Five Tricks to Make the Best of Foliage Photography

Falls About to Start .... and now lets talk about Foliage! Well, whether you know or not, they can fill nature with color. And, especially during the fall, foliage can be extremely wonderful. They usually have so many colors that you will remain staring at them for hours together. And so, no wonder foliage makes an exciting subject for nature photography.

Photo Credits: Mike Gabelmann

A large number of photographers prefer going for foliage photography. There are enough reasons for this. It’s quite difficult to get the wide range of colors that foliage offers in any other form of nature photography. Besides, while taking photograph of foliage, it is possible for you to go for landscape snaps as well as close range pictures. This really comes in handy when you are planning to explore various photography techniques. However, you need to keep a few things in mind when you are planning foliage photography.

Find the Right Location

Location is probably the most important thing that you need to keep in mind when planning foliage photography. You have to find the right place where colors are found in plenty. It is always a good idea to start clicking the photos from the higher altitudes. Colors are usually found aplenty there. Check out the internet or read books on the best places that you can visit to find the wonderful colors of autumn. You can check out the state tourism website as well to find the details about the best places to click photographs of foliage.

When is the Best Time?

Well, this is one of the most important questions to ask when you are going for foliage photography. The light plays an important role in ensuring that the photo, that you click ultimately, comes out in a wonderful manner. However, not all places have the same time to click pictures. You need to know when is the perfect time to click the best pictures from that place. This surely will help you get the best clicks from that spot.

Click from Different Ranges

Decide the distance from where you are planning to click the pictures. If you are planning to click foliage and if you are at the right place, you will find colors all over. Use the long range shots initially. Then you can go for close range ones as well. Click a single leaf with multiple colors or a number of trees that show the colors of fall in the best possible manner. The different ranges from where you are clicking the pictures will help to give it new dimensions. This will surely be one of the best ways to click the pictures. It will help you to win appreciations and besides, will surely make the picture a perfect one.

Look for Reflections of Foliage on Water Bodies

If you are planning to click foliage images during fall, you can get some wonderful clicks. But for that, you should not look for forests and trees only. Instead, search for a lake with trees surrounding it. These lakes can usually be excellent components of foliage photography. The colorful leaves look wonderful when they reflect in the waters of the lakes. So, you should look for such reflections in places near to your house. Once you get such a frame for your photo shoot, it is sure to become a big hit among the photography experts.

Look Around as Well

If you think the colorful trees are the only places to get the best pictures of the foliage, think again! Just keep your eyes open and look on the forest floors. You will find a large array of colors scattered in form of dry leaves there. Click them and get the best pictures there.

No matter what kind of photo you are clicking of the foliage, creativity is the key to it. It is important for you to know from which angle you should click a picture. This is going to help you get the best clicks of foliage photography. You can also use digital or film camera. But make sure you remain focused during the development of the photo to help reflect maximum colors in it. This will make the image richer and a truer reflection of the nature outside.

Continue Reading...

Three Portrait Photography Tips Every Beginner Should Know

Portrait photography and family photography in UK and Nepal are markets that have a lot of photographers wanting to take advantage of the field. People are always looking to capture memories of their family in any way possible, and photography is still one of the most nostalgic ways available. If you want to become a photographer in this field, you need to make sure that you get everything right in order to stand a chance of being a success. Here we will explore a few tips of what to consider when doing portrait photography.

Photo Courtesy: Kuster & Wildhaber Photography via flickr

3 Things to consider while doing Portrait Photography

1. Using Window Light is Important
If you are an amateur, the chances are that you do not have a studio that can take advantage of expensive lighting arrangements. Normal lighting is not the best for photography, which means that in-home photography will always look worse than photography in a studio. However, using the natural light through a window is a great solution for portrait photography as the light is subtle rather than vivid. This allows the image to be much more suggestive, something that is often welcomed with portrait photography.

Photo Credits: Martin Gommel/Flickr

2. Never use Flash for Portraits
The flash on a camera is great for some picture types, but not for up close portrait photography. Unless you have a good lighting setup with flash (or flashes) like softbox, diffuser etc., don’t try to use flash light as the primary source of light. As the flash is often lined up above the lens, you end up with ‘flat light,’ which means that the picture turns out not as good as it could. Some professionals choose to use an external flash solution. However, many professionals think that using no flash and getting the natural lighting right makes for a better picture.

Photo Credits: Dan Foy/Flickr

3. Be Different
The picture of a smiling child waving at the camera is a cliché. In a way, even though they may be the ‘cutest’ pictures too many, once you have seen one you have seen them all, which makes them boring. Try something different with your portrait shots, like introducing spontaneity. Many professional photographers use props to make their portrait photographs stand out from the others. Furthermore, when you introduce props, the person that you are photographing becomes more relaxed, which makes for a better portrait picture.

