"Night Life" by MarcelGermain

Night time provides excellent opportunity  for photographers to get creative and explore unusual light conditions. Shooting during the night can be very challenging because of the limitations that the light poses. Here are some tips to help you take some excellent, colorful and beautiful shots during the night:

1. Flash: The first thing a beginner will do is to fire the flash. The art lies in understanding the reach and effect of flash and where and how to get the best results. Flash is generally used to illuminate people or to bounce off light and control the shadows. Using flash for night scenes without any/little ambient light is an absolute waste. Carry an external flash unit and battery if required. External flash are preferred over the built-in flash of the DSLRs and compacts as they provide more even and softer light (suited for portraits).
2. Lens: The bare levels of light during the night warrant equipment and techniques that help you collect more light. Go for a lens with a wider aperture. Generally prime lenses suit this purpose. Lenses with built-in vibration-reduction or image-stabilization are recommended.
3. The Full-Frame Advantage: The full-frame cameras have a bigger light sensor. Due to the extra surface area, more light is captured and low-light performance of the camera is boosted. Also these cameras have excellent noise performance characteristics and can go up to insane ISO ratings with perfectly usable results.
4. The Less Mega-Pixel Advantage: This is purely hypothetical and speculative based on reasoning alone. Given a standard sensor size, a lower megapixel count will mean larger sensor-pixels which will have better noise performance characteristics owing to their larger surface area equipping them to collect more light. But this would indeed mean a camera with pretty few mega-pixel. Your inputs are invited in the comments section.
5. Shutter Speed: Due to the absence of light, you must open the shutter for longer time. Since you have to keep the shutter speed slow, you also have to ensure that the camera and the subject don’t move else this may result in an ugly blur. This brings us to the next point.
6. Tripod: Invest in a sturdy tripod. It comes in handy often during indoor and low-light shoots or even in scenes requiring show shutter speed or just a timer-triggered shots. You compose, fix and leave (or stay to press the trigger). You can work around the requirement of a tripod by supporting your camera against a sturdy surface or by placing it on something stable and then pressing the shutter-release. Also you may want to try the timer or remote trigger to avoid shaking the camera when releasing the shutter. Use the mirror-lock to reduce camera shake during the shutter-release.
7. Auto ISO: Set your camera to auto ISO. If you set the ISO manually, the camera will be confined to correct the exposure using shutter-speed and aperture only resulting in unpredictable artifacts in low-light conditions like blur, movement etc. Auto ISO will boost the sensor’s sensitivity to light avoiding the need to decrease shutter-speed beyond what is really required.
8. Large Aperture: Even with the aperture wide-open, there’s not much light that you can collect. But leaving it at the widest (low f-stop/f-number) certainly helps.
9. Flash Mode: Your camera may offer you various flash-firing modes for effectively capturing moving subjects at night. A slow flash will illuminate your subject longer, a rear firing flash will make the flash fire right before the shutter is about to complete the shot and close down. This allows the camera to collect the ambient light and then finally fire the flash to illuminate the subject and close the shutter, killing the scope for any blur.
10. Night Mode: An easy mode to help you hand over the camera to kids or friends to set them up for photography. Depending on the camera there may be two kinds of night modes — one that offers you flash (best for portraits) and other which tries to capture subjects in ambient light like the moon or city light or fireworks etc.
11. Try Black and White: There’s a beauty and effect of reflections, glows and light effects which goes beyond the realm of color. But insist on shooting in color and convert to black and white only during the post-processing. This allows you more flexibility, options and greater variety of results when doing the conversion.
    

