The otherside of Photography

Light meters

2011-12-02T09:04:00.001-08:00

The‘light meters’ (also known as ‘exposure meter’) are used in understanding theintensity of light that is required for getting the exposure ideal. ‘Exposure’is about getting the desired brightness or darkness in our photos. In fact, Iused to take pictures using cameras without built in light meters in earlyseventies.

The clue we hadthose days was the ‘Sunny Rule f/16’. The "Sunny f/16" rule,which says that your exposure on a normal sunny day will be 1 over the film'sISO to be set as the shutter speed, with the aperture set at f/16.

This rulewill hold good for most of the mid-tone subjects or scenes. If the scene does notcontain the mid-tones, we compensate the exposure accordingly. Wehad neatly exposed pictures because, we thought for a while before wepressed the shutter. I had even met ace photographers of olden times, whocould tell the ‘ideal exposure’ by just looking at the light falling on theirpalm!

Infact most of the modern cameras now have built in light meters. But, despite ofthe most advanced exposure meters with the ‘spot metering’ facility, many ofour pictures are badly exposed. Most of the time, we feel that we couldn’tdepend on these light meters. Some of us even blame the camera..!

Theadvanced light meter technology is a true gift to serious photographers whoknow to use it. For all others, ‘ideal exposure’ in photography is truly anightmare.Theautomatic exposure compensation, automatic exposure bracketing (AEB/BKT), tonalvalues, mid-grey or 18% grey, grey card, zonal system, brightness histogram arefew things to make our decision on a particular exposure OK. Let us learn to understandthese light meters and metering principles to get the exposures right.

However,let us take the exposure meter readings just as a guideline and work for ourdesired effects in the pictures.

More than f-stops and shutter speeds, pens and papers, notes and strings, knives and clay, what matters is thatthe feel and mood of the photograph. Don’t you think that a dramatic ‘silhouette’(an ‘underexposed subject’ in the shadow area against a bright background) isconsidered to be more artistic than a flat plain subject!

Photo courtesy:R.Preethaa Priyadharshini

No films now… then why can’t you charge less?

2011-11-30T04:57:00.001-08:00

A few days back someone enquiredabout my photography services. Of course she had seen my work and liked it. As a routine, she asked me to send a quote. After carefullyunderstanding the amount of work and creativity involved in the job I did sendone. She called me after a couple of days to find out if she could negotiate onthe rates. I said that the rates were carefully calculated and hence not negotiable.

Immediately she asked me as why Icharged so much when I was not using film rolls. Most people think that thedigital work is cheaper than film for the mere reason that film is notthere. (How can someone comfortably forget that the digital SLR cameras andrelated gadgets are far more expensive than film SLR cameras?). Then, Ireaffirmed that the charges were mainly for my skills & services.

Again she argued that she herself was using a digital camera andshe knew about photography. But the truth is that, a professionalphotographer’s rates can’t be attributed only for the cost of materials used(like films and prints).

When a professional photographerfinalizes a quote/tariff, the following factors need to be considered,

The creativity and skills involved in handling the job
The experience and professionalism of the photographer
The market value or demand for the photographer
The time spent on and off the job at the location especially the extended working hours
The number of final images, prints or other outputs planned for the job
The extent of post production, machine and man hours involved for retouching & image editing
The skills and design elements expected in a designer photo-book.
The cost of printing and making of the photo book (album)
The cost of wastages of the prints/shots
The kind of cameras, lenses, flashes and other photography equipments used
The interest on investment on the expensive professional equipments
The maintenance, repair and replacement of professional equipments
The share of capital/revenue/incidental expenses
The number of assistants working along with the photographer
The transport or shifting expenses to a location and so on.

Don’t you think that a photographermust consider money value for all the above when the rates are finalized?

Can Tripods be a hassle……?

