Saturday, August 3, 2013
Friday, June 21, 2013
Rule of thirds in photography
For a beginner may be sometimes very difficult to compose the image. Composition is the positioning of the main subject in the frame and the background/foreground. For them the rule of thirds may be very handy.
Even though it is up to the creativity of the photography, it is good to understand the psychology when some one is seeing a picture.
Assume that the total frame of the camera is divided into 9 cells using three vertical and three horizontal lines which are equally spaced. It has been observed that, human eye first catches the corner of centre cell, rather than the exact centre position. So it is always good to position your main subject at any of this four corners. Exact centre may not always catch the attention of the viewer and sometimes they may causally skip that picture.
In your camera, you can enable grid lines in the setting which may help to position the object based on the rule of thirds.
A great explanation of ruel of thirds with examples has been provided at the link below.
http://digital-photography-school.com/rule-of-thirds
Even though it is up to the creativity of the photography, it is good to understand the psychology when some one is seeing a picture.
Assume that the total frame of the camera is divided into 9 cells using three vertical and three horizontal lines which are equally spaced. It has been observed that, human eye first catches the corner of centre cell, rather than the exact centre position. So it is always good to position your main subject at any of this four corners. Exact centre may not always catch the attention of the viewer and sometimes they may causally skip that picture.
In your camera, you can enable grid lines in the setting which may help to position the object based on the rule of thirds.
A great explanation of ruel of thirds with examples has been provided at the link below.
http://digital-photography-school.com/rule-of-thirds
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Lightening photography using point and shoot camera
Can we take photography of lightening using a simple point and shoot camera. ?The answer is YES.
Here is the way:
First switch to "long exposure mode" of your camera. In long exposure mode, we can adjust the time for which the shutter remains opened. In normal modes, this is calculated automatically using the available light outside. If the shutter remains open for long time, more light enters the camera. So make sure that there is no light sources such as bulbs in the frame while taking using long exposure modes. Make the exposure mode to 15 seconds, if the sky is completely dark. Otherwise just take random photos using different exposure time and analyse the pictures taken to choose the best exposure time.
You will not have lightening all the time. So wait for the weather.
Fix the camera on a tripod (or anything), because you don't want to shake the camera during the long exposure modes because it will make the photo very blurry.
The last and final step is just click. Never wait for a lightening to happen to click the shutter. It is very instantaneous and you will surely miss. But keep clicking randomly. You will surely get a photo.
The photo will be highly overexposed some times. Then used any photo editing software to decrease the brightness of the picture.
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Portrait photography with point and shoot camera
Portrait photography or "people" photography will be quite a difficult region for those who have just started using a point and shoot cameras. You may go on taking pictures of your friends, relatives and yourself and wont be able to share it to them because you find it ugly. Actually, i have undergone these in my life and has always thought it was my face which is causing the problem.
The first rule of portrait photography is to understand that no person looks ugly. If the photo of them look ugly, then its the photographers problem. Just look at your photo of school id.
Here are some tips to improve your portrait photos
The first rule of portrait photography is to understand that no person looks ugly. If the photo of them look ugly, then its the photographers problem. Just look at your photo of school id.
Here are some tips to improve your portrait photos
- Never do it in Auto Mode : Switch to program mode or dedicated portrait mode
- Turn of the flash : flash can never replace natural lighting. It will make the skin look oily, and sometimes overexposed, if the person is too near to the camera. This is because in almost every camera's flash power isn't adjustable. But if the absence of any external lighting methods you wont have much options and have to go with flash
- Location : First of all find a nice location. This doesn't mean you cant take good photos in your home itself. you can find nice location there also. Such as on the stairs, or on the open terrace etc. I personally prefer outdoors rather than indoors..
- Time : Also time is also important. You wouldn't want to take you photos at afternoon time, because of too much sunlight. It will make the photos overexposed. Also there is a possibility of sweating. This factor doesn't affect indoor photography.
- For close up photos don't go near to subject. Rather go far from him. Use the zoom. Let the camera detect the face (if it has such features). Compose your image and click. This is rather important point. Because if you take the photo without zoom it will distort the image.
- Fading out of background : You will be always amazed to see dslr photos producing sharp pictures of the model and all the background is just faded out. In point ans shoot also we can produce that but with little adjustments. First of all zooming in to the model as described int he previous point. Also the background objects should be far away from the model as possible.
- Shoot at different angles and eye levels rather than mugshot types. Each person has their own most beautiful position. Look in the screen and make them adjust their posture to look as good as possible.
Getting the most from your digital camera
Seminar on "getting the most from your digital camera" present a detailed introduction to the basics of point and shoot photography, such as composition, light metering etc...
Please go to the link and read the seminar.
Point & Shoot Cameras :: Getting the most from your digital cameraIn case the original URL has got any problem, click this to see the pdf version.
