Water falls photography

Do you love to see the water falls with blurry milky effect. A slow shutter speed can achieve this. Do you want to capture them and see how beautiful they will be. I would like to share my knowledge about capturing the water falls interestingly in a generic day to day terminology.                                              Exif info: ISO – 64, Exposure – 1.3 sec, Aperture – 7.1, Focal length – 7.6 mm
Have you ever been to grocery shop??? Hope they do have a shutter door, which will be opened in the morning and closed in the evening. After the shop’s shutter is opened customers can enter the shop and purchase what ever they want. Exif info: ISO – 64, Exposure – 2.5 sec, Aperture – 7.1, Focal length – 6.3 mm Water Stream, Ombattu gudda mountain range, Karnataka.
Similarly, there is a special door in the camera, which will be closed by default. As soon as the shutter button is clicked, shutter door will be opened for a particular period of time and closes immediately. During this time, the light from the subject will be captured by the image sensor inside the camera. So, Camera's shutter door along with aperture will decide the exposure of the subject.                                                        Exif info: ISO – 64, Exposure – 0.8 sec, Aperture – 6.4, Focal length – 5 mm
The speed at which the shutter door opened and closed is called shutter speed. If this speed is high, exposure time will be less and this will results action freeze of the subject (water Fall). In the below picture you can see water drops individually. Exif info: ISO – 64, Exposure – 0.006 sec, Aperture – 3.6, Focal length – 7.6 mm Talakona Water falls, Venkateswara National Park, Andhra Pradesh.
If the speed is low, exposure time will more and the action will be blurred. In the below picture you can see water drops forms like a line because of the long exposure.                    Exif info: ISO – 64, Exposure – 0.125 sec, Aperture – 8.0, Focal length – 8.9 mm Water fall, Venkateswara National Park, Andhra Pradesh.
Refer the below picture, the first one is with a faster shutter and the second one with a slow shutter.


Along with the shutter speed, you need to manage aperture to get the desired exposure. Refer the below collage of pictures. The first one with a slower shutter speed  of 1/30 of a second and aperture is f/16, the second one with a 1/60 of a second and the aperture is f/11, the third one is with a fast shutter speed of 1/125 of a second and the aperture is f/8. As the shutter speed decreases the aperture f stops needs to be increased to decrease the amount of light entering into the camera. If you wont adjust the aperture as per the shutter speed, the picture captured may be over exposed or under exposed.
Getting the blurry shots during day time is difficult because of more light which in turn effect the exposure time. so, one way to reduce the shutter is by adding the polarizing filter’s. Other things needs to considered

• Keep the ISO as low as possible to avoid noise.
  
• Focus manually and use evaluative metering.
  
• Set the white balance to as per the lighting conditions.
  
• Mount the camera on a tripod for steady shot. With the slow shutters, even a small hand shake can blur the picture.
  
• Use self timer or remote to operate the camera. so that you do not introduce any movement as the shutter button is pressed.
  
• Switch on your live view to compose the shot easily,  bending for a long time will introduce noise in your back and results backache.
  
• The most important thing is to keep the camera gear safely, moisture can create problems.

Exif info: ISO – 64, Exposure – 0.125 sec, Aperture – 8.0, Focal length – 8.9 mm Dudh sagar water falls, Goa.
To create interest to the frame, add a foreground subject. The below picture was taken during the Dudh Sagar water falls trek, It is listed as India's 5th tallest waterfall,and is 227th in the world at 310 m. I waited for a long time to capture the water fall with the train on the bridge, finally decided that i had to move as there is no sign of the train from a long time. After covering a distance of 1/2 km, i heard the horn sound of the train and ran back in hurry. Luckily, by the time i reach the view point, the train just  entering the bridge                                     
Be creative, The water stream looks like it is rushing out of the mouth Exif info:ISO – 200, Exposure – 0.007sec, Aperture – 4.6, Focal length –17.1mm Cave pool, Venkateswara National park, Andhra pradesh.
Follow rule of thirds to please the eyes                Exif info: ISO –64, Exposure – 0.125 sec, Aperture – 8.0, Focal length – 10.4mm
Capture peoples joy to make the frame more beautiful Exif info:ISO –800, Exposure –0.006 sec, Aperture – 5.5, Focal length –37.8 mm
Exif info: ISO – 64, Exposure – 0.2 sec, Aperture – 6.4, Focal length – 5.5 mm
Framing will also adds interest.                             Exif info: ISO – 64, Exposure – 0.013 sec, Aperture – 7.1, Focal length – 6.3 mm Sathodi water falls, Yellapur, North Karnataka
Exif info: ISO – 64, Exposure – 0.33 sec, Aperture – 6.4, Focal length - 5 mm
The same effect can be applied to the flowing water too Exif info: ISO – 64, Exposure – 1 sec, Aperture – 9.0, Focal length – 14.6 mm Lakshmana Tirtha river origin, Bramhagiri, Karntaka
Exif info: ISO – 64, Exposure – 0.042 sec, Aperture – 6.4, Focal length – 5 mm

Moon Photography

Moon photography is one of my dreams. Being a regular reader to DPS (Digital photography School),  I used to surprise when people click and post their moon shots on web. I wondered, how they gone such close and get the clear shots. Were they used any space ship or a telescope???