2011-11-28T06:50:00.001-08:00

Thetripods always have a special treatment by many authorities monitoring thephotography in public places… especially where photography is restricted. Manytimes they allow top end DSLR cameras and fast lenses but not the ‘tripods’.This may be because that they think tripods are generally used by professionalphotographers. (Yes, it is true that you feel the pride and status of aprofessional, when your camera is on a good tripod)

Someof them even mistake it for deadly weapons like machine guns. Recently when Itried to take a professional heavy duty tripod in to a five star hotel forshooting a high end wedding, I had a tough time in convincing the securitypersonnel that it is a ‘camera stand’ and not a gun. They said that they hadnot seen any wedding photographer using such accessory in the job. At the end,they were not convinced and I had to leave the tripod in my car.

Onthe other hand tripods can be a hassle to carry around with you but they helpyou take great shots in many ways. There are few accessories I consider thatyou cannot be without it for making great pictures. The tripod stands first inthe list.

Mostof the budding photographers talk more about mega pixels of cameras and 12Xzoom lenses than about tripods, tripod heads and quick releases. I wouldalways suggest my students to think of buying a solid tripod before they thinkof buying an expensive long focus telephoto or zoom lenses. An expensive Lseries (they call it luxury lens) Canon 100 – 400mm, long zoom lens becomesuseless for many photography situations if you do not have a proper camerasupporting system - “a sturdy Tripod”.

Tripodsfor a good photographer are similar to helmets for a safe two wheeler rider.Tripods add life to your pictures as helmets save the life. Both of them aredifficult to carry, handle and store. Yet, the importance of them will be knownonly when you forget to use them.

Tripodsare generally known to avoid camera shake in the pictures. But for a seriousphotographer it does a lot more....

Next time, whenever you are shooting something important; do notforget to use a tripod wherever it is possible.

Imageinfo:The image above was shot using a Canon 100-400mm L lens with a Canon 2X Teleconverter at 400mm (effectively 800mm) and Canon EOS 5D on a sturdy tripod.F/11, 1/90 seconds, ISO-400, evaluative metering, AV exposure mode, exposure compensated shooting distance 20 meters approx.

Can you hear a photograph?

2011-11-25T08:59:00.001-08:00

Can you hear a photograph? This maysound little odd for many. But a photographer who can probably ‘hear the light’can make this happen. ‘Hearing the light’ is the phenomenon which occurs in theintuitive level when you can feel that the photographic image is right, thatthe moment has come to record it.

Manytimes the ‘thought processes’ of a good photograph cannot be explainedbecause it is the decision of a photographer; mostly based on his innerfeelings to release the shutter. "Why did you prefer to release theshutter button of you camera at a particular point of time than another?"The answer to this question is almost very complex and sometimes you may not beable to explain it.

Thispicture was shot at a temple in Kancheepuram, during one of our field tripswith my students. The students were trying to capture a street portrait andaimed their cameras at this old man. As a needy person, he was requesting thestudents some money and one of the students had paid some money. Saluting thebudding photographers, he posed for the pictures. Though he tried to smile for thecameras, I noticed tears rolling from his eyes. He was emotional…! I couldn’tresist my camera capturing the undisclosed emotions. It was just spontaneousand my thought process here cannot be explained.

Agood photograph gains an advantage depending on the time you actually press theshutter. You think to shoot a picture andthe picture is taken...! You need to understand the subject emotionally to getit to speak in your pictures. This proves the true connection between thephotographer and the subject. In other words, get connected emotionally to thesubject you shoot. This results in fine pictures.

Yah,when your picture could speak, then it is possible to hear it.

-KL.Raja

What is there in a view finder?

2011-11-25T08:21:00.001-08:00

Well most of us will have thetendency of looking through the view finder the moment we hold a camera in ourarms even if we are not photographers!

Evennow, whenever I do professional photography assignments especially on thelocations, I find people who are not connected to me or my work trying to lookinto the viewfinder of my camera when it is sitting alone on the tripod. Infact most of the professionals do not like others to look through their viewfinders! Sometimes even the assistants are denied the access to viewfinders.

