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Photographing Festivals in India

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Festivals, rituals, community celebrations and cultural events are among the most exciting events for shutterbugs to capture. They are a great way to learn about the local culture, customs and people and portray a foreign culture and country with lively photographs. Photographers are naturally drawn to colourful and vibrant subject matter, and most festivals are just like that, colourful in every sense of the word. There are colourful floats, costumes, crafts, food, and merchandise, and you will also find many colourful characters among the participants in the festival. But because festivals consist of moving performers or participants and large crowds of spectators, they are also among the most difficult subject matter to photograph seamlessly. In most cases you only have a fraction of a second to choose an interesting subject, focus your camera, choose your settings and press the shutter. To make the most of your festival experience as a photographer, you need to be ready to make quick decisions about when and what to photograph. A little preparation ahead of time will go a long way and help you make amazing pictures. 

Matt Zimmerman

In a country like India where people of vast religious and cultural differences exist documenting the ongoing festivals which come to knock doors almost one every month is a fun challenge most photographers would take up. We shall discuss some of the basic preparations that will help you to photograph a festival better than you would have without any sort of preparation. 

Choosing the Right Festival

Catherine Marciniak

If you are travelling there are chances that you will accidentally come across local festivals, but it is a good idea to plan ahead and do some research to find out which are the ones going on at the time of your trip. Ask yourself what type of festival or cultural event interests you the most. Do you like large events with thousands of participants and millions of spectators, or small local festivals which have a more relaxed atmosphere and offer a more intimate view of local life and culture? Do you enjoy religious festivals or celebrations of local cultural traditions? Some take place only on one day, while others last days or even weeks. For example Ganesh Chaturthi in Mumbai is celebrated for ten days at a stretch and the 11th day the idol immersion takes places where lakhs of people come to bid adieu to the lord. So it mainly depends on your taste in festivals and how you want to portray them. 

Learn About the Festivals 

Abhishek Shirali

If you want to take pictures that effectively portray a festival, you should find out beforehand what the festival celebrates and concentrates on and what it means. Is it a festival dedicated to a specific patron or saint, or is it a festival celebrating local culture and traditions? Then you should make sure to take pictures of most important parts of the of the procession, so that they feature the patron or the saint. If you are attending a cultural festival that shows different aspects of local culture such as handicrafts, music, art, and dance, then make sure that your pictures reflect the diversity of cultural activities. If you are attending a parade or procession, it can be a great advantage to find out the route of a parade or the programme of an event in advance. This allows you to plan ahead and choose a good vantage point from which to take pictures.

Finding an Observation 

Avinash Singh

Point One of the major challenges of taking pictures of festivals is to position yourself in such a way that you have enough space around you to move and select your subject matter while being close to the action. To take good pictures of crowded events, it is important to step back to get a better view of the event. Try to find a doorway or stand against a wall to make sure that your back is covered, but also try to find a good vantage point (such as a low wall, bench, or an overbridge), where you can be slightly above the crowd and have a better view of the ongoing activities. This allows you to stay in one position and take pictures as the parade or processions moves past you. 

Sometimes the layout of the street or the place would not allow you for a vantage point from which to observe and photograph the activities. In this case you must go where the action is and immerse yourself in the crowd. Remember that you would not be alone and you will be competing with other photographers for the best position. Have your camera ready to shoot and be prepared to take pictures quickly, since people are moving and won’t hold their positions for long. Digital-SLR cameras have a continuous shooting mode, which allows you take several shots per second. This is a great feature to photograph moving objects. You can also take Full HD videos on your DSLR and later take screen grabs from the video. However, the quality of a single movie frame is never as good as a still shot.

Choose a Variety of Subject Matters 

Thejas Panarkandy

To document a festival and create a visual story out of the pictures, it is important to focus on detail and individual participants in the celebration. This is the main challenge of taking photos of festivals i.e. to tell the story of the people who participate in it and not just show pictures of crowds. Pictures of masses do not really tell a story and rarely make great photos. But if you decide to show a large crowd, make sure there is a central point of interest, such as a float or group of participants that stands out visually. Otherwise your pictures will just show a confusing mass of people without any focus or point of interest. Instead of general wideangle shots, try to take pictures that are characteristic of the festival and at the same time show interesting people. There may be floats that are carried or driven, dancers, musicians, and a variety of vendors in addition to the audience. Try taking a few pictures of all these different people to create a lively and authentic portrayal of the festival.

