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Play of light – Flash Photography

16 May

Feel free to reach me @ Facebook 500px

Dubai, UAE

Speelights – Flashes – Flashguns – Strobes, different terms but one result = MINDBLOWING. 

Never thought I would be using them and ended up using not one but three for one of the shoot I did recently. Its serious fun, beleive me ;) . But before I leap into the topic, let me share on what got me into the field of flash photography – a genre which I thought I would never tap.

It all started when I came across the “One Light DVD” of Zack Arias. Zack for a change reassured throughout the DVD about how simple it was to use these flashes. It gave tremondous boost to my confidence. Then as a blessing came gulfphotoplus, which is without a doubt, one of the best and most well organised photography workshop you could ever wish to attend. Greats like David Burnett, Gregory Heisler, Joe McNally, Zack Arias, David Hobby, David Nightingale and many many more of such whos who of the world of photography graced the occasion. Attending their seminars, chatting with them upclose and personal as if I knew them forever and seeing them in action doing what they do best further added to my confidence in using these flashes. Even before I knew, I had a Nikon SB 910 followed by a 60″ westcott umbrella and other add on’s to make my bag heavier. Was following the mantra of Zack Arias – keep it simple, be a “Minimalist”.

So spent first few days doing some trail, shooting friends and getting some mug shots of them. They looked drunk and wasted, thanks to me and my understanding of the newly bought flash :D but was pretty sure it was just a matter of time before I could get a hold on it. Within a week or so things got better, my friends looked healtheir and happier in most of the shots :P . I knew it was time to get going. An example of how it looked after a week of brainstorming is what you see below.

Just one SB910 shot through a collapsed 60″ Umbrella. Cut down the ambient light few stops to get some good fill with the flash. Thanks to Ceetus for being so patient throughout the shoot. 

So now that things were under control and I knew what I was doing, it was time to shoot some real kick ass stuff. V-Man to the rescue. V-man aka Vimal Vijayan is a pro model who works for various agencies in Dubai and thanks to facebook, it makes our world smaller. Got in touch with him and fixed the weekend for a shoot. Was joined by my photog friends Dhruv, Nelvin and Ghazi. It was a marathon of clicks by all of us and just when we thought of wrapping it up, I came up with an idea which ended up looking as seen in the photograph below.

Shot using 3 light set up, 2 x Nikon SB 900 (courtesy : Ghazi) and 1 x Nikon SB 910, captured by Canon 70-200 f 2.8 lens mounted on Canon 7D (courtesy : Dhruv). So it was 3 maestros in work – Me, Nikon and Canon :P Yeah, I know what you just thought, get over it, lets look at the set up. 

Like Zack Arias always says “We got to start somewhere”, I started with a single SB 910 in a collapsed 60″ umbrella on the right side of the subject at full power zoomed out at 28mm. Used the Phottix Strato II to trigger SB 910. There was good amount of light wrapping the subject on the right side while mildly filling the left side of his body. Idea was to have a bit more light on his face, so SB900 was placed on his left, zoomed it in at 135mm at 1/8th power to get more directional light on his face. To add to the punch, as the photograph was meant to depict “Aggression”, the 3rd flash which was again a SB900 was placed behind the subject at 1/4th power and zoomed in at 135mm to prevent the excessive spread of light. This flash was angled to lit his hair and also to create rim light across his shoulder. Both SB 900 were put on SU4 mode whereby camera triggered the SB910 via transmitter and these two SB900′s blindly followed the SB910. Simple :D

Now that lighting was set, it was time to get the shot. Took around 20 shots to get the right splash of sand, appreciate Vimal for being such a sport. 

Bottom line, Nothing is complicated, they just seem to be until you try them. In any form of photography, all that matters is your attempts to try something new. Don’t be thrown aback by big fat  technical words people throw at you to make photography sound complicated, its all in the mind.

“Get out – Get shooting – Have fun – That’s the only way out” 

 
4 Comments

Posted by on May 16, 2012 in Flash photography, photography, Tips and Tutorials

 

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Street at 300mm

02 May

Feel free to reach me @ Facebook 500px

Dubai, UAE

Q : “Dude, I am out for street photography, what lens do I use?”

Me : (loud and clear without a second thought) 35mm or a 50mm prime.

Its that easy to make the decision when it comes to streets. Nothing works better on streets than these prime lenses with a fixed focal length, the large aperture lets you shoot super quick and the short and fixed focal length makes you get close to the subject. That’s the key to street photography. Never to forget, street photography is an art which originated more than a century back with a 35mm camera.