Whatis so great about this small glass window of the camera? Can someone forget themaiden experience of looking through a camera’s viewfinder? Though I had shotmillions of photos using different kinds of cameras, I am still reminded of thegreatest feeling I experienced when I shot for the first time through my YashicaElectro 35, a rangefinder camera about three decades ago.

Well,for me a view finder is responsible for the ‘precise definition’ of aphotograph. A view finder brings in a special frame to human vision, whichotherwise is less defined, general, superficial, nonspecific and non-detailed.

Theimagination of a ‘photographer' is composed and defined only through this magicwindow – viewfinder. Every bit of the visual information included in theviewfinder is very important to convert a subject into a great photograph. Thisis because you do not see anything more than the ‘frame’ of the view finder. Isee this more as a connection between my mind screen and the image I capture.Hence, we cannot be casual about looking through a viewfinder.

Letus run our eyes all around the viewfinder and confirm if we see the subjectright. The art of good photography starts from the way we look throughcamera’s viewfinder.

-KL.Raja

It is a ‘subject matter’..!

2011-11-25T07:57:00.001-08:00

Ihave heard people saying that they had not found anything interesting when theywent on a wild life photography tour. Yes, we aim at spotting ‘wild animals’ like,big cats, tuskers, hyenas and wild boar in a wild life sanctuary and returndisappointed because we didn’t find any. But, the truth is other way round. A realwild life photographer transforms everything that he/she sees into aninteresting subject.

Adew drop, a wild flower, a rough earth pattern, dried-up trees without even asingle leaf, a small lizard, a fallen leaf, a rare butterfly, a multicolouredmoth, a wild spider in its well spread web, a peculiar shaped leaf, a smallcascade, a country dog, family of monkeys, mynas, the uphill ghat roads, talltrees, a road side tea stall, local fruit vendor are some of the interesting subjectsfor photography and the list is almost endless.

What is a ‘subject’ for aphotographer? How important is a ‘subject’ in a photograph?

Wellfor a common man, a subject is what is shown in a picture. It may be a flower,a mountain, a water fall, an animal, a bird, people or anything you relate asinteresting to capture in your camera. You generally like to shoot somethingbecause it is good, beautiful, interesting, strange, important or funny. But, acreative photographer shoots to "make a subject look"good, beautiful, interesting, strange, important or funny. The ‘subject forphotography’ lies only in the eyes of the photographer.

Sometimes,we travel to take good pictures or we shoot good pictures when we are out on atravel. This is because we think that the ‘subject’ for photography is alwaysfew miles away from us. When we plan an outdoor trip or a vacation, we suddenlyremember about our cameras and add that in our check-list with an intention offinding ‘some interesting subjects’ to shoot.

Letus not have any preconceived idea about what we want to shoot. Ourimagination is limited when we search for a particular subject. Hence, tryconverting anything in your balcony or courtyard as your subject. When youcannot find a ‘subject’ in your own domain, how would you find it elsewhere?

-KL.Raja

Exhibitions

2009-09-25T06:35:00.000-07:00

‘Exhibitionquality pictures’ is the standard used to rate fine photographs. I was taughtto make every other picture as though I am going to exhibit it. Acephotographers prepare and work hard for many years to exhibit their pictures.These photos were worth to see and every photo exhibited could tell about thestrength of the creator and the power of photography. We learned a lot fromthose photos.

Nowadays,‘photography exhibitions’ are becoming more common. Recently, I had visited oneof the photography exhibitions in Chennai along with few students from ourAmbitions 4 Photography Academy. It was a miserable experience that most of thepictures that are not worth even to keep in the personal albums, were blown upbeyond recognition and mounted on random frames and sizes.

Thosedays the art galleries check the quality of the author and exhibits (May it beart, painting, sculpture and photography). Now most of the galleries do noteven bother about as what is displayed on their walls. Sometimes, theorganizers of the photography exhibition need to satisfy everyone,if it is by a group of photographers/members of a photography club. Theremay be an indirect obligation on their part to exhibit some ones averagephotograph..!

Theseare few of the reasons why the photography exhibitions nowadays attract veryfew visitors. Let us first learn to edit and select quality photographs,challenges involved in printing a digital image and before we plan to exhibitthem.