Lighting Conditions 

Lumix UK

Unfortunately you cannot choose the time of day a festival takes place. If you take pictures mid-day you may end up with washed out colours and overexposed highlights. In the late afternoon the light is warm and your pictures will have an orange tint. Is the sun low in the horizon? Then the surrounding buildings will soon cast a long shadow on the festival activities, which will affect your photographs. So before you indulge in the revelry during a parade or festival, do a quick check of the weather and lighting conditions to make sure your photographs turn out as desired. If you take a picture of festival activities against a bright background, consider using your flash to brighten up the foreground. A powerful external flash will also help you light up dark scenes. Keep in mind that the built-in flash on most cameras is only intended to brighten objects that are reasonably close. If you want to take pictures at a greater distance, you should get an external flash. Also keep in mind that when using a flash, the shutter speed on most cameras is automatically set to 1/60 of a second, which is too slow to capture moving objects or people. Don’t forget to keep in mind that your camera’s auto-focus may not work well after it is dark, since it depends on contrast to measure distance. So consider external lighting such as flash and faster lenses with apertures of f/2.8 or higher.
 
Camera Equipment 
Since most festivals and cultural events take place in public spaces right in front of your eyes, you do not really need a long range telephoto lens. In fact, since there is a lot of movement during a festival, it is better to use a wide-angle zoom lens, which is usually faster and allows you to shoot with a higher shutter speed. The built-in zoom lenses in pocket and compact cameras should be sufficient to take great shots during a festival. The automatic exposure function on most cameras will choose an average setting of aperture and shutter speed, but since you will be photographing moving people, you should choose a manual setting with a higher shutter speed. This assures that your pictures of moving people are not blurry. Some cameras have automatic exposure presets, such as “portrait, “landscape,” or “sports,” which makes it easy to choose a setting that is suitable for the event. 
All digital SLRs and many compact digital cameras give you the option of saving photos in RAW format. This is an unprocessed image format that gives you greater freedom to adjust the image on your computer later. For example, when shooting in RAW format you could significantly brighten a dark image by changing its exposure value later. Although this method is not a substitute for ideal lighting conditions, it gives you greater control over the image, and you might be able to turn dark or overexposed photos into attractive pictures. The only drawback is that the RAW files are much larger than JPEG files (the most common format used by digital cameras). To avoid running out of memory, you should bring several memory cards and use cards with the highest memory capacity your camera can read. 

Safety Concerns 

sandeepachetan

Large festivals with large crowds also attract pickpockets and thieves who would not let any opportunity miss out of their hands. Pay careful attention to your surroundings while taking pictures. Since there is constant action during a festival, there is no time to put the camera in your bag between taking pictures, and you will most likely carry it around your neck during the course of the event. Keep a satchel or a waist pouch for easy access of your stuff like filters, memory cards and mobile phones, a wiping cloth and other important accessories. Keep your valuables like wallet and cash inside your bag and zip the bag properly. A handy waist pouch is the best option. Keep a bottle of drinking water and edibles like chocolate bars and biscuits along with you as dehydration and an empty stomach will assumingly give you more trouble than the crowd you are probably thinking of going inside. Wear comfortable rugged clothes which can take a few stretches without ripping apart. Cover your head with a scarf or a cap in case of sunny and hot situations. Keep your phone charged so you can contact for help whenever you feel something is out of your hand. Keep a cool attitude and do not indulge in any major conversations with anyone which would kill your valuable time. Last but not the least enjoy and immerse yourself in the beauty of the festival and every picture you make will be beautiful.

Shooting dramatic sky

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Skies are one of the most photographed subjects and make for some really interesting photographs. Shooting skies can seem like an easy job but there are ways to get brilliant and dramatic photographs of skies as well. We will talk in-depth about the different aspects of using the sky as a centre of attraction in your photographs. Sky makes for amazing photographs and makes normal day-to-day pictures pop out. But there are challenges associated with shooting dramatic images including the sky in the frame. Challenges like controlling exposure, being in the right place at the right time etc. Let’s discuss each point in details to have a better understanding of the topic.

Golden hour 

Antony Griffiths

It is important to know what a golden hour is, if you wish to become a landscape photographer. Golden hour is the time of the day when the light is perfect for photography. It is usually considered to be the period shortly after sunrise and shortly before sunset. The light at that time is soft and usually has a reddish tone to it which pops the features in a photograph. This light makes for the best cloudscapes. As a photographer, one has to set himself or herself up for the shot sometime before the actual golden hour. During this time the light changes drastically and unpredictably. It is always advisable to be ready to take a shot of the perfect moment. 

