Friday 16 November 2012

Aperture of Your Camera, Effects and Effective Usage.


APERTURE  OF YOUR CAMERA
Learn  The Aperture setting of your DSLR & Semi-Professional Camera 
( Professional Series Photography Blog © Dr.Mousam Jefferin 2012 )

What do we Understand by Aperture - Its the Ring in side the Lens of your camera which open up and closes while you take photographs. Its the part of your lens which actually decide how much light will enter in your sensor for producing a photograph , so its simple ........

Aperture Blade (Closing)
Aperture Blades (Open)

If Aperture is Big Wide Open then More and More Light will enter 
and we will get Bright PhotographS.
Vice versa
If Aperture is Small, Narrow , and closing down Less Light will enter 
and we will get Dark Photograph.

Is it done NO. . . . . .
A Big and Wide Aperture also make your Depth of Field Very Shallow. Means area of Photograph which is in Sharp Focus will be very Less. again 
Vice versa 
A Small Narrow Aperture gives you Deep or wider Depth of Field. Means more area or subjects will be in sharp focus.

F /2.8  ----- Flower in Front left and Back (Pink one) are BLUR
(Original Photograph as taken in camera)

F /13 ------- All flowers are visible and in sharp focus
( Photograph has been brighten up in software ) 


So Some advantages and some disadvantages which can be exploit as per your need. Ideally we need to make balance of both the property for individual lens. Brightness of Picture and Depth of Focus area both different with different Lens. This property will be more prominent in Fix Focal Lens even a cheaper one and least  appreciable in Zoom lens.

How we say Wide and Narrow Aperture in Technical way - Aperture is shown in F Stop.
 ( Its Not SPOT its STOP) When Aperture is wide reading will Low in Number like F/1.8 or F/2 or F/2.8 if the Aperture is Narrow the reading will be  F/13 or F/16 OR F/22. Practically if Aperture in more open and allowing more light to enter reading will be F/1.8, 2, 2.8 and Vice Versa.

( Another Practical understanding is That If you Buy a Lens of 18-55mm F/3.5 at price of 100$ (Rs.5000/- INR ) Price of  18-55mm F/2.8 will be 10 times or 1000$ (Rs.50000/- INR) . This is because making wide Aperture lens need more precision and very higher optical technology . On the contrary a 35 or 50mm fix focal but F/1.8mm Lens will cost just 2 times or may be same price of 18-55mm F/3.5 BUT it is not a zoom lens at all, again it will give your pictures a very good Aperture Effects. In this Fix focal Category Long Focal Lenth lens like 100mm or 150mm with F/2.8 are costlier but again the Quality comes at a Price.)

Common Understanding Table.

1. Wide Aperture  F 1.8 / 2 / 2.8  - 
 BRIGHT PHOTO   -  SHALLOW AREA IN FOCUS - Total Background Blur
 ( Good for Low Light Photography , Night , Portrait , Macro)

2. Narrow Aperture F 13 / 18 / 22 -
 DARK PICTURE  -  MORE AREA IN FOCUS - Background Visible
 (Only for Day Light Photography, Landscapes, With Flash Photography)

If you practice the Aperture Setting repeatedly with your lens  you will understand it is very important part of Photography by DSLR cos this decide a lot of thing in your Photographs.
 This was Part one will post some more details of Aperture very soon
Thanks 

Dr.Mousam Jefferin

  
©Dr.Mousam Jefferin 2012
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Wednesday 7 November 2012

How To Photograph a Landscape

How To Photograph a Landscape

The Second Most Common area after Garden where we show our Photography skill.....
Are we really Skilled enough to take good Landscape shots , Lets Find Out

Pure Landscape Photography is Very easy and if done following all the Rules of Landscape Photography .......Its Very Very Tuff. Like these Photographs..



 No.1

 No.2

 What is wrong with these Pictures. Simple they are not following the most Important Rules of Landscape Photography.  What are Those Rules ??
   1. Rule of Thirds (1/3) - This is very simple to understand , just draw 
                                                                " Tic Tac Toe " on your Photograph. 
Two Horizontal lines and two Vertical lines . # This will divide your Photograph in 9 equal parts ( It can be applied on any aspect ratio like 4x6in, 5x7in, 8x10in or even 16:9 HD ) . Now you have one Line on the upper 1/3rd of your Photograph and another at Lower 1/3rd of Photograph, they are 
Horizon Line (BLUE LINES) 
and 2 vertical lines 90* degree to horizon lines.
Place where lines meet each Other at 4 intersecting points , they are
 "Point of interest (RED CIRCLES) "


We need to keep the Horizon on the Upper or Lower 1/3rd Line and any subject or interesting  thing in Photograph should be on the any of the 4 points of Interest.
This is the First and the most powerful rule. 
Point of interest is a place in a frame where human eye and brain give max emphasis when you see a photograph. Rule of Thirds can be applied on any photograph and for all practical reasons it can be applied on all types of photography not just The Landscape. 

