Tips to landscape photography

Landscape photography is a genre which depicts the aesthetic value of nature, sometimes vast and unending, but other times microscopic. This style of photography is practiced by professionals and amateurs alike. Photographs typically capture the presence of nature and are often free of man-made obstructions. The prime subject will be the composition of nature.

The magic hour - Landscape photos are often defined by the quality of light they were taken in. Early in the morning or during late afternoons the light will be soft and the contrast will be less and the tones display a subtle colour palette of moody hues. The hours after dawn and before dusk are known as the ‘magic hours’.

Composition - Composition is the axis of an excellent landscape image. The rule of thirds play an important role in composing captivating imagery. Also it is important to choose the subject , object , background and foreground carefully. The entirety of the image must be given importance as well as the details in it. Look out for colour representation to bring in the impact of contrast and richness of the image.

Research and eye for detail - Research for best locations and angles to click. Also look for locations which are capable of narrating a story by itself. A map, a compass and a bit of trekking will always go along with landscape photography.

Polarising filters - Landscape photographers will have a circular polarising filter in their kit bag. There are many uses for filters like this, but for the landscape photographer the two key characteristics are their ability to cut out relections and glare from a scene and the increased colour intensity, saturation and contrast they create. A grey filter is a cheap alternative for polarizing filter. 

Depth of field - Landscape photographers desire an image that appears sharp throughout the scene, so that elements of foreground interest, such as a rock in a lake, look just as sharp as the distant horizon. This can be achieved relatively easily using the principles of depth of field, whereby the smaller an aperture you use, such as f/22, the greater the area both before and beyond the point of focus also appear to be sharp. This principle can be taken one step further with hyperfocal focusing. Generally, when you’re using small apertures you’ll need to compensate with slow shutter speeds, so a tripod is essential. 

Neutral Density graduated filterss - One of the great problems for landscape photographers is the difference in brightness between the sky and the land. While the human eye is capable of perceiving detail across this tonal range, a digital sensor isn’t capable of recording it. So ND Grads (neutral density graduated filters) were created and have been avidly used by landscape shooters ever since. Their gradual transition from clear to dark neutral density allows the photographer to balance the exposure between the sky and the land to make a more even exposure in which detail remains in both the highlight and shadow areas. 

Man and the landscape - Great landscape photography is not necessarily about hunting out the most picturesque scene, in the most wonderful light and at the most perfect time of day. Indeed, there are many aspects of the world’s landscape that are less glamorous, such as the effects of heavy farming, rapidly expanding suburbs and sprawling industrial wastelands, that can make a poignant subject for the concerned photographer. Take a look at the effects of man on the landscape near your home and use them as photographic subjects. 

RAW - To maximise on quality and also to allow you to edit your original images non-destructively, always shoot your landscapes in the RAW format. RAW images give the photographer more freedom over the creative output of the image.

Slow exposures - Slow exposures are used by landscape photographers, whether it’s to optimise depth of field with a small aperture or to create smooth and milky seas, a sturdy tripod is a must. To further minimise camera movement during the exposure consider using a cable release or your camera’s self-timer, as well as locking the mirror up. 

~ Hari Bhagirath Photography

Tips for Photojournalists

Photojournalism is a particular form of journalism (the collecting, editing, and presenting of news material for publication or broadcast) that creates images in order to tell a news story. It is now usually understood to refer only to still images, but in some cases the term also refers to video used in broadcast journalism. Here are a few tips for beginners in photojournalism.

• Convey a story- Use the photograph to tell a story. Identify a subject, establish the background and build a story around the subject. Since photograph plays a vital role in narration imagine the role of the photograph in the story while clicking the image. The photograph must be self explanatory and must be able to convey with least description.
• Research- A basic research will help to identify what the photograph must represent and to understand the subject and photograph better. A photo essay, for example, could help you to reveal more about your subject. Research helps to get familiarized to similar situations and styles adopted during those situations.
• Choose the right style- Confirm about the way the shot must be intended and what aspects need to be highlighted. Plan the lighting, angle and theme in advance. Planning will make photographs more coherent. This helps to get placed in the right angle and area and vantage point for the shoot.
• Be prepared- Once an approach and style is confirmed the right gear and accessories must be prepared to capture the shot. Just select the tools you need. Be sure you’ve got the right focal lengths covered, and ask yourself if you might need a tripod. Get the batteries charged and carry spare batteries for your flashgun and plenty of memory cards. Don’t let a lack of preparation ruin a shoot. Arrive before the shoot so that the environment can be studied and potential stories can be covered.
• Get permission- It’s a good idea to seek permission, especially if you’re photographing people going about their business. Explain the subjects about the shoot and have a friendly rapport with them, while invading private space always try to reduce the conflicts and solve anything arising amicably. A healthy rapport to with the subjects ensure results in the long run. Interacting with the subjects reduce their level of resistance. 
• Get back-up- One of the most important tasks for a digital photographer is to ensure all your images are safe. As soon as you get back from your day’s shooting, download your images and make back-up copies on an external hard-drive or DVD. It’s a good idea to keep your back-ups in a different location to your main computer.

