7 Obnoxious Things People Believe About Photographers

Working in the photography industry is a fantastic gig – there’s no denying it. Something about being around creative people and being able to be creative yourself is just unmatchable. But sometimes, it’s obviously difficult for others to realise that a photographer is a professional too and deserves professional respect. Here are a few common situations when that can be a little irritating for a photographer.

Friends Will Work for Free – The ridiculousness of asking your accountant friend to do your tax for you for free is readily apparent to most people. So is getting your dentist friend to do a bit of free root canal work. For some reason, that doesn’t extend to photographers. This one seems to be unique to photographers too.

Better Equipment Means Better Photographs – When a painter comes up with a fantastic painting, do you say, “Wow, you must have a great brush and paints!” This is a pet irritation of a lot of photographers. If you really think that it takes an expensive rig to take a great photograph, then you need to check out what can be done with the humble iPhone.

My Brother Can Shoot the Wedding – Well, your brother probably can take photographs at the wedding. Just like he can do your tax. Or fix your car. Of course if you want your car to keep going, or avoid getting slammed by the IRS, then you might like to get a professional to look at your tax return and car. Just like you might like to check out some professionals if you want good wedding photographs.

They Have No Right to Shoot X – The truth is that if a photographer is in a public space in most western countries then they can shoot just about anything. That includes you, security guards, police, children, your house – anything. If they are on private property, then it’s different, but in public there is usually no legal expectation of privacy. (Check the laws in your own country for specifics). That’s not to say they shouldn’t be polite, but rights are a whole different issue to manners.

If It’s a Striking Photograph, It Must be Photoshopped – A talented photographer knows that getting an image right “in camera” is the best way to end up with a great result. Many are actually very good at it and get stunning images before they get anywhere near a computer. That is what makes them good at their craft. That is why they study. That is why they practice.

They’ll Be Grateful for the Work and Work Cheap – This one again goes back to professional respect. You don’t ask your dentist for a discount. You don’t ask your child’s teacher to throw in Maths and Science, but don’t charge you for geography. You don’t ask your waiter to throw in dessert for free. So don’t do this to a photographer. If you cannot pay for the service, then don’t ask for it.

I Know a Guy Who Can Do It Much Cheaper – Yes, yes, everybody knows a friend of a friend who can do the photography job for a third of the cost. The kicker is that a photography business is an expensive one to run and you get what you pay for. If you’re happy enough to risk your cheap shooter, then go for it. Just don’t use it as a cheap bargaining ploy when you’re talking to a professional.

What's ISO? in photography

The ISO setting on your camera is something that has carried over from film. Remember back in the ‘old days’ when you used to go and buy your rolls of film and you would buy film rated at 100, 200 or 400, maybe even 800 or 1600? Well that number refers to the film’s sensitivity to light. The higher the number, the more sensitive to light the film is. The ISO bit is from the standards for film sensitivity, and the number refers to it’s rating.

So what does sensitivity mean? Well a low sensitivity means that the film has to be exposed to light for a longer period of time than a film with a high sensitivity in order to properly expose the image. With a lower sensitivity you also get a better quality image too which is why you should always try and use the lowest sensitivity you can get away with. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves though, a little more explanation is required.

You might remember buying film for a sunny holiday and the shop assistant would recommend using a film rated at 100 or 200. If, on the other hand, you were going to be taking pictures indoors, then you might be recommended a higher sensitivity like 400 or maybe 800. If you used ISO100 film and decided to take some pictures indoors, chances are you would need to use the flash, or your pictures would come out quite dark. This is because the film’s sensitivity is so low that the shutter would need to be open for a long time to let enough light in. Your camera may not have had the features to allow it to keep the shutter open for long enough, which is why you ended up with dark pictures.

This was one of the problems with film. Once you’d loaded it into your camera, you were pretty much stuck with that film sensitivity for 24 or 36 shots.

Bring on digital cameras and you can now change the ISO setting for each shot you take. That is one of the big advantages of digital photography.