2. Horizon - This the line where your Sky meets the Earth in Photograph, we need to keep Horizone straight (No Tilt at all). In the Photograph  No1,  Horizon is Tilted that is why its a  not good. (One Should always match the Horizontal line of Horizon with Whatever  Vertical object available in the scene , it should be almost 90* degree to Horizon like Tree stem or a wall or pole etc.)



3.  Sense of Depth  -  Always try to add a Human subject in your Landscape Photograph , It gives a Sense of Depth or idea about the Size of the Landscape when viewers compare it with human size.   If we do not have a Human subject available for this comparison then It can be  Animal subject / House / or even a Electric Pole any article whose size is well known to all of us.  


Normal Landscape 

 Better Landscape
See The Difference 


   Their are many more rules for landscape But i feel " Rule of Thirds " Horizon and Sense of Depth are the most important needed to be clear . Please practice these 100 times before reading further about landscape Photography.


4. Lead Lines - Any lines or patern of line if present in side the landscape 

SHOULD NOT START FROM CORNER but it must GO TOWARD THE CENTER of the Frame predominantly. 


Watch the Lines on the Road

  
5. Subject Entry - Any Human subject or a important element in your photograph 
                                               Should make ENTRY IN THE FRAME not exit. try to place your point of interest or human subject or any thing in your photograph in such a way that they should make their ENTRY in the frame Not Exit. 

 Correct Photograph
Subject is making entry in the frame because she is facing & walking toward the Center of the frame .

 Wrong Photograph
Subject is making a Exit from the frame because he is walking Out with Body facing outside the frame.

These are few Rules which makes The Landscape Photograph looks better then others. please try and discussion and suggestions are welcome on my e.mail and on this Blog.

Thanks 





© Dr.Mousam Jefferin 2012



Tuesday 23 October 2012

How to Photograph Flowers With Compact Camera

How to Photograph
  Flowers with Your Compact Camera

Flowers , The Beautiful creation of Nature to capture with compact camera For Memories and to show our Photography skill to friends and family. so we need some small tricks to capture these little delicate beauties like a professional Photographer.

As i always say "you don't need a Very Good Camera to take Good Photograph, but you need Good Photography Skill to Take Good Photograph"

Tricks 
1. Go Close to The Flower, (most of Mobile Camera may not allow close-up, so as much as possible ),  Use Macro Pre set of your compact camera , this setting is Indicated with a Flower on mode selectors Menu / Round Dial out side of your camera.  This will give you a detail view , more possible angles to Photograph the same flower and most of the time you will end-up exploring something new in the same flower. Macro setting will give details in close-up photographs. BUT WHEN YOU START MACRO YOU NEED GOOD LIGHT , so initially try this in bright day light only. (Never forget to reset your camera back to Normal Auto or Manual mode)

2. Use different angle , most of the time we just photograph Flowers  standing and hands holding camera at 45* angle toward flowers. My Dear People that is the Eating angle , used for Photographing Food on Table and  Not The Flowers. Shoot a from waist Level means sit on your knees and hold camera at 0* angle Horizontal or directly parallel to Flower , or think something different like shooting from Down to Up (Lay down on Ground and Shoot the Flower from Down to Upward capturing its Back Portion and Back Lighting on Petals ), Include the Blue Sky , or some Lighted Window as background.

3. Try to capture your Flower in MORNING or in EVENING LIGHT. They are the Golden Time when any shot looks naturally good because of Angle at which the light is Coming toward your Flower and The Color of Light . Specially Around 4:30pm - 5:30pm Evening when Harsh sun is down and a soft white light is present all around. A rainy or cloudy day gives you more freedom with time.

DON'T
 Do not use flash , as this will over expose small flower, you will end up with a Shadow of whole tree or Flower on Background , with extended depth of field (area in sharp focus) which will gather un-unnecessary things in background . (If shooting in Auto still you can switch off flash in most of the compact camera)

These small things will make big difference in your skill and remember always try to do some editing after taking a photograph , like crop to eliminate unwanted objects from sides. 



A compact camera is a small camera packed with features and some limitation as well as gives you some freedom. Please concentrate on Small Camera , With Features , Limitation and Freedom , Small cameras now a day are more and more close to DSLR so you have a powerful gadget never blame it for bad picture, it has a limitation of little less sensitivity for Light but still you will have great freedom of moving camera easily in all side (down to up style) , and easy to carry anywhere which is most of the time not possible with DSLR.    