Include clouds 

Alan Chadwick

An empty sky, while beautiful, might not make for the greatest photographs. If the sky is perfectly blue it might compliment a photograph of a monument or cityscape but will not draw as much attention. Including clouds in your otherwise normal shot will make it look much more interesting. Beautiful cloudscapes have become the backbone of landscape photography these days. Clouds provide shapes and textures to photos. It also adds a sense of vastness to the photograph.

Use a wide angle lens 

Using a wide lens sounds to be pretty straight forward. But it is important to know when and where to use a wide lens. A wide lens adds a sense of depth to the photographs. Cloudscapes look amazing when shot with wide lenses. During the golden hours it also allows one to show more lights and colours as it captures a greater angle of view. Using a wide lens when shooting monuments etc with cloudscapes is not advisable as a monument might look distorted in extreme wide angles. If you are not sure of what lens would be appropriate try both and see which one feels right. More often than not, the wide lens will look more visually interesting. 

Be patient 

Patience is a key attribute to photographing cloudscapes. While some might think that photography is all about the camera and how the user uses it, for this particular genre patience is the key to having the most dramatic photos. Since clouds are unpredictable and nature changes every second it is highly likely that a photographer might have to wait a long time for the perfect shot. If you do not want to wait for too long then try visiting the places during the golden hour. It is almost always the best time to get cloudscapes. Choosing your shooting spot beforehand is a must since you can plan your shoot accordingly. It is important to remember that sometimes even the utmost patience will not yield expected results but that should not get a photographer disheartened. The hunger for good photographs should drive one’s passion. 

Include other elements 

Clouds make for amazing photographs but shooting just clouds is not enough. Silhouettes of people, monuments, bridges or even a mountain range or any other object looks good with cloudscapes. Clouds alone do not make good pictures since there is no single point of attraction. Shooting just clouds is like shooting patterns. You need to break a pattern to provide for the eye of a viewer to wander and fix itself on a single object in the frame. Including other elements makes photographs more interesting and breaks the monotony. 

Control exposure 

One of the most difficult things to do while shooting dramatic cloudscapes is controlling the exposure. There are a few workarounds to the challenges. Using ND filters, Polarizing filters are a good way to bring down the exposure of the sky if you do not want your foreground to be silhouetted. If the subject (foreground) is close to the camera using a flash can create beautiful photographs as well. But make sure that the flash is not too harsh as the foreground will be completely spoilt otherwise. Make sure that while shooting cloudscapes, you do not aim your camera directly at the sun. Sometimes underexposing a little might dramatise the sky.

Developing Your Creative Style

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When we look at photographs on the internet or in magazines and newspapers sometimes some photos instantly grab our attention. ‘Something different’ we say. In a world where millions of photographs, maybe more, are taken every year and it is becoming increasingly difficult to stand out in terms of subject matter, editing styles, finding inspiration and so on. So, how do we stand out? The answer is in finding your own creative style.



Master the basics

One needs to learn how to walk before they can run. The basics are the foundation to photography. Before getting all philosophical and artsy about creative styles and everything else, a photographer needs to learn the basics like framing, composition, using a DSLR, depth of field, ISO, shutter speed, aperture etc. How does that help, one might ask. The simplest explanation is comparing a human being from the early 1980s and a human being from 2017 trying to do the same task on a smartphone. The person from the present will be able to do it much faster and efficiently- in fact the person can have more time to do the job at hand and also some other things in the stipulated time given. This means that if a photographer knows the basics of photography he or she can concentrate on the creativity, take more number of shots from different angles etc without having to guess the shutter speed, aperture and all. The basics should be on the edge of your fingertips, so that for all kinds of lights – be it natural, ambient or artificial set-ups, you can instantly guess the correct camera settings and start shooting right away. Photography being a mix of science and arts needs special attention and care, and mastering your basics will help you do just that!



Get involved

Now that you have learned the basics well and can shoot without having to keep on calculating and guessing the exposure in the back of your mind try to go on the field and start shooting. Try out every genre and see which one attracts you. If you feel the need for different equipments for different genres then ask your friends for a lens that suits your needs. Don’t invest a lot of money to shoot one genre before trying out everything as you might lose interest in the genre after a little while. Once you have extensively shot for all genres, and known the genres in and out you, can make a decision then. When you start feeling good about a genre, start getting involved in it. Learn about it, work on it. For example, if you feel you feel good shooting wedding photos then start shooting for weddings professionally. Intern from a well-known and experienced photographer in the field. It is the best and also the fastest way to learn from the best.



