Behind the viewfinder:

• Gadgets used: Canon PowerShot A1100IS 12.1 MP
• Since I used a point and shoot camera, I didn’t have much choice of selecting different options. Point and shoot cameras are incredibly good at Auto-modes
• I shot this in Landscape Mode
• Timing was important, 30mins before or 10mins after the scene was never the same
• Framing the show was also very important. Keeping people in a nature scene enhances the beauty even more
• Pumped up the ISO to ISO400 as it was getting quite dark
• Post processing in Lightroom: Increased saturation, contrast and sharpness to optimum visually pleasing level. Also used recovery to get the detailing of the sky back. And rotated the photo to make the horizon straight (this is very important)

Improve your landscape photography skills

E.g. If you are shooting with f=100mm, ensure the shutter speed is at least 1/100sec. It should ideally be 1/125sec or faster.

This is to reduce blur from camera shake. If you are using a tripod, there’s no camera shake and hence feel free to use any shutter speed.

Also when you are hand holding the camera (and you do not purposefully want blur) then 1/60sec shutter speed is the thumb rule to keep the subject in focus sharp.

How did I take this photo:

• Gadgets used besides DSLR: EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III Telephoto Zoom Lens from Canon
• I wanted a background blurred shot, hence I needed a wider aperture (lower f-stop e.g. f4 or f5). I selected Av mode and selected f5
• Took my position, zoomed in and framed the shot
• Used evaluative metering mode as it was a cloudy day without any harsh bright light or darkness in different areas of the scene
• Double checked the ISO (kept at 100 to minimize noise)
• Selected custom AF point (slightly on the right)
• Half pressed the shutter, to focus and meter the scene, the shutter speed was auto-calculated as 1/400sec (perfect as the focal length was 230mm, read more here)
• Finally released the shutter and took the shot
• Post processing in Lightroom: Increased saturation, contrast and sharpness to optimum visually pleasing level

Notes:

The secret of the appeal of this photo is the color combinations (red/yellow/green) with prominent sprinkle of spices. Of course the closeness gives a personal feeling. The oval edges also enhances the overall look of this shot. I used bounced flash to provide uniform blended lighting that looks very natural.

Improve your food photography skills

Notes:

After an afternoon of boating, while I was returning to the car, I found the scene of the irondequoit bay extremely pleasing to the eye. I tried to frame a part of it but suddenly I found that complete 180 degree was the best one. I took about 11 overlapping photos and used PanoramaPlus 3 to stitch them together. The result as you can see is (almost) as pleasing as the view itself. Of course I had to take care of the exposure and focus while sweeping the shots.

Improve your photography skill in taking and stitching panoramic shots

Notes:

The contrasting color of the boats attracted me. I positioned the lens at about 3ft from ground and took the shot. I had to crop this photo a bit to even make the composition tight. Very small aperture (larger f-stop number) was used to bring all boats in focus.

Improve your compositional and color design skills

Notes:

This is a photo from my early days of DSLR experience indoors with lowlight conditions. This is taken at the Madame Tussuad’s Wax museum (of course). At that time I didn’t own an external flash which was a big disadvantage. As you can see the photo has lot of issues (like focussing, detailing and blown out areas)… but what has made this photo still pleasing and at least noticeable once are

• celebrity factor (the photo looks real)
• black and white (slightly unusual for portraits) which is covering up most of the issues
• composition (positioning the facial parts in the right way)

Improve your low-light and black & white photography skills

Notes:

This photograph contains a lot of elements of food photography – some well executed, some not. As you can see a wide aperture (smaller f-stop number) was used to blur out front and back of the photo and only focus on the middle. The vertical composition is refreshing here with a blurred sign of onion at the back (this is where the white background choice was a blunder). The texture on the chicken pieces are really appealing (to the tongue via brain).

External flash (bounced) was used. The photo was taken in M mode.

Improve your food photography skills

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