    "Singapore Business district night view" by * etoile

12. Noise Considerations: Shooting in low light generally requires the ISO boosted to insane levels which in-turn results in a lot of color noise and grain. Some cameras have built-in noise reduction. I prefer to take care of the noise during the post-processing phase because the computer, software allow wider and highly sophisticated options to get rid of the ISO noise.
13. Shoot At Dusk and Dawn: Ambient light at dusk and dawn has a surreal quality and tone to it. Also referred to as the magic light this light can give you very pleasing colors and tones in your results.
14. Use Manual/Semi-Auto Modes: As a professional and an artist (a perfectionist) you will mostly have to shoot in one of the semi-manual (semi-automatic) or fully-manual modes. Mostly you will be shooting in the shutter-priority modes to control the motion-blur.
15. White Balance: Due to the variety of available sources of light at night, your camera may be tricked to use incorrect white balance. If you are shooting RAW, you can take care of this during the post-processing. In case you shoot JPEG, just note that you may want to check your results right then and there to ensure proper expected results. Use the LCD on your DSLR to preview the JPEG.
16. Shoot Fairgrounds and Traffic: Moving sources of light create interesting shapes and outlines when exposed using a show shutter-speed. Static sources of light create colorfully glowing objects in the result.
17. Fireworks: Fireworks can be tricky to shoot. One missed moment can result in a perfect shot ruined. The best way to work this out is to shoot in continuous mode and capture multiple shots. Later you can copy them to your computer and choose and pick the best. A fast focusing camera and lens combination certainly helps.
18. Indoors: Flash can be tricky to say the least, especially in low-light. If you can, work out your shot in ambient light using a higher ISO setting or else stick to the night portrait mode of the camera.

© AdvancedPhotography.Net

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Morning bell by Kr. B.

This is a multi-part post on photographing fine art nudes. Due to the nature of the topic some people may find this topic offensive. So if you are underage or feel uncomfortable with this topics you may want to skip this post. Several readers have expressed interest in this particular photographing fine-art-nudes. So here’s a post covering the subject in its entirety. The post shall be published in several parts and here’s Part I of this post.

1. Artistic Expression vs. Profane: If you are just starting, there are good chances that the works may have little or barely noticeable dimension of art. Thus you run the risk of having your hard-work mistaken for profanity. Try to make the art obvious. And one way to do this is by intellectualizing. Getting started along the right path shall help you get along with the initial phase which may not be an easy one. As a photographer you must build the imagination and foresight to be able to overlook the realm of color and reality and visualize the subject in the context of aesthetics and artistic expression.
2. The Model: If you are starting out, hiring an experienced model with help ease the air of tension and stress which builds around when working on intimate poses with a stranger. Additionally it will also give you an opportunity to draw from the experience of the model help you get started.
3. Interpersonal Communication With The Model: Keep the communication open, light yet professional. This shall ease up the model and make them comfortable working with you. Small talk helps. Also ensure that the model is physically comfortable in the environment so ensure proper room temperature etc. Remember they are working without any cover to their body.
4. The Modal Release Agreement: The modal release agreement defines the copyright usage, exceptions to it and other declarations and agreement between the photographer and the model. This is a legal document and the details should be worked out in consultation with a lawyer. The model release is signed on a per session basis. Nude photographs can be a subject of litigation for several reasons including “invasion of privacy”. Ensure that the legalese is proper and avoid working with under-aged models in all circumstances.
5. The Landscape: The human body is analogous to a landscape in more than one ways. Visualize the human body and explore your subject from various angles. Pose them against various angles and quality of light to realize the potential of a work of art.
6. Sensuality: The human body as a living (and lively) subject can be very expressive. Experimenting with the expressions of the sensuality of the human body can bring out some creative and interesting results. Try to explore the feel and intensity of the human skin, the hair strands, the texture to the liveliness of the human.
7. Plan the Session: Plan your session in advance in preparation of the shooting. Most of the times during such occasions, creativity doesn’t yield the expected results easily and it requires some getting used to and quite some vision and foresight. Keep scope for creativity in your planned session as you never know when creative ideas strike.
8. Expression: Expressions add life to a photograph. Eyes are the most expressive part of the human body and when combined with the complete human frame the intensity of the expression is enhanced. Expression is the communication — the language of any art-form. The more expressive your photographs, the more interesting and impressive they come out to be.
9. Use Black & White: Black and white helps you overlook the explicit and look into the world of aesthetics. It rules out most distractions that can be intrusive and kill the artistic expression of a work. Thus subtle qualities like reflections, contrast, etc. get highlighted thereby enhancing the quality of the photographic-work. Eliminating the color also helps keep the distractions to the viewer’s eye to a minimum while bringing focus to the subject.
10. Motherhood: Motherhood is an special occasion for the human body. Such phases give you an opportunity to capture and portray the human body from a unique perspective. There is a lot of emotion and life to such works when executed efficiently. Additionally photographs of pregnancy and motherhood are more welcomed and well received than the fine art works of nudity often because of cultural outlook of the societies.

