2016 Independence Day Freebie

There have been a request for the images of my hometown for non-profit website, so i'm giving couple my images free of charge.

Please follow usage rule and use them.

Usage rules
The image are copyright Surendra C. Harikantra 2016. Use is limited to any personal but non-commercial purposes. Use the Independence Day Freebie by mentioning my name. Do not redistribute the original image without my permission.


Restriction
Identifiable people may not appear in a bad light or in a way that they may find offensive, unless they give their consent.

Download
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B85h2TcwqGPBNEF3NDctWE8xQVk

The Moon in close-up

I could not shoot blood moon during end of the last month, as it was not visible in India; but managed to shoot this image using 55-300 mm nikkor lens.

Focal Length : 300 mm, Shutter Speed : 1/160 of a sec, f stop(Aperture) : f/11, ISO : 200, White Balance : Auto

Faceless Portrait

In one of photography blogs, I have read, to improve your street photography skills.. you have to come up with projects like 100 or 50 stranger's portraits either in stealth mode or with permission. I decided to to shoot 10  portraits of strangers in one day, I asked couple people to pose for me, and they happily did.

I shot below image without asking him, I liked this image because it's faceless portrait. I shot this image in very low light condition, so i had to bump-up my ISO to 800 and exposure compensation to +7.

Focal Length : 55 mm, Shutter Speed : 1/80 of a sec, f stop(Aperture) : f/5.6, ISO : 800, White Balance : Auto

Peeping Rhino...

Focal Length : 55 mm, Shutter Speed : 1/125 of a sec, f stop(Aperture) : f/5.6, ISO : 400, White Balance : Auto

Newly Painted Old Cart

Happy New Year to you all, found this newly painted old cart near my house.

Focal Length : 50 mm, Shutter Speed : 1/200 of a sec, f stop(Aperture) : f/1.8, ISO : 100, White Balance : Auto

Double Exposure

Almost all higher end Nikon cameras have Multiple Exposure functionality in-built. I used Nikon D7000 to get the below image.

Enable multiple exposure and take two different exposure, your camera will overlay these images for you. I took picture of myself with white background, and second image was of palm trees. Used Photoshop to get rid of unwanted palm trees from white background. 

And here is the result.... Don't worry, if you have entry level Nikon DSLR, you can still achieve this, using Overlay function. Little effort is needed. check this out Multiple Exposure hack in Nikon D3100

Quick tip for Zoom burst photography

Zoom burst is a cool photographic effect which is easy to achieve. It involves zooming in or out while you take a photo. 

Quick tip:

Mount your camera on your tripod(or any camera supporting system), and Use long shutter speed to get blurry lines straight. You can try hand-held but, lines will be slightly wobbly.

Blue Night

Blue Night, another long exposure image shot in night...

Focal Length : 18 mm, Shutter Speed : 20  sec, f stop(Aperture) : f/11, ISO : 200, White Balance : Auto

How to shoot long exposure or capture the motion in daylight

I love long exposure photography, couple of my friends asked me, how to shoot long exposure in daylight. So i am sharing the tips & tricks to capture long exposure in daylight.

Focal Length : 18 mm, Shutter Speed : 20 sec, f stop(Aperture) : f/22, ISO : 100, White Balance : Auto

  Gears you need:

• (D)SLR/Camera with shutter speed controller.(all DSLRs have this functionality) 
• Your three-legged friend tripod.
• ND(neutral density) filters.
• Polarised filters (it is optional) 
• Shutter release cable, if you want more than 30 second exposure.(most of the DSLRs have 30 sec then bulb mode)

Focal Length : 18 mm, Shutter Speed : 30  sec, f stop(Aperture) : f/22, ISO : 100, White Balance : Auto

Mount your camera to tripod. Dial your camera to manual mode, set the value of your aperture and ISO as lowest as possible. Set you shutter speed or TV(for cannon users) to 10 seconds or 20 seconds. If you want more than 30 seconds exposure, then use shutter release cable and set you shutter speed to bulb mode.

Focus the subject and move the lens's focusing switch to Manual mode to lock the focus. Now attach the ND filter  and the Polarising filter(if you feel it is required) to your lens and then click the shutter release button and wait for you result.

Some scientific explanation:

ND filter is a filter that reduces or modifies the intensity of all wavelengths or colors of light equally, giving no changes in hue of color rendition. 

