.

Cleaning of the lens

It’s very important to learn how you can clean the lens of your DSLR yourself and understand the Do’s and Don’ts of it. Cleaning the lens is a very tricky exercise and requires expertise and precaution. We’ll leave it as a topic for another post.

Tell us your side of the story. What did you do when you saw the first finget impression on your lens?

Photo by massdistraction

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Getting better image quality: things that matter

Sudhanshu Chaturvedi — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 14:58:35 +0000

Does the image quality of your picture always elude you? At times it gets confusing why image quality of one camera is better than the other with same mega pixels or may be less. What is it all about?

When we talk about image quality we need to consider a few factors here:

Megapixels – In simple language a pixel is a smallest unit, basically the finest dots that make up the picture. Read a pixel as a picture element. Mega pixel means a million pixels. The megapixel number defines the picture resolution only from printing perspective. The more the megapixel value you have, the bigger the print you get. It does not mean bigger pixel value will get you a better quality picture. Why? Consider this. We have a hypothetical sensor of 100 pixels. This value is always a product of the length multiplied by the width. So agail lets assume that each side is 10 pixels (10×10=100). Now if you have another hypothetical sensor of 15 px of each side, it’s resolution will be 225. You have not doubled the length but the final resolution has doubled. This is a trick manufacturers and salesmen use to boast of megapixels to sell you the cameras. A small change in the length or the width of the sensor boosts the resolution value suggesting better images. Don’t fall for it. Read further to find out.
Sensor Size – The size of your camera sensor is one of the most important factor affecting your picture quality. The bigger the size of the sensor, the better the picture quality. That’s the main reason why compact cameras with higher megapixels have low picture quality than a normal DSLR, simply because all DSLRs come with larger sensors than the compact digital cameras.
Pixel density – This is a big reason that affects the image quality of cameras. The higher the pixel density, the poorer image quality. Imagine 10 million pixels laid out within a few centimeters. At that amount of area the pixels will be miniscule and light artifacts come into play at such distances comparable to the wavelength of the colors in light. Low pixel density means better image quality given all other factors are equal.
Quality of Lens – The lens quality is another important factor affecting the quality of your picture. Generally, we keep messing with the sensor and number of megapixels. But for a moment forget the importance of the type of lens you use. You can try it out to check for yourself. Telling you from my personal experience, a camera with low megapixel value but with a good lens can give you a better quality picture than a camera with higher megapixel value but with a low quality lens. That’s because not every glass is made equal and not every glass has the same optical properties. Chromatic aberration etc. shall be the topic for another post. Till then, forget the megapixels and go out to shoot some nice colors.

Next time someone pitches you megapixels you know what else to look at. I’m sure these things will help you make a better decision on your next purchase.

Photo by ailniery

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Exposure Basics

Shivanand Sharma — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 12:30:12 +0000

Exposure in the context of photography is the amount of light which the photographic film (or the sensor in a digital camera) is exposed to . If that sounds simple then read on. Exposure is one of the central concepts of photography. The art of photography rests on the perfection in exposure. Optimum exposure is the one in which just the right amount of light is let in through the aperture to render the fineness in the texture, the color tones and overall brightness in one image.

Optimal Exposure - f/4.2, 1/60s, ISO 200, 180-200@35mm

Overexposure: When more than optimal light is allowed on to the film, the result are overly bright and almost washed out by the light. It’s almost as if the camera has been blinded by the sun. Overexposure result in the loss of texture and detail in the final image. The colors are also washed out to a large extent.

Overexposure - f/4.2, 1/15s, ISO 200, 18-200@35mm
Underexposure: Less then optimal light on the film results in underexposure. The overall scene is poorly illuminated. As in an overexposed image, a loss of texture and detail is evident. Colors may be saturated beyond the original. Underexposure is generally caused by a high shutter speed, low light or small aperture.

Underexposure - f/4.2, 1/250s, ISO 200, 18-200@35mm

Next we will see how various metering modes work to provide the exposure best suited to the situation. Also we will see how you can manually control the exposure for various situations.

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Photography Composition: The Golden Ratio

Shivanand Sharma — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 12:21:53 +0000

The “Golden Ratio” is a naturally and aesthetically pleasing proportion which is popular in design and architecture amongst other fields. The golden ratio is a mathematical constant with its value equivalent to 1.61803… denoted by the greek letter “phi”.

The golden ratio is best used when composing a scene comprised of two major contrasting planes. It will divide the frame vertically or horizontally into two rectangles. As an example one typical application could be when shooting the sunset or the sunrise on the horizon. It takes a little time getting used to composing in the golden raion since the viewfinder is not very helpful in framing such a composition and an incorrect extimate will rather appear like an errorneous symmetry than an intended deleberate composition. Try it our and share the results with us.

Photo by spodzone

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Digital Camera Modes: What do they mean?