Photo Credits: Keiko S. Dowell via 500px

Portrait photography may look easy, but the reality is that there is so much detail involved in a great picture that any photographer will have to study this field for a long time before they have a chance to become established in this market.

Continue Reading...

40 Beautiful Photos Taken With 50mm Lenses

In one of my previous posts, I gave you the reasons why you should own a 50mm lens. After posting the article, I thought you should see some photographs taken with a 50mm lens so that I can prove my point :). So I have collected 40 beautiful photographs that are taken from 50mm lenses. I am sure that these photos will blow your mind away, and you will be tempted to buy one.

Read: Top 8 reasons why you should buy a 50mm lens

Photographs taken from 50mm lenses 

Photo Credits: Gunnar Gestur Geirmundsson/500px

 

 

 

  Photo Credits: Ton Abraham/500px

Photo Credits: Irene Mei/500px
Photo Credits: Mitsuru Moriguchi/500px
Photo Credits: Subodh Shetty/500px
Photo Credits: Eddie Cheng/500px
Photo Credits: Joakim Kraemer/500px
Photo Credits: Vanessa Paxton/500px
Photo Credits: Marco Marotto/500px
Photo Credits: GAZ ./500px
Photo Credits: eastandsthlm/500px
Photo Credits: Beauty/500px

Photo Credits: Alex Greenshpun/500px
Photo Credits: Tetsuya Blues/500px
Photo Credits: Maksim Lysyuk/500px
Photo Credits: Benjo Arwas/500px
Photo Credits: Kevin Corrado/500px
Photo Credits: Julia Kuzmenko/500px
Photo Credits: Sebastien Manoury/500px
Photo Credits: Anton Jankovoy/500px
Photo Credits: Mitsuru Moriguchi/500px
Photo Credits: Andrea Hubner/500px
Photo Credits: Daria Pitak[/caption]
Photo Credits: Beauty/500px
Photo Credits: Ryan Pendelton/500px
Photo Credits: Ben Torode/500px
Photo Credits: Will Burrard Lucas/500px
Photo Credits: Simone Conti/500px
Photo Credits: Yannick Lefevre/500px
Photo Credits: Daniel Cheong/500px
Photo Credits: Jinna Van Ringen/500px
Photo Credits: Kevin Corrado/500px
Photo Credits: Leo Pocksteiner/500px
Photo Credits: Langlang Jagad/500px
Photo Credits: Lothar Adamczyk/500px
Photo Credits: Bruce Noronha/500px
Photo Credits: Sarah G./500px
Photo Credits: Taylor McCutchan/500px

I am sure you are inspired after going through these photographs! Feel free to share your 50mm shots with us.

Continue Reading...

Top 8 Reasons Why You Should Buy a 50mm Lens (The Nifty Fifty)

Why do you need a 50mm lens? Because it is awesome. Believe me on that. I have been using my 50mm lens for more than 2 years now, and it has never let me down — not even once. I am going to tell you a story. If you think that it is yours, you should read the rest of this post about the renowned 50mm lens.

You have bought your first DSLR camera, and you are happy about it. You probably got a lens along with it — the kit lens.  You will be happy with that lens for a while. But when your experience grows, you feel like you need an upgrade. So, decide to buy a new lens. But, it is not that easy. Here is what usually happens: You are in a shop, and you are wondering which one you should go for it. And, definitely, you are confused, whether you are shopping online or in a shop, as you see a myriad of lenses displayed infront of you. Yes. You will be in a dilemma. Even the salesperson cannot give you a straight answer for your question — ‘Which lens I should buy? ‘

You are going to buy your first lens, and you do not want to be disappointed. If you are new in photography, you will be utterly confused. You probably ask the salesperson, or some of your friends, to suggest you the best lens in the market. But you don’t get an answer. Then the biggest question – ‘Which one I should buy?’ — haunts you. You start looking for an answer, and that is why you are here.

My answer is — Go for a 50mm lens. And here is why?

Top 8 Reasons To Buy a 50mm Lens

Reason #1: It is cheap: Yes. When you are going to buy a lens (or anything) the first thing you ask is its price. As you may know, anything with a photography tag does not come cheap. But, fortunately, 50mm is really cheap; you can get one for 100$. NOTE: There are various versions of 50mm lens available in the market (regardless of the make). Here, I am talking about the ‘Nifty Fifty’ — the nickname of the entry-level 50mm lens (50mm f1.8)

Reason #2: Professional quality: Okay. You know that 50mm lens is cheap. The next thing you want from a lens is good image quality. 50mm lens is a prime lens (Prime lenses are fixed focal length lenses). They give very good quality images. For its price, the quality 50mm lens gives matches a professional lens. Since it is a prime lens, you will experience the ‘actual’ or capture sharpness. A 50mm lens makes tack sharp images, especially for its price. The colour rendition a 50mm lens gives you is way better than that of a kit lens.

