Learn photography with me

It's about time. I am with you, eager to learn

I want to learn too

I want to learn too

me too

Well, I am eager to learn. But, I don't own a camera as of now. Will get it, ASAP.

I'm in too.

I am glad you guys are interested in learning photography. Thinking of two or three topics a week until we cover the basics. What do you guys think? Is it too much for a beginner?? If so, we can stick with one topic a week.

Some of you guys may very well know about this basics. But please hang around here, you may pick up a thing or two which you haven't heard before.


I am referring this website to learn the basics.

Learning about Exposure - The Exposure Triangle
(Refer the link for more info)

There are three main elements that need to be considered when playing around with exposure by calling them ‘the exposure triangle’.

Each of the three aspects of the triangle relate to light and how it enters and interacts with the camera.

The three elements are:

ISO – the measure of a digital camera sensor’s sensitivity to light
Aperture – the size of the opening in the lens when a picture is taken
Shutter Speed – the amount of time that the shutter is open

It is at the intersection of these three elements that an image’s exposure is worked out.

Most importantly – a change in one of the elements will impact the others. This means that you can never really isolate just one of the elements alone but always need to have the others in the back of your mind.

Metaphor for understanding the digital photography exposure triangle:

Imagine your camera is like a window with shutters that open and close.

Aperture is the size of the window. If it’s bigger more light gets through and the room is brighter.

Shutter Speed is the amount of time that the shutters of the window are open. The longer you leave them open the more that comes in.

Now imagine that you’re inside the room and are wearing sunglasses (hopefully this isn’t too much of a stretch). Your eyes become desensitized to the light that comes in (it’s like a low ISO).

There are a number of ways of increasing the amount of light in the room (or at least how much it seems that there is. You could increase the time that the shutters are open (decrease shutter speed), you could increase the size of the window (increase aperture) or you could take off your sunglasses (make the ISO larger).

Mastering the art of exposure is something that takes a lot of practice. In many ways it’s a juggling act and even the most experienced photographers experiment and tweak their settings as they go. Keep in mind that changing each element not only impacts the exposure of the image but each one also has an impact upon other aspects of it (ie changing aperture changes depth of field, changing ISO changes the graininess of a shot and changing shutter speed impacts how motion is captured).

The great thing about digital cameras is that you can take as many shots as you like at no cost.


I am now thinking of what kind of exercise will help us to understand "exposure" well and good. I will try and come up with one. If you guys know something good, please drop your idea/opinion/suggestion as well. We can finalize the exercise later tonight. I guess all of us will be free on Sundays, we can do that exercise then...


These are nice tools to try your hands on exposure triangle.
Camerademo
Camerasim
Camerasimulator

nice...the fun with photography is there is nothing fixed...all the settings are variable and effect the pic some way or other

For any learner (or professional), digital-photography-school.com is a must visit link.

With the help of google, this is what I can come up with...

Exercise 1: Shoot in aperture priority mode or manual mode. Start with wide open aperture and slowly stop down. Try to shoot as many as 6 exposures. If not possible with your camera, try and get at least two to get know the difference.

Exercise 2: Shoot in shutter priority mode or manual mode. Goal here is to capture a moving subject. From blurring to freezing the subject by adjusting shutter speed.

Note: Those who entry level point and shoot camera, please read this to get know how to trick your camera to certain extent and get what you want. Please don't post your earlier work. Photo shoot for this exercise won't take a long time and tomorrow is Sunday.

This is for a point and shoot camera.

@nac I tried exercise 1 with aperture priority mode for six f stops from 2.0 up to 8 with a landscape & a portrait with Auto ISO. But I really can't tell the difference unless I pixel peep, It gets very slightly blurry with lower aperture. Lower than 4.0 (Higher f numbers) the difference between snaps is too small to tell.
Of course the ISO increase & the images gets slightly noisier at higher apertures.

^ You bet...

With point and shoot camera, the difference will be very little and its even harder to see the difference with slow lens. I spent more time than I expected to do this exercise.

EX 1:
*imageshack.us/a/img541/7480/ex1k.jpg

EX 2:
*imageshack.us/a/img594/9818/ex2b.jpg

A quick topic... You might have read this when you read the previous chapter. I would like to cover it with an exercise before moving to the next topic.


Depth of field refers to the range of distance that appears acceptably sharp. It varies depending on camera type, aperture and focusing distance, although print size and viewing distance can also influence our perception of depth of field.

Large depth of field means that most of your image will be in focus whether it’s close to your camera or far away

Small (or shallow) depth of field means that only part of the image will be in focus and the rest will be fuzzy

Aperture has a big impact upon depth of field. Large aperture (remember it’s a smaller number) will decrease depth of field while small aperture (larger numbers) will give you larger depth of field.

It can be a little confusing at first but the way I remember it is that small numbers mean small DOF and large numbers mean large DOF.

Exercise: 3
a) A photograph which has shallow depth of field (eg: macro, portrait)
b) A photograph which has large depth of field (eg: landscape)

Some questions on DOF (only for a point and shoot camera).

nac said:

Aperture has a big impact upon depth of field. Large aperture (remember it’s a smaller number) will decrease depth of field while small aperture (larger numbers) will give you larger depth of field.

Click to expand...

For a landscape shot, F2.0 is sharper than / or the same as F4.0. Why is that ? Shouldn't 2. 0 focus on a smaller area ? 4.0 (smaller aperture) should give larger DOF & image must be sharper but it isn't.
This actually works a little better with a portrait (people close up shots), the background gets a very little out of focus @ F2.0 and it is most clearly observed with a macro shot.

Are there any recommended aperture values for landscapes, portraits ? Most of the recommendations on the net are for DSLRs, but F4.0 on a DSLR isn't the same as a 4.0 on a point and shoot, so is there some conversion formula?

@OP : just a little tip/advice : list the topics in your first post hyperlinked to the respective post.. it will look more organized and it would be easier for a late starter..

@nac : which camera buddy ??


edit : didn't notice nac is the OP

may be you guys would like to try some hands on, all about exposure triangle on a portrait (simulation) :

cameraDemo

Gen,
You know PnS have deep DOF than DSLR, coz of this it seems f/2 is as sharp as (I don't think it could be sharper than f/4. But there are cases f/3.4 is sharper than f/8 because of diffraction) f/4. In my camera I will get very similar (you can even say same level of) sharpness if my subject distance is 1.5m or more and I am shooting @ wide angle. No matter what aperture I use, I will get half of this to infinity sharp. Now you know the reason for similar level of sharpness even @ wide open aperture.

I use CHDK DOF calculator to get to know what are the things will be in focus. You don't have CHDK for your S110, yet. DOF in built in S110??? If not, you can try this. But there is little discrepancy with CHDK values and values I get from this site. I don't know which one more accurate.

Online Depth of Field Calculator

Yes, when you are shooting @ wide angle, you may need your subject closer and keep the background far away to get at least little blur in the background when you shoot with PnS. But it works better with macro than portrait. Try shoot portrait @ tele, that will give better blur background and people use ~100mm or more for portrait for better result.

Gen.Libeb said:

Are there any recommended aperture values for landscapes, portraits?

Click to expand...

Since we (you and me) have compact camera (small sensor), even @ wide open aperture, we will get everything in focus (assuming we don't focus @ 1cm for landscape After learning about diffraction, I try and avoid f/8 and all. I get soft images if I shoot @ f/8. Very few circumstances, I am pushed to use smaller/est aperture when I am focusing a bright subject like sun. It would be good if I have an option to use filters

Use DOF calculator; use smallest aperture only when you have no other choice; Shoot portrait @ tele and landscape @ wide.

Mastercool,
Yeah, I will do. But it's too early for that...

Icebags,
Thanks for the link. It didn't strike my mind. I will add this link in the first chapter post.

Thanks for the post & that link.

nac said:

Gen,
Now you know the reason for similar level of sharpness even @ wide open aperture.

Click to expand...

I guess you could add this part to your tutorial post. Most of the lessons online don't mention this part.

nac said:

Try shoot portrait @ tele, that will give better blur background and people use ~100mm or more for portrait for better result.

Click to expand...

I almost never shoot portraits at tele. At 100mm aperture drops to 5.0 (depending on your camera) which means to compensate either increase the ISO (noise) or reduce shutter speed (blur) to compensate. Also @tele it is difficult to focus on the eyes.
I'll give it a try again & see how it works.

Gen.Libeb said:

I guess you could add this part to your tutorial post. Most of the lessons online don't mention this part.

Click to expand...

You guess so??? Will see... May be we can put it like "DID YOU KNOW" column along the way...

EX: 3

a)
*imageshack.us/a/img716/3851/img0570ih.jpg

b)
*imageshack.us/a/img837/7514/img0598gf.jpg

I think this topic needs some deep understanding. I didn't get the depth. This time I am just gonna give you a link which just explains what is what. Read, re-read... Try the options you have in your camera and share with us what you have understand/learned new after trying different metering.

Introduction to Metering Modes on your DSLR >> GoDigitalSLR.com

Exercise: 4
Try different metering in your camera of the same scene/lighting and see how it affects the result.

Note: For learning try all the metering options you have in your camera. But stick with evaluative metering until you're comfortable with all the other settings in your camera. When you are not getting correct exposure, you can adjust the exposure compensation and reshoot.


I just want to take it light on this one. Emphasizing too much on metering at this very beginning seems little too much. So as I said, I will stick to evaluative metering.

*img547.imageshack.us/img547/6497/img0608ak.jpg

Focus was on the nose.

Excellent for helping in photography

@nac: we also contribute here by asking questions regarding how to click a particular type of picture.this help a lot
also update 1# post as this going to get long

^ Yeah sure... It will be good if we have lot of discussion.

The reason we adjust white balance is to get the colors in your images as accurate as possible.

Why would you need to get the color right in your shots?

You might have noticed when examining shots after taking them that at times images can come out with an orange, blue, yellow etc look to them – despite the fact that to the naked eye the scene looked quite normal. The reason for this is that images different sources of light have a different ‘color’ (or temperature) to them. Fluorescent lighting adds a bluish cast to photos whereas tungsten (incandescent/bulbs) lights add a yellowish tinge to photos.

The range in different temperatures ranges from the very cool light of blue sky through to the very warm light of a candle.

We don’t generally notice this difference in temperature because our eyes adjust automatically for it. So unless the temperature of the light is very extreme a white sheet of paper will generally look white to us. However a digital camera doesn’t have the smarts to make these adjustments automatically and sometimes will need us to tell it how to treat different light.

So for cooler (blue or green) light you’ll tell the camera to warm things up and in warm light you’ll tell it to cool down.

Adjusting White Balance

Different digital cameras have different ways of adjusting white balance so ultimately you’ll need to get out your camera’s manual out to work out the specifics of how to make changes. Having said this – many digital cameras have automatic and semi-automatic modes to help you make the adjustments.