Sudhanshu Chaturvedi — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 16:11:06 +0000

Cameras come with various shooting modes which have application in specific conditions. Lets have a look at the common shooting modes on a digital camera and what they mean. The point here is to allow you to study the settings the camera chooses in a particular situation and give you some experience when the need comes for you to choose these settings manually or for a particular situation. While consumer cameras have fancy things like face detection, pros generally have the following with only a variation in the names.

Auto – All the settings are chosen automatically based on the subject and the light available. In most of the cameras in case of low light the built-in flash automatically fires to compensate for the low light.
Portrait – It keeps the main subject in clear focus and the background is out of focus with shallow depth of field.
Landscape – The flash is turned off, a small aperture is used for a high depth of field to keep the maximum part in focus. Best for what the name suggests.
Macro – It sets to take close-up shots of small objects, flowers and insects. Lens can be moved closer to the subject than in other modes. Hold the camera steady or use a tripod.
Sports – High shutter speed to freeze action. Especially meant fordynamic motion shots. The flash is turned off. While the high shutter speed can compensate for a moving subject, it really doesn’t matter much if the photographer is on the run because the motion of the camera is way higher in the perspective than the object in focus. But that still the best mode to shoot in if you are on the run. Gives sharp picture if you hand the camera to your kids. Most of the cameras use continuous focus in this mode since a moving subject goes out of focus as you compose.
Night Scene – It sets the camera to take long shots in low light with slow shutter speed. Use of tripod is highly recommended. This works better than auto mode most of the times because auto doesn’t expose long enough which is required for a night scene.
Programmed Auto – the camera sets shutter speed and the aperture. These come in a pair of different values. So if you choose to use a higher shutter speed the camera will automatically set the aperture to a large value to compensate for the low light.
Shutter-priority - In this mode you choose the shutter speed, the camera sets the aperture automatically. This is different from the “Programmed Auto” since the aperture value for a particular shutter speed is fixed and these values are paired. More on this in another post. Best when you want to freeze the motion or induce a trail in the movement.
Aperture-priority - You choose the aperture and the shutter speed is set automatically. Best when you want to control depth of field.
Manual – Traditionally speaking this is the mode you need to aim to work on. But DSLRs have changed things. Most of the latest gear does everything automatically allowing you to compose and shoot. Why bother with setting the shutter speed when the camera can detect motion and turn on continuous focus and high shutter speed? The aim of the camera is to take off the load than to bother you with buttons and settings. However this comes in handy when you want complete control over the settings. Things can be tricky sometimes and the light may ditch the camera metering. Or perhaps you want to hold open the shutter to capture thunder. It allows you to interefere directly with the settings so you can even choose a wierd combination, break some rules and come out with some fantastic images.

There may be other modes as well on you camera depending on the brand you chose. Use these effectively to be ready when the family calls upon. Will save ones grace instead of exposing their technical-manhandling capabilities.

Do you shoot manual or one of these modes? Which one and why?

Photo by dcassaa

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Types of Lenses

Sudhanshu Chaturvedi — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 14:04:32 +0000

The independence to change lenses based on your needs gives a lot of freedom to a photographer. But what are these different types of lenses. Various lenses are suited for specific application. Lets have a look at some common names and what they do.

Normal/ Standard Lenses – These are lenses provided by the camera manufacturers along with the camera as a part of the kit. These are generally of the 18 – 55mm focal length for a normal 35mm camera.
Telephoto lenses – These are the lenses with focal length longer than the standard lens. Also called as Long focus Lens. These lenses are generally used to take photographs from a distance. Especially for nature and wildlife photography where you can not go near to the subject but want to fill the frame with the subject from a distance. Normally, 70 – 300mm lens is recommended for such purpose though different combination can be used based on your requirement.
Mirror Lenses – This is a special design of a long focus lens in which some of the lens elements are replaced with the mirrors. These lenses are generally lighter than the normal lens of the same focal length but they come with fixed aperture.
Wide Angle Lenses – These lenses have lower focal length than the standard lenses which helps in getting more area of view in the frame from the same distance. Typically used for landscape photography. These lenses can increase the perspective distortion. So, caution is recommended.
Zoom Lenses – These are the lenses with variable focal lengths. In these lenses the positive and negative elements of the lens are put together in such a way that by moving them you can get varied focal lengths. You can also find telephoto lens with zoom lens capabilities. Do not get confused between the two.
Macro Lenses – These lenses are designed to do close up photography like flowers, insects, etc. Basically the macro lenses have very high focusing movement than the normal lenses.
Aspherical & Fluorite Lenses – These lenses with special purpose. Fluorite lens uses one or more elements of calcium fluoride (CaF 2 ) made from synthetic crystals. This lens has a very high color correction. Aspherical lens elements help to compensate for distortion in wide-angle lenses, and compensate or eliminate spherical aberrations in lenses with a large maximum aperture. They also allow manufacturers to produce more compact lenses than was previously possible using only spherical lens elements. These are costly lenses.

Did I miss anything? Post your comments….

Photo by gwburke2001

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The rule of thirds in photographic composition

Shivanand Sharma — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 14:26:58 +0000

The rule of thirds in photographic composition is one of the very basic rules and taught to budding photographers and entry level aspirants in the stream.