Now that we are through with the basics, we’ll be exploring a lot of technique and skill in the upcoming part of this series. We hope you find this post informative and we welcome you to provide your inputs and point out omissions if any for the sake of completeness. Keep watching this space and if you like do subscribe to keep up with the latest posts here.

© AdvancedPhotography.Net

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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:

1. 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.

2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.

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Wildbeest by h.koppdelaney (CC)

The natural beauty surrounding us in the form of landscapes, plants, and wildlife form compelling subjects to capture in still images. Amongst all, wildlife photography can be a lot of fun, adventurous yet challenging. Here are some tips for shooting out there in the wild.

1. Requirements: Amongst all you will need some spare batteries, tripod, choice of lens, remote trigger, a laptop, extra memory card(s), etc.
2. Technique: Its all about knowing your subject well and capturing them at the right time. Keep in mind the following:
   • Patience: It’s rather a prerequisite than a technique. Wildlife has its own rules, animals don’t pose and the wild is uncontrolled and yes, “wild”. All you can practice is patience and perseverance.
   • Remote Trigger: A remote trigger comes in handy when you want to stay safe from dangerous subjects or have to leave them alone by themselves. Remote trigger is an essential in wildlife photography as it allows you to shoot from a distance. The only problem it poses is that you cannot compose your shot in real-time.
   • Lens: Telephoto lenses allow you to focus on distant subjects. Zoom lenses serve multiple purposes and come in handy when you have to zoom in/out to recompose the shot. Also keep a winde-angle handy just in case you come across a beautiful landscape.
   • Circle of Fear: Everyone has a comfort-zone. The circle-of-fear is analogous to this. Like us animals have their own boundaries, if you get too close to them, they may either be scared away or if you are unlucky attack you.
   • Magic Light: Magic light adds warmth, contrast and shadows to the subject. You can use the magic light to get creative effects in your photographs too. And it’s not only the animals that you can shoot, wildlife offers you beautiful landscapes too which are best captured in magic light.
     

     Today's sunrise by Arno & Louise Wildlife (CC)

   • Focus: Set your camera to focus in continuous modes to account for motion and movement of the subject.
   • Fast Shutter Speed: Certain animals are more active than others. If you come across any of these, you will want to switch to shutter-priority mode or sports mode to freeze these subjects. Light shouldn’t be a problem if you are in a well exposed area.
   • Perspective: This needs some preparation and luck. Changing your angle while you are taking photograph, may disturb your subject. Check your view point, have backup plans and if you can you can place more than one camera to take shots from multiple angles.
   • Camera Settings: Effects like DOF, motion, etc. are best controlled through the camera settings. Others like colors, saturation, tonality etc. can be taken care of during post-processing too.
   • Shoot RAW: Its always recommended to take the photograph in RAW format. This allows greater flexibility and scope for retouching, alteration during the post-production phase. JPEGs are lossy and don’t have similar scope for editing and retouching, and you can’t/don’t want to go all the way back for a second take. If you are running short of camera memory then you may want to turn this option off since RAW images populate the memory faster.
   • Continuous Shots: Capturing animal movement and expression is very tricky. Keep firing your shutter and take multiple shots, there are greater chances that you may get lucky. Set your DSLR to shoot in continuous mode. If you are running short of camera memory then you may want to turn this option off since multiple shots of the same scene populate the memory faster.
   • Blinds & Hideouts: You can use blinds and hideouts effectively to achieve proximity to your subjects. But this can be risky at times and it would be safe to avoid getting close to dangerous subjects.
3. Precaution: Out there in the wild, nature can be unpredictable. Practice precaution in unexplored territory or with wild  subjects.

Explore the wild and get creative. Feel free to share your Flickr photographs in the comments.

© AdvancedPhotography.Net

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You may have watched the videos of a blooming flower, melting ice, sunset or sunrise or the life cycle of a tree? Even you can give a try to something like making a video of growing grass or capture the busy market place with your camera. This technique is called Time-Lapse Photography. Time lapse photography is a sequence of shots over a period of time covering a particular event.  These images can be arranged into a video or can be creatively super-imposed.

Here are 6 tips on how to get going with time-lapse photography.