Preset White Balance Settings

Here are some of the basic White Balance settings you’ll find on cameras:

Auto – this is where the camera makes a best guess on a shot by shot basis. You’ll find it works in many situations but it’s worth venturing out of it for trickier lighting.
Tungsten – this mode is usually symbolized with a little bulb and is for shooting indoors, especially under tungsten (incandescent) lighting (such as bulb lighting). It generally cools down the colors in photos.
Fluorescent – this compensates for the ‘cool’ light of fluorescent light and will warm up your shots.
Daylight/Sunny – not all cameras have this setting because it sets things as fairly ‘normal’ white balance settings.
Cloudy – this setting generally warms things up a touch more than ‘daylight’ mode.
Flash – the flash of a camera can be quite a cool light so in Flash WB mode you’ll find it warms up your shots a touch.
Shade – the light in shade is generally cooler (bluer) than shooting in direct sunlight so this mode will warm things up a little.

Manual White Balance Adjustments

In most cases you can get a pretty accurate result using the above preset white balance modes – but some digital cameras (most DSLRs and higher end point and shoots) allow for manual white balance adjustments also.

The way this is used varies a little between models but in essence what you do is to tell your camera what white looks like in a shot so that it has something as a reference point for deciding how other colors should look. You can do this by buying yourself a white (or grey) card which is specifically designed for this task – or you can find some other appropriately colored object around you to do the job.


Understanding white balance
Introduction to white balance
(Please refer these sites for more info)

Exercise: 5
Shoot in different lighting and get correct white balance. Try the presets and try manual as well if you have it in your camera.

EX: 5

*img689.imageshack.us/img689/4812/img0622qi.jpg

I don't know how to get the precise custom WB settings and I am not OK with results I have got with the presets as well. Most likely I would edit these pictures to get the correct WB.

Histograms graphs the tones in your image from black (on the left) to white (on the right).

The higher the graph at any given point the more pixels of that tone that are present in an image.

So a histogram with lots of dark pixels will be skewed to the left and one with lots of lighter tones will be skewed to the right.

The beauty of a histogram is that the small LCD display on your camera is not really big enough to give you an great review of a picture and you can often get home to find that you’ve over or under exposed an image. Checking the histogram can tell you this while you’re in a position to be able to adjust your settings and take another shot.

Is there such a thing as a ‘good’ histogram?

As with most aspects of photography, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and there’s always a lot of room for personal taste and different ways of expressing yourself as a photographer.

There is no such thing as the ‘perfect’ histogram – different subjects and photographic styles will produce different results. For example taking a silhouette shot might produce a histogram with peaks at both ends of the spectrum and nothing much in the middle of the graph. Taking a shot of someone at the snow will obviously have a histogram with significant peaks on the right hand side…. etc

Having said this (and to generalize) – in most cases you’ll probably want a fairly balanced shot with a nice spread of tones. Most well exposed shots tend to peak somewhere in the middle and taper off towards the edges.

Using Histograms While Shooting

So now you know what a histogram is – grab your digital camera’s manual and work out how to switch it on in playback mode. This will enable you to see both the picture and the histogram when reviewing shots after taking them.

Keep an eye out for histograms with dramatic spikes to the extreme ends of either side of the spectrum. This indicates that you have a lot of pixels that are either pure black or pure white. While this might be what you’re after remember that those sections of the image probably have very little detail – this is a hint that your image could be either over or under exposed.

The histogram is really just a tool to give you more information about an image and to help you get the effect that you want. Having your camera set to show you histograms during the view process will tell you how your image is exposed. Learning to read them will help you to work out whether you’re exposing a shot as you had hoped.

Understanding Histograms
(Refer this link for more info)

I will wrap up this basic with one more topic. Most likely we can start the book by Thursday, I guess.

This final topic is about how to hold the camera steady and release the shutter with little to no camera shake.

Please clikc the following links for information.

How to Hold a Digital Camera
Shutter Release Technique
Pre-Focus to Combat Shutter Lag

We will practice this for a day or two. After that we will review/recap the basics before starting the book.

I think I have covered the basics. Now we are gonna learn ART OF COMPOSITION. I started reading this book PHOTOGRAPHY - ART OF COMPOSITION by Bert Krages some months back and couldn't continue. Now I am starting it again, but this time it will be much more fun in learning as I am learning with all of you guys.

My objective is to make better photographs. I will share the knowledge I gain by reading this book and trying it with my camera. I will really be glad if you guys join me in this journey to MAKE BETTER PHOTOGRAPHS. There are some of you guys know a lot about photography. Please join us to learn and teach photography.

The book has about 250 pages, 7 chapters, 60+ exercises.

I am wishing myself and all of you guys BON VOYAGE.

Will see you guys tomorrow with the first chapter THE IMPORTANCE OF VISUAL SKILLS

Note:
Working in black and white is an ideal way to learn about composition. The reason for this is simple. Color is a strong element within any image, and used well it is a powerful compositional tool in its own right, but it pulls attention away from the basic visual building blocks of all good images such as line, tonal contrast, texture, shape and pattern.

If you work in black and white, even if it’s not where your true passion lies, you can see the underlying elements of good composition more clearly.

Color is such an attention grabber that it can hide poor composition. In black and white however, there’s nowhere to hide, and that’s a good thing when it comes to learning about composition.

"Composition is the arrangement of visual elements so they agreeably present themselves when viewed as a whole".

Photography is about vision – real or perceived.

Before we take the camera out of the bag we must first learn to look at what we are seeing, and to see at which we are looking.

As a wannabe photographer SEEING is the most fundamental skill we need to learn. we can very well learn it, just need to understand how to use the right side of our brain

What???

I will explain with the best of my understanding. In general, people tend to rely on analytical processing by the left side of the brain. We need to train ourselves to use the cognitive functioning of the brain's right side. If you are reading this and understanding what's written in this post is an analytical process i.e. you are using your left side of your brain. If you are looking for what font, size, colour, type used in this post, means you are using your right side of the brain.

We need to shift into a cognitive perception mode during photo shoot.

The brain has a natural tendency to filter out what it considers to be extraneous visual information. Failing to notice small details when taking photographs is a common problem caused by not sufficiently engaging the brain’s perceiving mode. The classic example is failing to include a person's feet in a full length portrait.

We need to learn these skills of perception of edges, spaces, relationships, lights & shadows and the whole. Throghout this book there are plenty of exercises which will facilitate the shift in mental processing from left to right side of the brain. For some its not easy learning to shift to right side.

Importance of Composition:
Basically, composition is determined by how objects are arranged and balanced in the photograph. Any image that succeeds in communicating its subject in an efficient or interesting way can be said to have good composition. It is important to understand that an image’s composition should be judged by how well it works and not by the rules or guidelines

According to Gestalt theory, human perception is governed by the following principles:
• People tend to perceive by distinguishing between a figure and a background (the figureground relationship).
• Objects that are close together are likely to be seen as a group (the principle of proximity).
• Objects that are similar are more likely to be seen as a group (the principle of similarity).
• People tend to see complete figures even when part of the information is missing (the principle of closure).
• People tend to perceive subjects as continuous figures (the principle of continuity).

In visual perception, factors such as the distance of the subject from the background provide important visual clues. In photographs, other clues such as contrast, tonality, and color may dominate. When making images, photographers need to take such factors into account and not rely solely on their initial perceptions.

Although there are compositional rules/guidelines but they just provide a catalog of elements that tend to create favorable impressions on viewers. There is no reason to refrain from using them if you find them useful but they don't apply to all situations. Most photographers, once they acquire enough experience, tend to rely on their intuitive sense of composition and generally stop using guidelines at the conscious level.

The “rule” is only a guideline that is useful when it improves an image, and should be freely disregarded in the frequent situations when it does not.

Once the sense of seeing is acquired, composition will take care of itself.

Viewing other people’s photographs is an excellent way to improve your ability to see photographically.

Art of Composition

Viewing Other People’s Photographs:

Looking at the images made by other photographers is an excellent way to improve your ability to see photographically. Doing so will give you ideas about what the medium of photography is capable of doing and, when done critically, can provide insight into how other photographers go about making their images. To get the most benefit from viewing images, you should look at a variety of work by different photographers in different genres. Even though you will likely benefit the most from looking at the work of photographers you admire, be sure to review some work that does not appeal to you.

When examining photographs for the purpose of enhancing your seeing, try to suspend critical judgment and assess your intuitive feelings about each image. Do you like or dislike the image? Do you think it works well for its intended purpose? Look carefully at the photographs you like and try to figure out why you like them. Conversely, look at photographs that do not appeal to you and determine why. Try to avoid judging photographs based on how closely they follow compositional guidelines. Instead, concentrate
on aspects such as the appeal of the subject matter, your initial visual impression, and the role that technical aspects such as sharpness and shadow detail play in your reaction.

To develop your sense of discernment, speculate as to how the scene might have looked when the photographer first noticed it. Try to figure out what extraneous elements might lie outside the image. Also, assess why the photographer selected the particular viewpoint and how the image might appear if made from different positions. Since camera does not record light in the same manner that the human eye perceives it, it is also useful to speculate how the light actually appeared when the photographer took the photograph. Factors to consider are the intensity, diffuseness, and cast of the light.

An excellent way to evaluate a photograph and its composition is to make a sketch from it, taking care to depict the major visual elements exactly where they appear in the image. This kind of exercise can help you overcome the abstracting process of the brain and better assess where those elements appear on the two-dimensional surface of the image.

Another benefit of viewing a variety of photographs is that it develops an appreciation of style. There are no absolute rules as to what makes for a good photograph or a good style. When evaluating collective works of individual photographers, look at how they use lighting, color, composition, and graphic elements; then, try to determine which features dominate in making that photographer’s style distinctive.

Another aspect related to style is the visual predilection of the photographer. Some photographers distinctly favor certain visual elements in how they perceive and render subject matter. Gaining an appreciation of predilections can be applied to your work as well. Knowing that you have a predilection gives you the option of working to further develop it or work around it, depending on your feelings about how it affects your work. Understanding your predilections can also help you to enhance your skills in various genres.

Most of (may be all) the amateur photographer (may be even professionals) show lot of interests in equipments but most don't work harder to achieve proficiency in using them. Practicing the fundamental skills such as focusing and holding the camera steady will pay off in the long run with better images. Spending some time practicing at operating a particular camera can significantly improve proficiency. With sustained practice, near-perfect operation can become unconsciously embedded into your photographic technique. It is important to consider when choosing/buying a camera, how well you can work the controls and whether it is suitable for your intended applications..

Learning to use a camera as a tool is more important than the quality of the camera itself, because more can be accomplished by using a mediocre tool well than by using an excellent tool in a mediocre fashion.

Auto focusing technology has grown a lot but it doesn't perform well in all situations. Therefore, being proficient at manual focusing is necessary. Ideally, compositions should be determined by how you think they best appear, and not by how your equipment lends itself to being operated. Photographers should be aware of the compositional constraints imposed by their equipment and make allowances when necessary.

