Holding your Camera

There is no particular way to hold a camera but you need to adapt your own technique according to the type and model of the camera that you are using. The more comfortable you are with your camera, the easier it is to use it and your photography will gain more fluidity and confidence.

One of the major problems plaguing digital cameras is slow response speed technically called ‘shutter lag’. Shutter lag is the time interval between the moment you click the shutter release button and the instant the image is recorded. Longer the shutter lag, greater is the chance for shake or blur to appear in the image that you have clicked. Images also become blurred when you use low shutter speeds or when you shoot in low light situations.

The best way to avoid shake in the pictures is to use a higher shutter speed. But if you have to deliberately use a lower shutter speed you could use a tripod or a stable surface. The cheaper way out is to learn how to hold the camera properly. Preferably use both hands to keep the camera stable.

•Firmly hold the right hand end of the camera in your right hand. Your index finger should gently rest on the shutter release button while the other three fingers in the front should grip the front of the camera. The thumb should hold the back of the camera. Use the thumb to change the controls on the back of the camera.

•Use the left hand to support the weight of the camera. Either the hand should under the camera as in a point and shoot camera, or around the camera if you have a heavier DSLR or advanced point and shoot camera.






•Shoot with a viewfinder if you have one. Hold the camera against your face. This provides more stability to your shots.














•If you are shooting with the LCD screen, hold the camera with both hands, rest your elbows on your body and don’t keep the camera too far away from you.




•When you use a long focal length or zoom lens, lean on some support like a wall to give more stability to your shot.






•Use a half-kneeling position when there is no convenient support. Your knee and feet form a stable tripod. Your left arm can be supported by your left knee.

•Before you take your shot take a gentle, deep breath, hold it, then take the shot and exhale. The other method is to exhale and before inhaling again, taking the shot.

•Never ‘press’ the shutter release button, rather squeeze it slowly so that the camera doesn’t shake initially.


As a final word, know your camera in and out. As soon as you get your camera, familiarize yourself with the controls in such a way that you will be able to change them without looking at them and choose a comfortable method to hold the camera and stick to it.


Just TPS (umm.. Think Point & Shoot yo :))


The Guild

Acknowledgements
The Guild would like to Thank Model Monu a lot for her consistent efforts in making this blog post a reality. Without her inputs, we could not have made our point any clearer than it is with all the pics you see on this page.

Think. Point.. Shoot...

Imagining what to shoot..

You must have always looked at photos in magazines and on the net and wondered, “Wow!! That must have been an awesome camera..” or perhaps, “That pic must have been taken in Europe somewhere..” Well, I have wondered like this more often than not but to share a small secret with you, some of the best photos ever taken were with a camera as “ordinary” as yours, in a place as exotic as your very own backyard (if you have one) or while just walking on the road.. it doesn’t need a big huge camera with 20 different lenses and n number of features to take that mind blowing image. What it takes is a little imagination, presence of mind and a little bit of luck (to be at the right place at the right time).

In this blog post we shall see how simple things can become astonishing pictures.

The aim of this exercise is to enable you to learn how to see creatively. Let’s start by taking a couple of pictures within your home . You may be saying in a single room in the hostel or perhaps in a penthouse n the 20^th floor of a building, there is always something that you can shoot. The biggest advantage of shooting at home is that you can quickly review the entire picture you took on a computer and then take more pictures of the same subjects in different ways, thereby comparing and knowing various settings. This short feedback look can teach you more than you would learn in a class on photography after attending a hundred lectures. My favorite subjects at home are usually plants, pets, books, utensils, food products and even walls (including the insects on them) . As you shoot, look at the light and see whether you can change it by drawing a sheer curtain, adding lights, or by shooting at a different time of the day.

Next go out, perhaps to a beach (if you happen to live on a coast) or to a garden or even a forest . Take a couple of pictures there. Shoot anything, trees, leaves, animals, stones, rocks, people etc. come back and review those pictures on a computer screen.

Now sit and grade yourself for every picture on the technical scale. See if you have achieved the objective that you wanted? Have the pictures been taken and exposed as you wished them to be? It doesn’t matter whether you over exposed hem or under, whether they were totally in focus or not, whether they were grainy or sharp but the effect should be but you had hoped for. Then use a software that can read EXIF data of the photographs to critically evaluate your findings. EXIF data basically contain some basic information about the image and how it was taken. The metadata tags included in EXIF comprise of date and time of taking the image, camera settings (such as the camera model and make, orientation (rotation), aperture, shutter speed, focal length, metering mode, and ISO speed information) as well as descriptions and copyright information. This can be read by using softwares like Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Elements. Even Operating Systems after Win XP can read part of EXIF data by right clicking on the photo and then properties (See the screen shot on the right). The aim of doing this is to understand how subtle differences in shutter speed, f stop, ISO and white balance can drastically change what your photos would look like (Put images here, same scene, different settings). Only by doing this yourself would you understand how to use these settings to bring out your desired effects.