1. Choose And Visualize The Event: The first and the foremost step is to decide on what event you want to cover. Is it a fast moving action or a gradual change? The entire photo shoot rests on this decision. If you want to cover some spontaneous act, you need to set your camera on tripod in continuous mode by setting the specific time interval. Some of the newer cameras have this feature built-in. Just in case your camera doesn’t offer this feature, you can use an intervalometer. And if you want to visualize a slow gradual change like growing of a seed into a plant, then you can periodically capture the process.
2. Tweak Your Camera Settings : The next important thing you need to do is to set your camera right. Just 3 settings and you are ready — ready to capture your event in pieces of information that will finally shape up your video.
   • Depending on the size of the memory card in your camera set your camera to record JPG. RAW can eat up lots of memory space. Sometimes it is advisable to shoot RAW, for a better post-processing. Also cameras perform faster when shooting JPGs but this shouldn’t be a problem in newer DSLRs.
   • Set your camera’s mode to manual to be able to control all the nuances. This helps you choose and fix your settings across the entire sequence avoiding any changes during camera’s auto modes. Thus, the DOF, shutter speed, white balance remain constant.
   • Set ISO to auto so that the camera can compensate for the fixed shutter speed and aperture to ensure proper exposure. In case of high ISO, grainy and noisy images you can correct them during post-processing.
3. Spend Time On Post-Production: Once you have the photographs on your PC,  you can start giving the final touches by cropping them or making the desired corrections. Sometimes these changes need to be applied to the entire sequence (cropping, etc); at other times you may want to make changes to only particular shots in the sequence. You can use Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom, GIMP, Aperture (Mac) or any image editor of your choice. You can even batch process the pictures. Format them to your requirement.
4. Compile A Video: Fire up Photoshop and turn your hard work into a well covered event crunched into a short span of time. You can use Adobe Photoshop, iMovie or Apple’s QuickTime Pro whichever you find easy.
5. OR Superimpose: Sometimes you can take your creativity to the next level and super-impose the images narrating the entire story in a single shot. Usually this can be done when the subject moves across various parts of the frame.
6. Review: Once you are ready with your video, its time for a review of your task. Review the entire sequence or video and make any final changes.
7. Showcase The Final Result: Take pride in your final masterpiece. There are poor chances of admiration of an art-work which is not admired by its master. Time-lapse photography is an advanced technique and a creative form of photography, narrating a story of the event.

Time for you to plan for your time lapse photography session.

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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.

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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).
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. Use Props: Children either love to pose or hate it. In such a situation you can use props and toys to engage them.
8. Expression: Most important feature of the photograph, keep the expression natural and original.
   

   by Sebastián-Dario (CC)

9. 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.
10. 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.
11. 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.

© AdvancedPhotography.Net

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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.

1. 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.
   

2. 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.
   

3. 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.
   

4. Shoot from a weird angle

   Unusual angles always create interest in a photograph. They showcase the subject in a new perspective.
   

5. 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.
   

6. 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.

7. 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.

© AdvancedPhotography.Net

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Macro photography can be real fun. Macro photography brings out the fineness and detail which is not usually seen by the human eye. The subject being larger than life definitely adds to the fun. Here are a few tips on how you can do better at macro photography.

• Camera settings

  The camera’s macro mode is designed to give you the best results for macro shots. It will automatically set the maximum aperture and other settings to get the best out of the shot.

• The lens

  This is If your camera accepts interchangeable lenses. There are special lenses for macro photography which give you the best result. If you pursue keen interest in macro photography you should consider going for a specialized lens for macro purpose.

• Light

  The direction of light can be used to bring the details in the texture. It is thus important that the light does not fall from the direction of the camera. In simple words avoid using flash. Try to use existing light and use a reflector to cast light sideways which will enhance the details of the texture.

• Shadows

  Being too close to the subject can result in you casting a shadow over the subject. Make sure you stay a safe distance.

• Avoid parallax error

  At macro distances camera’s tend to amplify the difference between what shows up in the viewfinder and what shows up on the actual picture. This difference is referred to as “parallax error“. This happens when you are shooting with a compact camera. An SLR (or DSLR) shows you the same picture as you’d see from the lens and thus there is no parallax error.

