DSLR - How To Make Your Photos Stand Out.

appus · Nov 6, 2013

Grrr, I got you. This is the patience I was talking about [evil]

Discussion between two Rangers are interesting [lol]

One Highway Ranger and the other one Mr. Ranger :)

MrRanger, I think you are from Bangalore. Try meeting HighwayRanger once.

I might have bought a 1.8D 50mm prime if i had not met him.
I would have hurried to upgrade my D7000 to D7100. Later I found 1.8G or 1.4G would be the best solution. He was kind enough to give his 1.8D to test (I am keeping it for a month now without returning [embarass]

).

@MrRanger ,
The thread says 'How to make your photos Stand out'. So, people comment and give ideas to make our photos stand out. Isn't it a good thing? We all wants to learn and no one is perfect. You can go thru each posts in this particular thread and get an idea of what he tried to explain you.

MrRanger · Nov 6, 2013

appus said:

hahahah, don't return that lens and that lens great and VFM,

I have no problem to take suggestions but I'm trying to say that my post were not saying anything but just to get idea about 2 basic primes which i mentioned,

I never said that walking behind your friend and taking pictures is street photography I'm not ready to accept such comments, [cry]

just re check my posts, I was just tried to discuss about lens capability at low light not about once capability.

low light or street light is my favorite and people under sodium is very crispy to watch, if i'm into streets and looking for low light candid then 50mm f/1.8 or 40mm f/2.8 are not ideal for candid but yes they produce great picture details at low light. ok now if I use my 55-250mm then I can take CANDID very easily but I may struggle to focus and capture good details at low light.

so there is a trade off and some compromises, so what do you think about this?

so if you are here to help someone then 1st understand what actually someone is trying get, I know nobody is perfect, I may have too many things to learn from you and I may have loads of stuffs to teach you so be humble to listen and that is the point

Highway Ranger · Nov 6, 2013

It will be great for the viewer of this thread, if you share tips and tricks to make photos stand out... as the title of this thread suggests. [:D]

MrRanger · Nov 6, 2013

Highway Ranger said:

I'm wondering why the thread starter is so ignorant about readers(ME) point of interest.

as a part of breaking rules here is one tip which i found it very nice and interesting, find the following pic ( pic is taken just to show the technique, no time spend on it and no tripod is used too)
NOTE: people can find better explanation about this technique on internet.

Tip: set your camera preferably on tripod, point to a subject and click the shutter button, in between zoom the lens in or out at the subject, note here that your shutter speed is set in such a way that you can smoothly zoom in or out on subject before camera releases shutter.

a perfect shot retains noticeable sharpness on subject and rest will appear as they are in motion( above picture is just to show technique and that picture is not a benchmark at any point of time).

a perfect combination of light and smoothness of zoom produces a crispy image.

where you can try this: your subject could be a street vendor who is not moving considerably, a tall building surrounded by some other buildings, a table top candle/flower pot/ etc, a stand still car/bike and ultimately its yours choice.

All the information which is shared by you and others(&me) in this thread are easily available on internet, I'm wondering how this thread make my picture stand out from others [frustration]

.

Also I'm wondering why people are not giving suggestion or talking about my concern but instead they replying with one liner which is not adding + for me.

appus · Nov 6, 2013

MrRanger said:

Then this.

MrRanger said:

Later,

MrRanger said:

Even though you may not have thought about mentioning Street photography for the shots you posted, you have unknowingly typed 'Deepavali Street photography/quick street photography' etc. Your intention were different. But, you typed it and anyone reading would have read it as 'Street photography'. !

You check your post which I quoted , you may feel that 'others got confused with the term street photography'

EDIT :- I forgot to click the 'submit reply' after your reply [embarass]

The last one

Does that mean we should not gain anything from this forum and go and read it on internet/other forums?

Since most of the car's test drives are in other forums / internet, should not we try to get the minute details of the vehicle by discussing it in this forum? Shouldn't we promote any test rides/ reviews in our forums ?

