Black & White with a point and shoot camera

Photography is more about the person behind the camera than the camera itself. With the right techniques anyone can excel in photography even without high end DSLR cameras available today. Imagination is the only key to success. However a high-end camera can make the difference from a professional point of view. But the ground rules remain the same for photography at all levels. 

1. Shoot in RAW- Shooting in RAW format allows post production work to be easy and stores a various combinations from which the image can be processed. This will allow a multiplicity of options for the image. However most point and shoot cameras do not have the option to take the image in RAW format. 
2. Shoot in Colour- Shoot in color and do your conversion to black and white later on your computer. While most digital cameras offer you the option to shoot in Black and White, shooting the image in colour will offer you more control over the end results if you have the color data to work with in your conversion. on your computer.
3. Low ISO- Shoot with the lowest possible ISO possible. It is important in black and white where detail is of high prominence because Black and white photographs pay attention to details and it is reduce the noise by lowering the ISO. 
4. Contrast- Shooting for Black and White in low contrast situations has its advantage. So an dark or overcast day can be a great time to shoot out door shots. Ironically this is a ‘poor light’ situation for colour photographers, but it can work miracles for Black & White photograhy. 
5. Composition- Framing is penultimate for black and white photography. Framing and attention to detail differentiates a good photograph from a great photograph. Most of the general tips on how to compose or frame a good shot apply just as well to black and white photography as they do when shooting in color. Training yourself to look at shapes, tones and textures in your frame as points of interest in Black & white will be a great advantage.

Black & White Photography

Monochrome, or black-and-white photography dominated for decades, due to its lower cost and its "classic" photographic look. Black and white photography is a branch which can be traced back to the very origins of photography.  It is important to note that some monochromatic pictures are not always pure blacks and whites, but also contain other hues depending on the process. The cyanotype process produces an image of blue and white for example. 

The albumen process, first used more than 150 years ago, produces brown tones. Certain labs process true black and white film and use actual black and white process paper. Black and white photography focuses more on light intensity and contrast than color photography. When color is stripped away details of objects become more prominent to the eye and different parts of a scene can become more important than in a color image. Although colour photography and digital photography pushed black and white photography to the background, it still have its own patron audience and enthusiasts.  However, there are a few items that can really help the impact of a black and white photograph.

• Wide Range of Tones- Having a wide range of shades of black/grey and white can help add a strong sense of depth to your black and white images. Images that are literally only black and white (or close to it) create an almost illustration effect, like an ink pen drawing without shading.
• Contrast- Because black and white depends on shading to help show boundaries between items, good contrast between objects (via color or lighting) is a great help in creating a strong black and white image. While we usually try to find colors that do not clash with one another in color photography, clashing colors can help create contrast when captured as black and white.
• Good Lighting- Good lighting is an almost universal need in photography. With black and white photography it can be even more important as a slight shadow becomes a charcoal grey over whatever is in it. With black and white photography it can be much more difficult to recover details in shadow after capture than with color film.

(Compiled from the web)

Basics of Photojournalism

Photojournalism is a branch of photography however it differs from regular photography on a number of levels. Photojournalism is story/event centric while photography is image centric. Photojournalism always intent to tell a story or convey a concept may it be a sports event, a fire or an award ceremony. The most important element of photojournalism could be condensed into one word, “faces.” Photo editors love to see people’s faces for the news. Facial expressions help to tell a photo’s story and convey emotion. Photojournalism is a merger of photography and written language into a coherent communication medium.

Ethics

Ethics is the most important element that separates photojournalists with photographers, while photographers can manipulate the event or image, a photojournalist is supposed to stick by the rules and give a representation of what he see with his eyes. The audience must be able to trust that the image they see is a true representation of reality. A photojournalist must never interfere with a situation. He/She can never direct or pose their subjects, unless the situation calls for a portrait.

Post-Production Ethics

During post production manipulation of photos is forbidden. Post-production work should focus on correcting color problems, exposure and latitude problems, and slight sharpness problems. Though cropping is allowed any other form of manipulation is indeed forbidden.