To make the dreams come true, I finally purchased a high zoom point and shoot camera (FUZIFILM S1800).  It has 18x optical zoom which is equivalent to 504 mm on a 35mm camera. This helps me to reach quite close and capture the moon.

Exif info: ISO – 64, Exposure – 1/30, Aperture – 11.0, Focal length – 90 mm

I would like to share few important things, which needs to be considered when capturing the moon.

• Choose narrow aperture to get greater depth of the field.
• Keep the ISO as low as possible to avoid noise.
• Focus manually and use spot metering.
• Set the white balance to fluorescent as the light coming from the moon is white in colour.

Exif info: ISO – 64, Exposure – 1/60, Aperture – 11.0, Focal length – 90 mm

• Mount the camera on a tripod for steady shot, With the long zooms, even a small hand shake can blur the picture.
• Use self timer or remote to operate the camera. so that you do not introduce any movement as the shutter button is pressed.
• Switch on your live view to compose the shot easily,  bending for a long time will introduce noise in your back and results backache.

Exif info: ISO – 100, Exposure – 8, Aperture – 11.0, Focal length – 90 mm

• Try with various shutter speed ranging from one second to 1/100 of second to get the right exposure.
• Follow rule of thirds for creating interest in the frame.

Exif info: ISO – 64, Exposure – 1/20, Aperture – 11.0, Focal length – 90 mm

Exif info: ISO – 64, Exposure – 1/30, Aperture – 11.0, Focal length – 90 mm

The super moon, captured on 19th March 2011.

Exif info: ISO – 64, Exposure – 1/160, Aperture – 11.0, Focal length – 90 mm

Light trails

Light trails is pretty easy to capture, Here is the way how to get them.

After seeing my Light painting photography album, my friends started asking me how i captured the light trails??? Is it editing in Photoshop or any technique to capture. So, finally they made me to write a small article about it.

For this you need a camera with manual mode, Tripod and a light source. Switch the mode dial on your camera to manual mode to control the shutter speed, aperture, ISO, light metering and white balance. Before going how to capture them, first we will go through few basic things about the photography.
ISO
The ISO speed determines how sensitive the camera is to incoming light. Lesser the ISO, the lesser will be the noise. So, set the ISO to as low as possible. i.e. ISO – 100.
Aperture
aperture setting controls the area over which light can pass through your camera lens. Narrow aperture will gives good depth of field. So, choose a narrow aperture’s to get a sharper light trails.
Light Metering
Light metering is used to determine the proper exposure for a photograph.  Set the metering to Multi-zone or evaluate metering such that camera measures the light intensity in several points in the scene, and then combines the results to find the settings for the best exposure.
White balance
White balance (WB) is the process of removing unrealistic colour casts, so that objects which appear white in person are rendered white in your photo. Set the white balance as per your light source. I am using a LED light, which gives pure white. So, I set the White balance to fluorescent.
Shutter Speed
shutter speed is a common term used to discuss exposure time, the effective length of time a camera’s shutter is open. In light trail photography shutter speed plays an important role. Try with different shutter speeds varying from few seconds to minutes depend upon the situation. Some DSLR’s will have the bulb mode. In bulb mode we can open the shutter for desired time.

Procedure for capturing Light trails
Choose a dark room with a plane back ground. Mount the camera on a tripod or stable surface to avoid hand shake.  Set the self timer to 2 sec and click the shutter button. When its finishes the self timer, took a live torch and then rotate in circles or the desired shapes in front of the camera at a distance of 3 – 4mts for a period as per the predefined shutter speed.
This is the final result


Exif info: Shutter Speed – 8 sec,  Aperture – f/6.4, ISO – 64, Flash - OFF.
If you use flash, even u can get the model who is making this light trail


Exif info: Shutter Speed – 8 sec,  Aperture – f/6.4, ISO – 64, Flash - ON.

Exif info: Shutter Speed – 8 sec,  Aperture – f/3.1, ISO – 200, Flash - OFF.
Capturing the Light trails created by the moving vehicles will be interesting. This picture is captured at the Nagavara signal, outer ring road, Bangalore.

Exif info: Shutter Speed – 4 sec,  Aperture – f/8, ISO – 64, Flash - OFF.
If you practice, you can make many experiments with the slow shutter speeds. Even you can write names in the air, but dont for get to write the letters in inverted form. So that the camera will takes its reflective image and you will get the normal as below.

Exif info: Shutter Speed – 8 sec,  Aperture – f/8, ISO – 64, Flash – ON.

Exif info: Shutter Speed – 5 sec,  Aperture – 6.4, ISO – 64, Flash – ON.

Exif info: Shutter Speed – 8 sec,  Aperture – 9.0, ISO – 64, Flash – ON.

 

Hope so, this article is useful for you. Let me know your comments and suggestions. Here is the complete set of light trail pictures.

 

Light trails