Analyse your image

Just as shooting an image is important, analysing the shots later on is important too. Make sure you do not chimp while you shoot as there is a high possibility that you will miss out on a few frames. Analyse your images and look for mistakes. Look at the composition, the framing, the exposure, the moment and try to ask yourself how you could’ve made it better and made the photograph stronger. Do not just analyse if the image is good or bad. Go into the details and try to understand how it would have been better. From imagining adding foregrounds or a different background, to considering a shallower depth of field or changing the angle. Learning from your own mistake is the best way to learn. Remember that it is okay to make mistakes as long as you learn from it. You can only analyse your images if you know the basics well. You can always break the basic rules of composition as long as you can justify it with a valid reason. Try to work on a series of photographs and test yourself. Shooting single images is good but shooting a photo essay will improve your storytelling. See if your content is strong or not, try to find extremes. For example if you are doing a story on the visually impaired, find an interesting angle like the village in Maharashtra where a large percentage of the population is visually impaired. Since photographs are a visual medium it is always best to find extremes.



Find your inspiration

Many great people have worked hard in every field and have set examples for people to follow. Photography has also seen some forefathers who have paved the way for people to follow. Finding an inspiration is a good way to not lose hope when, at one point in your life, you will face a creative block. Look at photos in your genre of interest which are shot by masters. Try to look at their composition, their framing and their ‘treatment’ of the image so to speak. In the age of the internet it is extremely important that you surf the web and see what other photographers in the genre are doing – both so that you can get inspired by them as well as you know what other styles contemporary photographers have adopted. Do not try and imitate them as you will just become a clone of the photographer. Try to draw inspiration and make your own style. We will talk about what a ‘style’ is in the next pointer.



Style of shooting

What fonts are to words is what style of shooting is to photographs. It does not necessarily affect the content of the photograph but makes it more appealing and adds a little bit of personal touch to them. Your style of shooting is what will separate you from the rest of the photographers. Emulating other people’s style is not going to work as your body of work will start resembling other photographs. Try to find your style of shooting – whether playing with colours is your thing, or playing with shapes, patterns, repeating a certain object or idea in every frame. Make it relatable so that the common people understand. Storytelling should be straightforward. If you want to be contemporary then try to be different in that as well. It’s fine if others are shooting staged portraits and you feel one of your stories require that. Keeping the base idea similar, it is okay as long as your approach and your final output is not eerily similar.


Style of editing

Another important aspect of finding your own style is the post processing. Professional photographers often employ other post processing professionals to edit their photographs. But for a beginner or a new professional who is just starting to find their own style of photography and discover the different aspects of it, post processing your own photographs become extremely important. Keeping the style and tone similar for all photographs can be beneficial in a sense that people who look at a photograph can associate you with it. It becomes like a signature, which is unique for everyone. Try playing with your photographs in Photoshop or any other editing software and see which editing style best suits you. The correct amount of shadow, highlight, mid-tones, contrast, offset etc in all your photographs will definitely create that signature that you were looking for!





Colours are not scary

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We have come a long way since black and white film photography. Ever since colour films came in the market people have used it to create images that look and feel more natural. But in recent times we have seen photographers avoiding colour and opting to shoot or edit images in black and white. In this article we try to understand the implications of the recent spike in the use of black and white and why photographers should not refrain from shooting in colour.


Finding inspiration 
Finding inspiration from legendary photographers who shoot black and white images is one thing, but trying to emulate or copy their style is completely wrong. Many amateurs today, due to lack of guidance end up following and imitating the masters, thus losing out on creating something new. Establishing one’s own style is extremely important and sticking to shooting or editing black and white photos is not going to help. There are many well-known photographers who shoot colour. Following their work closely can lead to a lot of ideas which can in-turn help a photographer develop his or her own style of shooting. One should always remember that drawing inspiration is one thing, but blindly imitating frames and composition is unacceptable. There is a fine line between the two and the photographer needs to perfectly balance himself or herself. 


