The rule of thirds

The rule of thirds is a compositional rule of thumb in visual arts such as painting, photography and design. The rule states that an image should be imagined as divided into nine equal parts by two equally-spaced horizontal lines and two equally-spaced vertical lines, and that important compositional elements should be placed along these lines or their intersections. Proponents of the technique claim that aligning a subject with these points creates more tension, energy and interest in the composition than simply centering the subject would.


An image with subject in the center (left) compared to Image according to the rule of the thirds (right)



The theory is that if you place points of interest in the intersections or along the lines that your photo becomes more balanced and will enable a viewer of the image to interact with it more naturally. Studies have shown that when viewing images that people’s eyes usually go to one of the intersection points most naturally rather than the center of the shot – using the rule of thirds works with this natural way of viewing an image rather than working against it.


~ Hari Bhagirath Photography

White Balance

Color temperature is conventionally stated in the unit of absolute temperature, the kelvin, having the unit symbol K. The temperature of the colour tones are expressed in Kelvin in DSLR cameras as well the range of spectrum varies from shades of red to that of blue. Shades of red which are considered warm colours range upto approximately 7000K. Some basic modes are as follows.

Auto – this is where the camera makes a best guess on a shot by shot basis.

Tungsten – this mode is usually symbolized with a little bulb and is for shooting indoors, especially under tungsten (incandescent) lighting (such as bulb lighting). It generally cools down the colors in photos. (Approx. 3200K)

Fluorescent – this compensates for the ‘cool’ light of fluorescent light and will warm up your shots. (Approx. 4000K)

Daylight/Sunny – not all cameras have this setting because it sets things as fairly ‘normal’ white balance settings. (Approx. 5200K)

Cloudy – this setting generally warms things up a touch more than ‘daylight’ mode. (Approx. 6000K)

Flash – the flash of a camera can be quite a cool light so in Flash WB mode you’ll find it warms up your shots a touch.

Shade – the light in shade is generally cooler (bluer) than shooting in direct sunlight so this mode will warm things up a little. (Approx. 7000K)

RAW File Format

When you save an image in RAW file format, you are saving it the way the image sensor sees it, without applying any adjustments (including white balance) to it. In fact, the camera ignores any WB setting you dial in.

Later, in an image editing software with the appropriate RAW plug-in, you can convert the RAW image to JPEG, and apply any colour temperature shift. Undo your change and try again, ad infinitum, in as fine an increment as you wish, until you obtain perfect colour balance.

Some professional photographers always use RAW file format. Saving in RAW file format comes at a price because it takes so much longer to save a RAW image that it might not be practical in many picture taking situations. Professional dSLRs (and some prosumer models) have internal buffers that allow RAW images to be taken one after the other in quite rapid succession without having to wait for the saving of one image to be completed before you can take the next picture.

If you are taking landscapes, and it's early in the morning or late in the evening, or you are not too sure of which WB setting to use, try it in RAW. A few digital cameras even allow you to save an image in both RAW and JPEG simultaneously, though time to write to memory card is proportionally increased.


~ Hari Bhagirath Photography

ISO

ISO (or ASA) is the indication of how sensitive a film was to light in analogue photography. It is measured in numbers – 100, 200, 400, 800 etc. The lower the number the lower the sensitivity of the film and the finer the grain in the shots you’re taking.

ISO measures the sensitivity of the image sensor in digital photography. The same principles apply as in film photography – the lower the number the less sensitive your camera is to light and the finer the grain. Higher ISO settings are generally used in darker situations to get faster shutter speeds.


ISO sensitivity expresses the speed of photographic negative materials. ISO denotes is how sensitive the image sensor is to the amount of light present. The higher the ISO, the more sensitive the image sensor and therefore the possibility to take pictures in low-light situations. The sensitivity of your image sensor is boosted by selecting a higher ISO. The image sensor will be able to record a fainter light signal.

If you mostly take pictures where there is enough light for a correct exposure, i.e. sunny outdoors, then using the lowest ISO on your digital camera will give you the best image quality your digital camera is capable of. If you want to take pictures indoors where light may not be sufficient and in other low-light situations, then you would need to supplement existing light with flash or studio lights or select a higher ISO.

• The best image quality is usually obtained at the lowest ISO setting on your digital camera.
• Using a higher ISO usually results in noisy images on consumer digital cameras.
• Use a high ISO if it is a choice between missing a picture and being able to capture an image but it means you need to spend time cleaning out the noise in post-processing using a noise reduction software.
• If you leave your camera on "Auto ISO" and if you find that most of your images are noisy, then perhaps you are taking most of your pictures in low-light situations where the camera has automatically selected a higher ISO.

~ Hari Bhagirath Photography

http://haribhagirath.weebly.com/

Shutter Speed

In still cameras, the term shutter speed represents the time that the shutter remains open while taking a photograph. Along with the aperture of the lens (also called f-number), it determines the amount of light that reaches the film or sensor. In digital photography shutter speed is the length of time that your image sensor ’sees’ the scene you’re attempting to capture. In analogue photography it is the length of time the film is exposed.



Fast shutter speed gives a crispy sharp image

If you want to freeze your object and to make it look sharp, you will need to assess its speed. The faster your object moves, the faster you need to set your shutter speed. If your object is moving toward/away from you, its speed has less effect than if it is moving from side to sides.