But at times its good to break the rules and challenge yourself to do something new. My challenge was to shoot at 300mm on streets using my Nikkor AF-S 70-300mm VR . I heard what you just murmured and I second that, “Not a good idea”.

1. Because walking miles on streets with a heavy lens is real pain.

2. On streets, you need to be invisible, 300mm doesn’t help.

3. At 300mm you need to have an eagle eye because its not about seeing whats close (like in any other street walk) but seeing whats happening far far away.

4. The tried and tested ‘I-am-just-a-tourist’ disguise turns into ‘I-am-a-Russian-spy’

5. I am shooting in Middle east, where people raise their eye brows even when you sneeze :P

Nevertheless, I began my walk across the streets of Deira – HQ of street photography in UAE. Kept my lens zoomed in and fixed at 300mm. It took not more than 10 steps to find my first frame. 

All that anxiety of shooting at not-so-friendly focal length turned into a blessing. If not for 300mm, I   wouldn’t manage to get this far with any other focal length and frame it the way you see. When I came across this frame, it was just the patterned balcony. I was desperately praying for a human element to appear to get this frame right. I guess god is a photographer himself, he not only got me a human element but also placed it perfectly to balance the frame. I hope he uses Nikon aswell :D  

Using the 300mm wasn’t the only challenge, the second challenge was to click only the keepers. Usually its a marathon of clicks that I do when on streets, come back home, 50% of them end up being deleted . Somewhere down the line, that had to change, and this was the day to adopt that change. Bottom line was, at the end of the day, all that I click during the walk would be worth publishing.

This decision made me walk atleast another mile before I could click my next shot of the day. 

Like Ansel Adams famously said, “You don’t take a photograph, you make it”. It holds true with this photograph. The moment I saw this Giant Ad thing (whatever it is called), I had this idea of having a subject passing through the frame to create an illusion as if the lady in the poster is staring at the person walking by. It often happens that when you wait for something to happen, time seems to freeze. I am here, standing in the busiest hustle bustle streets of Deira, people zig zagging all across me, but not a single person walks across my frame. Two cigarettes turned into ash in desperation but no luck. Just when I though it wasn’t working, the photographer almighty comes to my rescue yet again, and this man (with a character fitting so well with the frame), walks across. It was not just a click of a button this time, it was the greatest relief. PS : This photograph was ranked among top 10 most popular photograph in ‘street photography section’ on 500px. Was it worth the wait !?!?!?! – Hell Yeah :)

Confidence was now building after framing the above shots. 300mm seemed to be quite effective. Next frame was just around the corner, literally :)

I just clicked 6 photographs on this particular evening (about 2 hours of walk). Now that I got a taste of this experiment and it seemed to work so well, decided to have one more street walk at 300mm during the early hours of the next weekend. This time I was joined by my photography buddies AJ, Brian, Dhruv and the newest member of our group Nelvin. Dhruv decided to walk in my steps and stuck to 200mm on his Canon 70-200mm f2.8 lens.

As I mentioned earlier, 300mm attracts attention and as you see in the photograph above, this man was staring right into my camera, though I was meters away from him but here it worked to my advantage. That stare of his gives the feel to the image. Eyes do tell a million stories.  

Below are few more photographs of the outing. 

Overall it was great fun to shoot at 300mm. I strongly recommend each of you to try this. You will be surprised with the results you get. Planning to continue shooting at this focal lenght for another few street walks. Will keep you all posted on it. 

Until next time,

keep that mirror flipping :)

 
4 Comments

Posted by on May 2, 2012 in Perspectives, Photographic Locations, photography, Street Photography, Tips and Tutorials

 

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Al Rams – Fishing village on the north tip

16 Apr

Feel free to reach me @ Facebook 500px

Dubai, UAE

What was supposed to be just another weekend outing with friends, a cup of tea at our favorite haunt and loads of catching up, turned into an exciting road trip that I will not forget for a long time to come. There was this buzz of a possible storm approaching UAE and it was high time for us to hunt for a location. Loads of possible locations were discussed but, I had just one place in mind – Al Rams.

Al Rams is a fishing village located in the northern tip of UAE, about 100 plus kms from Dubai. I came across this place by chance a few months back, when I was lost in this unknown terrain. Since then I always wanted to go back and shoot a documentary about how laid back and simple this little coast was compared to the cities we live in. 

I was accompanied by fellow photographers Aj and Brian. We started our journey at 3:00am from Dubai and reached Al Rams by 4:30am. As expected, place was sleepy and silent, fishermen were still enjoying their dreams, which gave us the freedom to scan the area and settle down with our gears. I had to remind myself over and over again about the purpose of this visit, which was to document the area and cover the events which follow, as I easily get distracted with sea-scapes and in no time, I would be trying out long exposures in all different angles. This time it was documentary shots which really mattered. 