Communication skills

Without compassion and trust, one cannot relate to their subjects. To excel as a photojournalist one must convince people to allow you to document their lives, to give you access to their story. Stories are never born in editing rooms or press conferences, they come from people. To be  with them a photojournalist must convince them and be one among them.

Elements/Layers

Every image has many layers to it a politician addressing the crowd shows the politician, however the layers are the crowd, security guards and visual elements in the image. The elements don’t necessarily have to be on a large scale even elements and details that are minimal can influence the content and the theme of the photograph.

Emotion

The most important element of telling stories is emotion. The photojournalist has to be an expert at reading and more importantly anticipating facial expressions. Emotions are the driving factor that induces narrativity in photojournalism. The right emotion in the photograph can drive the story successfully. A deep understanding of semiotics can be of great help for photojournalists. 

Essential tips for Amateur Photographers

Photography is not just an art or science, beyond certain guidelines it is the way how one perceives the world around. So I believe, some tips which I can provide will be of help to photography enthusiasts. Beyond the basic science and epistemology, photography is an art of perception. So as any arts it is a personalized application of knowledge. Here are some basic tips that can ensure each click is not worthy to be deleted.

1. Use the camera to visualize- By the time you hold a camera, ensure that whatever you see to be clicked is seen through your view finder than the LCD monitor. You will find a great difference and improvement (unless under certain circumstances where focusing through view finder is difficult) when you try to use the viewfinder instead of the LCD
2. Be brave to explore- Photography is a choice to explore beyond the ways one is used to perceive reality. Always try to find a different angle and to explore all possibilites of understanding and recreating the subject. A low level or high level angle or something different from the way one is used to view the subject can make a lot of difference. After all it is all about a different perspective. Camera is not an instrument, it is just a device like spectacles.
3. Innovate and learn- Digital photography reduced cost of photography to a huge magnitude. One need not print each click that has been made. Now none has to limit the number of clicks to 12-36. This gives ample room for experimentation in digital photography. Try clicking from different angles and frames and experiment to understand. Evaluate each image and learn from the basics.
4. Visualize and imagine- Always visualize the final output and understand the subject to get into the subject. Pay attention to light, subject, movements, details and composition.
5. Its not about the subject- Always pay attention to the output photograph as a whole than just the subject. Look into the subject, composition, objects, background, 4 corners of the image and the story the image can convey before pressing the shutter release button. Paying attention before clicking is an integral aspect of photography.

Zoom effect in photographs

Zoom effect in photographs are one of the most fascinating and easiest effects to create. The advantage about this effect is that it can be created easily and faster than creating the same effect with a photo-editing software. The resultant photograph will have a distinct image that it make you feel the photograph comes to life when you keep looking at it rocking your head.

Zoom effects can also be used to super-highlight a subject as well as to separate an individual mood from the theme of a group.

To produce the zoom effect

• Keep the Camera steady- as you will be using a slow shutter speed any movement of the camera will significantly impact your shot. A tripod can be used to eliminate any shake to the camera thereby making the photograph more detailed. A still surface can also be used to stabilize the camera. 
• Use a longer shutter speed- A longer shutter speed allows time to create the zoom effect however problems with using longer shutter speeds is that more light is captured making the photograph over exposed. Using a larger aperture (the larger the number the smaller the hole that lets light in) in bright situations will make it possible to use long shutter speeds without over exposing your image. 
• Zoom out of the subject slowly without de-stabilizing the camera. Always work on smooth zooming to get smooth motion lines in your photograph.
• Pause mid-zoom - another technique to experiment is to pause your zooming either at the start, end or during the procedure (while the shutter is still open). This will mean that what your camera sees at the point when you pause your zoom will be stronger and hopefully clearer in your shot.
• Fire your Flash – This produces a strange effect where in the object is focused at one point, leaving motion lines throughout the image. You can do this with virtually any light. Fire it during your long exposure and you’ll freeze part of the image while still getting movement behind and around it.
• Reverse the Zoom – zooming in on a subject can give a different result than zooming out, especially if your subject is moving and depending upon whether you pause at the beginning and or end of the zoom. Experiment with both.
• Partial Zoom – for zoom lenses with very wide focal lengths zoom effect can be too devastating. So then it is advisable to zoom on smaller ranges. If you have a 18-200mm try zooming from 18-100mm or from 80-200mm or even smaller ranges.