• DOF considerations

  When you shoot macro it is important to remember that the Depth of Field is greatly reduced. This can look beautiful since it drives the viewer’s attention to the focus area. However other areas are left out of focus. If you like you can use a high f-number which will give you a small aperture, greater depth of field and an overall sharper image.

How much of macro do you shoot?

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Taking pictures while you travel can be a memorable experience. As time goes by, the memories of the trip fade but the pictures keep few memories alive forever. You can make these memorable moments better if you prepare well in advance for one important part of your trip: that is photography. What do you need to keep in mind?

Getting the right photography gear

• Camera: A photographer on the go needs to be very careful about his/ her gear. Make sure you carry digital SLRs and Digital cameras. Avoid film cameras as many of my friends got their films spoiled during screening at the airport. If you are carrying a DSLR camera, make sure you also carry a compact digital camera with you. You will realize during the trip that you can’t take your bulky DLSR everywhere. Compact Digital camera comes in handy in such places and keeps those wonderful moments alive in your memories.
• Lens: Make sure you carry a less bulky, normal use lens (like 18-55mm) for the normal trip. You may also like to carry one zoom lens (like 100-400mm) if in case you need it. I would recommend you carry something like a sigma 18-200mm lens or a 24-105L lens which will give you a good range in a single lens and will reduce the need of carrying two lenses which increases your baggage.
• Batteries: This is one key element which can ruin your travel photography. Make sure you have fully charged batteries. Also, keep backup batteries for all the equipment you are carrying. You may also want to carry proper charging equipments to charge the batteries whenever you need.
• Tripod: You may want to carry a good quality tripod, may be not very bulky but sturdy enough to hold your camera against wind. Don’t forget you have invested good amount of money in your camera. Tripod also comes in handy if you want to use the self-timer for a memorable group picture.
• Weather: You must have checked the weather reports of the place you are going to. Did you actually think how weather can actually pose a problem in your photography? Make sure you carry water proof casing and the right bags for the equipments to keep them safe from any such situations.

Photographing people and places

When you travel you often meet people form different cultures and speaking different languages. It’s always a good experience and you would definitely want to capture such moments to remember for a long time. There are a few things you need to remember while capturing people and their personal places. Let’s have a look:

• Security: With the news reports of tourists being attacked and other such stuff, make sure you do not carry expensive equipments in isolated places. You may not want someone to take your priced camera and lens from you. Also, take care of the local security norms. Do not carry or use equipments where photography is prohibited.
• Cultural Issues: Check out the local customs. There are places where photographing other people can be a real problem especially women. In certain parts of the world taking pictures of women can land you in great trouble.
• Capture environment: This is the interesting and the positive part. When traveling make sure you take landscape picture, long shots, aerial shots and with great DOF. Why? Well, capturing one person or small area will not give you the right feel of the environment you are experiencing. You can always debate on this. But such pictures will always remind you of the feel you had in such places and what you experienced.
• Capturing people: Capture people in action when they are not aware of your presence. Is it contradicting from my previous point? Well, if you have checked the local customs you will know how much risk you can take. But make sure you walk up to the person and explain why you took that picture without their notice because you wanted it to come natural.

Document your trip

Make sure you keep a note of the all the places you visited and what picture was taken in what circumstances. You’ll want to thank me later.

So, pack your bags and get going… Do put down your experiences to share when you come back…

Photo by regolare

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If you have the slightest technical bend or inclination to know and measure the equipment specs. stop now. You should buy a DSLR. But if you just want to buy a camera that shoots good photographs on the press of a button keep reading. Though cameras come is a wide range and variety, there are two broad kinds – consumer cameras and the professional cameras. The professional cameras are meant for the pros who make a living out of their photography work while consumer cameras have a different story. Consumer cameras are the ones that you feel comfortable handing to your kids to shoot your portrait. They have quite some intelligence built into them and if all you need is a colorful photograph of your or your family’s or holidays or just your cat it’s time to take a look at consumer cameras. Without going into the fine details, the consumer cameras are further divided into small categories; point and shoot are the entry level cameras – losing one won’t hurt. Compacts are slightly larger and bulkier but have more functions while the prosumer cameras allow more control with more features while being bulkier or all. Depending on your budget and your requirements you’ll want to choose one. Here’s what you should look for.