Silence was the mantra, absolute silence.

Silence was broken when this truck rolled in, which collects the catch of each fishermen and takes it to the distant market elsewhere to sell it. 

It already had all kinds of fish loaded onto it and few more boxes were added on by the fishermen in whose territory my friends and me were running around, as if we owned it :)

While some of them decided to head back to work… 

some continued to enjoy their sleep for few more minutes, though it was heart wrenching to see their living condition.

Most of these men were from Maharastra, India. For a change it was Marathi rather than Malayalam :)

No matter how little they earned, they seem to love what they did. There was no one to instruct them to wake up so early on a weekend, get into their daily routine, there was no ‘boss’ hanging around their neck to monitor their each move so early in the morning, but they just seemed to have the urge to be sincere in what they do and be happy with those little pleasures of life. They are like entrepreneurs on their own.

While the fishermen, on whose territory we were hanging around were still out for a catch, they had their gear ready to sort out their catch once they were back.

Decided to have a quick walk around the area, as it was beginning to drizzle and seemed like we would have to wrap up soon. Capturing the place these fishermen called their home was a subject in itself. Their homes were mostly broken, cracked and lacked the basic facilities. 

Every corner had a story to tell. This particular house seemed to be abandoned but that’s how they live, or may be “Thats how they are supposed to exist”

The fishing business here is owned by wealthy locals, so wealthy that they could afford to let range rover rot as seen in the image above. They have their gigantic villas just few meters away from this place with all the comforts anyone could wish for and few steps away you get to see the other extreme way of living. Society is a crazy breed indeed.

Another one of those decomposing cars. They are all over the place.

It was interesting to see an innovative way of keeping water cool, Eco-friendly people around here.

As expected, the storm was just around the corner. Drizzle was getting heavier, light was getting dim. It was time to move on, back to the the city where we belong. The contrast of Al Rams to Dubai is astonishing. No traffic, no horns, no rush hours, no signals, no radars, no hustle bustle – it was an incredibly peaceful place to be at. Great getaway.

I strongly recommend every photographer in UAE to make a journey to this place and get your creative juices flowing. Be here for the sunrise, it’s stunning.

I believe in a journey being successful, when I return not with a memory card full of photographs, but a mind full of memories, this place does exactly that. 

Good luck :)

 
17 Comments

Posted by on April 16, 2012 in Photographic Locations, photography

 

One small step – One giant leap

05 Apr

Feel free to reach me @ Facebook 500px

Dubai, UAE

“One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”. No idea how instantaneous Neil Armstrong was when he said that epic quote but that was the first quote that instantly hit me when I was informed of being the finalist in “Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award – HIPA”. In my case, it has to be rephrased as “One small step for me as a person but one giant leap for my ‘Viral Passion’ called P.H.O.T.O.G.R.A.P.H.Y”

Just so that you know, HIPA awards is the worlds richest photography award (atleast claimed so by HIPA, and no surprises when the award is hosted by Always-larger-than-life-Dubai). Hipa targets an international audience and received more than 6000 photographs from 99 countries across the globe. That’s quiet stunning considering the fact that this is the inaugural awards from HIPA. 

Making a cut amongst those 6000 odd photographs and reaching the finals was one of the most fullfilling expriences in my photographic journey as I still consider myself a newbee in the field of photography. Its just been about 18 months since I started and still use a basic SLR. Yeah i heard that before, “Camera doesn’t matter blah blah blah” :D

So this blog is to showcase those three photographs which I thought were good enough to compete  and the story behind each of those photographs. So here we go.

Photograph 1 : 

This photograph was shot in Abu Dhabi Grand Mosque. Though I was very excited to shoot in this beautiful one-of-a-kind mosque but was completely drained after an overnight shoot in Dubai. It was almost 48 hours since I had slept, thanks to my insane friends who always join me in shouting out the slogan “Let madness prevail“ ;). Just took a couple of pictures of the beautiful architecture of the mosque and decided to rest in the prayer hall for a while. It was then when I came across this man on a wheelchair steering across the prayer hall to offer his prayer. He cornered himself away from the crowd, crawled down his wheelchair, got down on his knees and started to offer his prayer. I consider myself lucky to have been exhausted and completely drained out, or else may be I would never have taken a break and thereby never have come across this beautiful moment. Considering the sensitivity of the moment and respecting his privacy, I just took one single picture from right where I was seated. Like I always say “Human elements in photography are our subjects and not OBJECTS, so treat them with due respect”. It was indeed a heart warming moment to watch this man despite being handicapped and all that pain that follows along with it, was thankful to god for what he is and what he has. How often do we really thank god for what we have. Atleast my record with the almighty is not so clean. Yeah, I do complain about not owning a Leica :D On a serious note, We really need to be thankful for what we got and stop complaining. Now that you are reading this blog, I want you to right away thank god for internet access, 35% of the world population still don’t have access to internet ;) Lucky freaks that we are :)