Analysing images 
Analysing images taken by other people is also an important task. Look at the colour schemes. See which colour gels well with which environment. Read about the colour wheel and learn about complimentary colours. Colours are very easy to handle and getting scared of taking colour photos will only restrict your photography. Colour photos make for much more appealing pictures and catches the viewer’s eyes instantly. The colour wheel will help you to mix and match colours in the environment or in a studio setting to bring out the best in your photo. Learning more about primary colours will help you look at your frame from a completely different perspective. Once you start shooting keeping the complimentary primary and secondary colours in mind, using colour in your photographs will become easier. Looking at images shot by other photographers will help in developing your eye to seeing and observing colours in your environment. The biggest challenge in shooting great colourful photos is actually noticing the colour. Since our eyes are used to looking at the world in colour, we take it for granted and do not notice the colours around us in everyday life. 


Always shoot colour 
No matter what the surrounding is and what the frame is, if you are shooting JPEG images always shoot in colour. Even if you feel that you will want the frame to be black and white, do not shoot black and white in-camera. Shooting in colour will provide you with flexibility and a lot of scope to edit in post production. Do not restrict yourself to shooting black and white as a photograph might look much better in colour. Decide what you want the end product to be, once you have seen it on your monitor. There are times when you will change your mind about it and shooting in in-camera black and white will restrict you from changing it further. 


Colour correct your monitor 
There will be times when you will see that the hours spent on editing one image has gone to waste because the photo looks completely different in other screens or even in print. Remember to colour correct your monitor if you want to see the true colours. Different monitors will show different shades of colours for the same image thus rendering your editing useless if your monitor is not colour corrected. There are various colour correcting tools and software available in the market. Spyder 5 by datacolor is one such tool that creates a unique colour profile according to your monitor’s display thus calibrating your monitor to display true colours.


Practise 
Like any other fear, be it fear for driving, swimming or even fear of studying, practice helps with getting rid of fear. Colour is not scary at all if you know how to use it to your advantage. The beauty of colour is incomparable and if used correctly can make for astounding images. While it is okay to shoot black and white images and sometimes, undoubtedly it might work better than colour, it does not mean colour should be avoided. Human eyes love and are generally attracted to colour. Right from our childhood we perceive colour as something alluring and this holds true for photographs as well. So practise shooting colour photographs and you will eventually get things right.
 

Tips for Shooting Music Concert

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Photographing live music concerts can be very exciting. While it looks exciting, it is one of the most challenging fields in photography. Imagine your favourite artist is performing in front of you and you get the chance to click his or her photographs. However, with uncontrolled environment, uncontrolled lighting that is constantly changing. On top of that, there are hundreds and thousands of people who paid money to enjoy the event and they are not at all bothered that they are coming in your frame. Also, what equipments do you needs to shoot the music concert? In this article we are giving some basic tips on how to shoot your first music concert, and what camera settings and equipment you require to get the desired result. 

Getting started


The ideal way to get started into music concert photography is to begin with shooting in small clubs because in such venues you can easily get access to shoot the photographs without any press identity proof. So that’s why these are the best locations to experiment with your camera settings and getting used to being in front of the stage. If you have some of your friends who play in a band, you can ask them for their photo shoot to be done by you. Of course they would be more than happy to have pictures of their concerts. But the problems with such venues are the lack of light on stage. So the musicians look so horrible in such light. And because of such low light it is very difficult to get the sharp photos. So what will be the solution for this? 

Buy a fast and cheap prime lens 


Fast and prime lenses are the ideal solution for the above mentioned problem. In low light situation to get the sharper shots, using the fast and prime lens is the only solution unless your camera can support the higher ISO sensitivity without giving much noise. But as a beginner we would recommend you the 50mm F/1.8 prime lens because of its ability to shoot in low light at its lowest aperture. You can also use flash in low light situation but using direct flash can ruin the effect. 

Getting the correct exposure 


One of the major things in photography is getting the correct exposure by measuring the amount of light. And during the live music concerts there are several sets of repetitive light. You should keep in mind the correct parameters for the different lights. You should always check your histogram and check for the overexposed points to ensure that your main subject is exposed properly. One of the worst things is to get back home with a picture that looks good on your camera screen but on your computer it looks overexposed or underexposed. So we recommend you to shoot in Raw so that you can compensate for the exposure if necessary. 

Get the best results out from ISO 


Increasing the ISO can cause noise, but it is better to take a bit noisy photos sometimes than missing the action totally or taking blurry photos. You can also reduce the noise later with some image editing software. Converting photo into black and white can be a better option for noisy photos. 