A common problem is the tendency of many photographers to use viewfinder more like aiming devices than as aids to composition. While these kinds of problems most often are caused by insufficiently developed seeing skills, there is a tendency to use the viewfinder merely to aim the camera. It is also important to develop a general sense of how a scene will appear in an image without evaluating it in a viewfinder. One way to become adept at this is to practice looking at scenes and imagining how they will appear in a photograph. When doing this, consider where you would position the frame lines and also how you would position the camera to make the most desirable images. Experience will probably suggest to you that using a viewfinder is not always necessary.

As tools, cameras are not perfect machines, although most are very precise. The question is whether the disparity between designed and actual performance is significant enough to affect the quality of your images. For example, the point of focus seen in the viewfinders of many cameras does not correspond exactly with the point of focus at the film plane, although the amount of deviation is usually insignificant. Nonetheless, the point of focus is a critical function, and it is a good idea to test your cameras.

The way this thread goes doesn't seems to be encouraging anyone to participate or start a discussion. Any tips guys what we can do to invite more participation...

Thinking of starting exercises...

nac said:

How to hold your camera
​

This final topic is about how to hold the camera steady and release the shutter with little to no camera shake.

Please clikc the following links for information.

How to Hold a Digital Camera
Shutter Release Technique
Pre-Focus to Combat Shutter Lag

We will practice this for a day or two. After that we will review/recap the basics before starting the book.

Click to expand...

Something I want to add from my experience is that while shooting landscapes in low light, you can go as low as 1/2s handheld if you take multiple shots (say 10) using timer. It removes the movement generated while pressing shutter key.

That's a nice tip using the timer to avoid camera shake. And half a second... that's really great. We will soon cover that part with an exercise.

@nac - Any tips on getting the best out of the DR option in the camera? Both of my cameras have it but I haven't used its potential yet.

marvelousprashant said:

if you take multiple shots (say 10) using timer.

Click to expand...

mean what ?

I know very little about dynamic range. I have just read about it in forum where Fuji bridge camera owners discussing about it. As far as I understood, they use it for getting shadow details.

@nac - I hav this book n hav read first chapters. I ll follo u.
@gen - shoot raw n milk out dr in pp.

@nac - I hav this book n hav read first chapters. I ll follo u.
@gen - shoot raw n milk out dr in pp.

@gen I mean when you are taking multiple shots, chance of getting a non blurred shot increases. However doing in burst mode you are pressing the camera key so movement WILL occur. Timer will eliminate this movement

I think you can use DR option for shooting people (not literally ) with sun shining from back. Not sure but DR mode should give better details on face then Auto

@nac Waiting for your tips on composition. I only know about rule of thirds

Lm2k, It's good you have that book.

Prashant, Yeah, sure... We will start with the preliminary exercises. I will post the first exercise THE POINT OF FOCUS.


The focus point we see in live view may differ slightly from the focus point on the sensor. Typically, this deviation is small, but larger deviations are possible. The amount of deviation is not significant in general except few cases.

Assessing the point of focus of your camera is easy to do. Create a document consisting of a series of vertical lines spaced at specific intervals (e.g., one inch). Add arrows at the top of the line in the center to distinguish it from the others. It is also helpful to place a line of text above and below the vertical lines. Tape the document to a door and open the door so that the document is set at a forty-five degree angle to the camera. Set the camera on a tripod about three feet away from the center line. With the lens aperture set at wide open, focus on the middle line and take a photograph.

Ideally, the focus point on the image will exactly match the one indicated by the viewfinder, but don’t be surprised if it is somewhat off. To judge how far off it is, count the number of lines that the focus point is away from the line in the middle, and divide by two. This will give you distance between the points of focus.

Did you know???

Smaller the camera sensor deeper the depth of field.

Click to expand...

Note: I don't understand the last two lines. Probably I may after doing this exercise. If any of guys understand, please do explain us. If you do have a sample photograph to explain, that will be much better.

^^ i guess this exercise was for those having a DSLR\ film SLR (with MF lenses) that have pentaprism\pentamirror view finders, mostly the author would have devised this exercise because of difference in pathlength between lens last element-shutter and lense last element-eyepiece(just a guess , i have never touched a DSLR)

At wide end using PnS, the whole paper will be in focus

focus on the middle line and take a photograph.

Click to expand...

Impossible on Point and shoot IMO. This is only possible on a DSLR where you have multiple focal points and can choose one of them.
PnS cameras have either center focus (fixed) or 1 AF point which is detected by contrast method so fairly accurate

Am I missing something??

I am not so sure about this will only be applicable for DSLR or large sensor cameras.

Yes, if we try this @ wide angle (28mm or wider) and about 3ft distance, the sheet would cover just a small part of the screen. And in this case if the focus misses a little, it's alright as our compact camera's DOF is deep. But if you zoom and fill the frame, we may find the deviation if there is any.

DSLR AF have developed a lot and with touch screen, photographers could easily focus the point where they want to focus. But still its better to know about our camera. So we go with the exercise and will see what we get.

Instead of lines I am using my Keyboard. Focus was on Letter "G" in both images

*imageshack.us/a/img9/2825/img6539r.jpg
ImageShack® - Online Photo and Video Hosting

nac as prashant said that excersice is easy for a dslr owner coz we can just select the centre focus point and point on the middle line....if it focusses anything else then it means camera is misfocussing and need recalibration...I will say calculate a 50mm in ur camera...like for a APSC DSLR 35mm lens equals to 50mm ...it is the view of our regular eyesight...just a guess

Yeah, it's pretty tough to find any deviation from compact camera.

Lesson learned:
* At wide angle, from 1m distance my camera AF at different distance every time I press shutter button. Yet, I get acceptable sharpness. Crazy eh...
* Even if there is any deviation in POF from compact camera, we can't find it. As the author said, the deviation is not significant in most of the cases.

Wide angle to fill frame.


A standard guideline is that to avoid blurring caused by camera shake is to use shutter speed equal to or faster than the equivalent focal length when hand holding a camera. For example, use 1/50th of a second or faster when you are using 50mm lens. But in practice, it may differ and the image stabilization technology have developed. We may even get acceptable sharpness when using slower than the guideline. This exercise will help us to find our slowest handheld shutter speed.

Use tables to note down shutter speed and aperture. Take several exposures, especially @ slower shutter speed. Use texts as a subject, it works well for this purpose. Start taking photos using shutter speed from 1/2 sec to 1/125th of a second. Concentrate on holding the camera still when taking photographs.

Now, mount your camera in a tripod and start taking photos. Note that you should keep the tripod at the same spot from where you took your photographs handheld. You can use timer to avoid camera shake while pressing shutter button. Locking the mirror will help avoid the vibration caused by "mirror flap" during shutter release even when using tripod/remote shutter, especially at slower shutter speeds (this is for DSLR users).

Comparing photographs taken with tripod against handheld will help you find your slowest handheld shutter speed. You will notice gradually the pictures losing sharpness as you use slower shutter speed. Even if you are not a pixel peeper, zoom and fill your computer screen when comparing.

*farm6.staticflickr.com/5463/8889200472_9ce6419e0a_o_d.jpg
aperture f/4
focal length - 50mm(35mm eq)
iso- auto
exposure program- shutter priority

first row is hand held without IS
second row is with IS
1)Assertion-- without IS we have to get shutter speed of 1/f to get shot sharp and without blur
conclusion after exercise -- arount 1/f +/- 1/10(depending on person) . first shot taken at 1/40 th of second is fine(but a bit under exposed) i found tha i can go upto 1/25 th of second hand held but % of successful shots are less then, later 1/20 and 1/10 are not usable as much.
2)Assertion-- IS provides longer hand held shutter speed(4 stops for sx150is)
conclusion after exercise -- for 50mm 1/4 th of a second is the limit(for my hands) so 1/25--- 1stop
1/12.5 --- 2 stops
1/6.5 -----3 stops
1/3.125 -----4 stops and i have got 1/4th sec so its pretty close.

donno about those techncial excersise but I can just say with IS I can take good handheld shot at 1/30 at long end and 1/20 wide angle with 18-55
with 55-200 I need 1/40 for nice shots at 55mm and 1/100 for 200mm tele end

My Tamron 17-50 f2.8 non IS can never take below 1/30

Left hand side image - Kept the camera on a flat surface and took it and timer was on all the shutter speeds.
Right hand side image- Handheld and timer was on only for 1/2 sec and 1/4 sec

Focal - 28mm (35mm equiv) | Distance - ~ 2.5ft | Mode - Tv

I had to crop the image so close (what you see is just ~20% of the image), you know how the cropped image of a small sensor compact would look like. I can see as soon as I gone slower than the guideline speed (may be 1 stop, not more than that), image's sharpness started degrading.

To my surprise, it seems handheld shots are better than the tripod shots (yeah, I know we can't call that as a tripod I was expecting slower shutter speed shots would be as sharp as the handheld faster shutter speed image. But I don't why it's not?

Anybody know why???

Sujoy, Good you knew the numbers.
Lm2k, 1/4th of a second. that's great pair of hands you have. Me and sujoy have shaky pair of hands just 1 stop slower than the guideline to get sharp image. No offense sujoy

From my past experience
1) I can keep my hands steady enough to get shots upto 1/10th seconds with IS on at wide end
2) When zoomed in I have got good shots at 1/25s. I was shooting in low light so ISO was at 1600 and sharpness suffered due to ISO more rather than due to stabilization efforts. At zoom end I am usually shooting people performing or animals or moon (which is too bright for long exposure so minimum shutter speed doesn't matter.
3) I set my camera at 0.4s and took images of fine print. Out of 12 images 2 were sharp... I guess this is one way if you are forced to shoot at slower speeds

It will be challenging to visualize without using viewfinder/live view for composition. Try it from ground level, above head level. Experiment taking shots and avoid taking random shots. And do evaluate your photographs.

It's a challenging exercise. And it is even more challenging when stuck at home There were times I was trying to photograph air craft, birds when they were flying on the sky. I zoom all the way and try to bring the subject in the live view, it was hard even when using the live view. I had to zoom out and find the bird and again zoom in.

I have wondered sometimes how the journalist, wedding photographers take those shot from above their head level.

Did you know?
Apollo astronauts used camera with no viewfinders and made wonderful photographs.

Click to expand...

I would like to go out on the street for this exercise. But I don't know what I am gonna do...

This one is a surprise.
I would like to propose an exercise if that is already not there. To find out viewfinder accuracy. What we see in viewfinder/screen is not exactly what we get. Usually the image is slightly larger and sometimes twigs etc are there close to edges and I have to crop the image

@nac yes my hands r not super steady and nor my mind is soo I keep simple rules like 1/f=shutter speed and with IS around 2/f of shutter speed ....when u actually go out to take shot other then landscapes u never have time to think of a million rules

yes prashant our viewfinder are not 100% one....I think D7100 and full frame like D800 have 100% viewfinders

Awesome thread.