Photograph 2 :

Based on the concept of natural framing, this was a shot I could never afford to miss. Many of you who know me in person may consider the events behind this photograph to be ‘modest’ because you seen the heights of my craziness when I get my nikon hanging around my neck. It was just another day of the boaring 70km/hr drive on the never ending beach road of jumeirah. Good habits are so hard to change, when I drive I always peep around to search for frames than bother to look ahead at the road in front of me. If you call that a bad habit, I bet you are not a photographer :D So when I came across this frame, I stopped my car right in the middle of the road, pulled my glass down and took a shot. Realized my cam was on automatic mode, yeah I know, that’s a sin :) So had to set it back to manual mode, some brainstorming about the aperture and shutter speed and all of that. It isn’t easy to set these settings when you have a pile up of cars behind you and they seem to be on an orchestra mode with their horns. Got another two quick shots and knew I had what I wanted. All this in less than a minute. This photograph almost seems to convey the message “Now that Burj Khalifa is done, what next Dubai !”

Photograph 3 :

This landscape photograph was shot in the outskirts of Khorfakkan, about 150 kms from Dubai. This place is a regular shooting spot for our group. Beautiful mountains, gorgeous beach and a breathtaking sunrise for all the early birds is a guaranteed offering from this location. We reached this place at 3 am in the morning to get set for the sunrise, shot some beautiful long exposure photographs on the beach and just when we had to return, I decided to frame this picture. When the scene is this perfect, there’s nothing much you need to do to get it right. This picture was just ‘f8 at 1/250th of a second’ away. Bingo. 

So these were the three entries for HIPA award. HIPA hasn’t informed any of the finalists about which among the three of these pictures were shortlisted. Its still a mystery and have been informed by the panel about a journal being printed by HIPA which would feature all the photographs that made it to the finals. Until then I can only keep guessing about which one of these three made the cut. 

Now if you were to choose one among these three, which would that be. Lets get this poll running. Please leave your view in the commenting section about which photograph you like the most.

It would be incomplete to wind this blog without sharing the photograph which won the grand prize of $100000.

Absolute stunner and a deserving one from French Photographer Pierre Gable Auteur. This image not only inspires but also seems to remind me about the path untraveled. HIPA experience as a whole managed to feed my appetite to just get better with time and experience and create such stunners myself…someday :)

Happy Clicking 

 
12 Comments

Posted by on April 5, 2012 in Perspectives, Photographic Locations, photography

 

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Time Lapse Photography – Part 2

12 Mar

Feel free to reach me @ Facebook 500px 

Dubai, UAE

“An artist is a creature driven by demons. He doesn’t know why they choose him and he’s usually too busy to wonder why”

The above quote almost defines my situation :) But finally made it to my blog, what-a-relief.

Before we go ahead, here’s another of my timelapse which was compiled just days after the previous post was written.

Shutter count on this particular timelapse was 4200 and took me over 3 months to shoot, mainly due to lack of clouds in this part of the world. 

Getting back to the topic, in the last post (which feels like was written a decade ago), the set up required for timelapse photography was discussed. In this edition, we will look into what you do with those thousands of photographs clicked for the purpose. 

Crop : 

First thing to do is edit. I personally prefer Lightroom but you can use any editing software as per your preference. I don’t usually edit any of those pics, as editing usually leads to flickering which is the last thing you need in your timelapse. Flickering is not very evident with minor touch ups, so you may batch edit the pics if you like to, but don’t over do it. Only reason I get into Lightroom is to crop the pics and fit the images into 16×9 aspect ratio. Its a lengthy procedure to explain and even if i did, I would end up confusing you all :P . So here comes Mrs.Nicole to the rescue, shes got a sweet voice too, unlike mine :)

Pics to Videos : 

So now that Nicole taught you how to edit and crop it to 16×9 aspect ratio, and now that you have exported all your pics, you have just ended up with another few thousand ‘cropped’ pics. Now its time to convert these pics into videos. Usually timelapse is shot in various locations. Organise the shots, keep shots of each location in a different folder. If you have shot 300 pics from one loaction and another 300 from other location, you don’t convert all these 600 shots into video at a time. You convert them location by location, so that you end up with separate videos of each location. This helps you in cropping your videos as required to sync them with the chosen music for the presentation.