1. Image Stabilization: One of the most common faults in everyday photographs is the blur that is introduced by the camera or the hand shake. Don’t trust on your camera holding techniques. Make sure your camera features an image stabilization technique because that’s one thing that will make a big difference to your pictures.
2. ISO: This is the sensitivity of the camera or the sensor. A good camera should feature a good range of ISO starting from ISO-100 to maybe ISO-800 or beyond. In a point and shoot you’ll have a night mode instead of an ISO so that you can shoot night scenes instead of fiddling with the ISO.
3. Zoom: Zoom is one of the favorite controls which always comes handy. When you want to take a close-up this is what you will need. Cameras rate zoom range in multiples of the original. Eg. 4x means you can zoom in four times. It is common to find cameras which have a 12x zoom good enough to shoot the large moon or a big sun during the sunset.
4. Picture transfer: All digital cameras come with USB port so you can transfer pictures to the printer or the computer. Go a step ahead and look for WiFi and get rid of the cable.
5. LCD Screen: The larger the better though you should never trust the LCD screen. You’ll always be disappointed by the dirty details you’ll get to see when the picture is seen full size on the computer.
6. Red Eye Reduction: At night when you use the flash, it reflects back from the subjects eyes and comes out red. The final picture looks horrible. Your camera should feature red eye reduction (a common feature nowadays but do check).
7. Manual Control: This is a bit like asking for too much but it’s a good-to-have thing. If you can turn a control and take control of the shutter-speed and aperture and ISO nothing like it. Comes very hands when you have learnt the basics (the day won’t be far off) and if you have these you’ll want to hold on to your camera rather than willing to dump it and buy a DSLR.
8. Battery: Very important – half the trips turn into disasters when your only battery runs out. Make sure it’s rechargable or an AA size so that you can get one from the roadside. Always carry backup.
9. Movie mode: Just when you were convinced freezing and framing and immortalizing the sweet moments in life was a good idea that good old friend will ask you “Does your camera shoot movies?” Prepare for that day, and either ways you’ll want to record the moments when your newborn stands for the first time and takes his first stroll – doesn’t happen everyday and you don’t want to miss it.
10. Fancy Features: Check what else the camera can do beyond the above. New features like face detection and smile detection are getting common. You may never use them but they are good to have and brag about – you never know who asks.

What else would you like to see in your camera? I’m a DSLR user but I find a consumer camera handy for casual trips so I’m buying one. Which one do you own?

Photo by Christine ™

© AdvancedPhotography.Net

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I was 7 years and was surprised when someone told me there are more than 7 colors. Later I realized the human eye has a limited color perception and it can only see those seven colors of the rainbow. Infrared is a color spectrum which falls outside the perception of the human eye. So you can’t see infrared. But why try to photograph infrared when you can’t see it? Well, the cameras can see it and they can make an image of it which shows up to the human eye in the picture. Just like any other color in the spectrum, infrared is a single color. So the image you get is formed by the variation in the infrared levels in the scene. The picture that comes out it totally black and white but – surprise, it’s an image of something we have never seen. Without going into the physics let me mention that infrared is emitted by all warm objects and reflected by all objects which are opaque to infrared.

In infrared photography, the image sensor or the filter has to be sensitive to infrared light which means we use the wavelengths range from about 700 nm to about 900 nm. A DSLR sensor or even film SLRs allow you the control and sensitivity required to shoot infrared. But there’s something that has to be taken care of – we need to ensure that the other colors do not reach the sensor else the image will be like any other image. Infrared filters are available online and you can use the Hoya Infrared Filter which is one of the most popular. Make sure you buy the right size.

Infrared photography requires extended exposures or shutter-speed to absorb whatever little of the infrared light is available. Thus the use of a tripod is mandatory. As a workaround you can place the camera of a stable surface, compose the scene and shoot. Shoot stationary subjects and you shall be fine.

Infrared images never fail to impress so add some to your collection and share them here. Just a Flickr link will do.