Prashant, We can see that in our camera spec. Up to my knowledge, almost all the digital cameras have 100% live view coverage (there may be few exceptions) and camera which has EVF also have 100% view finder coverage. But as you said, 100% view finder coverage (optical) is only available for high end cameras.

nac EVF and live view are very close in tech and may have 100% viewfinder ...but I know it for sure that in OVF some have 95%,96% 99% and 100% view finders

I think it's the first time that I didn't want them to know that I am taking photograph. Just wanted the subject in the frame. There were some mis hits. Roughly one in three shots were okish...

Exercise: 8 Photographing without a viewfinder
*img443.imageshack.us/img443/6334/img0911a.jpg

^^ interesting practice. when u get pro in this, may be you will be able to hang the camera with neck-strarp and shoot some interesting street photographs from ur belly, with the timer on. people will never suspect.

@nac- even with IS on keeping 50mm focal length(35mm eq) 1/4 was last speed i could handle but the percentage of of shots comming sharp will also depend on other conditions like the effectiveness of the IS system and vibrations of the user's hands(which varry alot), considering 4 stops of IS at 28mm , 0.4 sec should not be a problem.

ok for the second exercise, i was out today but didnt got any shot worth posting apart from these some of my old that i had taken when i tried to follow this book for the first time.
problem is that we(I mostly)mostly dont find a situation where placement of camera should be like its viewfinder is not feasible, but here are two shots from my side
1)*farm9.staticflickr.com/8407/8902032152_db52974eb2_z.jpg

i had posted a similar photo in "the photography thread" as my first post but this one is different not the same.
camera used - canon a3200is in program mode, iso-80, whitebalance was automatic.
camera was held facing the sky and some 10 shots were taken after evaluation of the shots taken, this one was okish. these flowers(inflorescence to be exact) hang downwards towards ground.

2)*farm6.staticflickr.com/5338/8901876020_e11ca5b366_z.jpg

a shot of a teeny couple taken at the katraj zoo
camera used- samsung D760,iso was 80 in program mode.
camera was held at the waist level so if some one saw me, they would see my face first(since we first see face then other) and ignore the camera, else seeing the camera people get aware of being watched.

i will try to get some recent shots and update my post with pics.

^ I was looking at other forums too to get to know about how people do this in real time. There were tips for how to keep the camera less visible...

Sujoy, I agreed on that part. Most of the DSLR doesn't have 100% OVF coverage. 7D and up for Canon and D300s/D7000 and up for Nikon.

lm2k, Both are good for a start esp. the second one... Not tilted, no cutting out limbs, heads *www.thinkdigit.com/forum/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif The last exercise needs little more practice and exercise. As of now, just we consider that this chapter is covered and move on the next. Do this exercise whenever you have opportunity to do.

Will see you guys tomorrow with the new chapter.


The exercises we are gonna see will help us develop ours skills in perception and composition.

It's good if you have a camera with all the controls from exposure to focus. If you don't have one, go on with the one you have. Use normal focal length (~50mm), it's easy when learning to perceive things and evaluate our composition. We will need tripod for long exposure shots. If you don't have a camera/lens to focus as close as 1.5ft, get accessories to do so.

Evaluating is an important part of exercises, so do it carefully and delibrately. You can even post here to let the people critic about it.

We will start the main content of this book today with POINTS. Are you guys ready???

nac said:

We will start the main content of this book today with POINTS. Are you guys ready???

Click to expand...

yes professor

^

I have little doubt about something. I will clear it before resuming. I will contact some of you guys through PM and clarify it...

Points are the simplest visual elements and therefore make a useful starting point for exercises that enhance visual awareness. Although the geometric point is invisible, the book broadly defines a point for the purposes of photographic composition as any object that occupies a small fraction of the area of an image, generally less than 1 percent. Most of the exercises in this chapter involve incorporating single and multiple points in ways that require the photographer to explore and apply perceptual concepts to specific situations. One benefit of doing exercises involving points is that they teach photographers to be aware of small elements. Points can also be visualized in ways that aid in photographing difficult subjects such as sports photography.

Click to expand...

I guess you guys have this book, so you can follow, right?

We can discuss about the exercises, how we can do it and all... And after taking pictures post them here for discussion/critic about the photographs taken for the exercises.

The author has explained in detail about this exercise from the subject to setting up. Read them and work on this exercise. When done post your work. And google for some more information, it will help to getting some ideas of how we can do this exercise.

^^ the most challenging part of the above exercise is to depict the rocks in their natural environment(how they relate to other elements in the scene) and means by which we could make them appear as subject.
also the shape, colour or features like texture or grooves, etc. should not be given too much importance.

tried some today but unfortunately left IS off , so many of shots i took came very soft. I ll try more and post. here are some .
*farm8.staticflickr.com/7409/8959660397_ecac09760f_z.jpg
sx150is. iso-400 ,f/5.6 for 1/40 th of sec from 336mm(35mm eq) focal length.
*farm8.staticflickr.com/7324/8960867100_2d9fbcdaf8_z.jpg
sx150is. iso-400 ,f/4.5 for 1/25 th of sec from 105mm(35mm eq) focal length.
any critique or coments are welcome.

^ Weekend is over and I don't know when I am going to complete this exercise. If I don't see any progress in another two days, probably I move on to the next exercise.

nac said:

^ Weekend is over and I don't know when I am going to complete this exercise. If I don't see any progress in another two days, probably I move on to the next exercise.

Click to expand...

any exercise taken up here will never be completed, because after sometime we would find that there is much room for improvement and this will continue for a very long period(at personal level). but as the author says "perfection is neither attainable nor desirable" ;so just keep moving forward .

Amazing guide really helpful. thanks a lot. Waiting for more knowledge from your side.

As I haven't find an interesting setting for the exercise ROCKS, I keep it as pending and moving on to the next one.
Think I can do this. But let see...

There are good informations in the book about the exercise. Google to get some ideas. I will post my work when I am done.

@ nac: i think its the perfect time to start compiling the posts and updating the First Post..

^ Yeah, I will sure do that as soon as I complete this chapter. Thanks for reminding.

I have these ideas for this exercise "Signs that make a point"
NO PARKING - where we see vehicles parked
Pedestrian crossing the road when the RED light is on
BOATING sign where there is no water in the lake

I think there is a lot we can come up with. I guess I won't leave this exercise "pending".

nac after finishing ur tutorials here...i found an amazing book of photography ideas and geners ....would love to share after ur book is completed

^^ are you guys sure there will be no problem with the copyright thingy ??

sujoyp said:

nac after finishing ur tutorials here...i found an amazing book of photography ideas and geners ....would love to share after ur book is completed

Click to expand...

Sure. That will be interesting.

mastercool8695 said:

^^ are you guys sure there will be no problem with the copyright thingy ??

Click to expand...

No. No body is here posting the contents of the book. We are just discussing how we can do the exercises and will share how we did it. If you are asking about the earlier posts, those contents are available publicly on online, thus there is no violation. And the book's preview is available to everyone, sharing them is no violation (First two chapters, given the link when I started the first chapter).

Thanks for asking.

mastercool8695 said:

^^ are you guys sure there will be no problem with the copyright thingy ??

Click to expand...

sujoyp didn't mention anything about the content being same with the book. so?

on a side note, this is an excellent attempt by nac. sort of a crash course on photography.

sam said:

sujoyp didn't mention anything about the content being same with the book. so?
on a side note, this is an excellent attempt by nac. sort of a crash course on photography.

Click to expand...

Thank you.

No no I am not going to copy paste anything directly ...the book have a new topic every other page and setup...I will put them here in easy words

can some one also help with photoshop tutorials for most common things like enhancing the color contrast, blur background, and other frequently used editing techniques...

^ I don't know a lot about editing and photoshop is an ocean. There are lots to learn...

Any of guys tried rocks or signs...

nac said:

As I haven't find an interesting setting for the exercise ROCKS, I keep it as pending and moving on to the next one.

Exercise 10: Signs that make a point
​

Think I can do this. But let see...

There are good informations in the book about the exercise. Google to get some ideas. I will post my work when I am done.

Click to expand...

the author says we must add humans which some how relate with the sign board and the size of the sign board must not be too large, since it has to act as point.

I went out for location scouting (it's too big word)

I had this idea in my mind when I was reading "signs". There is this sign NO PARKING where people (including me ) park our vehicles. I thought this would be a good one for beginners. And there is this boat club near by my place. As there is no water in the lake, the sign would be an excellent one for this exercise. Unfortunately, both the signs are removed.

I was disappointed, and took an u-turn and returning back. Suddenly, I see rocks at the bottom of the drought lake. Yeah, I found a location for the exercise ROCKS. I clicked some photographs, but had to return as my battery drained completely . Does battery drain fast when we are out in the sun for long time?

I will go back again after sunset or before sunrise. It's too much heat to do photo shoot out in this sun and that too in the summer.

Temperature does affect batteries, though I have usually heard of batteries draining quickly only in cold weather.

I am sure every one can do this. No need to go out for location scouting, but still a challenging exercise. I am thinking of where to find a good backdrop in my old house... And please post your work when done.
Lm2k, Just now I am seeing your picture when scrolling to see the exercise no. When you edit your post, we don't get to know that you have edited your post. So make a new post and share the links of your pictures.

Second is a good one. I like it a lot... A nice story in the picture. I couldn't go other day to photos of rocks as there was some rain in my place. Yesterday evening I went there. It was a overcast day, lights are diffused and spread across evenly. Nice lighting I should say... There were about a dozen people around the lake looking at me, it wasn't comfortable I know that people are looking at me and see what I do. I think this is the third I am saying it. Better I get used to it...

Lighting was perfect, I took some time to evaluate the setting. I thought I am "seeing" and started taking photographs. Then I started taking pictures at quick intervals, but the idea was to take few minutes before clicking. But I lost that along the way and I realized this after I returned back to my place. Shouldn't get distracted and try to focus on the work from next time. I am posting three pictures from simple to complex (in my view). The last one (the complex) was shot on the other day. It was bright and sunny day, shot in the mid of the day. Used flash to fill the shadows.

Single point was ok but the multiple elements coming into the frame was little complex. How the viewer would see the subject, I didn't want the viewer's attention to take away by these secondary elements away from the dominant, in this case ROCKS. Please leave comments about these photographs.

*imageshack.us/a/img856/1589/img0962ok.jpg

*imageshack.us/a/img109/5980/img0947uu.jpg

*imageshack.us/a/img802/4697/img0940q.jpg

Tried the last exercise STILL LIFES at home. Some ok ok shots... Thinking of trying it once again...

I guess many didn't notice the last post as it was merged with the previous one.

nac I didnt like the B&W effect u gave to those rocks ...it just dont saparate the rocks from soil ...you could either have tried on some colorful rocks or you can try selective coloring...

Thanks for the comment Sujoy.

I don't wanna blame black and white for that. It's my fault, the way I composed that photograph. I should have avoided the merger... Just that I would like to keep the way the author recommended when I am learning (or at least when I am doing the exercises)

Black and white photographs
~50mm (35mm equiv)

@nac- I think all 3 are a bit lacking in contrast or is it the bw? I almost couldn't tell it was a rock in the 3rd one.
For me the 2nd one works best for composition but it is a little too tightly cropped on the right.

