Lonely Coffee Cherry
Coffee Cherry
Tv: 1/400 s; Av: F/4.5; f: 6 mm (35mm-equiv: 38 mm)
Post-processing using Picasa (I’m feeling lucky)
This picture was shot at my native village where coffee cherries were being dried prior to extracting the coffee bean. Here are more details of coffee processing.
Some of the things I like about this photo:
- This snap is an example of how the rule-of-thirds could be used to create a visually pleasing effect. This snap might not have been as pleasing had the coffee cherry been smack in the center of the snap!
- I liked the shadow effect to some extent.
- The depth-of-field is just right. The subject itself, and the area immediately surrounding it; is in focus. There is that gradual loss of focus as you move away from the main subject.
Having said that, here are some flip-sides of this snap:
- Camera-shake – Even though I was shooting at 1/400s, and I was making good use of the “flip-and-rotate”-able LCD screen on my camera; I was still not able to fully eliminate the camera shake. My unbalanced posture, and the camera position (with the lens just inches from the ground) dint help either. However, I think I could have gotten the perfect still hand, had I tried a bit more.
- Shadow angle – yes; the same shadow effect which I liked is also a negative for this snap. If you notice, some part of the cherry is under its own shadow! I somehow feel if I had shot this thing from the other side, I would have got the shadow effect; minus the darkening of the subject itself.
- Size reference – It would have been nice if I had placed some other object unobtrusively in the picture (perhaps a flower), to give viewers an idea of the size of the subject. There are people who thought this thing was a dried coconut!
Readers’ comments are welcome as always!
Festive Eruption
Festive Eruption - Deepavali 2008
Shooting Mode: SCN (Fireworks).
Tv: 2s; Av: F/8.0; f: 26.8mm (35mm-equivalent: 169 mm)
At the outset, let me state that I view this post as a “How-NOT-to-take-a-photo” article of sorts 🙂
This was an experimental snap. The camera has a “Scenery” mode (SCN on the dial); which has supposedly optimal settings for various kinds of scenery (beach, snow, foliage, fireworks etc). I shot a few snaps of fireworks using the “Fireworks” setting in the SCN mode. And I learnt a few things:
- The settings (at least for fireworks) are not optimal. As you see, fully closing the aperture and keeping the shutter open for 2 seconds is not my idea of photographing bursts of fireworks.
- These settings are probably for the spectacular display which you see high in the sky – ya those expensive, expansive types which you see in fireworks shows/competitions. Come to think of it – yes – a 2 sec shutter speed probably makes sense for those kinds.
- Or maybe closing the aperture might be for videos not photos? (BTW, do these settings even matter in the case of videos?)
Ya I do agree that the slower shutter makes for the “spreading” effect. However, If I had to re-take this snap, I would probably use F/2.7 and a shutter speed as fast as the lighting conditions would allow me (Manual Mode of course); especially considering that I was trying to achieve the following:
- Capture a split-second burst of the eruption.
- Shoot hand-held.
- Struggle to avoid the over-exposure (you’l probably appreciate this point if you see the other snaps in this “series” – over exposed to the point of blinding you if viewed full-screen!).
Flash of Brilliance
Dusk at Pondicherry
Tv: 5 sec; Av: F/8; ISO: 100; f: 15.6mm (35mm-eq: 99 mm)
The credit for this photo goes to my buddy, Rahul. Take a bow Rahul – this one is a gem. One of my favorites.
This was the first time I was trying long exposure times. It took quite some amount of fiddling to get the tripod set up proper. The strong wind dint help either (not exactly the ideal ingredient in a long-exposure shot).
In addition, this was photo was shot in RAW format. However, being totally illiterate as far as RAW image processing is concerned; I have just reproduced the “default” JPG that my camera had painted out of this particular RAW image.
I seek advice on how this RAW image could have been processed better!
Soft drink for the primates
Mirindaaaaah!
Av: F/3.5; Tv: 1/60; f: 72 mm (35mm-equiv: 454 mm); WB: Cloudy
Ok .. given the chance to re-take this snap, I would
- Use a faster shutter-speed (for gods sake, with that kind of zoom – I ought to have done that)
- As a consequence of point 1, open up the aperture to F/2.7 (what kind of idiot takes a split second snap with so much zoom without fully opening up the aperture?)
- I honestly have no idea why I used that “cloudy” white balance setting. I’d set it to default.
- This snap obeys the rule-of-thirds; only – the subject is in the wrong third of the photo! Given a second chance, I’d shift my ancestor to the right side of the frame.
- I’d probably want to fine tune the depth-of-field .. but given the very short time within which I’d have to click the snap – probably i’d keep the DOF as least priority.
Towering Above Everything Else
Petronas twin towers, Kuala Lumpur
Av:F/2.7; Tv: 1/20; ISO: 80;f: 6mm (35mm-eq: 38 mm)
At first glance, I thought this was an outstanding snap (yeah-yeah .. i patted myself on the back and stuff!). But when I examined it later, I found quite a few shortcomings:
- As a rule of thumb, tall structures should be shot in Portrait mode. Especially the once-tallest-building-on-earth. Of course, this is not a hard-and-fast rule. However, I think that this snap would have been much better had I rotated my camera 90 deg while clicking it.
- Even in landscape mode, it is not properly centered. I feel that symmetry is very important for these kinds of photos. Even if there was not perfect symmetry at the time of clicking the snap, I could have fixed it during post-processing (by rotating the picture a bit and inserting black background).
- There is still an oh-so-faint camera shake (you can discern it if you see the top of the tower on the your right). I probably should have gone for faster shutter. But that would have meant higher ISO and the accompanying noise.
- Probably giving it a Vivid Skin Tone might have enhanced the overall effect.
What other problem do you see with this snap? Comments are welcome!
The Self-Critic Shutter-Bug 