So why do you only get choices like 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600 and maybe 3200 when it’s digital, surely you could set 154 or 958 if you wanted it? It’s only electrical currents and circuits after all, not a piece of film. Well, in theory you could choose any setting you wanted, but imagine how tricky that would be. There are three settings which combine to give you the exposure, these are Aperture, Shutter Speedand ISO. Each one can be changed individually to allow you to set then to what you think will give you the perfect exposure, or you can let the camera set them for you to what it thinks is the perfect exposure for the conditions it can detect. Already with three different options, each having several settings themselves, the combinations are numerous, so keeping ISO to set values, which people will understand makes it a little less confusing.

Now, I mentioned quality too, and that better quality images are achieved with a lower ISO number. If, again, you go back to film days you may remember the sort of grainy effect some images had. Well this grain effect is what is introduced with a higher sensitivity film. Digital has it’s own grain effect with higher sensitivity and is known as Noise. Digital noise can be seen a sort of speckley effect in areas of similar colour, like skies or dark shadow areas. It is a subject of much discussion and the camera is often judged on the amount of noise it produces at these higher sensitivities. This is why you should always try and keep your ISO set to the lowest number, and use aperture and shutter speed to get the right exposure. If you can’t do that with aperture or shutter speed, move up to the next ISO setting and try again. One of the big selling points about digital cameras is how they handle the digital noise at higher ISO settings. The top pro level cameras from Nikon or Canon will have better control over noise than the cheaper models and this allows the pros (or anyone that can afford a Nikon D3 or Canon 1Ds for example) to get away with using a higher ISO and still getting good enough quality for print.

Why is a high ISO setting needed? Well for indoor work, where flash isn’t allowed and the light levels are fairly low. Or you can use it deliberately to get the grainy gritty feel to the image (although I would prefer to add this later on the computer).

It’s well worth experimenting with ISO settings so you can see just how your camera performs at the various levels. Once you have got to grips with how changing Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO effect your image, you’ve pretty much got all the technical fundamentals nailed.

Over at the Digital Photography School Blog there is a nice post on how to choose the right ISO setting which is worth checking out. My rule of thumb is to keep the setting as low as possible until you absolutely need to increase it in order to get the shutter speed you need. Just remember to turn it back down low again when conditions get better.

A black & white and gray scale comparison

Today i wanna show the difference in original B&W photography and today used, gray scale or photoshoped photography. I hope u like it....

With original Black & White camera

 With Using Gray scale

You can clearly see the difference 

How to Create an Amazing Black & White Photograph

Black and white photography is an interesting artistic styling that can really make or break an image. While original photography started out as black and white images, it seems that over the years many photographers have forgotten how to make a black and white photo. I’ve met many people who seem to think that simply converting an image to greyscale or desaturating and image is all that is required. These methods, while they do convert to black and white, do not apply the basic principle of black and white photography: Contrast.

Contrast is what makes a black and white photo truly stand out as a work of art. Strong contrast between the black shadows, the white highlights, and the shades of grey in between are the key to a beautiful black and white image. Strong highlights can make an image seem more live and friendly, while strong shadows can make an image seem more deep and brooding. Typically with Black an whites you want to avoid a large array of “middle grey” as this makes images seem bland and boring.

fix it first

White Balance

If your white balance is wrong (your picture looks blue or orange) then it is very distracting. Make a curves adjustment (if you’ve never used curves, it’s ok, we’ll make it easy). Under the channels option in the curves dialog, change it from RGB to one of the colors (red, green, blue). Click a point in the middle of the box and if your picture needs more of that color, slowly drag your mouse up. If your picture needs less of that color, slowly drag your mouse down. (In this picture, you can drag the red down, or the blue up.)



Distracting elements
Next thing to focus on is getting rid of distracting elements. Often times, some examples are telephone poles for landscapes, acne for portraits, or perhaps that shoe you left in the middle of your floor that you didn’t see when you took the picture. Editing these things out isn’t “cheating”. The purpose of editing is to make the picture look like what you saw, and often time you never see these distracting elements until you see it on your computer, because now you have time to study all the defects, and in person you were just there experiencing whatever it was you were taking a picture of.

Look at the edges
Being a photographer, you are responsible for making every part of your image look good. If there’s something weird or distracting in the corner, or along the edge, you need to see it.