^ I increased the contrast little bit. I didn't want to overdo it... Yeah, the background superimposed on the dominant subject "ROCK" in the 3rd picture. I should have spotted in the live view

Thank you...

@nac-Second one you posted is a very nice one. i had put those pics there because we had moved forwards for the sign board exercise since now we are back here are some more i took recently
*u1.ipernity.com/23/54/49/20935449.6eee0f9b.jpg
sx150is. iso-400 ,f/5 for 1/50 th of sec from 249mm(35mm eq) focal length.

*u1.ipernity.com/23/54/37/20935437.34137072.640.jpg
sx150is. iso-400 ,f/5 for 1/25 th of sec from 205mm(35mm eq) focal length.

*u1.ipernity.com/23/53/59/20935359.050483f0.640.jpg
Sony Ericcson ELM, Twitight portrait mode , cloudy white balance flash off. from 35mm focal length(35mm eq)
any critique or coments are welcome.

Lm2k, 2nd and 3rd are nice and good. Good contrast and punchy... First one is kinda hmmm.... not clear. Camera shake or mis focus, I don't know...

^^ thnx
for the first one i forgot to turn on the IS so therotically the shutter speed shoulh have been 1/250, but i was pleased with the background, i will try it again.

These I tried yesterday at my place. All are taken indoor, you can guess the lighting. For the first one, I rest my arm on the door jamb to support and the shots are reasonably sharp, I feel given the shutter speed. Increasing ISO for the last one, didn't help and the texts are not sharp. So the reason for using flash @ base ISO. I pumped the contrast little more than usual. First two are existing and the last one is arranged.

*imageshack.us/a/img40/5928/img1033vq.jpg

*imageshack.us/a/img542/3969/img1084xa.jpg

*imageshack.us/a/img809/1767/img1019pq.jpg

I don't think I can find the subject anytime soon. There are some alternates, but still... Those who can, post your work when done. I will see you guys with a new exercise tomorrow.

Amazing thread. Have not gone through all posts, just a few topics on the first page. Will surely help me in learning and understanding the art of photography.

--
I tried the first exercise and tried to capture fan at different shutter speeds. As I increased the shutter speed, the image became darker and blurry. How can this be avoided? Increasing the ISO?

PS: I'm using a Sony Cybershot HX7V. Offers only 2 Aperture settings, F8.0 and F3.5.

If you want to capture the fan blades, use flash

@nac, I will join after Tuesday. Currently have ungerrgone surgery so cant move. Enjoying bed rest

^ Sad to hear that... Is this something to do with spending most of the time in front of the computer?
Hope you recover fast.

Nipun, Yes, you can increase ISO to avoid darker image. But if there is not enough light and/or you have reached max ISO, and still you are under exposed, you will get darker image. That's normal. As you increase ISO, picture will be noisy/grainy (I think this is what you call blurry).

And Nipun don't use flash to freeze fan blades. It will give you an illusion as you have frozen it even when you try it at slower shutter speed.


I am thinking of some photo projects. But I don't wanna take too many things at the same time. So I hold that thought for now. Will review it after a month or so??? If you guys feeling that I am boring, you can pick one of these and keep yourself engaged (If you are not already ).

nac did you checked the book I told you...if u all r feeling bored then I can start those...they r all mini projects ...some of them even I cant perform...it will be fun too...but before that u should have knowledge of PASM modes

No, I am not. Not at all... Just that there isn't many participation, I pop that idea (and that's not for me).


I think it's gonna be little tough to isolate a plant in a cluttered environment and making it a dominant subject. As always google to get some idea. Will see you guys soon.

@marvelousprashant - hope you recover soon. take care.
@nac- still life- points : first one is fine. If possible try a shot like a mug/cup n sauccer of tea/cofee placed on a newspaper showing crossword page and a pen along with spectacle(if easily available)
i am trying to find as it is setup but didnt got any. Have just 2 images to post both taken with my cellphone.

*u1.ipernity.com/28/37/93/21033793.ff217b71.1024.jpg
this was arranged by me.
sony ericcson ELM, twilight portrait mode, cloudy white balance.

*u1.ipernity.com/13/28/29/21152829.4e4afee2.640.jpg
this was as it is setup.
sony ericcson ELM, twilight portrait mode, cloudy white balance.
c&c pls.

Yeah, I will sure look for some nice set up and try and make some wonderful photographs.

Ahead of weekend, I think I can do one more exercise. So I am here with the new exercise on eyes in portraits. You guys know and would have seen a lot of portrait where the photographer's emphasis is on the eyes. Eyes are the prime thing in portraiture. Here with this exercise, our concentration will be mainly in eyes when taking portraits.

Google to get some ideas. Will see you guys with my work done.

I felt it will be hard to take photographs of plants in a cluttered environment, and it was really hard when I tried it today. I am just posting one I tried along with photo project - silhouette. I will post the rest tomorrow.

*img153.imageshack.us/img153/3227/wd3q.jpg

Two more tried in a near by park.

*imageshack.us/a/img203/9260/3y5z.jpg *imageshack.us/a/img41/487/o4tx.jpg

One of my favourite ever since I watched that asto photographer's trailer in timescape. I have tried few before, but all of them were taken from terrace. It would be better to go out and try this in an interesting location. Try this around new moon day (+/- 3days). Google to get some idea. I don't see stars this time of the year. Mostly it's cloudy here. So I am moving on to the next one.


I saw a photograph long back which fits this title. I wanted to take a similar to that one for a very long time. But I never could able to find that vast open space with just one human in the field. Even though this exercise doesn't need that much vast open space, finding one to few humans from a distance of 100ft is not a easy thing. Let's see...

Couldn't find time to do the exercises this week. Most likely, I will be doing some of them this weekend. And adding one more in the queue.
Stick with smallish clouds, it's not about capturing the whole drama under the sky. Eventhough, this is about clouds, it doesn't have to be a dominant one. Feel free to incorporate this element in any genres you like. From landscape to portrait, anything. Google for smallish clouds to get some ideas. Will see you soon with the work done.

Tried some portraits (eyes in portraits), I think some are okish... Just that I can't post them here.

Mostly, cloudy here... So no cumulus humilis

Tried "people at distance", it's ok for a start. Not impressive one... Thinking of trying it again in an open field...

And it's kinda weird that I am discussing to myself for the last one week or ten days.

I am thinking of putting the images in one place. Is that alright, if I share your image links in a website? If anyone wants to see the pictures alone, it all will be in one place.

Namasthe shutter gurus!

@W.O.O nac, you're doing an awesome job! Im really tired of research-ing key points about photography skills and thanks to you, I , now , have a GUIDE for learning/practicing..So much background work and pressure you're coping for us..THANK YOU SIR!

btw I want to be a 'active' in this thread by posting exercise results..but im feeling really shy to take my dslr outside..LOL
starting trouble..like in the 2 wheeler s..

It's not about making stunning photographs right from the start. It's about getting the composition as best as we could. It will lead to make some good photographs. So don't feel shy... Come on, join us.

One of my popular subject ever since I bought this camera. Moon is just rising... You can give it a try now, if it's not cloudy in your place.

i am coming in a bit late, but heres some from me:

*imageshack.us/scaled/large/713/d1d5.jpg

*imageshack.us/scaled/large/196/qus8.jpg


now i'll be following up this thread closely.

@nac: great idea!! really love this idea of improvement and distributing knowledge. happy to be here.

Welccome Anirban...

These pictures are based on the exercises or your own?

well, i saw you had excercises on the Sun & Moon and Plants.. the other two are random shots.

should i give that here??

anyway, i kept those pictures, as you said earlier one the most effective ways to learn is by seeing and analysing others' pics.

Did you read the thread from start? If not, do so when you have time...

Some key points I would like to say, please don't take it as I am offending.
* The photographs for the exercises should be a fresh one, not from your archives/collection
* Author has suggested to use normal focal length (~50mm) for the exercises and to use black and white when learning.

Do you have this book? If not get it, it will be better to follow.

About the photographs you posted. It's not just moon/sun in the photograph. How you put the moon or sun in the frame with other elements in it and how a small object (when we shoot moon/sun @ 50mm it just fills a very small amount of space in the photograph) can be a dominant subject in a photograph. Not zoomed all the way in...

^^ shooting always as 50mm is very good , but for point and shoot users it is really tough task to set the lens zoom to 50mm(35mm eq)
, the author of the book mentions about camera required in just a single para and for p&s 35 mm should be ok since most of the cellphone cameras are 35 to 38mm wide while p&s of today are 28.Time taken in Adjusting focal length must not become a reason for loosing a awesome shot.

my submission for plants
*u1.ipernity.com/28/17/75/22021775.6fbc78c1.640.jpg
SX150IS , 28mm , f3.4 ,1/60 th sec . flash fired- true iso -1600.

@Nac: i read the whole thread and i didnt take it in any offening way mate

i just realised that the excercise needed us to utilise the rules of compo. stupid me

Not necessarily it should be exactly 50mm, it can be between 40mm and 60mm.

The plant can be in lower right intersection. And I feel black and white version would be better for this shot. Why the need for ISO 1600 when you are using flash? I feel ISO 1600 gives kinda bloated look. When I tried it once a while for a portrait, it was like it added some 20/30 pounds.

anirbandd said:

i just realised that the excercise needed us to utilise the rules of compo. stupid me *www.thinkdigit.com/forum/images/smilies/tongue.gif

Click to expand...

here is a black n wite version( sorry for reposting)
*u1.ipernity.com/32/38/45/22633845.5dab69f5.jpg

it was 7.45 PM and almost dark, with iso 1600 alone all i was getting was 0.8th sec, so used flash at full power.
I ll try it again and post it back.

lm2k, Yeah, it's better in black and white.

Couldn't find time to come here, was little busy with work. I guess I can do some exercise this weekend. Will see you guys with a new one...

I am back...

nac long gap good that u are back

Yeah, little busy at work. Few more days... Then I will get enough time to hang around here...

one pic of "people at distance"
*farm8.staticflickr.com/7297/9236760087_47a576da02_z.jpg
sx150is F4 for 1/800 th of sec when iso was 200 from 50mm focal length(35mm eq)

Nice one lm2k...

*imageshack.us/a/img42/2441/1m88.jpg *imageshack.us/a/img542/711/2217.jpg *imageshack.us/a/img4/2860/zukr.jpg

nac where is sun in those pics...its only moon

Yes, there is no sun in the pictures I posted. This exercise is about shooting sun or moon with other visual elements and to learn how a small element (sun/moon will occupy very tiny little space in the frame when shooting it @ 50mm) can be prominent in an image. It's not about zooming all the way in and shooting the sun/moon close.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Guys, Updated the first post along with the link to skydrive where we can see all the exercise photographs in one place.

no I didnt mean that...the exercise name is sun and moon ..it may say that both should be in the same picture...that is what i interpreted ...