Reason #3: It’s compact and light weight: You don’t want to feel that you can’t take your camera out because it’s heavy. You want it compact. That’s another reason you should buy a 50mm. Since there are only fewer elements inside a 50mm lens, they are lighter than other primes.

Reason #4: It is a ‘normal’ or ‘standard lens’: Don’t let the words normal standard mislead you. By normal it means perspective rendered by the 50mm matches the human eye. So it gives a natural look to the images. Why this is important? It is useful, especially for beginners, because you won’t feel that you are looking through a lens.

Reason #5: It is a fast lens: Fast lenses are those which have f-numbers f2.8 or lower. They are so called because it allows you to use faster shutter speeds since wide apertures let more light in the camera. Kit lenses are opened upto 3.5 – 5.6 range. At 55mm, the widest aperture you can use is f5.6. But in a 50mm f1.8 lens, you can open upto f1.8. That’s a 3 stop difference, or 6 times more than the amount of light a kit lens can let inside a camera. So the advantage is obvious — it helps you in shooting in low light conditions. You don’t need to increase the ISO, which creates noise, as when you use a kit lens, while shooting in low light situations. You can use faster shutter speed in low light situations, thus, taking blurry free images. 50mm comes with various wide apertures – f1.8, f1.4, f2, and even f0.95!

Reason #6: It is a versatile lens: If you are looking for a ‘Any situation’ / all-rounder lens, 50mm is what you want. With 50mm you can take —

Portraits: I feel 50mm gives great portraits especially if you are using a cropped sensor DSLR. When you use it with a cropped sensor DSLR, the 50mm ‘acts’ like a medium telephoto lens. So, it is an excellent portrait lens for such DSLR for its price. You will get good results in a full frame sensor, too, although you will experience a little distortion.

Macros: If you reverse mount your 50mm lens on your camera, you can take macros at 1:1 magnification. You can take photos with that magnification only with a macro lens (which costs you around 500$). Although you can reverse your kit lens for macros, the quality will be poorer when compared with that of a reversed 50mm.

 Street Photographs: For street photography, I use my 50mm rather than kit lens. As I mentioned before, its field of view matches the human eye. So I can shoot what I see with my eyes and the images look natural. Another reason is that the frames from a 50mm are much more compact than from the frames of a wide-angle lens. So there will be least information in the frames, and it is a good thing since it avoids clutter. NOTE: I am not saying it is the lens for street photography. My point is that it is not a bad lens for street photography.

 Landscapes: Why not? You don’t have to use wide-angle focal lengths for landscapes every time. Try some with a 50mm, too. Thus, 50mm is a walk-around lens; you can go out with just a 50mm and come back with a variety of shots.

Reason #7: It gives you great bokeh that everybody loves: I just love this aspect of the lens. The bokeh is incredible. Apart from letting more light into the camera, wide apertures create a shallow depth of field. You can make ‘dreamy’ effect in your photos; that, you don’t have to rely on photoshop, or any other photo editing software, to create it. I mean, who doesn’t love the out of focus circles and blur background in their photographs, right?

Reason #8: It will help you to know what you want: One of the disadvantages of having a DSLR is that you have to buy various lenses, and that is expensive. Like I said, 50mm is a versatile lens. You can try different genres of photography – portraits, street, and macro – with a 50mm.Eventually, you will find your taste in a particular type(s) of photography, and, thus, you can streamline your equipment upgrade.

What are you waiting for?

To summarize, 50mm lens is a low light beast; gives tack sharp images; a walk-around lens;  versatile etc. So, why don’t you grab one?Have fun shooting!

Continue Reading...

Pictures in Instagram Resolution Increase: Here’s How It Affects Image Quality and File Size

Instagram has now confirmed the resolution increase across its photo-sharing service, and says that the change will improve the quality of photos while having minimal impact on file size and data usage.
Company co-founder Mike Krieger tweeted on Monday that the 1080×1080 images were being rolled out to Instagram’s iOS and Android apps:

 With each photo going from 0.41 megapixels to 1.2 megapixels, some users were understandably concerned that the change would cause their cell phone data usage to skyrocket while using cellular networks.
Krieger responded by saying that improvements to “image optimization” means that the company managed to increase resolution by nearly 3x while keeping file sizes largely the same:

 As you can see, although the new photo has a new size of 1080px, the 640px version is a bit less sharp than the previous version. But how about in terms of file size?

The new file weighs about 110KB, while the old one was about 84KB. That’s a relatively insignificant increase given how many more pixels are now being stored and displayed with the larger photos.
Some photographers on Flickr recently complained after it was discovered that Flickr had increased compression and decreased quality in order to store more photos in the same amount of disk space. It seems Instagram has done a similar thing, but given that the goals of the service are different from Flickr (snapshots of life versus high quality photos), we’re guessing that Instagram users won’t mind nearly as much.

Continue Reading...