Enjoy Shooting Flowers , Make them Look More Beautiful.
Some Of My Images












Suggesions and Questions are Invited on my
Facebook  www.flickr.com/drmousam 
Click on the Link for Direct e.mail
or email me on drmousam15@ gmail . com 

©Dr.Mousam Jefferin Oct.2012


Monday 15 October 2012

Dilemma of Mega -Pixal

Dilemma of Mega-Pixel

Whenever we go to a Digital Camera Shop, out first concern is to get a very high Mega-Pixel Digital Camera. Our Shop Keepers and Companies also act in a same way and we get the expected answers (with stress on Numbers)  "Sir/Madam this is 12 Mega-Pixel Digital Camera or  14 Mega-Pixel Camera"  and we pay heavy price from our pocket .

Do you know   Mega-Pixel has nothing to do with Clearity and Quality of your Photograph.

Very Sad and shocking but true..... 

WHY 
1. Mega-Pixel is only for  Enlargement or BIG , BIGGER, and BIGGER PRINTS of your photograph.

Like Photograph of a 12 mega-pixel camera can be enlarger up to A4 (Photocopy paper) size , or 14 and 16 Megapixel Photograph is Good enough to Enlarge upto Newspaper Page Size Prints.(Off-course viewing distance also matters a lot)
how many times do we make such big prints ??
Not even twice in whole life of the camera.
so why you want a very high Megapixel camera??

2. Quality of a Photograph Depends on The (a) Lens  (b) Processor of Camera  (c) Processing in Printing Lab.
     
   (a)Lens - Any Digital camera can take Clear Photograph if having a good 
                Lens. Like some Big Names "Carl-Ziess, Canon-EF, Nikkor lens 
                of -Nikon, Leica in Panasonic,  OlympusSchneider kreuznach in  
                Samsung & Kodak, Fujinon " All of them are good and have 
                difference of 1 or 2% in quality which is negligible . 
                so before Next perches Watch the Lens Name on Camera Lens.
   
   (b) Processor of Camera - The Processor of camera Matters more then 
               Lens . because this is the Chip where picture is created. if your 
               digital camera processor is old or of previous generation you will 
               never get a better quality photograph. So buy the lattest processor
               available st the time of buying like at present DIGIC 4 Canon, 
               EXPEED C3 Nikon, Truepic 4 Olympus, BIONZ of Sony. This is the 
               Place where most of the work done by your camera to produce 
               clear bright sharp and good looking photograph.
 
   (c) Processing in Printing Lab.- This is something which you can only expect
              to be good and upto date for your latest camera. got to some
              good professional or better Online Printing site and get your 
              Photograph clear and of Good Quality .

Advertising Mega-Pixel is more of a Marketing strategy then technical point for companies so don't get confuse . 
Another Important thing ZOOM is not a Important criteria for buying costly camera. cos digital zoom or even optical zoom will ultimately reduce the photo quality because it will increases the chances of hand shake with every zoom point. Zoom is useful for Wide Animal Shoots (Wildlife) (and for Photographing Urban Girls from distance without getting noticed) so please choose your camera according to your style of Photography. 



Can you make the Deference of Mega-pixel in these 2 Photograph

one is taken from 7.2 Mega-pixel Compact camera another by 14.2 Mega-pixel DSLR , Please tell me which one is from compact camera ?

Thanks 
Suggetions and Questions are Invited .

Dr.Mousam Jefferin


Saturday 13 October 2012


Mobile Phone Photography

Technology has changed everything , and things around us have pushed companies to bring changes in their Technology.
so we have Mobile Cameras
Small, Handy and most important "Available every Minute and Second with us" But do we realy understand our mobile camera ?
.
.
Many a times we encounter a problem that in night and low light condition our Mobile camera
produce very low quality , blur and Extra Grainy Photograph.
or
We get Blur Photograph in Day Light .
.
Their are Many Issues with Mobile Camera....So what is the solution??

My Suggestions
When Your Buying Mobile 
1. When We Buy Mobile  with a  Good Camera then always buy 
    Mobile with High Resolution like   5 megapixal or Plus with Flash. If you have a
    option of Better Optics Like Carl-Zeiss Lens or Large Aperture like 2.8  you should 
    buy those mobile.2. Learn Photoshop Basic Editing. A digital Photograph always need Editing in Software,
    to get rid of the verious problems attached to all digital Photographs.
When you are Taking a Photograph 
3. Use Flash from Correct distance in low light [ to brighten up the
     subject and prevent over exposure ]
     and in day light [ to brighten up the Shadows in against the Sun or
      Bright Background Photographs ]
4. Do not Zoom , as 95% mobile cameras have Digital Zoom which eventualy reduce the quality of
    your Photograph. 
5. Don't Do Editing in Mobile , 

And Last But Not The Least

Learn Basic of Photography.

Question are Invited.

All Photographs taken From Blackberry 9360 [5mp camera with flash]

Thanks
Dr.Mousam Jefferin  ©2012