Photo taken, what to fix first

  Have you ever had that picture on your hard drive you really like, but there’s something not quite right? How do you start fixing it? What do you look for?

          Now you have that cool picture from your vacation, or a cute picture you just snapped, but right now, it’s just that. A snapshot. What things do you look at in Photoshop to make it good? First thing to fix is what bugs you the most. Whether it’s a quick snap from vacation or a 6 hour photoshoot, every picture has something that needs to be fixed. But if you’re not sure where to start…

We will be telling you some beautiful tips in upcoming posts to fix your photos......
till then save those pictures, don't delete them

what? watermark! Oh!

          In a country like Pakistan, India, Bangladesh where there is no proper control over piracy, and there is no trend of getting copyrights, it is very difficult that a person publishes some photos with good resolution and those photos don't get copied.
          Also, There are certain websites, on which if you upload your photos, those photos are made available for search engines, and for download by all the world. and the photos are available for download in best resolution.
          I have seen myself people on net claiming others photos to be theirs So, for protecting your photos from piracy, i would suggest some simple steps that i have seen people applying.
          You can get a properly documented copyright, you can upload images in a bad resolution, so that if available to others, its in a bad resolution, so you may prove your ownership. Windows provide Microsoft Office Picture Manager for editing of the photos, you can re-size photos in it to given default smaller sizes as per required.
          Third thing which i have seen most common is adding a watermark on the photo, so that if someone copies, the photo will still be with your watermark. This addition of watermark makes photo a little weird, that intrigues the viewers, but is good for protecting the image from being copied.
          One thing that is in my mind and I still haven't tried it for myself is that a water mark can be removed by using adobe Photoshop, so I personally prefer the uploading of smaller size of photographs for preventing from piracy.
          Let me know your views...

Landscapes, you don't have to travel

I used to believe that one have to travel a lot to capture good landscapes and scenes, and I think that same is the belief of many of you...
     But I soon realized this thing that the landscapes are every where around us. Its just that we don't value what we have, and admire the things that are out of our approach. Do you agree?
     If you dont, soon you will after this example i am going to quote.
When you go to Karachi, you do photograph big flyovers and heavy traffic, this all seems to be a little exciting to you, but is just a mess for the residents of those places. Similarly, when a person from Karachi side goes to hilly/snowy areas, he is highly delighted to see and be in snow, but the residents of those places have to face other consequences while living there.
     Its best if you try to capture scenes nearest to you, try to explore new ways to show them. A desert can be pictured in thousands of ways..... similarly a road and a snow fall too.

Let me know of your views too. Do Comment.

Never Exploit, My request

                I have heard of that photo from many sources that was able to bring a big money to its photographer in which a starving child lying with hands, legs and belly on ground was being watched by a vulture.this was the photograph,

                It’s a very heart breaking moment when poverty or critical situation of affected persons is shown in a way that is very close to brutality, and you know that photographer suicide after one year due to haunting from photos he taken during that trip to affected areas in Saudan.

                I know, many competitions and exhibitions focus on the poverty but remember people, the poverty of a person can also be shown by the type of sleep he has, by the type of work he has, his clothes rather than what that photographer pictured

                This photography competition might also be giving the topic of poverty some day or you might be photographing poverty by yourself, what I want to say is that I want you to take a snap that conveys poverty without exploiting it.

                I hope you also happen to view that photograph and become cautious to maintain difference between conveying and exploiting.

Capture what...?

         In daily routine when you have lost your mood a little, then you surely take photographs and delete them not liking them. Don't you? :)
         At moment of such a stressed mind, i would suggest you to capture things instead of scenes or flowers. the point is that try to make things look like what they are not. try to picture a building under your fist, a tree from a friends head, a car under your feet or something like that.
        Your mind are factories of ideas, you will have to think of newer ideas and implement them successfully.
Here is what i did once,

          I hope that doing this, you will surely lose your stress and will come in a very good mood. I don't guarantee it but my hopes are high.
          Some people will not be understanding this. If someone tries to change or cool down his mood with taking snaps of flowers and/or nature scenery, he will fail, because good shots of nature can only be taken in a good mood, otherwise you won't get a good shot and this will displease you more.

Must try this some time...