It's little over a month...

I resume from where I left. Here is a new exercise...

This exercise is intended to enhance the awareness of reflections by taking photographs of objects reflected in mirrors. The goal of the exercise is to show the object in the mirror against a background that gives the image a sense of place.

Google to get some idea and to get inspired... and post your work when you are done.

nac said:

Exercise: Moon and Sun

​

Click to expand...

nice , i liked all of them, more the one with leaves ,

here is my submission for "Portrait-Eyes"
*farm6.staticflickr.com/5546/9521149967_66e4797806_z.jpg
SX150is F3.4 for 1/40th sec from 28mm focal length(35mm eq) when iso was 400
took it on the street near a signal, shot 4 out of whic one came out fine.

*farm6.staticflickr.com/5521/9239531966_323f60c7f4_z.jpg
SX150is F5.6 for 1/15th of sec from 336mm focal length when iso was 400
a ferral kitten, wont let any one even come close so had to use some zoom here





@all -y u no positng any thing?
topics are simple and even a cellphone camera is good enoough .
if u no posting any thing u no learning anything.

Nice work lm2k...

^^ thnx,
I haave tried some of the signboards shots but was not satisfied,
i ll post them soon

@im2k the cat is soo cute...is it pet

sujoyp said:

@im2k the cat is soo cute...is it pet

Click to expand...

thnx, actually i was trying to pet its mom, but uptill now she had many many traumatic experiences with humans and so still both of them dont even allow any human to go near them no matter what we do.

*img835.imageshack.us/img835/6950/f27n.jpg

How many of these project threads do we have here? Anyhow, some awesome stuff nac, will start following this one too

we have only two of them amlan...this one is the one which can be performed with a point and shoot also....this deals with basics of composition and settings..
other one was started by me which is bit advanced and may need dslr in some of the activities

"Project" thread is for hobbyist/enthusiast while this is for beginners...

This exercise is intended to enhance the ability to perceive subtle aspects of posture and how they affect a person's appearance (I have understood this but not the depth of it). Probably I get to know the depth as I keep shooting this genre over a period of time.

Goal is to take images of where the soles of feet are visible. Set up can be any where but it's most likely you can find it where there are lots of people walking, standing in a public place like shopping mall, railway station etc.

Auto-focusing can be helpful but little tricky if the environment is too cluttered. So be prepared for this issue.

Oops. Ignore!

This exercise is intended to give us experience at observing and depicting subjects that are constantly changing their position and orientation. Generally we see most of the photographs of birds are close ups. It's better to depicts the surroundings as well for this exercise.

I have been sticking with 50mm (35mm equiv) for all the exercises as the author suggested so. You may need to use different focal length to not to disturb the birds by moving in closer. So you any focal length as you see fit.

Will 50 mm serve the purpose? As its very dynamic subject we cannot go much closer and with prime lens we might need lots of cropping.

^ It depends... 50mm for domestic birds like hen/crow may not be a big issue. They don't get scared and run away if go little closer. For this exercise it's fine, you can use any focal length you see fit.

I was really not comfortable shooting in public places. It took me more than 30 minutes to take just two photographs out in public, shooting someone I don't know. There were lot of opportunities, more than I expected. I saw lot of people standing in a way that their sole can be seen to take photograph, just that we have to be in the right place. I thought of stage this exercise with someone I know, but later I thought of give it a try.

*imageshack.us/a/img607/3219/qx2k.jpg

people with moving lcd can easily take pics in public...and no one will notice...just keep the cam at chest and see the composition on the screen and click what ever you want...its very simple

Sujoy, I don't know. Being comfortable photographing in streets needs a lot of experience, I guess.



Most of the exercises I find in this book are like street photography. If I remember correct, this is the first time author mentioning it in this exercise. To make the image more compelling pay attention to depict the interaction between participants not just the food to be visible in the frame.

Try not to draw attention and at the same time don't be sneaky. (I have tell this to myself many times, if I am trying this in a public place ) Google to get some idea.

it dont need experience but a pleasing personality with a smile on the face and confidence to ask, and say sorry being rude and egoistic is the worst thing to have in street photography

nac said:

Exercise: People's Soles

​

Click to expand...

You tried to get it when the subjects is walking Nice...

Author is trying to say that these kinda exercises helps us to perceive things, like what kinda posture one get to get. Not making the sole as a subject, I guess.

Sujoy, What you are saying is, dress up good, wear a smile and be confident. When there is no confident, it's little obvious that there won't be any smile on the face but the weird confused look. May be we both are right. To up the confidence, try shooting more in public to get more experience.

yaah yaah nac you are right ...I have seen videos of street photography ...the photographer litrelly talk to people around and make them comfortable rather then hiding behind a bush and shooting them ...

This is an exercise in street photography in which we depict heads in terms of their compositional and psychological aspects. The points (heads) has to convey information of the subject's behaviour or the things happening in their environment.

Refer the book for more details and google to get an idea.

nac said:

EXERCISE: HEADS IN THE STREET
​

This is an exercise in street photography in which we depict heads in terms of their compositional and psychological aspects. The points (heads) has to convey information of the subject's behaviour or the things happening in their environment.

Refer the book for more details and google to get an idea.

Click to expand...

hey, i'm late here.. can you give me the link for the book please??

This is the book Preview of Photography : the art of composition [WorldCat.org]

It's just the preview...

oh good.. i have that book.

lets see if i can do something...
not comfortable about street photography. have some not so good experiences.

Try when you think you are comfortable... May be some day we will find it comfortable shooting in the public.

This exercise again involves street photography. It requires us to find and photograph people who hold or use similar objects not just similar or identical objects arranged in a pattern.

I am getting to understand little more depth of what the author is trying with these exercise. It's all about perceiving things/seeing skills.

You can find suitable settings in libraries, metro trains etc. Google to get an idea.

This is kinda sports photography which needs to be capture the image in split seconds. Fast lens would be much helpful to freeze the action. Of course we have to push the ISO at higher or may be highest to shoot at at least 1/60th of a sec. This exercise is to capture the pins being knocked by the ball.

Even though it's like a sports photography, we can't take photographs of someone in the public like we can do so in other sports like cricket, tennis etc. Now here it looks like a street photography, right? uff!!!! Ask for permission to take photographs...

I don't know for sure whether there are any bowling alleys in my town. So I am moving to the next exercise. You guys can go ahead if there is any in your town and you're interested.


This exercise is intend to help us recognize and anticipate rapidly changing details and using senses other than sight. At least one person in the scene shoult be speaking, laughing or singing. Again this exercise we need to freeze the action. So fast lens would be good to get at least 1/60th of a second exposure.

Google to get some idea and refer the book for more details. Good luck.

I am sure wannabe bird photographers would be interested in doing this exercise. The author has been suggesting to observe and analyze the environment and perceive/see things to make photographs better. Here in this exercise, I kinda think he emphasize little more on that part. I guess the photographer should have lot of patience to observe how the bird behaves in an environment.

As this exercise needs to freeze the action, we may need faster shutter speed. It's much better to try this exercise in day time as there will be plenty of light. If you're shooting against bright back lit sky, using -ive exposure would be helpful to get the exposure (for the subject "bird") right.

Google to get some ideas. And for more info, refer the book.

This exercise is about how we observe the points (here it is a ball), and connect it with the surrounding environment/elements. Try and isolate the subject from the background and don't get it in a cluttered background.

Google to get an idea. Refer book for more info.

*imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800x600q90/823/jhys.jpg

*imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800x600q90/543/wv6i.jpg
*imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800x600q90/194/4jk3.jpg

Part one is over, out 20 I could only able to do 7 exercises. Others are still pending. Before moving to the next part, I am thinking of something fun and crazy... Let's see...

Great work nac ...keeping up with the thread is soo difficult ...

Thank you...

It would be good, if there is some interaction. I guess I am not making an opportunity to let us guys to have some interaction or... I don't know...

We take a small break from the book and do an exercise completely different. You can click whatever genre you like, but something not straight out of the camera, something has some or extensive involvement of a image manipulation software or some of kind trick photography. Something crazy, funny, interesting...

To say a few... levitation, double exposure, turn your portrait into navi... anything you find interesting and have enough time to do that.

You can think of something on your own or you can refer someone's work/guide to do this exercise. Do post the link, if you refers and/or explain how you did this exercise in words/video or any other format you see comfortable.

How about we submit our work on or before republic day weekend...

aaha this one seems interesting ....I will do something for sure

nac said:

We take a small break from the book and do an exercise completely different. You can click whatever genre you like, but something not straight out of the camera, something has some or extensive involvement of a image manipulation software or some of kind trick photography. Something crazy, funny, interesting...

To say a few... levitation, double exposure, turn your portrait into navi... anything you find interesting and have enough time to do that.

You can think of something on your own or you can refer someone's work/guide to do this exercise. Do post the link, if you refers and/or explain how you did this exercise in words/video or any other format you see comfortable.

How about we submit our work on or before republic day weekend...

Click to expand...

Nice, I'll try something for this.
Meanwhile here's one of my post processed recent photo before and after with the video that helped with this.

Before
*imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/1024x768q90/22/8dmq.jpg

After
*farm3.staticflickr.com/2816/11913410163_0dfb10c57b_b.jpg

Youtube Video to refer to (not mine)

I have edited an old pic with photomatrix and picasa

Original
*farm6.staticflickr.com/5515/12147099395_50593b8ac3_z.jpg
DSC_8030 by sujoypackrasy, on Flickr

Edited
*farm6.staticflickr.com/5513/12147761336_fd39b932b6_z.jpg
DSC_8030_edit by sujoypackrasy, on Flickr

Sujoy, Nicely enhanced. As Gen said, noise is visible even in this small size.

I was free last week (most of the time). Was out for shooting. I tried double exposure, and it has come out good (in my view). Though the person in the portrait wouldn't let me post the photograph online. So I will work one something for the last exercise.

Thought I will be free this week too, but fortunately/unfortunately my friend's friend lend his modem. And now I am back to work...

Guys the noise will be there as photomatrix recovered the details from dark areas...If I would have shot a 3 exposure HDR then there would not be any noise issue...will do that someday..

Show us some pic nac

Wanted to do some kinda trick photography, but end up with manipulating the images. May be I will do that after completing the next part of the book

*imageshack.com/a/img547/9633/1pca.jpg

It's a composite two images (bird and sky is one photograph, land and hills is the other one) and few layers created in PS.

Tutorial Reference:
Thunderbolt layer - How to create a thunder with Photoshop | Drawing | Adobe Photoshop | Programs | Dreevoo.com
Rain effect - Adding Rain To A Photo With Photoshop

Tried to create clouds, but it didn't come out good.

Nac not working ....try more of lightning

Yeah, sure...

Here is another version... Yeah, it doesn't look natural. Since the purpose of the exercise is to learn to use software and manipulate the photographs, so it's alright I guess.