While if the requirement is to produce the impact of ongoing motion such as light trails of traffic or the silky smooth effect of falling water, it is useful to use longer exposure resulting in slow shutter speeds. Under slow shutter speeds one must be careful to eliminate the risk of shake or vibration on the camera that will make the image blurry and distracting. A stable grip or a tripod can assist in producing clear images under low shutter speed.



Waterfall captured under slow shutterspeed



 Slow shutter speed will capture more light thereby making the photograph over exposed. Therefore it must always be matched with the right aperture setting to balance the image. Same is the case of fast shutter speed wherein images tend to be underexposed if there is lack of proper light to illuminate the object. An optimum balance between ISO, Aperture and shutter speed will ensure the perfect image. This relationship between ISO, Shutter speed and Aperture is called the exposure triangle.

Imagine your camera is like a window with shutters that open and close. Aperture is the size of the window. If it’s bigger more light gets through and the room is brighter. Shutter Speed is the amount of time that the shutters of the window are open. The longer you leave them open the more that comes in. And a imagine a person inside the room and is wearing sunglasses. Eyes become desensitized to the light that comes in (it’s like a low ISO).


~ Hari Bhagirath Photography

Aperture

When the shutter release button of your camera is pressed, a hole opens up that allows your camera's image sensor to catch a glimpse of the scene you want to capture. The aperture that you set impacts the size of that hole. The larger the hole the more light that gets in – the smaller the hole the less light.

The aperture stop of a photographic lens can be adjusted to control the amount of light reaching the film or image sensor. In combination with variation of shutter speed, the aperture size will regulate the film's or image sensor's degree of exposure to light. Typically, a fast shutter speed will require a larger aperture to ensure sufficient light exposure, and a slow shutter speed will require a smaller aperture to avoid excessive exposure.



f /2.8

The Depth of Field is the distance wherein objects are in focus.When you desire a great depth of field, where objects both close to you and far from you are in focus select a small aperture.The photograph appears in crisp focus. And when want to isolate your subject, as when you are taking a portrait and want your subject to be in sharp focus but the background to be out of focus you use a shallow depth of field where in a large aperture of small f/value or small aperture value is used. 

f /22



Reducing the aperture size increases the depth of field, which describes the extent to which subject matter lying closer than or farther from the actual plane of focus appears to be in focus. The larger the diameter of the aperture, the more light reaches the film / image sensor. Aperture is expressed as F-stop, e.g. F2.8 or f/2.8. The smaller the F-stop number (or f/value), the larger the lens opening (aperture).

~ Hari Bhagirath Photography

Basic introduction to a DSLR camera

 Front End

1) Lens Alignment- Helps to align lens easily and safely.

2) Pop-up flash button - Activates pop-up flash within the camera. 

3) Lens Release- Releases mounted lens.           

4) Depth of Field preview button- This will close the aperture for a preview of what will be in focus.

5) Lens Contact pins- Aligns any compatible lenses, allowing auto focus & settings to work in time.

6) Mirror- Allows you to see, through the viewfinder, almost exactly what you will photograph.

7) Grip- Allows you to have a firm grip on the camera.

8) Shutter release- A half press focuses the auto focus, and full press let you take the photograph.

9) Indicator/ focus beam- illuminates the subject in poor light & works as an indicator for auto-timer.

10) Flash- A mini pop-up flash



Rear end



1) View Finder

2) Dioptre Adjustment- Enables you to use the camera without your lenses, handy for those who are long/short sighted.

3) Rubber Eyecup

4) Joystick Dial

5) Exposure Lock/ Zoom Button- If you aim the camera at a scene and press this, it will record and keep that exact exposure whilst you re-compose and shoot. It also zoom into a picture while viwing.

6)Focus Point Selector/Zoom Button - Firstly, it is the Auto focus point selector.Secondly, this will zoom out of a specific area while viewing an image.

7)Write indication light- Indicates that photographs are written onto your card. Opening it while writing the data will cause the data to lose.

8) Jog Dial and Set button - The jog dial will scroll through images or items in a menu, and the set button will select an image or setting in the menu.

9) On/Off Button - Switches the camera power on and off. It also activates/deactivates the jog dial.

10) Erase Button - This will erase any selected images.
11) Play Button - When the camera is switched on, this will display the last image taken on the small screen. 12) Jump Button - Used to jump 2 or 3 images or menu items at a time.

13) Info - By pressing this, you will bring up all the information of any image that you select and view.
14) Menu Button - This will bring up all the internal menu functions on the screen.
15) Screen - Displays menus and images that have been exposed.

Top view

1) Light for LCD Display
2) AF/WB - Auto focus/white balance setting.

3) Drive/ISO - Drive means auto drive or frame rate. ISO is the film or sensor sensitivity. 100 ISO is standard sensitivity and will produce fine grain, clear images. 1600 or 3200 ISO on the film or sensor is highly sensitive, meaning you can shoot well in low light conditions without a flash, although you lose a bit in the quality and images will appear more grainy.
4) Shutter Button

5) Top Dial - This is also used to change/alter various settings. Normally used to change shutter speeds or aperture settings.
6) Metering/Flash Compensation - The cameras metering system is in the screen that you see through the viewfinder when lining up a shot.
7) LCD Screen - This will display all the exposure, speed ISO etc.
8) Hotshoe - The area where you can place an external, dedicated speedlite or flashgun.
9) Exposure control Dial - Using this dial, you can select from full auto mode to fully manual.
10) Pop up Flash

Below the Camera

1) Battery Socket

2) Tripod Socket








~ Hari Bhagirath Photography