The first post says

HighwayRanger said:

Sorry MrRanger. As a regular reader of the forum, I am following most of the Travelogues,photos(Best photographs) in this forums, I got lots of info by seeing different comments by HR, Zengetz, Indian, Codename,Manojdungat etc (to name a few). I am sure many here agree it.

Lets stick to the topic (I remember mods intervention when we went overboard discussing something else). Lets post things & stick to discussion towards making the photos look better.
Lets discuss anything related to lens/purchase etc in DSLR information thread as Admin suggested.

Be ready to get criticized the moment you post a photo in this thread [evil]

Peace.

MrRanger · Nov 6, 2013

appus said:

correction! I was not talking about our forum I was talking about this thread and the information about photography, I really wonder how people can change my statements knowingly or unknowingly [frustration]

Yes I mean it! you know why? 1st thing people are so hurry and they are not interested to know what is what,
2nd thing is that I been saying that my intentions were different but honorable thread starter Mr HR is still not understanding what Im trying to get here.
so you tell me how my photos going to stand out from others?

it looks like you got what I was trying to get, at least you would have started giving suggestion regarding my concern instead of explaining me what happened with HR and others

what you mean by street portrait? a unknown guy and full of stories only ? whats wrong if the guy is a friend of mine? moreover I had no intention to discuss street photography I was only pointing my discussion to prime lens only. read my quotes again if you are still in confusion

I never went off-topic and i kept on explaining my concern many time so it is not my mistake.

still Im not seeing any prime lens discussion and it a waste of time for me so my statement about this thread not on our beautiful forum, please copy

manojodungat · Nov 6, 2013

ISO sensitivity

The ISO number indicates how fast your camera's sensor absorbs light.
The greater the ISO number, the quicker the sensor absorbs light.

Set a high ISO number while in low light conditions [indoors/night shots without flash] in order to shoot faster.

ISO 1500

Set a low ISO number while shooting outdoors and during sunny days.

ISO 100

warning !
Higher the ISO, greater the amount of grain seen on the image.

Highway Ranger · Nov 6, 2013

For a ISO1500 image, noise is well controlled. Personally I prefer to shoot at the lowest native ISO (which is ISO200 in d90 or ISO100 in d7100). Max I go is ISO400.

venkythaniks · Nov 6, 2013

Color Temperature:
I have read many articles to adjust the SLR color temperature settings for different scenarios. But this feature is not available in all the types of SLR. What is the alternate way if this is not available? Should we use the White balance adjustments? Please suggest?
I own a Canon T2i (EOS 550D).

Also is there any free software which I can use to adjust this on a RAW image.
Note: I do not own any ADOBE software. Please suggest some good free software digital photography softwares to work on the RAW images.

Highway Ranger · Nov 7, 2013

venkythaniks said:

To adjust the color temperature we need to change the white balance. The various setting usually are

AUTO - (the camera decides the color temperature depending upon the metering)
Tungsten - around 2800 K
Fluorescent - around 3800 K
Daylight - around 5500 K
Cloudy - around 6500 K
Shade - around 7500 K

The lower (cooler) color temp lean towards Blue and the higher (warmer) color temperature tends to lean towards Yellow/Orange.

Accurate adjustments can be done in the software as, in addition to the color temperature, we can also adjust the tint from Green to Magenta

Having said that, I find that the Nikon bodies that I have are pretty accurate with the color metering and so I leave it at "As Shot" while processing the RAW images. The only time I tweak the color temperature is for Sunrise/Sunset shots. And... while converting color image to grey-scale - (for grey scale images it helps...)

venkythaniks said:

I am using Adobe Photoshop for more than 20 years and so I do not have a need to use any other software.

You can try these free ones. Never used these though.

GIMP with UFRaw This looks to be good.
RAW Therapee.

BTW,
Are you not able to do the color temperature adjustments in the software you got along with your camera?

