Photography

I recently did a long overdue meeting with a friend of mine. Actually, he is a friend by default. His mother and my mother are real good friends from their childhood. So, goes a long way huh? Anyway, it was a real pleasure meeting Abhijeet Patil. He works in Torrance California. He is only minutes away from a couple of real nice beaches. He took me their to eat Mexican food on the beach-front and then we had a short walk on the beach before returning to our work. Very good guy. His other facet is that he is a wonderful photographer. He has uploaded all his photos on flickr here. I shared his online photo album with my friends via email. That set off a conversation that surely needs to be broadcasted. I have planted the one email from Abhijeet that tells a lot to a photography newbie. Without much further ado, I give you this:

Kartik, I am a relative n00b myself, so not sure if I have anything of major insight. But I can surely share a few of my learnings over the past year and a half or so.

To begin with, here is my set up:

Nikon D80

Nikkor 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 lens (kit lens which came with the camera - really handy "walking-around" lens)

Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 super wide-angle lens (by far my favorite lens)

Sigma 70-300mm f/4-5.6 macro/telephoto (definitely should have spent more money and gotten a better lens)

For me Internet in general and Wikipedia in particular have been an invaluable resource in understanding the basics of photography. These three pages in particular:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aperture

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shutter_speed

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exposure_%28photography%29

Even with elementary understanding of these 3 components, you can improve your shots dramatically.

Taking a photo pretty much boils down to how effectively you use the light in any shot and how you manipulate light to get the effect you want. I would recommend that you start shooting in manual mode. Keep a close eye on the camera meter -- in case you aren't familiar with it, the last diagram on this page shows you where to look for it: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/NikonD40/page3.asp. The "0" indicates "correct exposure".

As you take more photos, you will realize that the camera is not always correct. For instance, in a scene which comprises of both brightly lit areas and areas with deep shadows, you will have to make a choice which area you want to accentuate in the shot. If you expose for the shadow, the bright areas in the shot run the risk of being washed-out. Similarly, if you expose for the brighter spots, the darker areas might turn almost pitch dark and you'll loose detail in those sections.

I mostly operate in manual or in "aperture priority" mode -- especially in bright daylight. AP is where you control the aperture (f stop) and let the camera determine the shutter speed. Aperture is very useful in determining the DOF, or depth of field. If you want a shallow DOF (main subject in focus and background blurry), use a larger f stop (smaller number). And if you want a deep DOF (sharp photo with most visible detail), use a smaller f stop (larger number). With your lens, the largest f stop number at 18mm is f/3.5 and smallest is f/22; and f/5.6 - f/38 at 55 mm. Typically for a lens of this range, the sharpest photos come out between f5.6 - f8.

A good way to learn about which settings to use in what circumstances is, of course, to take a lot of photos. But you could also explore websites like Flickr and look at the "EXIF" data that a lot of photos display. A lot of times you will see a photo and wonder what setting was used to make it possible. Studying the EXIF data, which is stored as image information on almost every JPG, helps a lot. For example, this photo ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/abhijit/603679429/) taken at night and this photo (http://www.flickr.com/photos/abhijit/540052578/ ) taken in bright daylight will obviously have different settings. And you can see what controls were used if you scroll down the page and click on the "more properties" link on the right hand side. For the record, almost all of my photos go through Photoshop.

Which brings me to my next point: Post Processing. I think post processing has earned a wrong reputation with the general public. Do not shy away from using post processing to retouch your photos. And here's why: I'm assuming that more often than not, you'll shoot photos in JPG. And JPG is essentially extremely good camera guess work, based on complex algorithms, on how an image should look. If you take a photo of, say, an apple, the camera is basically going to guess how red the apple is or what shade of red the apple is and compress that information into JPG format. But it will not be a 100% match. This is where post processing comes into play. Think of it as a digital darkroom. BTW, if you have Photoshop, well and good. If you don't, try Gimp: http://www.gimp.org/windows/

As for white balance, it is mostly about reproducing the correct color in any giving light. To begin with, you could just match the description on the WB setting to the conditions you're shooting in. For instance, if you are shooting in cloudy conditions, use the "cloudy" WB setting. You will mostly find it effective when you are shooting in, say, a bar lit mostly by neon lighting. With automatic WB, your photos will veer to one end of the color spectrum. But if you use the appropriate WB setting, the camera will capture truer colors.

Phew! All clear as mud? Good.

Just be careful because this hobby might just suck you in and before you know it, you'll be up till 3 in the morning working on your photographs.

Anyway, man, hope that at least 25% of this gibberish makes sense. Have fun shooting!

And so crumbles the cookie.