The rule of thirds is a fundamental rule in photographic composition. Basically you align the areas of interest in a composition such that the resulting image draws more interest and reaction. An image can be divided into 3 parts horizontally and 3 parts vertically resulting in a 9 part grid. An intersection point of any of these two lines is called a power point.

The rule of thirds basically states that aligning the areas of interest in the composition with the power points results in an image that draws higher level of interest, energy in the image and viewer reaction. The resulting image is thus aesthetically pleasing and looks professional. Additionally, the areas of interest need not be at one of the power points but in fact they could be aligned to one of the vertical or horizontal lines. This works best when shooting images having horizons or other surfaces.

The lines divide the frame into nine sections

Most of the newbie photographers or end-users like to place the subject in the center of the frame. This results in a boring flat image. The rule of thirds is practiced in interior design, web design and painting amongst other fields. The right placement of the subject draws more viewer interest and results in a professional composition. Most of the professional cameras have good viewfinder grids which will allow you to experiment and get a better hand at testing the rule of thirds.

Exercise: Pick up your digital camera and shoot 2 shots of 5 different compositions. Place the subject in the center in the first shot and along a power point in the second. Copy these images to your computer and compare both shots side-by-side. Do this for all the 5 pairs. Which one do you find more interesting?

Photo by ~ Pil ~

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Bracketing: Get the best exposures you want!

Sudhanshu Chaturvedi — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 18:48:49 +0000

I remember when I was new in the field of photography; I often used to wonder what people meant when they said I need to make sure the exposure sign on your screen is green, always. Who decides what exposure is good? I should decide it as a photographer or the camera decides it which leaves me as a dependent photographer.

The reality is camera just tells you that a particular exposure is correct on these external lightings. But it is just a facilitator; the decision always is of the photographer. Experience teaches you this.

For a beginner, Bracketing is a good tool to find out what exposure settings work best for you. Let me explain in a simple manner. For example, you are taking a picture of a sunset (it turns out be my favorite subject), your camera tells you that shutter speed of 1/60 and aperture of f-09 gives u a perfect exposure. But u feel if the clouds and things around the sun are a bit darker, the sun will come out brighter and it will enhance the color of the sun as well. What do you do? You take a picture and at f-09 as your camera told you and also take 2 pictures one with f-08 and one with f-10. So, you now have 3 pictures with different exposure settings. Get it developed and decide which one you want. This is called Bracketing. Most of the photographers use this on outdoor shoots as can not afford to go back to that location just because they feel later on that one f-stop lower or higher could have made a difference.

Comments go to the usual place – right here.

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Photography Basics- Even before you pick up the camera

Sudhanshu Chaturvedi — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 18:36:20 +0000

Have you ever wondered why your pictures don’t come the way you want or how some people capture better pictures than others. Lets see some simple rules before even we pick up our camera…..

See what you camera sees: Yes, that’s true. Most of the time we see something very beautiful but it does not come the same way on the camera. You need to understand that human eyes are a highly complex camera attached with the greatest super computer called ‘Brain’. For example, we see a beautiful sunset. We do not realize that eyes, coupled with our brain, analyzes the distance, height, all the 3 dimensions, color, level of light/ darkness, blah, blah, blah…in a fraction of a second and our eye muscles adjust immediately to get a better view. Can u do that in a camera? I think you got the point. Always see what your camera sees.
Be passionate but not emotional: Most of the time budding photographers get so excited by the sight, that they overlook the technicalities of photography. As a result they get bad results and get demotivated. What is important that we need to keep the passion high but we do not get emotional with subject. Photographers decide what they want to shoot before they go to the jungle and carry the equipment based on their goal for that day. For example, if they plan to shoot macro work they will not divert themselves for long shots of animals even if the subject looks tempting. That’s the difference between amateur and professional photographers.

Do post your views and comments here.

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Hold your camera right

Plan your photo

Use the right equipment

Shoot till you are satisfied

Don’t hesitate to give a few finishing touches

Experiment

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Landscape Photography: How to shoot landscapes?

Depth of Field

Foreground v/s Background

Color Saturation

Exposure

Tripod

Composition

Breaking the rules of Photography: Before you break the rules

Tips to improve the background: Are you neglecting the background?

Choosing the background

Background as a secondary subject

Subject versus the background

Better backgrounds

Sunset Photography: How to shoot memorable sunsets

Composition

Exposure

Equipment

You as a photographer

RAW vs JPEG: Which format to shoot in

Image Quality

Image Size

Post-Processing

Shooting Speed

Image Control

Lens Maintenance – Protect your priced possession

Lens Hood

UV/ light filter

Cleaning of the lens

Getting better image quality: things that matter

Exposure Basics

Photography Composition: The Golden Ratio

Digital Camera Modes: What do they mean?

Types of Lenses

The rule of thirds in photographic composition

Bracketing: Get the best exposures you want!

Photography Basics- Even before you pick up the camera