Panning in Photography

Panning is the horizontal movement of a camera as it scans a moving subject. Panning creates the feeling of motion and speed without blurring the main subject while rest of the background will be blurred. Panning requires a steady hand and a relatively slow shutter speed. The shutter speed depends also on the speed of the subject. For instance a race car or a jet requires slower shutter speed to capture them sharp and crisp say 1/40 - 1/60 of a second. Keep in mind that the faster your shutter speed is the easier it will be to keep your subject crisp. 

• Make sure your subject remains in the same portion of the frame during the entire exposure. Position yourself in a place where your view of the subject will not be obstructed by anyone or anything else. Also consider the background of your shot. While it will be blurred if there are distracting shapes or colors it could prove to be distracting.
• Track the subject smoothly with your camera. For extra support of your camera if you’re using a longer lens or are feeling a little jittery you might like to use a monopod or tripod with a swivelling head. Positioning parallel with the subject produces best effects.
• Use Auto focus function if the object can be focused or set your camera on pre-focus, anticipating the distance from the subject.
• Continue to pan with the subject, even after you’ve heard the shot is complete. This smooth follow through will ensure the motion blur is smooth from start to finish in your shot. Do not tap the shutter release, release as gently as possible to reduce camera shake. 
• Use a tripod to get better and sharper photographs, they not only provide a stable platform but makes tracking the subject smoother as well. Tripods can be of extreme use especially during clicking moving subjects at low light situations and night. It helps to gain a crispier image and to expose under longer shutter speeds above 1 second.

~Hari Bhagirath Photography 

Vertical framing & Horizontal framing

Photographs can be taken either vertically or horizontally, (tilted shots will be discussed later) Horizontal photographs are wider than they are tall. Vertical photographs are photographs that are taller than they are wide. In photojournalism it is almost mandatory that photographs must be vertical or horizontal given a few exceptions. 

HORIZONTAL FRAMES

Horizontal photographs is the most common photographic orientation. Horizontal images are roughly the same format as how we see the world and have some distinct properties. Horizontal frames can depict a wider perspective. Horizontal images are best used

• When the subject is horizontal
• When your subject is wider than it is tall
• When the subject moves horizontally
• When subject crosses from one side-side of the frame

A horizontal format in conjunction with the rule of thirds visually allows the subject room to continue moving. This will amplify the sense of motion in the image. This also helps to superimpose on the gaze of the subject, giving completeness to the image. Horizontal frames are also used to photograph landscapes giving them depth and detail.

VERTICAL FRAMES

Vertical photographs are taken by tilting the camera sideways. Vertical framing reduces the room and gives intense focus on the subject. Vertical images attempt to imitate the brain's natural selective focus ability. Vertical images are best used

• When the subject is vertical
• When height need to be depicted
• When depicting vertical motion of the subject
• While depicting the gaze (look) of the object either up or down
• Vertical images can be used to focus a viewer's attention

Portraits and single objects are usually taken in vertical frames as they be combined with either the rule of thirds or centering to intensify impact. This helps to focus the depth of the portrait and to superimpose the subject. 

Histograms in Photography

Image histogram is a type of histogram that acts as a graphical representation of the tonal distribution in a digital image. Image histograms are present on many modern digital cameras. Photographers can use them as an aid to show the distribution of tones captured, and whether image detail has been lost to blown-out highlights or blacked-out shadows. So a histogram with lots of dark pixels will be skewed to the left and one with lots of lighter tones will be skewed to the right.