Choose the ideal settings and shooting mode 


Choosing the right shooting mode depends on every individual, so you can choose whatever fits to your style. But still shooting on aperture priority mode (AV) and keeping the aperture value as low as possible (ex. F/1.8 or F/2.8 depending on your lens) will be ideal and fast. Some people also shoot in manual mode. Shoot on burst mode so that you will get variety of action shots rather than shooting on single shot. Also keep your metering mode on spot metering because the stage lighting always keeps changing and you will never know if the light will hit the artist’s face in the next second or not. Keep extra empty memory cards with you always. 

Get creative with spotlights and silhouettes 


Sometimes when it’s too dark and you are so far from the stage and you can’t use the flash also from that distance, in such situation you can wait for the spotlight to fall on the artist. You might get very interesting results with those dark images that are lit just by the spotlight. It is actually looks better than the frame where everything is lit. Also when there is lighting changing rapidly in a usually dark place, we will recommend you to try for shooting silhouettes. Choose the silhouette that is very clear so that viewer can see and understand what the subject in the frame is even if it’s without light. These kinds of photos you can shoot when there is no light on subject and the only lights are the ones behind the band or the subject. 

Composition 


Now that we have discussed all the technical issues to photograph a concert, we must not forget to discuss the composition as well. In concerts, it is not likely that every photo will be technically perfect, but you should capture the story and a good interesting composition. Sometimes it could be just a close up of an artist’s facial expression, or just the guitar, or sometimes whole band. It all depends on your artistic vision and equipment constraints. 

Conclusion 
Concert photography is fun and exciting though it is not easy at all. The key to success is a lot of practice before you go to shoot a big concert. Try various tricks to help you if you cannot take a sharp photo at first. It can be hard to look around during the concert, but keep your eyes always open and camera ready.

Fire up your creativity

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There is more to being a photographer than simply being able to handle the camera. One of the important factors required includes creativity. Being a photographer, it is important that you always think creatively. But the flow of creativity might sometimes become weak or altogether stagnant. In such times, you need to fire up your creativity in any way possible. In this article we will list some of the ways that you can light a spark to your creativity that might be rusting. We will list out some project ideas that you can undertake. 

Restrictions 


Do a project or shoot by creating random restrictions to your shooting. Some of these limits can include using only a prime lens, shooting images with negative space, ensuring there are no people or structures in the frame, using only manual mode, shooting only b/w, over or underexposing your images, spot meter only etc. You can make these rules up. Once you start shooting with a restriction, you will realise how it is not the easiest task. However, it will force you to think creatively and improve your photography. 

Shoot with a film camera 
Go back to the roots and grab a film camera and shoot a roll of film. When you start shooting with a film camera, you will realise that unlike the DSLR, you cannot simply fire the camera and click endless shots. The film camera will have a limit of images, so you will be forced to carefully analyse your shots before shooting. You will have to think of composition, camera settings, light etc. This exercise is definitely a great way to get you to think before shooting. Once you get the film processed, you will get the actual prints of your photos, and you can accordingly critique the shots. 

Shoot 10 images of a small subject 


Select one specific subject and then give yourself a number, it could be 5, 10 or 15, and shoot these many images of that same subject. This exercise will make you think about the various different ways that you could capture the same subject. Make you think of composition, angles, lighting etc. However, make sure that the small subject does not mean your whole city! 

Shoot elements in same location 


Think of different photographic elements like shape, form, pattern, texture, light, shadow, depth etc, and then go to a specific location and try to capture images that would feature these images. This little exercise will increase your observational skill, and make you think of different creative ways of shooting. 

Capture the alphabets 
This exercise is a tricky one, and there are two ways that you could do it. Go out and shoot the 26 letters from A-Z. While you can either go shoot images of things that would appear like the alphabet (for example a round manhole for the letter ‘O’, or else you can go and shoot objects or actions that start with that alphabet. If you are doing the first task, then do not shoot actual letters out there, and if you’re doing the second task, make sure you shoot images which clearly depict the action. 

Single theme 
This would probably be an easy project, but nevertheless can be very creatively fulfilling. Give yourself a single theme or a topic. This can be anything, from colourful window panes or vintage cars to street cats or babies. You are free to choose any theme you like and then you can go out and find these subjects and shoot them in an interesting way possible. You will start relating to the subject and discover much more about it. 