Monday, May 20, 2013
Introduction to basic point and shoot photography
First rule of taking good snaps is get out of the "Auto" mode. You have to use the program mode denoted by "P".
Try to take maximum pictures without flash. While taking an image of subject, take it with different settings like flash on, off etc.. and in different angles.
There are three important point we should keep in mind before taking a picture.
1) Focus : Focus the object what we want get focussed. If the subject is very near to the camera(3 cm if you can make it), turn to the macro mode by using the flower (left navigation) button and selecting macro. Then semi click the shutter button. You will find the focus is locked when you are holding the semi click of shutter button. You can preview the distance and adjust the distance between the camera and the object to obtain a better focus keeping the semi click of shutter pressed.
Now, there is an another facility called AFL (Autofocus lock), means to lock the focus without keeping the shutter button half pressed. First focus the subject ( or any other object ) which is at the same distance as the object. Keeping the half press of shutter down, click the left navigation (flower) button. This should be done in "P" mode. If you have done it correctly, then you should see an "AFL" in the top right corner of the lcd screen indicating that the focus is fixed. now you can take the hands of the shutter button and adjust the distance between the camera and your original subject so that, it is sharply focused. Dont zoom after afl, because it will unlock the afl.
2)Exposure :
Exposure is the time for which the light from the subject is allowed to enter into the sensor. For low light conditions it is very high and for highly lit conditions it is very small. Like focus, exposure is also locked automatically when you semi click the shutter button. You can read the exposure reading in bottom middle , usually denoted like 1/165, 1", 2" 1/1000 etc. This denotes the time in seconds up to which the time is allowed to enter the sensor. Set your exposure as needed so that the subject is well illuminated.
My technique is, first I lock the autofocus AFL but approximating the distance between the subject and camera. The i take the image of subject keeping that AFL locked, so that exposure is varied automatically according to light conditions without affecting the focus.
You can also do Exposure lock, by semi clicking the shutter button and by clicking the right nav button, (but when the flash is turned off)
3) Light metering :
You will not find this setting very easily. While in "P" mode, click menu and you can find this setting. There are three options of light metering; spot, evaluative and centre weighted. This is the technique of evaluating exposure. Evaluative use the full screen to set exposure, centre weighted us the region at centre and spot use a spot(point) to find the exposure.
Last two points are of not much importance and can be adjusted in post editing. Focus, that is important.
Hope you understand at least something..
PS:-
Try to take maximum pictures without flash. While taking an image of subject, take it with different settings like flash on, off etc.. and in different angles.
Your first 10000 pictures will be your worst pictures. So don't hesitate. Keep clicking
There are three important point we should keep in mind before taking a picture.
1) Focus : Focus the object what we want get focussed. If the subject is very near to the camera(3 cm if you can make it), turn to the macro mode by using the flower (left navigation) button and selecting macro. Then semi click the shutter button. You will find the focus is locked when you are holding the semi click of shutter button. You can preview the distance and adjust the distance between the camera and the object to obtain a better focus keeping the semi click of shutter pressed.
Now, there is an another facility called AFL (Autofocus lock), means to lock the focus without keeping the shutter button half pressed. First focus the subject ( or any other object ) which is at the same distance as the object. Keeping the half press of shutter down, click the left navigation (flower) button. This should be done in "P" mode. If you have done it correctly, then you should see an "AFL" in the top right corner of the lcd screen indicating that the focus is fixed. now you can take the hands of the shutter button and adjust the distance between the camera and your original subject so that, it is sharply focused. Dont zoom after afl, because it will unlock the afl.
2)Exposure :
Exposure is the time for which the light from the subject is allowed to enter into the sensor. For low light conditions it is very high and for highly lit conditions it is very small. Like focus, exposure is also locked automatically when you semi click the shutter button. You can read the exposure reading in bottom middle , usually denoted like 1/165, 1", 2" 1/1000 etc. This denotes the time in seconds up to which the time is allowed to enter the sensor. Set your exposure as needed so that the subject is well illuminated.
My technique is, first I lock the autofocus AFL but approximating the distance between the subject and camera. The i take the image of subject keeping that AFL locked, so that exposure is varied automatically according to light conditions without affecting the focus.
You can also do Exposure lock, by semi clicking the shutter button and by clicking the right nav button, (but when the flash is turned off)
3) Light metering :
You will not find this setting very easily. While in "P" mode, click menu and you can find this setting. There are three options of light metering; spot, evaluative and centre weighted. This is the technique of evaluating exposure. Evaluative use the full screen to set exposure, centre weighted us the region at centre and spot use a spot(point) to find the exposure.
Last two points are of not much importance and can be adjusted in post editing. Focus, that is important.
Hope you understand at least something..
PS:-
Some statements are specific to my camera, ie., Canon PowerShot A810. You will be able to find similar facilities in your camera also, but in a different way. Just read the manual supplied with the camera
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