As light tones increases right hand
 side shows a sudden rise

Shot 1

The photograph has a  predominantly lighter tones. As a result on the right hand side of the histogram you can see a sudden rise. The extreme values on the right hand side indicate an over exposed shot. Second shot has a lot of dark tones. The shot is underexposed and the resulting histogram has the values skewed to the left hand side.

Different subjects and photographic styles will produce different histograms. A silhouette produces a histogram with peaks at both ends of the spectrum and nothing much in the middle of the graph. Taking a shot of someone at the snow, extreme sunlight or against a white background will produce a histogram with peaks on the right hand side.

Shot 2

As shades becomes darken in shot2 histogram
shifts 

Histograms with dramatic spikes to the extreme ends of either side of the spectrum may indicate that a lot of pixels are either pure black or pure white. Image could be either over or under exposed. The histogram is just a tool to give you more information about an image and to help you get the effect that you want. Camera shows histograms during the view process to assist you explain how your images are exposed. Learning to read them will help to work out whether you’re exposing a shot as you had hoped. Understanding histograms also helps to understand level correction while post production.

Beginners guide to focal length

• The focal length of a lens is the measurement of the distance from the center of a lens to the point at which its image is focused. The longer the distance, the longer the lens. The longer the lens, the more telephoto capability it have. The shorter that distance, the wider the angle of view. 
• A full-frame digital sensor is equivalent in size to a 35mm film frame, making this the standard focal length baseline that today’s lenses are measured against. Smaller formats often have shorter focal lengths but in “equivalent” terms they’re much more akin to more familiar focal lengths.
• Lenses have various classifications based on focal length and the field of view they provide. A wide-angle lens provides a much greater field of view, and is generally considered to be any lens 40mm or shorter. 40mm-65mm lenses provide an angle of view that approximates that of the human eye. Telephoto lenses on full-frame cameras usually are lenses longer than 70mm, and they range upwards of 300, 600 and even 1000mm. The longer the telephoto, the narrower the angle of view and the greater the magnifying power it provides.
• The effect that a smaller sensor has on a lens of a given focal length is called a crop factor or magnification factor. This is because a smaller sensor produces a similar effect to cropping a larger sensor—effectively magnifying the image. If you photograph sports or wildlife, a 400mm lens placed on a camera with a 1.5 magnification factor would behave more like a 600mm lens.
• Prime lenses have a fixed focal length. Many lenses actually zoom from wide to normal, or normal to telephoto. Extreme zoom lenses actually encompass all these qualities in a single lens—say a wide-angle 30mm lens that can zoom all the way to a 300mm telephoto. These extreme zoom lenses are prized for their portability since they offer such a wide range of focal lengths in a single package. 
• Photographers shopping for point-and-shoot or compact cameras often encounter zoom lens descriptors such as 2X, 3X or 10X. This isn’t actually a representation of the precise focal length of a lens, but rather the zoom range that lens covers. A 2X lens, doubles its focal length from its widest to its longest setting—as in a 35-70mm lens. A 3X zoom triples the focal length (like 35-105), and a 10X zoom multiplies it as in a 35-350mm lens.
• The shorter a lens, the greater the depth of field will be even at wide apertures. In practice that means you have to be more precise when focusing a telephoto lens, whereas wide- angle lenses have such depth of field they can be very forgiving of improper focus. Many photojournalists for years have utilized this “benefit” of wide-angle lenses in difficult shooting environments, not only because they take in more of the scene and provide context, but because they have so much depth of field to provide focus from near to far.
• The longer the focal length of a lens, the more difficult that lens will be to handhold. This is true not only because longer lenses tend to be physically longer and heavier than wide-angle lenses, but also because subtle vibrations and camera shakes are amplified dramatically when using a telephoto lens. A good rule of thumb is to use a minimum shutter speed equivalent to the focal length. It is also advisable to use a tripod to minimize the shakes and vibrations to the lens.
• A macro lens, for instance, can focus extremely close, allowing for great magnification of small objects and fine details. One 100mm lens may be designated macro, while another is not. You’re bound to pay a premium for the added capabilities. 
• Many photographers utilize special devices to change the effective focal length, or at least the performance, of a lens. Teleconverters are popular among wildlife photographers and those who want to double or triple their lens’ focal length without carrying an additional, and often quite expensive, super-telephoto lens. Extension tubes are a similar device, but rather than changing the lens’ effective focal length they simply change the focusing range—making a lens focus much closer and behave more like a macro lens would. Like macro lenses, extension tubes are used to allow close focusing are ideal for flower photography and other close-up uses. The downside with both extension tubes and teleconverters is that each requires a sacrifice in available maximum aperture—often as much as two full stops that turn an ƒ/2 lens into an ƒ/5.6.