Photo by ~jjjohn~

© AdvancedPhotography.Net

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HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. Cameras have a limited ability to capture all the shades of gray or the various brightness levels in the scenes. Don’t confuse brightness with the white color – it’s different in the day and night, indoors and outdoors. When a scene has varied levels of brightness, the camera just fails to capture them on a single exposure level. Depending on the metering mode you use, the camera tends to overexpose or underexpose certain parts of a scene which are beyond it’s limited dynamic range. A good example is a back-lit scene – they always have the subject underexposed (unless using a fill light).

This scene has various levels of brigntness which could not have been captured in a single exposure.

HDR photography solves this. It helps you capture and recreate the scene with all the details and colors intact. But how does this work? There are two ways to create HDR images.

1. Exposure bracketing- in this mode, you use bracketing to take multiple shots and then use an external software to merge these shots at various exposure levels into one. Here’s a quick hands-on.
   1. Set your camera to shoot in continuous mode with bracketing.
   2. Find a well illuminated scene featuring various shades or brightness levels a good example objects and shadows.
   3. Place the camera on a tripod or a stable surface and compose the shot and photograph.
   4. Transfer these photographs to the computer and open all of these images in Adobe Photoshop under File> Automate > Merge to HDR. You’ll get the box prompting you for the images to be merged. Click on “Add Open Files”. It will then merge these various shots into HDR.
2. HDR photography is also possible it you shoot in the RAW format . the RAW format allows you to vary exposure (amongst other parameters) as a step in post processing. This way you can shoot a single RAW format photograph and create an HDR image.
   1. Select a good scene as above in (1.a).
   2. Take a single shot at optical exposure in the camera’s native RAW has the NEF extension while canons use CRW.
   3. Open this image in a software like Photoshop.
   4. Vary the exposure to -1 and save as a tif. (Tif or tiff is a lossless image format which keeps the picture properties intact).
   5. Vary the exposure to +2 and save a second copy as tif.
   6. Finally open the image at original exposure and save as a tif.
   7. Open the three images in tif format and merge them into an HDR. (Tip: If you can, buy the imaging softwarefrom the camera manufacturer as softwares cut the entire process short into a single step.

Share your HDR images here.

Photo By: R.Duran

© AdvancedPhotography.Net

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• Master the art of action photography in 8 easy steps

This is a pillar article about mastering action photography and has all you need to know to go and shoot action.

1. Carry the right equipment: If you can, carry a wide range zoom lens which will help you in framing your subject.
2. Use the correct Settings: Set the camera to programmed mode or shutter priority mode. In order to freeze action you will want to be able to choose the shutter speed. 1/250 sec is a good estimate to start with.
3. Use the right Techniques: There’s more than just freezing the subject. Panning is a wonderful technique which exhibits your expertise as a professional photographer.
4. Anticipate: Be prepared and anticipate the moment. The more you shoot, the better you’ll get at it. Some of the most spectacular moments are captured only because the photographer used the shutter at the right moment.
5. Shooting mode: The camera by default shoots one frame every press of the shutter. You may want to set it to shoot in the continuous mode so that it keeps clicking while you keep the shutter release pressed. This way you’ll be able to take more the one shot for the action you want to capture. In the end you’ll always be able to pick the better of those.
6. Image Format: Shoot in fine JPEG. RAW format creates huge files. This means your card will fill sooner than you expect in the continuous mode. Secondly it also tends to slow down the frame rate because he camera buffer is still occupied before the camera can take the next shot.
7. Focus Mode: Set the camera to use continuous focus. You may have to dig into the menus to get to this setting. Normally the camera focuses only once when you press the shutter release button halfway. When you use continuous focus and hold down the shutter release button halfway and follow that running guy, the camera will continuously keep the moving subject in focus. Comes in very handy if the subject is changing the distance from the camera (like running towards or away from you).
8. Action in the Night: Lighting conditions are challenging in the night. Use the high ISO setting. Firing the flash will make sure that the subject is lit only for a fraction of a second even though the shutter speed may be low. This will eventually freeze the subject to a considerable extent since the subject was lit only for a brief moment.

Exercise: In this exercise you will put your action shooting skills to use.

• Find a suitable place to shoot action. If you can, you’ll get some good action happening on a busy read.
• Set the shutter speed to 1/60, 1/125, 1/250 and 1/500 for various shots.
• Also practice panning at these shutter speeds.
• Compare the results on the computer screen.
• Share your best shots here.

Photo by micah.e

© AdvancedPhotography.Net

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