There are various dedicated software’s in the market that can be used to convert these pile of images into timelapse. But I prefer the simplest one of them all, which is Windows movie maker (and its not even a dedicated timelapse software). Its does exactly what I need and gives me a full HD output and I can live with it. Other software’s give more controls over transitions and texts and blah blah but I like it simple. Do it right while you shoot and you get away with the simplest softwares, that’s the mantra.

Now to explain you further on how to convert Pics to Videos follow the below link, its a very easy and simple step by step guide to get you going till the final step

windows-movie-maker-timelapse

Once you get your individual videos of each location, compile them on windows movie maker and drag the music you prefer, sync the music with the video by cropping the music or the video as per the scenario. Once you are done with the sync, export the video by selecting the HD option in the pop up. 

Congo, you just made a timelapse!. Now pat your back - stretch your arms – sit back – relax and start socializing your new accomplishment. Believe me, its such a fulfilling experience to work on timelapse for months over months, night and day (as if you are gonna get paid for it) and the moment you see the result you just realize “ITS ALL WORTH IT” 

Here are some of the behind the shoot scenes of the above shown timelapse,

So what you waiting for, head out, start shooting and put your patience to check. 

Feel free to visit my facebook page at www.facebook.com/Creative.Pixelz and make sure you press the like button and ask five of your friends to do so aswell, if you ignore there is a good chance that your dog may start Meeowing :| :P

Lots of Love 

 
4 Comments

Posted by on March 12, 2012 in Time Lapse, Tips and Tutorials

 

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Time Lapse Photography – Part 1

05 Jan

Feel Free To Reach Me @ Facebook Flickr 500px

Dubai, UAE

Happy 2012 :)

Been sometime since the last blog and was wondering about the topic to be blogged about. Finally zeroed on the topic which got me maximum queries during 2011. Decided it was high time to blog on “Timelapse Photography“. 

Here is an example of timelaspe done by me in the recent past,

Video depicting the 24 hours in UAE.

Since the topic is lengthy and involves a lot of factors to get it right, decided to break it down into two parts. I don’t call myself an expert in timelapse photography but atleast satisfied about trying it out a couple of times and this blog is purely based on those attempts.

Timelapse is nothing but lapsing of time. Its all about compressing time with loads and loads of photographs of the same scene taken over a long period of time (which may last for an hour, or a day or even months and if you are crazy enough – can last for years). Its about showing the change of time in matter of seconds. A sunset which would take more than an hour could be captured with timelaspe photography to wrap it in 10 seconds or movement of clouds which in real time looks static, can be made to fly across the horizon within seconds. Its all about revealing usual events, unusually.

Requirements :

  • DSLR 
  • Tripod 
  • Intervalometer 
  • Battery Grip 
  • Extra memory cards

DSLR :  Not that a point and shoot camera cannot do the job, but the technical superiority and flexibility of a DSLR makes it a perfect match for timelapse. Especially metering capability and the ‘all manual’ flexibility makes DSLR an obvious choice.

Tripod : A good solid tripod is a must as even minor shakes can be distracting in the final output. Even minor jolts created by wind can effect the timelapse, so its recommended to hang a sandbag on the hook of the tripod to prevent any such shake. 

Intervalometer : One of the most important component in timelaspe photography. Some cameras, especially Nikon, has an inbuilt intervalometer, but most don’t. I use Hanhel Giga T Pro, which does a great job and is very user friendly aswell. But there are enough options in the market to browse through. All I can say is GET ONE.

Battery Grips : Timelapse involves shooting a number of pics for long duration of time. So having a battery grip or an extra battery is highly recommended. Especially while doing timelapse at night, which involves long exposures, single battery is definitely not an option. 

Memory Cards : I strongly recommend shooting JPEG’s over RAW in timelapse, as these pictures are played at 24 to 30 frames per second (fps). Also you end up saving a lot of space on your card. A faster card is always an advantage, especially while shooting timelapse at a quicker pace like one frame per second, i.e you are clicking 60 pictures every minute which could go on till you get enough pictures for your timelapse. This rapid inflow of pictures may overshoot your cameras buffer capacity and hence make your camera slow-down in shooting further pics, thereby spoiling the whole timelapse. This is another reason why RAW isn’t a good option as it would add to the trouble because of its size.

Settings :

Camera Settings :

Thumb rule for timelapse photography is “All Manual” mode.