Leading Lines

Human eye always have an ability to draw along patterns. By effectively framing the lines and placing lines in your composition, the way the image is perceived by the audience can be affected. This can let the viewer navigate through the image, towards the subject. There are many different types of line - straight, diagonal, curvy, zigzag, radial etc - and each can be used to enhance our photo's composition. Lines can also be used to enhance the balance of the image and to draw attention to the off balanced subject.

Horizontal lines add to the layering of the photographs and adds to the depth of the image. Horizontal lines play a vital role when images of horizons and landscape is taken. This helps to place the subjects and theme in place and to depict the depth of the image. Horizons should generally not be placed in the middle of your frame. This leaves an image unsettled compositionally. A much more effective technique is to place them in the upper or lower third of your frame.

Vertical lines can be used effectively by swapping the way your camera is held. This lengthens the vertical subject further which can emphasize it’s height. It’s important to attempt to keep your vertical lines as much in parallel with the sides of your image.  Placing a line directly in the middle of a shot will effectively cut your image in half. This can be used with dramatic impact but also can leave your image looking segmented.

Diagonal lines generally work well to draw the eye of an image’s viewer through the photograph. They create points of interest as they intersect with other lines and often give images depth by suggesting perspective. 

Benefits & Drawbacks of shooting in RAW

Benefits


Nearly all digital cameras can process the image from the sensor into a JPEG file using settings for white balance, color saturation, contrast, and sharpness that are either selected automatically or entered by the photographer before taking the picture. Cameras that produce raw files save these settings in the file, but defer the processing. This results in an extra step for the photographer, so raw is normally only used when additional computer processing is intended. However, raw has numerous advantages over JPEG such as:

• Higher image quality. Because all the calculations (such as applying gamma correction, demosaicing, white balance, brightness, contrast, etc...) used to generate pixel values (in RGB format for most images) are performed in one step on the base data, the resultant pixel values will be more accurate and exhibit less posterization.
• Bypassing of undesired steps in the camera's processing, including sharpening and noise reduction
• JPEG images are typically saved using a lossy compression format (though a lossless JPEG compression is now available). Raw formats are typically either uncompressed or use lossless compression, so the maximum amount of image detail is always kept within the raw file.
• Finer control. Raw conversion software allows users to manipulate more parameters (such as lightness, white balance, hue, saturation, etc...) and do so with greater variability. For example, the white point can be set to any value, not just discrete preset values like "daylight" or "incandescent". As well, the user can typically see a preview while adjusting these parameters.
• Camera raw files have 12 or 14 bits of intensity information, not the gamma-compressed 8 bits stored in JPEG files (and typically stored in processed TIFF files); since the data is not yet rendered and clipped to a color space gamut, more precision may be available in highlights, shadows, and saturated colors.
• The color space can be set to whatever is desired.
• Different demosaicing algorithms can be used, not just the one coded into the camera.
• The contents of raw files include more information, and potentially higher quality, than the converted results, in which the rendering parameters are fixed, the color gamut is clipped, and there may be quantization and compression artifacts.
• Large transformations of the data, such as increasing the exposure of a dramatically under-exposed photo, result in less visible artifacts when done from raw data than when done from already rendered image files. Raw data leave more scope for both corrections and artistic manipulations, without resulting in images with visible flaws such as posterization.
• All the changes made on a RAW image file are non-destructive; that is, only the metadata that controls the rendering is changed to make different output versions, leaving the original data unchanged.
• To some extent, RAW photography eliminates the need to use the HDRI technique, allowing a much better control over the mapping of the scene intensity range into the output tonal range, compared to the process of automatically mapping to JPEG or other 8-bit representation.