*imageshack.com/a/img36/4903/gaup.jpg

@nac - The lighting looks super fake in the first one. The rain is ok.
Trying what in the last one ? Stars ? They are on the ground too

he he he taare zameen par ....learning is not bad ...try try till u get the perfect result

Still pretty good effects ... Would've been more well suited to a good night time image though. Your brain does subconsciously figure out that the light on the horizon would have hidden any stars, plus if the sky is that dark the landscape cannot show so many colors. It's something we are used to seeing and if it's different then we feel its fake

awesome try though ... will need to give these a shot

BTW check this out 500px / *** by Evgeny Vasenev it's post processed, that I'm sure, but really well done

no amlan its not post processed...its very real...let me give you a photostream of one of good photographer I personally know

Flickr: Manish Mamtani's Photostream

This guy takes awesome photographs...he lives in US and is a SAP consultant at accenture ...he is from nagpur ...
All the pics are really taken by him with just as much PP done as we do..


and my target is this -> *www.flickr.com/photos/24421425@N04/

this one is taken by one of my friend living in kanpur ....he is more of a mentor then a friend actually a government employee

Gen.Libeb said:

Trying what in the last one ? Stars ? They are on the ground too

Click to expand...

They are birds, not stars...

sujoyp said:

he he he taare zameen par ....

Click to expand...

And both your friends works are fantabulous...

izzikio_rage said:

BTW check this out 500px / *** by Evgeny Vasenev it's post processed, that I'm sure, but really well done

Click to expand...

What the photographer achieved of the sky/stars are pretty much possible straight out the camera...
This is my favourite video of astro photography... I am sure I have posted this quite a few times, and I am again posting it (If you haven't seen it before, you can check out this video)

awesome effects...donno when we will be good enough to capture something like this

sujoyp said:

and my target is this -> Flickr: sanjaytiwari64's Photostream

Click to expand...

That's why you got a D7000 same gears... hmmmmmm

Sorry, I think I posted in the wrong thread. Loved the pics from your mentors/friends sujoy ... no wonder you are so good at this

kaz said:

That's why you got a D7000 same gears... hmmmmmm

Click to expand...

Yes I may just get his whole gears copy to copy may replace 150-500 with a 300f4+1.4x TC ...he got some great results out of it

@amlan those days I had just started and we used to go shooting every weekend...I used to ask a million questions...it is the best way of learning...learn on field

Very Good Lessons for Learning !
Magical Transformations !

Quick question : How to determine zoom factor/capability of a lens ?? I mean if I buy a lens of focal length 70-300mm , how much zoom can be achieved ??
Assume that its a d5100 .
Btw , are those long zoom cameras better than dslr for long distant shots ??

Usually, compact cameras are marketed in that fashion (50x zoom, 10x zoom and all). It's just that telephoto divided by wide angle, in this 300/70 which is 4.xx times zoom. Simply 4x zoom. 25-100mm is also 4x zoom, but that doesn't mean this will zoom as close as 70-300.
Ex: From 6m distance with your camera, you can shoot full length portrait @70mm and shoot head/shoulder @300mm. With the kit lens, from the same distance you can shoot group photo of 15/20 people @18mm.
Sujoy have explained this to many newbies. It would be good if Sujoy put that post's links in his signature.

let me search the post I have written

this one I explained some day ago

lets see one by one -
400mm is always a 400mm...and its counted on Full frame DSLR basis
APSC crop factor makes it looks like 400*1.5 = 600mm
m4/3 have 2x = 400*2 = 800mm
1" (nikon 1 series, sony rx100)sensor have 2.7*
1/1.7" (canon s100, Nikon P7100) sensor have 4.2
1/2.3" most point and shoot and superzooms 5.2

Nikon P520 have 4.3 - 180 mm (35 mm Equivalent to 24 - 1000 mm)

when we say Nikon P520 have a 24-1000mm lens thats on full frame range ...and funnily its just the opposite of how we calculate focal length on APSC sensor cameras
thats coz its a marketing gimmik ...and I too got confused

now P520 reached 1000mm on full frame range and to get that much focal length I need to spend what I told before at least 96k

this 1000mm will actually zoom more than my 150-500 (280-750 on apsc) ...but since the lens is soo small it wont be able to keep up with the quality what a proper lens will make.

Click to expand...

sujoyp said:

let me search the post I have written

this one I explained some day ago

Click to expand...

Thanks for the information.
Can you share a pic taken at 50mm and then the same pic at 300mm ??? I just want to have a rough estimate of zoom levels .

yes I can do that rishi...give me a day

Rishi, you may find this tool useful *www.tamron-usa.com/lenses/learning_center/tools/focal-length-comparison.php

it goes from 10mm to 500mm, that's about a 50X zoom if you look at how P&S are rated.

[MENTION=17225]Rishi[/MENTION] ...I performed your exercise

keep eye on the window besides the green flag

17mm
*farm8.staticflickr.com/7050/13349743854_33185cf9b3_z.jpg
17mm by sujoypackrasy, on Flickr

50mm
*farm3.staticflickr.com/2870/13349502013_bc986418a8_z.jpg
50mm by sujoypackrasy, on Flickr

150mm
*farm4.staticflickr.com/3782/13349500893_563e1b4640_z.jpg
150 by sujoypackrasy, on Flickr

500mm
*farm4.staticflickr.com/3763/13349361865_0f7628c1b3_z.jpg
500mm by sujoypackrasy, on Flickr

^THanks Sujoy and izziko , that gave me a rough estimate that how much close can I get to my subjects using what focal length.

Day before yesterday, I had little free time. Thought of going out to shoot for a challenge - "lines and patterns" (other forum). It was middle of the day... toooo hot. God... after two years of no rain, places are too dry. I was passing by the places where I could find a good subject for the challenge. But I didn't have the guts to ask them whether I can take photographs or not. Telling myself, on my way back I can ask them and take photographs. This might be one of the longest ride I took just to take photographs. I went to middle of nowhere and started shooting landscapes, nothing related to challenge. But it was fun...

Middle of a summer day... god, I was tired after a while. But still shooting landscapes. Later I found few subjects that could fit for the challenge. I was happy I saw them and took some photographs. I didn't shoot the ones I saw before (the ones I had to ask for permission). I went home. Looking at the pictures, now they don't seem to fit for the challenge. Even though there were lines and patterns, it seemed more like a landscape shots.
Thought of going again, but that's too far and I had no time. I wanted to get at least one, so again I went yesterday evening. This time, I stopped and asked for permission. kudos to me I can't believe that I asked... That's great But they didn't say yes I went on to the next place and I asked. Again NO.

Finally, I got one. Clicked. Kinda looked artsy. I thought that was a decent one. On my way back home, I shot some landscapes and few more like the ones I shot yesterday (lines and patterns in landscape shots). Suddenly, battery dried completely. Noticed that, this set needs conditioning now. Just from about 40% to 0% within few seconds to a minute. I thought I had extra batteries, but I forgot to bring them. Pack up...

I will share some of the photographs I thought they could fit for the challenge.

Why am I sharing this here? Coz, most of the exercises we went through were street photography and needs to ask people before photographing them, which I couldn't do it then. Now I did asked few and I feel that's great. I took that first step. I guess, I will be little more confident when I shooting in public next time and mind less what people will be thinking about me.

I can go shoot on street at my college place but at my hometown I couldn't dare to only because if someone from my acquaintance or relatives see me, they will start giving their wonderful opinions at home....

Good nac soo you are working on street photography I also wont dare to ask permission...it feels idiotic..people ask soo many questions...
...but remember if you want to sell a street photograph with some subject like a kid, begger, sadhu, etc then you have to submit a model release thats a written permission from the model and submit it along with your pic ...without that pic wont be valid for selling.

^pics can be sold ?? I didn't knew that. Who buys it ??

Lots of people will buy images. Macrostock and microstock sites will sell images for you. Also for commercial images for ads and stuff you need a model release, for editorial its not mandatory

[MENTION=17225]Rishi[/MENTION] you can put your pics at 500px and mark it for sale ...

Wow , although I don't intend to do that . But still that sounds encouraging.

it's quite a lot of fun. If you are selling an image you get some really detailed and at times really critical feedback. If someone is paying money then they'll ensure that the image is technically perfect in all ways . Also it's fun when an image sells and you find that some known website is using it. The money is not all that good though, especially for the amount of time and effort you need to put in to take and then process the image

kaz said:

I can go shoot on street at my college place but at my hometown I couldn't dare to only because if someone from my acquaintance or relatives see me, they will start giving their wonderful opinions at home....

Click to expand...

yes u r very right

me too, too shy
thought of buying a 35mm 1.8G to move towards street photography, but thats the only thing stopping me..
actually, been practicing and found out that I can do fine in unknown places, new places. Clicked some good ones during my recent trip to chennai. being a stranger, i had no problem pushing my lens over their faces.
and chennai has abundant scenes everwhere., especially the local MRTC, id spend the whole day in it.
Visiting again next week, hoping for some good ones. suggestions for some interesting places i can do?

I dont do streets ...I fear public anger

Axel, There are plenty of places...
You wanna do street...
Sowcarpet, Ranganathan street, parrys corner, koyambedu market, marina beach...

nac said:

Axel, There are plenty of places...
You wanna do street...
Sowcarpet, Ranganathan street, parrys corner, koyambedu market, marina beach...

Click to expand...

Thank you nac..!

After a very long time, here is the one. When I started, I thought this exercise can be done easily. But it delayed for so long...

*i102.photobucket.com/albums/m108/tkphotos1/IMG_4406_zps74ea3a18.jpg

nac said:

Exercise: Signs that make a point
​

After a very long time, here is the one. When I started, I thought this exercise can be done easily. But it delayed for so long...

*i102.photobucket.com/albums/m108/tkphotos1/IMG_4406_zps74ea3a18.jpg

Click to expand...

india !

Yeah, it's India. The one next to the sign is TATA Indica. In front of Indica, that's Maruti Mini van and TATA Sumo, I guess.

I thought those were moving vehicles...Just noticed that the bus has no driver

*i102.photobucket.com/albums/m108/tkphotos1/IMG_4942_zps0e219b63.jpg

*i102.photobucket.com/albums/m108/tkphotos1/IMG_4921_zps4eeacce9.jpg

Guys I'm not sure if this is the right place but still wanted to check. I have Sony Z1 with great camera features. Can someone suggest some tips to take good pics out of it.

ajayritik said:

Guys I'm not sure if this is the right place but still wanted to check. I have Sony Z1 with great camera features. Can someone suggest some tips to take good pics out of it.

Click to expand...

- Get to know your camera - what it's capable of and what's its limitation.
- Try to mimic the photographs you like
- If you're interested in photography and you're new... check this out...

Ok so i dont own a 550d. It is a 500d, but anyway, i just did a one day photography course to learn some basics, and it was great, so looking forward to getting out there and using it more

It's been pretty long since a post here. Will give the head in the street exercise a try today.
[MENTION=74234]natalie[/MENTION]: The 500D is a pretty awesome camera, it'll allow you to do a great many things. Just go out and shoot, post your best stuff in one of these threads and I'm sure you'll find loads of people willing to help you further

I even didnt do a one day photography course and used D3100 for 3 long years...that didnt stop me from anything still shot 25k pics with that

Greetings, fellow shutterbugs! This is a small post about how TAKING pictures is the most important part of learning. Now, this topic I think would have been covered already, but I still want to share my experience if that's OK.

