Photography

We often wonder as what Aperture value I should set, while taking a photo. Here are some really quick tips to help you there. These are of course not hard rule as photography is art and everything here boils down to your creative choice and imagination:

1. Lower F-number such as f/1.4, f/1.8, or f/2.8 produces shallow/narrow Depth of Field(DOF) and bigger F-numbers such as f/8, f/11, f/16 produces larger Depth of field.

2. To get candid portraiture shots, try to use minimum F-number you have got on your lens. This will give you a nice out of focus background (Bokeh). 

3. If you are doing a group/family shot, then try to go for somewhere between f/5 to f/9 by evaluating the light available and number of people in the shot. As shallow depth of field may throw people standing backward rows out of focus. 

4. If you are shooting a landscapes, then try for higher F-number such as f/9 to f/16 based on how much foreground, mid-ground and background you want in focus. Higher F-numbers would give you end to end sharpness (acceptable if not razor sharp). If possible try to stay away from highest F-numbers on your lens, as that might produce a softer image. 

5. If you are doing a street photos in night and you are going after star burst effect, then try to shoot at any F-number more than F/11 and above. 

6. And finally, every lens has a sweet spot, where it produces sharpest image. Its different for different lenses, but for most of the lenses its f/8 or f/9 ish. If you are not so keen on DOF and just want your images to be crisp while you are do running and gunning, you may stick to your lens's sweet spot. You may google to find the exact sweet spot for your lens and experiment from there to find really specific number just for your lens. 

7. There are countless number of scenarios you may encounter, which I did not mention here. I leave that to your creativity and knowledge of photography techniques. However most of usual situation should be covered by above guidelines.

Hope it helps you find the F-number you shoot next time.

read less

We often see candid photos from professional photographers with nice blurred background, separating subject from the background. It’s also called as "Bokeh". This technic is often used in Portraiture.

The question that would arise is, "How do I achieve out of focus background/Bokeh? Can I achieve this with my existing gear?"

Even before we go there, we need to understand the concept of Depth of Field (DOF), which is the distance in front and behind the subject we are photographing, in which things are acceptably sharp, if not tack sharp. 

The equation is, Lesser the DOF, more is the Bokeh/out of focus background, which means the goal is to achieve least DOF here. 

DOF highly depends on the Aperture of the lens. Bigger the aperture, i.e. lesser the F-number, shallower would be the DOF. This means, at smaller F-numbers, you should be able to achieve good blurred background. The kit lenses however usually could stop down only minimum of F3.5/F5.6, that’s why you don’t see the background going much blurred or out of focus, as for both Aperture numbers, the DOF is not that shallow. Using faster lenses, i.e. lenses which can stop down to lesser Aperture numbers, such as F1.8, F1.4 or F1.2 etc., could help produce out of focus background/Bokeh easily. However, that comes with huge cost, as these fast lenses tend to be very costly. F1.8 is still near to the budget of a kit lens, which could be good choice if you are after good Bokeh in the budget. Ex: 50mm f/1.8, 35mm f/1.8 or 85mm f/1.8  

What if I don’t have any of those? Can I still do something about it?

The answer would be, up to a certain extent "YES". The key here would be keeping Subject to Background distance more than the subject to Camera distance. As you go on increasing the Subject to Background distance more and more, you would see the background falling out of focus more and more for the same F-number. Rather than placing your subject right in front of a wall, you might want to have an open background. Angle is all it matters. Small change in angle to place your subject may give you huge separation between subject and the background. Next time you shoot, be aware of your background.

The DOF also depends on your lens's focal length. Let’s consider a kit lens 55-200mm. As you go on zooming in, keeping the aperture same let’s say f/6.3, you would see background at 200mm is much more out of focus than that at 55mm. Next time you shoot, try using the longest end of your lens and then step backward by your feet to get the required frame or composition. 

The last factor, but no way the least to affect DOF is the sensor size. However there is hardly anything you can do about it once you buy the camera. Bigger the sensor, lesser would be the DOF at the same F-number.

For example: at f/5.6 a Full Frame Sensor/FX Body camera (sensor size usually 36x24mm) would produce much shallower depth of field compared to a Crop Frame Sensor/DX Body camera (sensor size usually 1.5/1.6 smaller than Full Frame Sensor). However bigger the sensor, more is the cost. 

To sum it up, here is what affects DOF and so your Bokeh:

1) Sensor Size: Bigger the sensor, more the Bokeh.

2) Focal length: Bigger the Focal length, more the Bokeh.

3) Aperture setting: Bigger the Aperture i.e. smaller the Aperture number, more the Bokeh.

4) Distance: Subject to background distance should be more than subject to Camera distance. More the difference, more would be the Bokeh.

Point 1, 2 and 3 come with a cost but 4^th is certainly you can do with little wiser choice of background and subject placement with your existing gears.

Try it out next time you shoot and let me know your experience.

read less

1. A great camera will not make a great photograph unless its operated by a great photographer.

2. Beginners are absolutely capable of making great photographs if they have passion.

3. Read your camera manual several times. The answers to most of your early questions are in there.

4. Take pictures of things that you know or care about.

5. Don’t try to learn everything all at once. You don’t have to become an expert photographer, post-processor and printer all in the same week.

6. If youve got less than a year under your belt don’t spend too much time fretting over your portfolio. It will change and when youve got more experience.

7. Don’t get hung up on things like workflow. Spend most of your time looking for light, learning to see and making photographs that matter.

8. Study the work of the true photographic masters. I am talking about people like Margaret Bourke-White, Alfred Stieglitz, Man Ray, Paul Strand, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Edward Weston NOT the cool kids who have lots of likes on Facebook or Flickr.

read less

You need to understand power triangle. ISO, Shutter, Aperture these are the elements of heart of Photography. These points makes the difference between your regular power shot cameras and DSLR. Coming to the tips and tricks, it depends on what is your area of focus with DSLR. Like Portrait, landscape, candid .. etc. read less

If I join your Photography Classes in January so is there any problem for me or not? And what is Fashion Photography/ Photography Class's Fees for 1 Year? read less

These are some of the basic topics that you should learn to improve your photography significantly:

• Exposure Triangle: Know the relation between Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO.
• Composition: Learn the rules of what to include in your photographs.
• Lighting: Learn to see the light.
• Digital Potential: How to improve your photographs after you have clicked them.
• Equipment & Lenses: Which equipment to use depending on the situation.
• Photo Critique: By seeing what can improve the pictures, your future photography will become better.

By learning these topics and putting these to practice your photography will certainly improve a lot. 

read less

Learning the basics would require a month to say the least. But do understand, learning photography though at basic level, requires knowledge of software and lighting as well. While software helps you color grade your photos, knowledge of lighting equipment helps you take vivid photos in all situations be it day/night or outdoor/indoor. Practice is equally important as composition doesn't improve much otherwise. read less