Displaying a belowaverage photograph in an exhibition is like displaying our ignorance aboutphotography.

Here, ‘ignorance’is not bliss..!

The Reflectors

2009-09-23T10:10:00.001-07:00

Istill remember the days my Dad used to keep the candles close to a dressingtable mirror or at the corners of white walls whenever there was a powerfailure. I never knew that the mirror and white walls could reflect the candlelight more powerfully all around the room. Here the mirror and the white wallsare the reflectors…!

Reflectoris an indirect or borrowed light source which reflects the main source oflight. Every bit of our surrounding in the world reflects the light in its ownway. I could recall the surprising information my science teacher shared, thatthe Moon light we enjoy at night is the Sunlight reflected from the Moon. Herethe Moon is just a reflector and not a source of light.

Reflectorsin photography are used to manage the shadows. Infact shooting a photo iseasier than handling a reflector in photography. In fact it is an importantaccessory to bring in the right amount of contrast in the pictures and show theideal details in the shadow areas. In the earlier days of making cinema, whileshooting in the outdoors, reflectors were the prime source to manage theshadows.

Ihad many times wondered as how and why a movie shooting crew carry so many hugesilvered square boards (they call it as reflectors) and set them in perfectplaces. I also watched them moving the reflector closer or farther and positionit at a particular angle. Now ofcourse, many of these reflectors are replacedby the huge HMI lights or professional studio flashes stimulating the daylight inthe scenes.

Theeffect and the quality of the light reflected from a reflector depends on fewfactors.This makes the reflectors unique and comfortable to usefor an effective management of lighting contrast.

Apartfrom photography, reflectors have become a part of our everyday life in manyaccessories and applications. You cannot miss out the use of reflectors intraffic signs and display advertisements. They are used in many of thedomestic, automobile, industrial applications. Reflectors are used for safetyand identification by signal men, traffic cops, sanitary workers, fire men,life guards etc.

Thoughwe have very few light sources, the world around us look bright and beautifulbecause every other object around us reflects the light mutually to make us seethe world great!

Model courtesy: Ms.Ankitha

The Texture

2009-04-16T11:58:00.000-07:00

Like lines and curves, texture is yet another strong element of detail that needs to be communicated in a good photograph. It is about as how you feel about anything. It is about the feel of touch and the reaction. In photography, it could be known as the visual understanding of your physical touch without really touching.

Almost everything has some texture: rough or smooth, patterned or irregular, dramatic or subtle. It could be understood as the surface details that exist physically.

For me textures are about our feelings about the finish of any subject. It is more emotional than physical. It affects our comfort level of being with it. Imagine holding a dragon reptile in your hand and a silky feathered dove on the other hand. How do you feel looking at a rocky mountain and the fine sands of a silent beach?

Everything that exists on earth has a texture that emotionally disturbs you knowingly or unknowingly. They may be either man made or natural. As a photographer, could you really bring in the feel of these emotional disturbances of through the visual impact of different textures? In a sense, texture enables the eyes to touch the subject.

Look at the world around to understand as how the visual feel about the textures are changing when the quality of the light changes, during the different time of the day. The feel of texture also changes when the angle from which you see it changes.

It’s all the variations in the shadows and high lights that make the texture look different even if it feels the same.

The Lines and Curves

2009-04-15T19:44:00.000-07:00

Lines are the powerful means to directyour eyes and in to a particular direction. They are the inherent power of ourmind when it comes to understanding visual communication. Our mind tries toread the visual of a line or a curve through continuous scan from a point to anend. This is the reason why they are used lavishly on road signs. An inverted‘U’ with an arrow tip could communicate about the ‘U turn' on the road.

When you were a child, remember whatyou had ‘drawn or written’ for the first time before learning to write thealphabets….nothing but random lines. A script of a language contains nothingbut lines and curves. A line starts from a dot. You could even understand thelines as the continuous dots..! Well, when you try to join four lines you get asquare.., which is a well defined shape. Similarly joining three lines gets youa triangle.