~ Hari Bhagirath Photography

Tips to improve portrait photography

Portrait Photography

Portrait photography or portraiture is the capture by means of photography of the likeness of a person or a small group of people (a group portrait), in which the face and expression is predominant. The objective is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the subject. Like other types of portraiture, the focus of the photograph is the person's face, although the entire body and the background may be included. A portrait is generally not a snapshot, but a composed image of a person in a still position. A portrait often shows a person looking directly at the camera.

Portrait photography has been around since the invention and popularization of the camera. It is a cheaper and often more accessible method than portrait painting, which has been used by distinguished figures before the popularity of the camera.

• Natural light - Natural light is capable of producing beautiful portraits. Window light have been used as an efficient source of light even today. But it will be hard to control the angle, density and direction of natural light unlike artificial light. Reflectors can be used while working in open areas to reflect light on to the subject. Natural light is effective, easy and inexpensive.
• Flash - Flash too can be great for portraits. Technique of fill flash where in while close enough to the subject, camera's pop-up flash is used to 'fill in' the hard shadows caused by the strong light overhead can also be effective to deliver portraits of aesthetic value.
• Use off-camera flash - Off camera flash is a moderately costly yet a highly creative option to add creativity and aesthetic value to portrait photography. By using a special cable or remote trigger one will be able to light the subject from different angles with stunning visual effects.
• Ring flash - A ring flash is a circular flash that attaches to the end of lens. It was actually developed so that medical, forensic and macro photographers could get super close to their subject and still get a good even spread of light. However, in recent years it’s been adopted by portrait and fashion photographers for the unique halo-like shadow it creates. It is also used to superimpose the iris and bring liveliness to the eye of the model.
• Studio lights - Studio lights gives maximum control to the photographer. It delivers maximum artistic freedom and greater room for creativity and productivity. Using strobe lights with accessories such as umbrellas, soft-boxes, snoots and barn doors variety of moods and styles can be created to enhance portraits. 
• Environmental portraits - Taking portraits of people in their environment can add another dimension to your images. It adds various dimensions and personality to the portrait.
• Pose or candid - There are opportunities for fantastic portraits whether you give your subject direction or not. A well-taken candid portrait can capture the essence of your subject’s personality in a split second, but you’ll need quick reactions to get the best results. A more deliberate and considered approach that might involve some direction and interaction between photographer and sitter can also produce magical results, but you’ll need make your subject feel at ease.

~ Hari Bhagirath Photography

Use of filters in photography

Hari Bhagirath Photography

Colour filters are efficient tools to add depth, detail and effects to black and white photography. Careful choice and use of coloured filters can have immense impact over the appearance of the final black-and-white image. Colour filters can reproduce certain colours which are less represented in the spectrum and give detail to the image.Certain colours in the spectrum are superimposed and certain colours are nullified while filters are used. 

Filters let light of their own colour through to the film but block other colours in the spectrum. A strong red filter blocks blue and green lights in a scene in front of the camera but allows red light to pass through. Blue and green coloured objects will therefore reproduce darker. 

Similarly to darken a sky, yellow, orange or red filter is used.In practice, these filters have a progressive darkening effect on skies, with yellow showing the least effect and a strong red filter showing a more dramatic darkening effect. Photographers of an earlier generation would refer to yellow filters as ‘cloud filters’ as they gave some modelling to the clouds against a slightly darkened sky. Red filters were called ‘sky filters’ as they had a stronger effect on clear blue skies.Blue filters can be used to subtly darken skin tones for portraits or nude images – filters from the Wratten 82 series of light-balancing filters are sometimes used to achieve this effect on black-and-white film. 

A yellow-green filter will also get the black-and-white ‘look’ right when taking portraits under tungsten light. Colour filters have a special use in portraiture to subtly alter skin tones and hair colouring. The effects can either be a technical adjustment or can be applied for exaggeration or aesthetic purposes.Red filters will remove all appearance of skin blemishes, both smoothing and lightening skin tones – they seem also to increase the modelling effect of the lighting, so as to better bring out the shape of the face. With darker skins, blue filters will darken and smooth skin tone and will further darken naturally dark hair.The right use of filter can amplify the effect and theme of the resultant photograph and add to the aesthetic and visual value of the art.

~ Hari Bhagirath Photography 

Converting Colour to black and white in Photography

The colour wheel

The basis of understanding about photography begins with an understanding about the properties of light. So practically colour theory becomes the basis for understanding black-and-white photography. In Black & White photography colours can be explained as white light which comprises all other colours of the visible spectrum and black as the absence of all colours. Black-and-white film captures all portions of the visible spectrum. However sensitivity of representation of colours captured by the black & white film differs. 