If you are bored of doing this kind of photography, I would suggest you go for some motion photography. Take pictures of fast moving vehicles with different shutter speeds and aperture values. Or perhaps you can even get inside one of those vehicles and take pictures of the outside world. You would be amazed to see what different effects you can produce by such small enhancements.

This adds a totally new dimension, “speed” to your photos. As the vehicle you are sitting in is moving, change shutter speeds between shots from 1/30th of a second (or even slower) all the way up to the fastest shutter speed your camera offers. One thing you can learn from this exercise is that having an image that’s blurred can be okay. Not all images have to be perfectly in focus. Some image blur can add drama to a photo as it illustrates movement.

Finally try taking some pictures after it gets dark. If you have a tripod, use it. You will learn a great lot about the interaction between shutter speed and aperture value by taking pictures in the dark.

Consistently taking good photos and getting the photos to look the way you want them to look takes lots of practice. You need to pre-visualize your shots learn how to use your camera, and be at the right place at the right time. The more you shoot, the more you learn how to take great photos. Carry your camera as often as you can and shoot whenever you get a chance. When you first begin to take photos with a digital camera, you will see remarkable improvement in your picture-taking skills every couple of hundred photos that you take.

Take home message: Capturing more photos is the only thing that will help you take better photos.

Good luck and enjoy capturing the light!

The Guild

Art Photography: Light Painting!

Light painting, also known as light graffiti is a photographic technique in which long exposures are made usually at night or in a dark room by moving a hand-held light source or by moving the camera. The earliest light paintings date back surprisingly to the 40s. One of the most famous ones being “The centaur” drawn by Pablo Picasso and photographed by Gjon Mili in 1949(As seen above). But light painting as such grew in popularity after the advent of digital cameras which gave photographers an immediate review of their work as well as enabled them to take a lot of test shots without wasting film.


EQUIPMENT

1. Any Camera which allows you to change atleast the aperture and shutter speed.
Minimum features: - control of aperture, shutter speed, ISO, timer
Recommended features: - control of aperture, shutter speed, ISO, manual focus, timer, remote/shutter release cable.

2. Light source: - You can use a variety of light sources such as LED torches, lighters, flashlights, lasers etc












3. Tripod: - You can either use a tripod or keep your camera at a preferred height on a stable platform. This is because long exposures are involved and any shake would produce distortion in the design you make. This is provided the fact that you are not moving the camera to ‘paint’ the image.



4. Remote: - You can either use a remote or a shutter release cable. This avoids any hassles of running from the camera to your position every time you click the picture. You could alternatively use the self timer setting on your camera to give you enough time to get back to your position.






TECHNIQUE
With the lights on, use the manual focus and set the focus properly. Autofocus systems might not perform well in low light. If you are outside in the night, set focus to infinity.
Set the aperture to the preferred setting. If you keep a small aperture/high F number you will get thin lines of light. If you keep a big aperture/low F number, you will get a starburst effect or a diffused light effect. Preferably keep a low F number of 4 and a high F number of 8.


For example: The blue haze/smoke effect around the guitar in this picture was made using a wider aperture.






And the thin lines in the picture to the right were made using a smaller aperture.


Set the shutter speed as required. Usually you require a shutter speed of more than a second to create a light painting. Adjust it according to the amount of time you need to make the painting.
Set the ISO to 80 or 100. This is to prevent the picture from becoming grainy during long exposures.
Light painting is preferably done in a dark room or in night with less ambient light. This is done to prevent excess light from spoiling the painting. But you could also experiment in a variety of environments.
Wear dark clothes so that you will not be caught in the picture as well. Provided you don’t want to be seen along with your painting. Sit atleast at a distance of 1 m from the camera.


THE FUNDA (The Gist)
The technique works on slow shutter speed & long exposure both of which are synonymous
When you click the shutter release button, the shutter opens & closes only according to the settings…if shutter speed is 5” it remains open for 5 seconds
During this time, the sensor inside the camera, records everything that happens in front of the lens & records it as a single picture.


THE FINAL WORD

Create what you feel like. Let it be-

Letters:



















Figures:
Traced objects:
























Or even people!


















Dream! Imagine! Go wild! You're in an art of endless possibility.



















Happy clicking!

The Guild