What happens when you join both ends ofa line? You end up in a circle. A circle is a curved line! A rhythmic pull of astrait lines towards a direction will give you curve. Curves are beautiful.They are the representation of a neat flow in a visual. They make the portraitslook elegant and beautiful. An ‘S’ curve in a glamour shot makes it reallyattractive. That is the reason why we make our portrait subjects to stand orsit in a particular way.

The flow of the hands and legs in thepeople shots gives you a feel of imaginary lines and curves. They ultimatelytell about the character of the person in the photograph. Lines and curvesestablish the feel of depth in the landscape and architecture shot.

Whatever may the subject we shoot, letus look for these imaginary lines and curves. This geometry will lead the eyesof the viewers to the importance of the subject and understand it effectively.

"Not everybodytrusts paintings but people believe photographs."
-Ansel Adams

The Background

2009-03-31T12:38:00.000-07:00

Like the subjects, the background is also an important in the photographs. Yes, whether you like it or not you always shoot a picture with a background. May be you can eliminate or change it by using an image editing software! But it is impossible to shoot only the main subject without a background. At the same time, just by moving or shifting your camera slightly to your left or right you can change the effect of the background in your picture.

In photography, the background plays a vital role and used for ‘story telling’. The background needs to be definitely interesting but not distracting. If not handled carefully, background could do more harm than good for a fine subject. This is because, when you see, your eyes see very selectively (many time we don’t even care about the background) but in a photograph, it is seen because the camera sees the subject and the background alike (the camera doesn’t see selectively).

Learning to understand about the ‘background’ in photography is something similar to learning to understand the ‘parking rules’ before one learns driving..!

Experienced photographers are very careful about the choice of backgrounds because the background does a lot of magic in photography.

A perfect scan on the background every time will help to get a meaningful image on the digital sensor.

Photography appears to be a simple matter, but it demands powers of concentration combined with mental enthusiasm and discipline - Henri Cartier-Bresson

The subject size

2009-03-16T11:49:00.000-07:00

Thesize of the subject as shown in a photograph is always a point of importance.The size of the subject in photography means its ‘visual size!’ Well, thevisual size of the subject in an image can be modified by several ways. Theeasiest being, moving closer to make it look big and moving away to make itlook small. I have always wondered how a huge ‘Boeing 747 Air Bus’ diminishesin size and vanishes in to the sky as it flies high.

When I was in my primary school, I used to wonder as how the entire footballground with our high school players disappeared as I bring my little fingercloser to my eye. The small finger which is closer to my eye grows bigger insize than the foot ball ground which is away from my eye. Here the visualsize has something to do with the distance.

In photography the relative subject sizes (visual size) in an image can easilybe changed by using lenses with different focal lengths and shooting fromdifferent distances.

In all the cases, the subjects’ size as shown is not true to life. In the sensethey always confuse the real size! Surprisingly, hardly we could guess the actualsize of any subject from a photograph…!

That is why we include few scaling elements like cars, people, etc. in thecorner of the frame as a part of the main subject while shooting hugearchitecture, buildings, landscapes, machinery etc. Again that is the reasonwhy tiny objects are shown on the tip of a finger for comparative sizes. In any case, a photograph mostly cannot tell you about the ‘real size’ ofany subject.

“There are no rules for good photographs, there are only goodphotographs.”- Ansel Adams

The colours

2009-02-26T09:44:00.001-08:00

‘Colour’ in photography is an important information. But to me, colours in photography are not just information but elements that communicate something more . This is because colours an really change your mood. They have few interesting inherent feelings connected to our heart and soul.

Will you not experience the feel of freshness when you enter in to a virgin land of greens? Won’t the calm blue ocean and the huge sky wrapped in blue give us peace of mind? Even from birth, humans are connected to colours knowingly or unknowingly. Like tastes, colours are so personal and everyone likes different colours.