Firstly, turn your Mode Dial wheel to “M” i.e Manual mode. Use your instincts to fix the shutter speed and aperture to get the perfect exposure of the scene. If your instincts aren’t sharp enough yet ;) , then use aperture priority mode (Av on canon, A on Nikon) and shoot the scene at various apertures. Note the aperture and shutter speed reading of the one which gives the best exposure, and use the same when on manual mode. Intention is to prevent any change in these readings during the entire timelaspe sequence. 

ISO has to be fixed at its least, 50 or 100 as per your camera. Get your exposure right with aid of aperture, shutter speed and metering but not ISO. Higher the ISO higher the flickering on your timelapse sequence. That’s my personal view with what I have experienced. No AUTO ISO in timelapse. (Please note : While shooting star trails you will require a higher ISO)

Focus on your scene, and once the focus is fixed, change your lens from auto to manual mode. In simple, half press the shutter release button, once the camera beeps after fixing the focus, change the lens to manual mode, there by freezing the frame at that particular focus through out the timelapse. Metering has to be fixed during the process aswell, before turning lens into manual mode. 

Experiment with White balance and fix to the one which suits the scene and stick to it till the end. No Auto WB.

In simple, ‘No Auto’ what-so-ever in timelapse photography. Every setting has to be freezed so that every picture you take has the same exposure. This is just my way of doing it, but elsewhere you may find a different way of setting it all together. Until you get the result that satisfies you, there’s no right or wrong in photography. So keep experimenting with settings. 

Intervalometer settings :

Just do the initial set up here and Intervalometer does the rest for you. This intital set up is the tricky part of timelapse shoot. It all comes down to what you are shooting. You just need to let the meter know when to click and how many to click.

The interval between each shot depends on the motion in your frame. This is what determines the output of your timelapse. For instance, if you are shooting sunset as seen at 00:49 in the video above , the movement of sun is almost negligible and slow in real time. Shooting a picture every second won’t do any good, so it’s better to click a picture every 15 second or so. In case you want to show movement of people as seen at 1:28 in the video above, 15 seconds interval between each shot would have ruined the fun of people’s movement, as person in one frame would have disappeared in the next, and hence there wont be flow in the sequence. So in this case, a picture every second did  justice in conveying the smooth movement of people. There are no hard and fast rules governing time lapse intervals. The interval you set is totally up to you and how fast you want the action to move in your clip.

The Number of clicks is just simple maths. Usually I prefer each timelapse sequence to last for 10 seconds, i.e when I put all these pictures of the particular scene together and play at 30 frames per second, I expect the timelapse to last for 10 seconds. So (30 fps x 10s) = 300 pictures, is all I need from each scene I shoot. So I set my intervalometer to click 300pics. 

The Duration of time required for the timelapse to complete again goes hand in hand with interval set and number of pics required. For example I need 300 pics and interval set is 10 seconds between each shot, the duration of shoot would be 300x10s = 3000s, which is 50 minutes. More the interval between each pic more the duration of shoot. 

So thats about the set up for shooting timelaspe. In the next part would discuss various ideas for framing a timelapse sequence as well as processing of the images, conversion of the images to video and finally making the video presentable. 

Leave your valuable comments and critiques to help me get better. 

Until next blog,

Hang around :)

Happy Clicking

 

 
4 Comments

Posted by on January 5, 2012 in photography, Time Lapse, Tips and Tutorials

 

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A year gone by … “2011 Review”

02 Jan

Happy New Year to all you lovely people :)

Its been a very eventful year for my photography as a whole but writing blog’s wasn’t too easy for a back-bencher like me. But with continuous insistence and encouragement from photographer-friend and a fantastic blogger Adam Backer , there was no looking back. So gave it a try and it has been very much a fulfilling experience. 

So as the year ends on a very positive note and as we begin to step into 2012, thought of sharing the stats for 2011 with you all, which has been very beautifully presented by WordPress.com. 

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for www.subodhshetty.wordpress.com 

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 6,100 times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 5 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

 
4 Comments

Posted by on January 2, 2012 in Uncategorized

 

Frame in Frame – Composition Tip

15 Oct

Feel Free To Reach me @ Facebook Flickr 500px

Dubai, UAE

Photography minus creativity is “Snapshot”, I am sure many of you agree on that.

There are a number of techniques in photography which can be mastered to exploit the creative side in you. Ranging from long exposures to macros to what not, but most important aspect is to imply these techniques the right away at right moment. One of the best but least implied technique is “Framing within the Frames” or in simple “Natural Framing”.