A day in the life 


One of our favourite photography projects to undertake is this one. Find an interesting subject; this can be a policemen, your local tea-seller, the gardener, or simply your grandmother, and then accompany them around the entire day shoot them the entire day. Your images should capture the essence of the person’s day, and give the viewer a humanistic in-depth look into the person and their daily-life. 

Middle of the day 


One of most common excuses photographers give to not go out and shoot is “it’s the middle of the day, there’s bad lighting”. With this exercise you will be forced to step out in the middle of the day in “bad lighting” and shoot images. For a week or a month, everyday, go out in the afternoon, and shoot. At the end of this exercise you will realise that you have actually learned how to click images in such lighting conditions. 

Same subject, different times of the day 


Another very creatively fulfilling exercise, shooting the same subject at different times of the day is a great exercise in lighting. The easiest way to do this is to select landmarks, or historical buildings in your city, and then shoot them at different times of the day. You can then compare the different images, and you will see how light affects subjects, and how you can tackle it using different settings. 

Self portrait 
While today selfies are very common, these are not necessarily self-portraits. Shooting a self-portrait will involve a lot of thought and planning. While you can simply put the camera on a tripod on a timer and capture yourself, that would be too easy to do. Plan a self-portrait that tells a story. A self-portrait that speaks about who you are, gives an essence of your personality.

Tips for infrared photography

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Infrared light isn’t visible to the human eye but it produces beautiful, ethereal images that couldn’t be captured in any other way. The light spectrum has colour hues from violet through blue, followed by green, yellow and orange, progressing to red and deep red. The spectrum of light is measured in nanometres. The light range is between 700-1200nm (nanometres). Another aspect of infrared spectrum is thermal imaging. This technology is especially popular in the movies such as Patriot Games and other thrillers, where intelligence agencies or military personnel were able to detect villains by measuring their body heat during night time conditions. Today’s common digital camera sensors are not able to detect thermal images. Under the right circumstances however, digital cameras can do an excellent job of recording infrared images.


What is Infrared Photography?
In infrared photography, film or image sensor is sensitive to infrared light. The sensors used in digital cameras are sensitive to light with wavelengths of up to 950nm, which includes IR light range. A simple test to check is to point a television remote towards the camera lens and press any button on it. If you see a light on LCD display that you cannot see with your naked eyes then your camera is sensitive to infrared light.
Just know that anything which is alive will reflect a greater amount of infrared light than inanimate objects. Leaves, foliage, and grass, along with skin, reflect the greatest amounts of infrared light, and so it will be the whitest objects in your image. Stones, concrete, mountains, water and sky tend to absorb infrared light and so appear as darker objects in your images.

Most of the digital cameras have an infrared blocker that is great for regular photography but not for infrared photography. Removing that filter is a fairly complicated and expensive process, so don’t try to do it yourself. There is the way to block all but the infrared light from your sensor. You can mount a special infrared filter on to your lens. The filter is a dark glass that cuts the amount of light by 10 stops, so you have to take long exposure shots. These filters can be mounted onto the lens and their cost depends on the size of the thread of the lens. Additionally you will require a DSLR camera and a lens with a decent wide zoom focal length, a tripod and bright sunshine to get the best results. Shooting infrared photographs have two major components – shooting and post processing.


Shooting Technique:
1. Find a suitable scene.
2. Use Tripod: Put your camera on a tripod to avoid shake. IR filter lets in very small amount of light so your exposure will be too long to shoot handheld.
3. Focus prior to attaching the IR filter. You need to do this because camera can’t see the scene once the IR filter puts on to the lens. Once desired focus is achieved, switch to manual focus.
4. Attach your IR filter.
5. Experiment with the exposure. Try using various shutter speeds, start with 10sec at f8 and ISO 200.
6. White Balance: If your camera offers a custom white balance preset, take a picture of a gray or white card with the filter on. Make sure that direct sunlight is hitting the card. Refer to your camera menu for how to set custom white balance. If everything is still coming out red, you will have to adjust the white balance in Adobe Camera RAW or any other raw editing software of your choice. This is probably the trickiest part when working with infrared filters. 
7. Use self timer mode, that will eliminate any chance of camera shake.
8. Take the shot.


Another option for taking infrared photograph is to convert your camera sensor permanently to dedicated infrared sensor.
Converting your camera to dedicated infrared
Permanently converting your camera to infrared is a great solution if you have an extra old camera body. The main advantage of having your camera converted vs. using infrared filter, is that you no longer grounded to using long exposure and can take infrared photographs of people and other moving subjects. The procedure consists of removing the hot mirror filter directly from the sensor and replacing it with clear or custom infrared filter.


