AdvancedPhotography.Net » Popular

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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The secrets of shooting during the Golden Magic Hours

Shivanand Sharma — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 16:18:33 +0000

Lighting effects can bring out some of the most unique, interesting and dramatic compositions. We have already discussed the various features of light in a previous article and it is essential that you understand light before you proceed with this article. So if you haven’t read that article I’ll wait…

Natural lighting can be the most dramatic and brings out some unusual effects during certain times of the day. The dawn and the dusk are two parts of the day when the natural lighting is in its best and most unusual forms. These times of the day are also referred to as the “Magic Hours” or the “Golden Hours”. The light during these times has very special characteristics – the intensity is very low, the angle is unusual (as compared to the most part of the day when the sun is generally above us), the light is diffused, the sky and the clouds reflect in amber casting different hues and colors. The colors in the scene are varied and more saturated than during other parts of the day, the shadows are long and mysterious and the sky contains a variety of gradients from any one part to the other. The magic hour is one of the best times to experiment and shoot in natural lighting. It is no surprise that some of the award-winning shots of landscapes have been captured during the magic hours.

However shooting during these times of the day pose their own challenges so it is essential that you go prepared – especially when you sacrifice your morning sleep and leave the bed on a cold morning.

Low Light Conditions: When the sun is on the horizon, light is low in intensity. You will need to be prepared to take long exposures and it is very important that you carry a tripod along to reduce camera shakes.
Camera Mode: Most of the times I prefer to set the camera to auto mode and it takes care of everything. However auto mode tries to balance the light for optimal exposure of the subject which is not what we want during the magic hours. During the magic hours you want to make sure the auto mode doesn’t overexpose and make the photographs look like as if they were shot in the noon. Set your camera to programmed-auto or the manual mode and experiment. Read Digital Camera Modes: What do they mean.
Bracketing: You will definitely want to bracket your shots. The underexposed shot will most likely be the one that you will want to retain – it will have saturated colors and very dramatic effects. Read more on how to bracket your shots.
Timing: The biggest challenge photographers face during the magic hours is the timing of the shot. The light during the magic hours changes so rapidly that you’ll want to start with taking one shot every 5 minutes. Once the sun is on the horizon you’ll want to take one shot every minute. No matter how much you practice there will always be a chance that you may miss the moment. And you don’t want to repent and come back the next day. There are only a few minutes of the magic light during the magic hours. You don’t want to miss them.
Image Format: In tricky shots like these you want to shoot in RAW (if your camera allows). Though manipulation is not a way of the purists, technology can be leveraged upon to get the best out of every shot (after all beautiful photographs are generally post-processed in one way or the other to make them sell). RAW allows you full control on the picture data.
Angles: Try different angles. Light during these moments varies with every angle as does the reflection and gradient and the colors.
Peripherals: As always carry extra battery, storage etc. since you will be taking shots every few minutes, shooting in RAW and bracketing them too.

Now that you know what you need, set the alarm, go out and shoot some lovely pictures and share them with us.

Photo by Al Ebnereza

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How to make a mark with your photographs

Shivanand Sharma — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 15:52:12 +0000

I‘ve been asked this question many times. What differentiates a masterpiece from the rest? There are underexposed and overexposed photographs which are showcased while some of the technically perfect ones left out. I’d better try to answer this through a post.

Photography is an art. And just like any form of art photography is medium for expression. How well your photographs make an expression depends on how well the expression is communicated. While you may still be using a compact camera, it is still important to understand that there’s nothing too difficult about it and that you have already been practicing this art all this while – after all you’ve clicked children smiling and flowers and the sunsets. They all express something. Here are a few tips on refining the artist in you.

Understand how photographs are interpreted

At an abstract level , photographs and images are symbolic – an open door, the horizon, a tree all convey something. It is therefore important to know what the scene conveys and how to get the best shot.
It’s all about reaction

People react in various ways when they look at a picture. It depends on how they interpret the massage, their background, the culture they belong to. Thus different people will have different reaction and understanding of your work. Believe in yourself and be open to feedback. Understand that not everyone has the ability to critically analyze a photograph.
Personal expressions

Once you know how photographs are interpreted it’s time to develop your own expression and practice the art. Like every painter’s or musician’s work has their signature your photography will bear the hallmark of your personality. Groom your expression and individuality.
Draw inspiration

Study the work of great photographers and see what their work speaks. This will inspire the creative and the artist in you.
Don’t lose heart

I don’t know of a photographer whose every shot is an art master piece. In the film days the learning process was long and a steep curve. In the days of the digital it’s easy – shoot and delete. Every professional shoots thousands of photographs only a few of which are really usable. The ratio of good shots versus the rest will be an indicator of your progress; so don’t lose heart – it’s just a matter of time and even professionals aren’t perfect. Soon you’ll see that most of your photos are coming out great and only a few are off the mark.

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LCD vs Histogram: Who’s the winner?

Shivanand Sharma — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:27:54 +0000

Every time I took a shot, I paused briefly to look at the rear LCD monitor of my DSLR before taking the next shot. Sometimes I deleted shots which seemed to be perfect. My wife got inquisitive and asked back.

I was actually looking at one of the technological marvels which have changed the way many photographers shoot. I was looking at the histogram to assess the exposure and the overall image. Why? I didn’t trust the LCD.