Natural Framing may be either in form of natural source or man made objects or even both (at times), which can be used to creatively confine your main subject within the frame created by these natural ones, there by creating a frame within a frame. Basic intention is to draw the attention of the viewer to the ‘subject in focus’ thereby successfully conveying the message behind the image. Keen observation is all it takes to execute this technique. 

One of the finest execution of natural framing from my side. As seen in the picture, the cranes in the foreground clearly serves as the natural frame thereby drawing the eyes of the viewer to Burj Khalifa and the rare low lying clouds behind it. 

One of the biggest advantages of natural framing is the “Sense of Order” created by the image. When properly used, it goes on to show the viewer that the picture is carefully tailored to look the way it looks. Proves the sense of discipline applied to get the desired result. It is not just the eyes but brains as well which needs to play its role in creating an image you desire.  

As seen in the picture above, the frame is clearly divided into two different frames thus creating a sense of frame within the frame, thereby isolating the main subject, which here is Burj Al Arab. 

Further, a feel of depth is added by the framing technique. A rather flat image would get a depth and dimension of its own using framing. 

Windows used as the natural frame along with the dried out branch of a tree. Windows takes the viewpoint further into the shot while branches balance the picture. 

Windows, doors, bridges, cranes, branches of trees are few of the common frames found on a day to day basis which can be used for framing, but the list can be endless and extends as far as our imagination leads us. 

Entrance doorway used here as the frame. Sheer harmony and balance is the result.

Reflections used for a ‘frame within frame’ effect. 

Example of Bridge used for the purpose.

Shot from Samsung ST 500 Point and shoot during my beginning days of photography.

Another shot from Samsung ST 500 P&S.

There are enough frames all around to be found, its about keeping an open eye and  finding them and most importantly framing the right subject within the frame. Dragging viewers eye into a subject of no interest is an effort in vain. So the uncluttered frame as well as the subject being framed have to compliment each other. 

One of the best ways to develop this or for that matter any other photographic technique is to reserve a photowalk for one particular theme, which would thereby help in focusing and implementing the particular technique to the fullest. 

Hope this edition was informative and hope examples presented helped you in understanding the concept. Please leave your genuine feedback to help me get better. Critiques are highly appreciated. Do share your pictures involving this technique by sharing links to the picture, because SHARING is CARING. 

Until next time,

Happy Clicking :)

 
13 Comments

Posted by on October 15, 2011 in Perspectives, photography, Tips and Tutorials

 

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On the ‘Beach’

12 Sep

Feel free to reach me @ Facebook 500px

Hello all,

Unfortunately, Life has been too busy for sometime now to blog, but its never too late eh !

So, in today’s blog I would like to discuss about clicking on ‘Beach’

Photography on beach has its own challenges especially when the beach is crowded. Getting a frame free of people or isolating people admist the crowd can be quite a task in itself. Also humid conditions can pose as a hindrance aswell. Here are some of the tips to the best of my knowledge about how to get good creative pictures on the beach.

1. Golden Hours : Most often, sunrise and sunsets are the most preferred time to photograph on beaches as the light during these hours are much softer and the sky is filled with beautiful colors further enhanced by clouds, if any. Further this light is more appropriate for trying slow shutter speeds without the use of any filters. 

EXIF : 30s at f 22 ISO 200

As in above picture, though there was enough light when framing this,to compensate for it, used an aperture of f 22 which cuts off enough light to allow a 30s exposure. 

2. Look for reflections : Refection’s are easy to find on beaches with so much of water around. Grab it as an advantage while composing images as you see in the example below,

Reflections of the magnificent Burj Al Arab caught on low tide.

3. Black and White : It doesn’t always have to be color, experiment with B&W aswell. Especially those images with freezed waters look beautiful in B&W.

4. Look for shadows : As mentioned before, most commonly pictures on beaches are clicked during the golden hours, so there’s always elongated shadows to be found against the low lying sun. These shadows can be taken advantage of by using an appropriate subject, most preferably human elements.

5. Clouds for some drama : Clouds and beaches go hand in hand in complimenting each other. So any day is a good day when there are clouds spread across the beach.

Is it just me or do you see a Sea Horse structure in that cloud. See, clouds do add to the drama :)

6. Isolating subjects : There’s always crowd on beaches, but each person in that crowd cant be a subject of interest. Finding an interesting person and isolating that person to fit the frame and most importantly capturing that person at the right moment is what makes it special. Anticipation along with sharp eyes and open mind is all it takes and comes easy with some practice. Here are a few images as examples,

Click Here for HD image

That decisive moment.

Fortunately enough this beach was less crowded than usual.

So in the above 3 pictures its clear how human elements, when captured at right moments can make interesting compositions.