The purpose of a standard photographic neutral-density filter is to reduce the amount of light entering the lens. Doing so allows the photographer to capture the motion in daylight .

Focal Length : 20 mm, Shutter Speed : 10 sec, f stop(Aperture) : f/25, ISO : 100, White Balance : Auto

Use sunny 16 rule to get correct exposure in daylight

While shooting in daylight, there is only one question... how do i get correct exposure???? we alway  try couple shots, then we get one correct exposure or you can simply use sunny 16 rule to get correct exposure in bright daylight.

Sunny 16 rule says  set your aperture to f16 at the same shutter speed as your ISO setting under direct sunlight. In this image, i set shutter speed and ISO to 200, if you want freeze the motion, then set shutter speed/ISO to 400 or higher.

Focal Length : 18 mm, Shutter Speed : 1/200 of a sec, f stop(Aperture) : f/16, ISO : 200, White Balance : Auto

Green Apple

Focal Length : 50 mm, Shutter Speed : 1/100 of a sec, f stop(Aperture) : f/1.8, ISO : 400, White Balance : flash

This Green Apple is hanging on very thin thread(did a photoshop to erase the thread), I have used green paper as the backdrop to match with the colour of apple. Behind the green backdrop, i have positioned a flash light to illuminate the green backdrop. 

From the left, another flash light illuminates the apple and a simple reflector, reflects this light on the other side.

Independence day special

Happy Independence day..... Im planning to make video tutorial on how to put flag on the face using Adobe Photoshop elements 12

Sleeping Dog Under the Shade of Boat

I shot this image in my hometown Karwar...

Focal Length : 55 mm, Shutter Speed : 1/60 of a sec, f stop(Aperture) : f/5.6, ISO : 100, White Balance : Auto

Product photography using home made light box

Focal Length : 50 mm, Shutter Speed : 1/5 of a sec, f stop(Aperture) : f/2.8, ISO : 100, White Balance : Auto

Checkout the image of one of my favourite Wine. I shot this image using home mad light box.

Rajasthani boy

I asked this boy, shall i take your picture, he didn't speak a word and walked behind these camels. And gave pose for me :)

Focal Length : 56 mm, Shutter Speed : 1/80 of a sec, f stop(Aperture) : f/11, ISO : 100, White Balance : Auto

Rose illuminated by cellphone flash light

This rose is illuminated by cellphone flash light... How to use Cellphone flash as an off camera flash

Focal Length : 50 mm, Shutter Speed : 1/160 of a sec, f stop(Aperture) : f/2.8, ISO : 200, White Balance : Auto

Motorway lights

Motorway lights from BTM to Electronic city Bangalore....

Focal Length : 18 mm, Shutter Speed : 49 sec, f stop(Aperture) : f/22, ISO : 100, White Balance : Auto

The Bridge

Another long exposure... the Kodibag bridge, KARWAR.

Focal Length : 20 mm, Shutter Speed : 10 sec, f stop(Aperture) : f/25, ISO : 400, White Balance : Auto

Slow sync flash photography

When shooting subject with low light situation, you got only two options; either to shoot with a flash or to shoot with a slow shutter speed. 

With the flash, your subject will be lit well and if the subject is moving then it will be frozen and as a result will be sharp. problem with this is, no time to capture ambient light and cannot capture motion blur.

With the slow shutter speed, you will have enough time capture the ambient light and still subject, what if the subject is moving? you will capture the motion blue, and also the blurry subject.

You can achieve motion blur with sharp subject using "Slow sync flash".

Focal Length : 29 mm, Shutter Speed : 0.6 sec, f stop(Aperture) : f/5.6, ISO : 400, White Balance : Auto

Have you heard of Rear and Front curtain sync or flash?

Rear Curtain sync instructs your camera to fire flash just before closing the shutter.
Front Curtain sync instructs your camera to fire when exposure begins or right after shutter opens.

Mount your camera onto the tripod, then lock the focus.. once everything set, put your flash to manual mode and make the power of flash to 1/3. Now put flash to rear sync. Once you click the shutter release button, move your subject, at the end of the exposure camera fires a flash to freeze the subject. Look at the result.

Using street light in Night Photography

Often we think street light spoils night photography, it's not always true.. take a look at the below image, 20 sec long exposure, subject is only illuminated by street light. What do you think????

Focal Length : 34 mm, Shutter Speed : 20 sec, f stop(Aperture) : f/5, ISO : 200, White Balance : Auto