Additive primaries & subtractive primaries

The primary colours of white light are red, green and blue. These are the colours that cannot be made up by adding light of other colours and which, when added together, make white light. They are therefore known as the additive primaries. 

Cyan, magenta or yellow are colours can be thought of as white light without red, white light without green and white light without blue. Based on the notion of taking away one primary colour from white light, the colours cyan, magenta and yellow are known as the subtractive primaries.

Black

Colours that lie exactly opposite across the spectrum wheel are called complementary colours. A colour filter will darken its complementary opposite, while lightening colours similar to its own. For example, skies in the blue to cyan range will be darkened by a filter from the yellow, orange or red range, and yellow-green leaves will be lightened by a similar yellow-green filter. The rule for filters with black and white is: opposite colours darken; similar colours lighten. 

It is important to understand the presence of tones as representations of colours in Black & white photography. Each tone has a salient impact on the colour representation.

History of Photography

The history of photography is often debated, however the most widely accepted is the assumption that the German chemist, Johann Heinrich Schultz observed that a solution of certain salts of silver darken when exposed to light is widely considered as the beginning of photography. This aspects of certain salts of silver was widely used to create copies of opaque objects. 

It was Thomas Wedgwood, who used paper soaked in silver nitrate in the early 1800s to make images of fern leaves. The area around the leaf struck by light would darken while the leaf’s shadow would remain paper white. This was considered to be the beginning of modern day photography. However unless it was kept in the dark it was impossible to create these photographs.

In 1839, Sir John Herschel, discovered that sodium thiosulphate (hypo) was an effective fixative for the fugitive silver images. It was Sir John Herschel who gave the word photography from the Greek words for light and the act of drawing or writing.

Joseph Nicéphore Niépce is the first person to expose light-sensitive material in a camera in 1826. Niépce used a bitumen-coated pewter plate that hardened under many hours of exposure to light to give an image. He called his images heliographs – from the Greek words for sun and the act of drawing or writing.

Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre worked with Niépce, until the latter’s death, on a process using silver iodide on a polished silver plate. This plate was sensitive than Niépce’s heliographs and required an exposure of about 15 minutes. Development was encouraged by fuming the plate with mercury vapour. The image was then fixed and washed. Daguerre named the process after himself – the daguerreotype. Daguerreotypes are mirror image negatives that only appear as positives when viewed at a certain angle where light reflects from the underlying silver plate.

William Henry Fox Talbot, working in England between 1835 and 1845, was the first to produce prints by what we would know today as a negative/positive process. These are sometimes referred to as talbotypes or, more commonly, as calotypes. Fox Talbot used paper that had been photosensitised with silver chloride, exposed in a camera obscura.

The latent image was developed with gallic acid and fixed with common salt. These resulting paper negatives had reversed tones. Fox Talbot overcame this problem by placing an unexposed sheet of sensitised paper in contact with the first negative and exposing it to light. After developing and fixing, this positive copy gave an accurate tonal reproduction of the original scene. What is more, Fox Talbot could use the original negative to make more than one positive copy. He produced the first commercially printed, photographically illustrated book, "The pencil of Nature", in 1844.

The limitations of Fox Talbot’s paper negatives were swept away by Frederick Scott Archer’s wet plate collodion process in 1851, which itself led to the silver gelatin and dry plates by about 1880. The flexible film we know today came in around 1889, opening up photography to the mass market. All were based on the negative/positive process until the arrival of the digital camera in 1975, itself a black and white-only device that recorded pictures on to cassette tape.

Fox Talbot’s real contribution to photography was establishing the principle of the negative/positive process and demonstrating that one negative could make many copies.

~ Hari Bhagirath Photography

4 point technique for Black & White Photography

Contrast

One of the most striking elements in a black and white photograph is contrast. The absence of colors is balanced in texture, contrast and subject. To distinguish one element of your image from another the tonal variances become all the more important. 

The Right Light

Lighting in a black and white shot is very important. Side lighting will reveal any texture that a subject might have (and in portraits will accentuate features) and light from any one direction will create shadows. All of these techniques can add interest to a black and white image – however they can also be distracting – so play with light with care.

Shapes and Patterns

Patterns or shapes that can sometimes almost go unseen in color (due to the color itself drawing attention) can come alive in a black and white shot. Black and White shots that rely upon pattern can often take on an abstract quality.

Capture Texture

Revealing the texture of a subject can add a new dimension to an image. The sidelight does this by creating shadows.

A Tip for Black and White Landscapes

When shooting black and white landscapes look for ‘active skies’. Having skies with clouds, textures and light variations add mood and a create a dynamic look and feel to  the photographs. If a large part of your image is the same tone the image can look quite lifeless (unless of course you’re going for a more minimalist look.

~ Hari Bhagirath Photography