Why not trust the LCD

There are two main reasons I don’t trust my LCD (or any LCD monitor of any sort). First the image is almost invisible when you are in the sun. Second, you can’t see the finer details that have been captured or missed in the photograph unless you view it full-size on a computer. So I looked at the histogram to make a judgment.

So what is a histogram?

A histogram is a kind of graph (don’t get scared, it’s simple). It can tell you at a glance the characteristics of the image you have captured. Cameras nowadays come with separate histograms for each of the red, green and blue colors. But we’ll keep it simple and use the combined one for this post. Once you know how it works, it’s the same for all colors. A few points first which go with the diagram.

Along the horizontal axis (x-axis) is the entire range of cameras exposure. The darkest on the extreme left to the brightest on the right edge. A camera can only capture this range of exposure from the darkest to the brightest. Anything beyond these edges is lost.
The vertical axis (y-axis) is the amount of detail captured – none at the bottom and maximum at the top.

The benefits of histograms

At a glance you can see if any highlights and shadows has been missed in the image (cut off on the edges).
It tells you the amount of shadows and highlights and mid-tones in the image right away.
It’s faster and more accurate than trying to judge the image with the naked eye on the LCD.

The second part of this post is coming tomorrow and I’ll update this post with the link to it as it comes. Keep watching this space and do subscribe to keep updated with the latest. Continue reading Part 2.

Photo on the top by Brian Auer

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Which camera do you own?

Shivanand Sharma — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 14:38:50 +0000

Tell us about your camera and how you use it. What’s the one thing you like the most about your camera? Are you using a cameraphone? They are great for shooting when you come across an unexpected spectacular moment. Some of the excellent moments have been captured on cameraphones. Or are you using a DSLR? Tell us what you’d like to know more about your camera. We are coming up with some great posts for the camera owners so have your say before we start.

We have been covering a lot of basic and technical topics on the photography front in the last one month. We’d like to know you better and collect your suggestions. We want to make sure we know you and your camera so that the information is relevant, is usable and valuable. So what are you waiting for? Come on say something

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Lighting and it’s features: Know these to become a pro

Shivanand Sharma — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 15:08:58 +0000

Photography is all about light. Photography means capturing light. Lighting is one of the most important aspects of the art and a good understanding of light and it’s nature is essential for getting the pictures that you want. We will begin by understanding the features of light and later the various lighting techniques in a following post. Let’s begin.

Temperature: The white light that you see always has a color cast. Our eyes are good at adjusting to the neutral color that they neglect any color cast in the light and see it as white. The color temperature affects the picture in various ways sometimes bringing an overall reddish tinge to the picture and greenish or bluish at other times. Good cameras thus features a White-Balance control to compensate for the unwanted color cast to bring out the original colors for accurate rendition. White-balance has been covered in another post and you can read more about white-balancing here.
Quality: There’s nothing as good and bad. It’s the nature of the light that you employ to get a desired effect. We have this in two flavors hard-light and soft-light. Hard light is more focused and harsh in nature wherein the shadows come out with defined and sharp edges. A soft light is a diffused or more evenly spread light that renders shadows as soft shades bringing a glow to the subject. Depending on the requirement and the mood you want to bring to the picture you can use hard or soft light. Portraits especially fashion and glamor photos call for soft lighting wherein the models are bathed in a soft glow. At other times you may want to bring a special mood to the subject by intelligent use of hard light for a particular purpose. The resulting image will have defined shadows depending on the direction of the light.
Quantity: Again nothing good or bad here too. But I always favor more light than less. Light is just the playground for the camera and your imaginations. The more you have (and depending on your equipment) the more you can control to bring in the desired effect. More light is mandatory for shooting sports because you want to have enough of it to allow high shutter speed and freeze the action. Less of it shows very well and comes out beautiful when you have a tripod and you are shooting city streets at night. A low ISO with a long exposure is just what you need to see the beauty of city lighting at night (see the picture at the top right).
Direction: Very important. You can throw the light from down under the chin to get a horror effect.
Type: This pertains to the equipment you employ to get the type of light you want. The ambient light or flash or a combination of both is used to get a desired effect. Using a flash on back-lit scenes wherein the subject is generally underexposed is just one example of using the type of light to achieve a desired effect.

I’ll summarize the information that you take back from this article and repeat that knowing the light is very important. Start by keeping it simple. There are five things – temperature, quality, quantity, direction and type. Temperature induces the color, white-balance corrects it; quality is hard and soft, quantity is the playground of the camera, direction gives the mood and type pertains to the equipment you employ to get the light. And now your comments

Photo by from eye to pixel

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An Easy guide to buying consumer cameras

Shivanand Sharma — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 16:16:25 +0000

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.

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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 ™

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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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AdvancedPhotography.Net » Popular

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

The secrets of shooting during the Golden Magic Hours

How to make a mark with your photographs

Understand how photographs are interpreted

It’s all about reaction

Personal expressions

Draw inspiration

Don’t lose heart

LCD vs Histogram: Who’s the winner?

Why not trust the LCD

So what is a histogram?

The benefits of histograms

Which camera do you own?

Lighting and it’s features: Know these to become a pro

An Easy guide to buying consumer cameras

Digital Camera Modes: What do they mean?