I'd picked up my first camera seven years ago. It was a beautiful little Canon Powershot A590IS, the perfect point-and-shoot WITH full manual control. The only teacher I ever had was the internet and myself. For over four years I used this little feller- even managing to get shots of lightning with it by using CHDK on it.I toted the A590IS to contests(and ended up losing), during treks, and pretty much anywhere. That's one of the biggest secrets to learning photography - take your camera wherever you can.
So yes, the learning opportunities are endless with pretty much any camera. Even mobile phones(I once used a Nokia N95 on an entire week trip to Delhi, Agra and Jaipur and came back gloating over the pictures )

Happy shooting!

P.S if anyone wants to see any of the pictures, do let me know!

potatoboy said:

Greetings, fellow shutterbugs!
P.S if anyone wants to see any of the pictures, do let me know!

Click to expand...

Hi! Potatoboy
We would love to see your work. You can post in photography thread.

Yup, agree with every word of what you said, carry cam, take pictures, experiment and have fun. Would love to see the pics

Thanks for the replies! I've posted the links below. Although most of my uploads go on my personal timeline for friends to see, I update these from time to time.

Here's a Facebook page I made when I was in the buy-DSLR-make-a-page phase(please ignore the name of the page ) : *www.facebook.com/TheUberPhotographer

And here's my Flickr stream : *www.flickr.com/photos/photoabhi

Do provide any sort of C&C on my work! TIA!

EDIT : here's the link to the album with my N95 : *photos.google.com/album/AF1QipM3dr8iu0J4blnCLAqaxYDG_cU9feCrcCUQVmIW

Cool pics

Very nice pics. Good eye for composition and light.

Hello, I just got D5200 with default 18-55mm kit lens. I have gone through various tutorials for understanding Exposure Triangle. Today I was out for some testing same pic on various settings so that later I can review and get a practical idea. Now I'm stuck with very odd scenario.

Please look at the pics below with EXIF Data.

*i.imgur.com/E2hUVse.jpg

1st : f22 1/60

*i.imgur.com/oCrgzoa.jpg

2nd : f14 1/200

*i.imgur.com/GbXEx6B.jpg

3rd : f9 1/500

*i.imgur.com/PxC4CkS.jpg

4th : f3.5 1/3200

All the pics I have clicked on Aperture Priority Mode. So I set the aperture and camera decides Shutter Speed and ISO.

The problem is, small aperture (large f no) have high exposure and large aperture (small f no) have low exposure. Isn't it should be opposite? Large aperture means it's taking more light then how come it got low exposure instead of high exposure?

I do understand that the shutter speed have been changed by camera. But isn't that to maintain the balanced exposure? If so, then all the pics should have same exposure or with minor details.

But here the scenario is totally opposite. Large aperture images have low exposure and small aperture images have high exposure. How can this be possible?

Aperture numbers are inverse numbers. So f14 means focal length divided by 14 is the diameter of the aperture opening.

Essentially f/1.4 will have a larger opening than f/14

izzikio_rage said:

Aperture numbers are inverse numbers. So f14 means focal length divided by 14 is the diameter of the aperture opening.

Essentially f/1.4 will have a larger opening than f/14

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Yeah. That I know. My question was how come exposure get decreased with large aperture? Whereas it should be opposite?

Nevermind, I got the answer here : aperture - Basic Exposure Query - Photography Stack Exchange

Just thought of sharing if someone wants to know the details.

^ Glad you got it yourself...

Guess i misread the question. The answer is pretty cool.

You see, the larger the focal length (in mm), the lesser light travels to the sensor. Focal length is the length of the "X" formed in the lens of a camera, the crossover.
That means, high optical zoom (><) results in less light reaching to the sensor, than a low zoom (X), provided the aperture is opened equally in both cases.

Aperture is hence, actually a ratio....


So, an opening of exact 50mm diameter in aperture, will bring less exposure at 105mm, then it will bring at 18mm... But this will confuse people.
Because quantitatively exposure opening is the same at 50mm, but exposure caused will be different because of more/less "zoom"...

So, Aperture is a ratio of Focal Length:Iris hole opening.

S0, F/ 4.0 Aperture value can be achieved by:-

50mm zoom: 12.5mm iris opening OR
100mm zoom: 25mm iris opening, OR
200mm zoom: 50mm iris opening. (The more technically correct word for zoom here is "Focal Length", but that might confuse new people.)


A bigger Aperture means smaller values which make the ratio go down. So, f 2.0 (60mm zoom:30mm iris opening) lets in more light compared to f 4.0 (60mm zoom: 15mm iris opening).

A bigger maximum aperture in a lens enables faster shutter speeds for any situation. So,

at f 2.0 you may snap at 1/100th of a second, OR
at f 3.5 you may snap at 1/25th of a second, which is slower and may cause motion blur.


Take it as a tap. Exposure is the water that actually reaches the glass. See the image below to understand:-

*images.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2F1.bp.blogspot.com%2F-3ZNd4dpC6TU%2FTqJyJx4eKPI%2FAAAAAAAAAJ0%2F2ItvCRnUYZQ%2Fs1600%2Fshutterspeed.gif&f=1

Samarth 619 said:

*images.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2F1.bp.blogspot.com%2F-3ZNd4dpC6TU%2FTqJyJx4eKPI%2FAAAAAAAAAJ0%2F2ItvCRnUYZQ%2Fs1600%2Fshutterspeed.gif&f=1

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I understand the relation between av and tv, but I think the example image is not right.
Let's for the discussion, leave out the aperture here and just concentrate on shutter speed.
I can go upto 1/2500th of a second in my camera. Let's say I capture water flowing out of a tap like in the above picture @ fastest tv, I would get something similar to or close to 1/30th of the sample image in the previous post and if I take the shot @ 15sec exposure, I would get something close to or similar to 1/125th of the sample above. I think the blogger wrongly put the description for the images.

Thanks for the explanation [MENTION=148944]Samarth 619[/MENTION]

[MENTION=125321]nac[/MENTION] its an example of exposure and not related to water photography

it shows at f16 aperture opening is small and exposure will be less so the shutter speed will be slow...and at f8 aperture will be large so more exposure so shutter speed is more.

yaah but in water photography what nac said is correct...at 1/30 it will look more smooth and 1/125 we will see drop by drop of water

good explaination samarth

Why is samarth calling himself a newbie.. He certainly knows his stuff

sujoyp said:

@nac its an example of exposure and not related to water photography

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izzikio_rage said:

Why is samarth calling himself a newbie.. He certainly knows his stuff 

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He is "new" to this section of the forum. He sure wouldn't call himself "newbie" in bikes section.

nac said:

I understand the relation between av and tv, but I think the example image is not right.
Let's for the discussion, leave out the aperture here and just concentrate on shutter speed.
I can go upto 1/2500th of a second in my camera. Let's say I capture water flowing out of a tap like in the above picture @ fastest tv, I would get something similar to or close to 1/30th of the sample image in the previous post and if I take the shot @ 15sec exposure, I would get something close to or similar to 1/125th of the sample above. I think the blogger wrongly put the description for the images.

Click to expand...

We're not photographing the water being filled itself. The example image is ok I think. Let me explain in short...
The water is the exposure of a photo.
A filled glass is a properly exposed photo.

1. If the tap is opened little, ie. aperture is smaller, say f/ 16, then water will drop little by little so you will need more time to fill the glass, say 10 seconds. This 10 seconds is shutter speed which is slow right now.

2. If the tap is opened fully, ie. the aperture is wide open, say f/ 4, the glass will fill very quickly, say only 2 seconds or so. This means, shutter speed is faster.

Conclusion? With a wider aperture, your shutter speeds always will be lesser for the same photo (ISO being constant)... Simple!

izzikio_rage said:

Why is samarth calling himself a newbie.. He certainly knows his stuff

Click to expand...

Thanks buddy. I know many things, and many things I don't know. Would love to learn more and also, share whatever I know too... And yes, I'm new to the forum itself so I didn't know where I would stand among members who might be much better...

Thanks sujoyp too.

Samarth 619 said:

1. If the tap is opened little, ie. aperture is smaller, say f/ 16, then water will drop little by little so you will need more time to fill the glass, say 10 seconds. This 10 seconds is shutter speed which is slow right now.

2. If the tap is opened fully, ie. the aperture is wide open, say f/ 4, the glass will fill very quickly, say only 2 seconds or so. This means, shutter speed is faster.

Click to expand...

Thanks.
I thought the image was the end result of the exposure, something like this.

*2.bp.blogspot.com/-id5Oz92NWus/VPOYex61mOI/AAAAAAAAABU/hFbTLjc5Fgw/s1600/Understanding_shutter_speed.jpg

But it didn't strike me that the water actually is the amount of light, and the blogger tried to explained it with that image.

*www.wexphotographic.com/webcontent/images/guides/exposure-guide/aperture.gif

Good detail of example !

Nac, those are some really cool photos. Will give that a shot at some time.

izzikio_rage said:

Nac, those are some really cool photos. Will give that a shot at some time.

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Cool photos???

The water falling on the fruits (i know they are not yours). Will have to give that a shot sometime

izzikio_rage said:

The water falling on the fruits (i know they are not yours). Will have to give that a shot sometime

Click to expand...

Yeah, try that shot sometime. While you wait for that opportunity, process and post those photo walk images

I want to learn basics

yupstrips said:

i want to learn its really good to fun photography

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learning photography is easy..but tell me what kind of photography you like..what gears you have...do you have any flickr or 500px album online etc

Would love to hear some gyaan on selling photos online.

who uploaded photos for Wiki loves earth india competition I did yesterday..last date 30 june

Thanks for this post, I was eager to learn about photography too!

izzikio_rage said:

Would love to hear some gyaan on selling photos online.

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You can sell your photographs through stock websites like...

• Shutterstock.
• iStock.
• Fotolia

brought my first dslr nikon d 3500....have to learn photography

andy_65_in said:

brought my first dslr nikon d 3500....have to learn photography

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How,unless you got it before shutdown.

whitestar_999 said:

How,unless you got it before shutdown.

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Maybe he found an open shop or someone got it for him but bought earlier

Sent from my HD1901 using Tapatalk

whitestar_999 said:

How,unless you got it before shutdown.

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a few months back..infact 2019...where to learn dslr photography

what about photzy..offering some printed cards @ $ 29.00

Most links in op not opening.
Can anyone provide me some good learning sites, YouTube channel for photography?
Thank you.

These were from my bookmarks. There may be some overlaps. See if there is anything you haven't read/known before.

^that website is good. If you subscribe with your email. Then you will get a whole bunch of PDF eBooks Library on photography for FREE