Post Processing
 
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To process any infrared image and remove the red casts, first open the image in Camera Raw and fix the white balance by clicking on the foliage with the white balance tool. Once done, open the image in Photoshop, and Click on the new Adjustment Layer in the Layer panel and choose Channel Mixer.
 
After choosing the Channel Mixer select the Red output channel and move the Red slider to 0 and the Blue slider to 100.
 
Now select the Blue output channel and move the Blue slider to 0 and Red slider to 100. This will give you the good starting point.
 
Now go to the Hue and Saturation Layer Adjustment and here you can edit the Red and Blue channels individually, as per your choice till you get the desired result. You can also convert them into Black and White by using Black and White Layer Adjustment.

I hope you have learned now how to shoot and edit Infrared photos. The sunny days are perfect to shoot infrared photos when the sky is nice and blue. If you try it out, do send us your images.


Shooting at Twilight

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Twilight is known as the magic hour for the photographer. Each day during twilight one can get stunning photographs because of the lighting conditions at that time. Light is the key to get a beautiful landscape. But that doesn’t mean that you need the sun to be shining always. It’s true that lighting conditions during twilight hours produce stunning light. By shooting before the sunrise and after the sunset one can give a different look to their photographs than the normal sunlight images. With the sun below the horizon and the scene is lit by the light which is reflected from the whole sky. So you will get much soft and diffuse light. In this article we are giving you some tips and techniques that will allow you to make the most of the twilight hours.

When to shoot:
The twilight hours happen each day before the sun rises and after the sun sets. This specific period of time produce a warm glowing light where there is neither daylight nor darkness. Twilight photography is all about waiting until the sun has set or shoot before the sun rises. You need to check the timings of the sunrise and sunset before you plan your shoot. Along with the timings the other important factor for twilight photography is the weather condition. Clear sky with few clouds are the best condition to shoot.

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Plan your shoot properly:
The time gap to shoot during twilight is so narrow that you don’t get much time to shoot. So it’s very important to be prepared before the shoot. Look for location and set your angle before the twilight hour starts. Get to know your surroundings. Make the most use of the available light.

Get your camera settings right:
While shooting during twilight you must shoot in manual mode to make the most of the available light. A sturdy tripod is must as you will need to shoot at a very slow shutter speed depending on the conditions. If you are shooting landscapes and required to focus the whole scene with lot of depth you will need aperture around F/11 or above. Use the ISO accordingly, keeping as low as possible to reduce noise. Shoot in RAW format. Even though you can adjust your white balance while you process a raw file. Choosing the right white balance in camera will help you to visualise the final result. For cool, blue results try using daylight or tungsten preset, and if you want a warmer tone then use shade or cloudy preset.


Use a Graduated ND filter:
Though the sun is below the horizon, there will be still a big difference between the brightness of the sky and the land. If you are shooting towards the rising sun or setting sun you will need a very strong Graduated ND filter such as 3 stop. But if you are shooting away from the rising or setting sun then 1 or 2 stop graduated ND filter will be enough. If you don’t have a graduated ND filter then you can shoot two images instead of one. In first image, set the exposure to get the details in the sky and in second shot set the exposure to get the details in the foreground. Then combine these two images together in Photoshop to get the final result.

Get some urban shots:
Twilight not only benefits for shooting landscapes but you can also get some great city and urban shots. Try working in amongst the architecture before the sun has set. The low sun will cast ambient light over the buildings and can create some really dramatic scenes alongside the shadows. Later in the evening, as the sun sets, try to find a vantage point to get a cityscape shot. The fading ambient light and glowing artificial lights will offer the perfect city scene to capture with a long exposure shot.

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Try Silhouettes:
With the sun is setting, it’s not always possible to light the subject properly but in such cases you can try and take some silhouettes. Look out for opportunities to work with interesting shapes. It is important to use the available light as the backdrop of your silhouette to enhance the form. 


Conclusion:
Hopefully, now you have got a proper idea about the camera settings and the ideal time to shoot in twilight. It’s best to head out on a clear day to start with. Try experimenting with long exposure and silhouettes. Be patient and keep shooting. Don’t be tempted to leave the shoot too early. Shoot as long as you can till it’s completely dark.