Infact colours have very strong cultural and moral values in our lives. In one of my recent south Indian wedding assignments in India, the bride and family were from Vietnam, and ‘white’ was totally avoided in every aspect of the auspicious events, decorations, dresses and so on. In the above picture, you could see the sister of the Bride expressing unhappiness about a bit of white flowers forming the part of a garland!

I always wondered from my childhood about how beautifully colours are blend with nature. Look at flowers, plants, animals, birds, flies, insects for example, I really get to envy the way natures get the combination of colours. Sometimes nature camouflages colours and some other times it makes them standout. Well, there is a strong purpose behind the choice of these colours in nature. We also try to imitate nature in our choice of colour themes.

If you start observing the world around us, then, colours could teach you beautiful lessons. When our science teacher in the school told us that some animals cannot see colours, I understood the blessings of our vision in colour! Imagine our world in Black & White..you will understand the power of colour vision!

As a photographer, learn to first love colours and observe them in everyday life. Let us try to find the meaning and purpose of colours and use them in our photographs.

Photography is an immediate action; drawing a meditation For me photography is to place head heart and eye along the same line of sight. It is a way of life. - Henri Cartier-Bresson

The Black & White

2009-02-25T11:09:00.000-08:00

Way back in the early 80's, colour photography was introduced to India. I still cannot forget the excitement and demand it created among the photographers and the public. Studios in India added ‘Colour’ in front of their existing name like - ‘Raja Colour Photo Studio’. Photographers waited for months to get their rolls developed and printed. I still remember that I used to send my rolls to Kodak, Bombay (now it is Mumbai) and wait for at least a fortnight. The development in the colour imaging technology has now reached a different level.

Despite the ‘information and details’ given by colour photography, there is always something missing in it. It is undoubtedly the ‘feel or the emotion’, which is the power of ‘Black & White photography forever. Don’t you think that whenever you wanted to communicate emotions in a subject, colour really takes it away by its power of attraction?

Though not in most other subjects, people and portrait shots are deserved to be done in B & W. as they are truly powerful in expressing the emotional content of the subject.

But for me, B & W photos are very special because they are not true to life. The reason being their 'default creativity.' When you are trying to express something that is not true to life then, you have a lot of scope for imagination and creativity. May be that is what the ace photographer Ansel Adams had tried several black & white land scape shots. How can a B & W landscape shot be true to life? But, they were truly beautiful and undoubtedly artistic. That is one of the reasons why B & W pictures take the lion’s share in the photo exhibitions, competitions and art galleries.

Enjoy artistic photography….! Learn to see the world in a different way…. the B & W way!

A photographer does not operate a camera to merely take pictures. Photographic work is always personal. A photograph reveals the photographer.

‘Photography knows how to authenticate its misrepresentations’- Manson Cooley

The Reflections

2009-02-25T11:01:00.000-08:00

Like shadows, reflections also communicate a lot about the subject. But unlike shadows, reflections, many times reveal the details of the subject. Reflections are exciting. You can understand this feeling, when you observe the reactions of a child or a pet dog looking through the reflected image in the mirror. I cannot still forget my first water reflection shot of my friend standing on a very small canal bridge.

The clear reflection of a glass table top gives you tremendous still life pictures. A semi reflective acrylic sheet or mica or any metallic surface provides you reflections of variable strengths. The distorted reflections on the uneven surface provide you a great feel of abstract. If handled carefully these reflections create an immense feel of aesthetics in our pictures. These magical reflections are powerful emotional strength for photography.

There is something called unwanted reflections in photography. These reflections could de-saturate the colours and take away the contrast in a photograph. These reflections could be removed to the desirable extent by using a polarizing filter.

But to me, reflections are natural and they are true to life.

For example, have you ever looked at the reflection of the world around in small dew drop hanging from the tip of a leaf? Have you ever seen and enjoyed the reflection of a tall building in the tinted wind shield of a car as it is approaching the building? Have you ever seen and enjoyed the reflection of your entire new house in the sun glasses of your wife? Have you ever seen and enjoyed the reflection of the automobile lights as they move on a wet road after the rains? Have you ever seen and enjoyed the reflection of your wine glass on the black granite table of your bar counter? Have you ever noticed the distorted and elongated reflections of your entire family on the stainless steel glossy water mug when all of you are dining..?