Drawbacks

• Camera raw files are typically 2–6 times larger than JPEG files. While use of raw formats avoids the compression artifacts inherent in JPEG, fewer images can fit on a given memory card. However, the large sizes and low prices of modern memory cards do mitigate this.
• Most raw formats do not use compression or implement light lossless data compression to reduce the size of the files without affecting image quality. But some others use lossy data compression where quantization and filtering is performed on the image data. Many recent cameras let photographers choose between no compression, lossless compression or lossy compression for their raw images.
• The standard raw image format (ISO 12234-2, TIFF/EP) is not widely accepted. DNG, the potential candidate for a new standard format, has not been adopted by many major camera companies. (See "Standardization" section). Numerous different raw formats are currently in use and new raw formats keep appearing, while others are abandoned.
• Because of the lack of widespread adoption of a standard raw format, more specialized software may be required to open raw files than for standardized formats like JPEG or TIFF.
• The time taken in the image workflow is an important factor when choosing between raw and ready-to-use image formats. With modern photo editing software the additional time needed to process raw images has been greatly reduced but it still requires an extra step in workflow.

Should you use JPEG or RAW?
For most of us, saving in JPEG is more than adequate. JPEG files are compressed and, compared to RAW, they are smaller, save faster, and more images can fit on a memory card. Many professional photographers shoot at the highest JPEG image quality.
For ultimate control over white balance, saturation, contrast and sharpening, and/or if you know ahead of time that you intend to print a certain picture super extra large, RAW file format (or, RAW + JPEG) is the ultimate answer. For many professional photographers, there is no substitute to shooting RAW.

RAW File Format

A Raw file is…

• not an image file per se (it will require special software to view, though this software is easy to get).
• typically a proprietary format (with the exception of Adobe’s DNG format that isn’t widely used yet).
• at least 8 bits per color – red, green, and blue (12-bits per X,Y location), though most DSLRs record 12-bit color (36-bits per location).
• uncompressed (an 8 megapixel camera will produce a 8 MB Raw file).
• the complete (lossless) data from the camera’s sensor.
• higher in dynamic range (ability to display highlights and shadows).
• lower in contrast (flatter, washed out looking).
• not as sharp.
• not suitable for printing directly from the camera or without post processing.
• read only (all changes are saved in an XMP “sidecar” file or to a JPEG or other image format).
• sometimes admissable in a court as evidence (as opposed to a changeable image format).
• waiting to be processed by your computer.

A camera raw image file contains minimally processed data from the image sensor of either a digital camera, image scanner, or motion picture film scanner. Raw files are so named because they are not yet processed and therefore are not ready to be printed or edited with a bitmap graphics editor.


Raw image files are sometimes called digital negatives, as they fulfill the same role as negatives in film photography: that is, the negative is not directly usable as an image, but has all of the information needed to create an image. Likewise, the process of converting a raw image file into a viewable format is sometimes called developing a raw image, by analogy with the film development process used to convert photographic film into viewable prints.

Shooting in JPEG

When you shoot in JPEG the camera’s internal software will take the information off the sensor and quickly process it before saving it. Some color is lost as is some of the resolution.


The major actor in this case is the Discrete Cosine Transforamtion (or DCT) which divides the image into blocks (usually 8×8 pixels) and determines what can be “safely” thrown away because it is less perceivable. And when the image is put back together a row of 24 pixels that had 24 different tones might now only have 4 or 5. That information is forever lost without the raw data from the sensor recorded in a Raw file.


The quality of a JPEG taken with a DSLR will still be far better than the same shot taken with a top-of-the-line point-n-shoot camera that is as old as your DSLR. You’ll actually be able to shoot more shots using JPEG than Raw because the slowest part of the whole process is actually saving the file to your memory card – so the larger Raws take longer to save.