For Nikon cameras, they give a free software called View NX 2 that does these tasks. But, I use ACR.

Indian · Nov 7, 2013

venkythaniks said:

Thanks HR for tech answer!
My layman answer as follows..
Generally I keep WB setting at auto and it works well on my t3i. But it fails when you have not so common light setup, e.g night shots, bulb exposures or some creative shots or you dont know what is the correct setting.

Recently I did 'Deepavali' shot of a model (my daughter [lol]

) and I think camera totally messed up the pic because of the Auto WB. Technically I should have set the custom WB before the shot is taken, but I did not think about it at that time [frustration]

I use Lightroom, which allows(I think any software would allow this feature) to chose the white color from the pic and adjusts the picture color based on the white you have chosen. In this case I choose my daughter's tooth as white. And it worked very well I suppose.

I remember Canon has some Raw image processing software which is bundled with the bunch of software in CD when you buy your camera.

venkythaniks · Nov 7, 2013

Highway Ranger said:

Thanks for the detailed info HR. I was following White balance adjustments but it was too much as I felt the color temperature adjustments will give more control to the photographer. I checked the canon software but not able to find these settings. That is why I have posted this questions. Anyways, I will double check again.

Also Thanks for the suggestions on the free softwares. I will try it out.

Indian said:

Good work on the enhancement on your diwali photo. As said before I will double check my Canon software.

Highway Ranger · Nov 9, 2013

I like to take pictures of the same subject in different angles and eye level. Some angle/level/zoom may make the image more appealing.

These two photos are of the same bunch of flowers, but taken in a different angle and level.

Indian · Nov 9, 2013

Panning shots:

Panning shots basically is taking of the picture of moving object(generally) by moving the camera intentionally. This is done to when you want to capture moving object but you want to show the movement in the picture.
Generally you would go high shutter speeds when you want to capture the motion, that's alright in most situations but by going high on shutter speed you would freeze the moment. Sometimes showing the motion and main object same time gives better result. That's where you would do panning shot. Idea is to keep the main object frozen but the all other things in motion.

Setting:
Exposure: Tv(Shutter Priority)
Shutter Speed: 15~60 based on your skills and speed of the object
Aperture: based on your lighting
ISO: Based on your lighting
Focus: As you are shooting the picture of moving object give more importance to focus as you can easily miss it, continues focus(Servo Focus) is recommend. But in some situations you even might be doing manual focus too. But this is the area where you have to give maximum importance as even though you have set all the above parameters right still can ruin the whole picture because you lost the focus.
Shooting Mode: Continuous, as things are happening fast and you want to capture as many shots as possible.
Zoom: Try as much as zoomed out, later you can crop it. If zoomed it you might find it difficult to focus and your shutter speeds might needs to be bumped up too.
Shot style: Shoot across, not the object moving towards you.

Here is one attempt from me shot at Niagara Falls ON, Canada, Shutter speed was 30, This is from point and shoot but same rules are followed.

Highway Ranger said:

Agree with you HR, taking shots from different angles and levels should be must for any photography when situation permits. As things which look extraordinary through the viewfinder might produce a average pic where as other angle might give you a excellent picture.

Highway Ranger · Nov 9, 2013

That is a nice shot. Good composition.

Panning is something I have not seriously tried. I will have to pan for 'Birds in Flight' photography. I have to practice it - like pivoting the upper part of the body smoothly with the subject's direction of movement - till it becomes a natural movement.

I have trimmed your picture to remove the slight distraction on the left of the frame. I find that after trimming, the image has lost some of the depth in the picture. [frustration]

DSLR - How To Make Your Photos Stand Out.

appus

V10

MrRanger

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Highway Ranger

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MrRanger

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appus

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MrRanger

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manojodungat

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Highway Ranger

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venkythaniks

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Highway Ranger

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Indian

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venkythaniks

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Highway Ranger

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Indian

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Highway Ranger

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