If you have not seen such beautiful things in life then, there is very little you could do with your camera. Because, reflections prompt you an instinct to photograph even the ordinary things to make it look extra-ordinary.

The Sharpness

2009-02-25T10:56:00.000-08:00

When I was studying sixth standard I found it difficult to see the text written by my class teacher on the black board (those days we had only black boards and chalks to write, unlike the present days digital boards..!) but copied the same from my classmate sitting next to me. I was even punished for a couple of times for not reading the text on the blackboard correctly before realizing that I had a problem in my eye sight..! Yes, the text on the black board was looking little fuzzy and less sharp for my eyes. Here, the lack of sharpness leads to lack of details. Of course the problem was solved by adding a lens called ‘spectacles’ on my little face. Well, I still carry one on my face for more than 40 years.

Technically, sharpness may be understood as the distinct separation of identifiable shapes through clear demarcation of lines and curves. Above all, human eye always tend to see things sharp and there is a greater level of discomfort when you cannot see things sharp. We know photography is all about details. Sharpness of the image is one of the factors contributing for ‘details’.

But for me ‘sharpness’ is near to heart. It is a way and means to understand anything you see or photograph. Well, it doesn’t mean that everything in a subject needs to be completely sharp. In fact, selective sharpness achieved through intelligent use of depth of field control is far more powerful in details . They are a bit more artistic too. When your attention is about a small honey bee that sits on a flower, then a selective sharpness laid on the bee will be far more powerful enough to highlight the finer details.

The ‘laser sharpness’ is dangerous sometimes when you shoot portraits. Otherwise, look for really sharp images that touches the heart of the viewer and take careful control of the ‘challenges of sharpness..!’

Every time someone tells me how sharp my photos are, I assume that it isn't a very interesting photograph. If it was, they would have more to say. - Anonymous

Sharpness is a bourgeois concept. - Henri Cartier-Bresson

The Perspective:

2009-01-08T04:14:00.000-08:00

‘Perspective’ in photography is the much talked about topic and technique. This can be understood as how a subject looks like from a particular place. This is a lot about the ‘point of view’ of the camera. Well, when a camera looks at a subject it sees certain parts of the subject and certain parts of the subject is not visible for the camera. To see the parts that were not visible earlier, the camera has to move to another point of view. And now, something that was seen earlier becomes hidden from that particular point of view.

Technically, perspective is about the feel of ‘depth or third dimension’ in the two dimension picture. That is why it is very important in visual communication. It is identified very easily by the relative difference in the size of the subjects or the parts of the subject in the frame. For example, when you look at a building in close from its front, it appears to be very flat like a cinema set. But as you move towards the sides, you see the receding other side also along with the front, to give a feel of depth and three dimension. This angle is also called as ‘perspective angle’ and the shot is referred as ‘perspective shot’.

In the figurative sense, perspective means how you perceive a subject, not just spatially, but aesthetically, emotionally, even morally. This kind of perspective requires that you understand your subject enough to have an opinion or idea about it . . . and that you have the technical skill and creativity to convey that opinion or idea to others.

Well, to me perspective is very powerful element in a photograph. But unfortunately it is not the same when we use lenses with various focal lengths. It is generally understood that the normal lens for a camera (the focal length almost equivalent to the diagonal of the sensor) roughly delivers the perspective of human eye. This may be one of the reasons as why our grand fathers used the normal lens for most of the shots. They wanted their pictures to be natural and true to life!

But, now, the trend is astonishingly different. No one wants the natural perspective of a subject. An exaggerated perspective of a wide angle or fish eye lens is rather very exciting and sometimes the excessively compressed perspective by a long telephoto lens is preferred. In any case, we are always altering the way a subject looks by changing the focal length of lenses. May be, that is one of the techniques of ‘making a picture..!’ The choice of lenses, camera levels, camera angles, distance between the subject and the camera, direction of lighting, lines and curves, geometrical shapes, patterns, selective focus and overlapping forms influence a lot about the appearance of a subject – ‘the perspective’ from a particular point of view.