There are few more points to be mentioned with more reference images, but would like to bring them up in next blog. Until then, head to the nearest beach and start clicking. No matter how many times you visit the same beach, you always end up clicking something new because crowd changes, cloud changes, color of the sky changes and what not, almost reminding us that nothing is constant other than the moments freezed with our cameras. 

So shutterbugs, Head out and get ‘Tanned’ :)

PS : Feel free to check my : Facebook Page  Flickr Page  500px Page

 
7 Comments

Posted by on September 12, 2011 in Long Exposures, Perspectives, Photographic Locations, photography, Silhouettes, Tips and Tutorials

 

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“Palace of the Invisible’s”

15 Aug

Feel free to reach me @ Facebook 500px

Hello Friends, 

Ever fancied being in a haunted place ! If yes, then this blog would serve your interest. 

So called “Horror Movies” just don’t seem to scare me anymore,may be an overdose of them has made me immune to it.This made me search over the internet for various haunted locations across the UAE. Should be surprising to many who view UAE as an Ultra-Modern Country with riches all over the place, but UAE has a side less known to many. It serves the hunger of Ghost Hunters/Photographers by providing us with some of the most creepiest places you could ever imagine. Already have blogged on “Ghost Village” which is now a place less haunted by ghosts and more by photographers. On any given weekend you would find a set of photographers wandering around the place looking for ghosts/frames. Ghost Village just turned out to be like a Horror movie which fails to scare anymore. So it was high time to look for something new. 

My friend AJ came across an article on national newspaper about a haunted mansion. It was a palace built 22 yrs before at an estimated cost of 136 Million USD and vacated within days of inauguration because of paranormal activities.That’s the legend and we convinced ourselves that it was true. There was no second thoughts about whether to get there or not, it was an instantaneous “YES” from my side and drove 100kms late night with my friend to the palace. But for our surprise, there was a guard at the gate of the palace !!! For a moment we doubted if he was a ghost ;) but he wasn’t.  It was 3am and we were desperate to get in but all our pleading, for permission to get in just didn’t seem to convince the guard who kept repeating “Andar Jinn hai, andar jinn hai”. Jinn is an Islamic term for spirits and he believed palace has too many evil spirits and isnt safe to enter at night. Shattered but determined to get in, we convinced him to let us in just as the day breaks and he agreed to it.(no points for guessing how he agreed to let us in :) )

First Glimpse of the Haunted Palace during break of dawn. Rays of sun just seemed to add to the drama.

Finally we were allowed to enter the palace with a 20 minutes time limit. It was almost a race against time, considering the size of the mansion. We had a grand welcome at the basement with words “Go Go” written in blood red ( paint ofcourse! ) 

Just as we were getting set, a funny yet strange incident occurs. A Blackberry App called ‘Screen Muncher’ which kind of makes creepy munching sounds goes crazy and starts munching on its own. PS : Blackberry was locked and further secured in the pouch. Sudden burst of this sound made us skip a heartbeat for sure but we decided to laugh off the incident and proceed. As we went further in, we had to pass through surprisingly narrow staircase which justified the haunted image of the mansion.

The Majestic hall, almost gives a clear impression on where all that money has gone. 

Play of light, early morning light gives a new dimension to the picture.

Turned out to be one of the best clicks of the day.

That lady was charming but I was okey with her staying in the frame.

More of creepy staircases leads to more of majestic halls and even more rooms.

No wonder ghosts here live life king size, atleast better than most expats in uae.

Wasn’t keen on peeping in…There were many doors which were locked, what lies beneath is a mystery.

Only room which was considerably cold compared to burning hot palace.

Weird structure which supposedly helps in scattering the light to floors below, quiet innovative.

more of morning rays 

Few more of those royal rooms

The Top most Roof with all the 12 Zodiac signs inscribed on it.

At the top…had a great view of the surrounding mountains.

Hunting the Haunted…sounds good but there really wasn’t many incidents to back that claim.

Finally after a tiring sprint across 4 floors, it was time to say goodbye to this beautiful yet cranky place.

May be because we were there just around sunrise, we didn’t really have the kind of adrenaline rush we expected. Nevertheless we were happy with the clicks we came back with. Just before returning we struck a deal with the guard for a over night stay at the palace. Hopefully, it would be a video session then rather than pictures.

As we returned back we just had one question in our mind, “We didn’t see them, but did they see us?” 500 million Dhms worth of mansion being vacated in a weeks time isn’t a joke anyway. Some things are better left unanswered.

Anyways hope you enjoyed reading the blog as much as I enjoyed writing it. 

 
4 Comments

Posted by on August 15, 2011 in Photographic Locations

 

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