A few things I dint know when I first took the DSLR in hand and started out. I learnt them one by one with after a bad shot or from various sites. I have compiled a list of all those, that my brain can recollect.
Some so very silly and minute but still makes tremendous change to the quality of the shot. Some are major and so very obvious that I have been so very ignorant about that I ended up dumping a bunch of shots after hours of shooting and editing.
- Higher ISO is good to shoot at low light situations but it makes the picture so very noisy (grainy) which certainly pulls down the quality of the picture.
- Pictures with good natural light is always better than any other source of light.
- Taking pictures is direct mid day light gives burns / skin tone wash outs. It washes out the details of the subject.
I concentrated on natural light while taking the above picture, but dint know about mid-day light and the washout. It is so evident in the above picture that one half of the face has lost its details. So put away the camera on mid day and enjoy.
- The last one hour of the evening when the sun is still there(setting) is called the "golden hour" and the golden lining that we get around the subject is one of the kind of natural light that is preferred.
( I am so very surprised to find that I have deleted a bunch of precious pictures. Warning myself for not doing the picture transfer job anymore after 11 pm. Lesson learnt hard way.)
- Reflection of the light source on the subject's eyes gives a boost to the picture that it doesnt require any major editing.
- Most of composing cant be done only with cropping. You NEED to compose the picture atleast partly while shooting.
- Limb chops seriously look awkward and more snapshotty.
- Majorly fix the yellow light effect with manually setting the White Balance which barely takes about 5 minutes before shooting anything in yellow light. It saves the shot.
The first one is straight under a yellow lamp, but I did majorly pull off the yellow from the shot, not by editing but with manual white balance setting. The second one is with auto white balance, which surely shows it is under a yellow light.
- Never, ever, ever use camera flash. It renders very "ameturish" look aswell a load of harsh shadows and plainly take away the life from the picture.
- Farther the backdrop from the subject, the more blurred and smooth is the background. The subject POPS out naturally.
- Not convert a regular picture to black and white without knowing the intricacies of knowing a beautiful b&w picture. I am yet to learn and explore this area, though I learnt that a plain, flat conversion to black and white doesnt make any sense and is pure injustice to the otherwise magnificent, volume speaking b&w shots. It calls for much more details like Black, White, contrast, muddy, flat, gray and etc.,. I have stopped converting pictures to black and white blindly.
- Dump that 55-250mm lens (anything with f# >4.5) when you are attempting a portrait. It gives a lot of limb chops.
- The magic of RAW. Crop, chop and do anything to the picture without losing the size or quality of the image. Best for prints.
- The time invested in learning about composition, exposure and lighting is way better than trying to edit and fix an otherwise average image.
- And the one that I DID know - to start with manual from the very first picture. Going to auto will one lazy and reluctant to try manual mode. But I did the "auto" mistake with focusing and I majorly do auto focusing particularly with Sujaya. Hey, but seriously, with this kind of eye sight every single picture will have to hit the recycle bin otherwise.
Cant rake my brain any more. Learning every day and kindling the creativity is one major thing, that need not be said.
Some so very silly and minute but still makes tremendous change to the quality of the shot. Some are major and so very obvious that I have been so very ignorant about that I ended up dumping a bunch of shots after hours of shooting and editing.
- Higher ISO is good to shoot at low light situations but it makes the picture so very noisy (grainy) which certainly pulls down the quality of the picture.
- Pictures with good natural light is always better than any other source of light.
- Taking pictures is direct mid day light gives burns / skin tone wash outs. It washes out the details of the subject.
I concentrated on natural light while taking the above picture, but dint know about mid-day light and the washout. It is so evident in the above picture that one half of the face has lost its details. So put away the camera on mid day and enjoy.
- The last one hour of the evening when the sun is still there(setting) is called the "golden hour" and the golden lining that we get around the subject is one of the kind of natural light that is preferred.
( I am so very surprised to find that I have deleted a bunch of precious pictures. Warning myself for not doing the picture transfer job anymore after 11 pm. Lesson learnt hard way.)
- Reflection of the light source on the subject's eyes gives a boost to the picture that it doesnt require any major editing.
- Most of composing cant be done only with cropping. You NEED to compose the picture atleast partly while shooting.
- Limb chops seriously look awkward and more snapshotty.
- Majorly fix the yellow light effect with manually setting the White Balance which barely takes about 5 minutes before shooting anything in yellow light. It saves the shot.
The first one is straight under a yellow lamp, but I did majorly pull off the yellow from the shot, not by editing but with manual white balance setting. The second one is with auto white balance, which surely shows it is under a yellow light.
- Never, ever, ever use camera flash. It renders very "ameturish" look aswell a load of harsh shadows and plainly take away the life from the picture.
- Farther the backdrop from the subject, the more blurred and smooth is the background. The subject POPS out naturally.
- Not convert a regular picture to black and white without knowing the intricacies of knowing a beautiful b&w picture. I am yet to learn and explore this area, though I learnt that a plain, flat conversion to black and white doesnt make any sense and is pure injustice to the otherwise magnificent, volume speaking b&w shots. It calls for much more details like Black, White, contrast, muddy, flat, gray and etc.,. I have stopped converting pictures to black and white blindly.
- Dump that 55-250mm lens (anything with f# >4.5) when you are attempting a portrait. It gives a lot of limb chops.
- The magic of RAW. Crop, chop and do anything to the picture without losing the size or quality of the image. Best for prints.
- The time invested in learning about composition, exposure and lighting is way better than trying to edit and fix an otherwise average image.
- And the one that I DID know - to start with manual from the very first picture. Going to auto will one lazy and reluctant to try manual mode. But I did the "auto" mistake with focusing and I majorly do auto focusing particularly with Sujaya. Hey, but seriously, with this kind of eye sight every single picture will have to hit the recycle bin otherwise.
Cant rake my brain any more. Learning every day and kindling the creativity is one major thing, that need not be said.