By all these the photographer alters the feel and idea about a subject. The distance between two subjects in a photograph could be easily be misunderstood by a viewer when it is altered by the change of perspective controls. But for me, this is the 'power of photography.' Yes, you tell what you want to tell through your pictures. Let the fact be different. If you want to tell about the fact, you could still do that with the proper controls of perspective in photography.

Enjoy the power of perspective and use it to make your picture meaningful. If you could connect that to the emotions of the people and subject effectively, then that is the purpose of photography!

‘The magic of photography is metaphysical. What you see in the photograph isn’t what you saw at the time. The real skill of photography is organized visual lying’ – Terence Donovan

The Shape:

2009-01-01T03:48:00.000-08:00

Whensomeone asks you describe about something, you‘ll probably start withexplaining about its shape. For me, however, shape is something more than ameans of recognition. Shape helps convey the nature of a subject; notjust what it is, but what it is like. Is it heavy, light, big,small, beautiful, ugly, interesting, plain? Shape answers most of the questionslike these. It also answers questions about the way an object interacts withits surroundings. Which object is biggest, closest and most important?

Shapes are generally identified withits definite outline and sometimes with texture details. A shape in photographycan communicate about the mass, proportion and relation. Mass is about what itis filled with. Proportion is about the comparison of masses between two ormore shapes. Relation is about how the shape of the objects interacts in aphotograph. This can mean physical factors, such as whether they are close,touching, far apart, similar, different, etc. Interaction between objects canalso be extended to include interpretive factors, such as which objectis more attractive, which is more important, which is dominant, whether theyseem to belong together, and so on.

Forme, this is more important as to decide which of the objects in the frame aremore important and as how it should be composed to establish the importance ina picture and so on. Hence ‘shape’ is an important element of photographycomposition; a photographer cannot afford to miss out in the picture.

Everyonehas certain preferences about the shapes and every other shape communicatesdifferent meaning in the visual media.For example, the dynamics of circle shape, triangle shape, square, shape,rectangle shape, leaf shape, flower shape, oval shape and so on are not thesame. They create variable feelings in human mind. The emotions are differentfor every other shape that we see or include in our photos. That is why thereis so much of attachment about the shapes of anything and everything we see anduse in our life. There are cars, houses, furniture, perfume bottles,dresses, jewels and every other thing in our life sold like hot cakes and arepopular just for their shape.

Thechoice of a shape is something very personal and very similar to colours. Butstill, there are some psychological and emotional impacts the shapes canmake in human mind when used in the right way. For example, ‘round’ meansaction or movement, ‘square’ means static limitation, triangle, means growthand stability and so on.

Asthe shapes of the objects have an impact on the minds of the viewers, thephotographer has to carefully handle it in the pictures. Geometrical shapes arevery powerful in a visual representation like photographs. They have to behandled very carefully, especially when it is in the background or foreground.They can lead the eyes to a meaningful communication about the main subject.The shapes with colours are even more powerful communication tools and theyneed to be handled carefully in all photography situations. In a greatcomposition, shapes are powerfully used to communicate the content and space.As shape defines the space, the ineffective use of space is called negativespace (empty areas other than the main subject). This could be mostly outsidethe positive space (the main subject).

Forme, the shapes without colour, texture and details are very interesting. Theyare called, ‘silhouettes’ in photography. Silhouettes are very powerfuland aesthetic means of shape. Silhouettes with an unknown shape are moreinteresting and thought provocative than the known shapes. Silhouetted shapesin front of a building or portraits (arches, corridors, pillars etc.) generategreater power of perspective in landscape and people shots. They arecommunicative, emotional and beautiful in the pictures.

Remember, shapes can shape up yourimages into aesthetic pictures.Hence, look out for it and use them powerfully.

'It is imagination that gives shape to the universe’ – Barry