Taking Photos - In the Park

Well, just like any other couple with kids, we also visited the nearby parks for the entertainment of our daughter, Aarohi. This one was particularly fun, cause we were being visited by my in-laws and I got away with a few interesting clicks. The first one is basically a collage, what I like about this is that it tells a story. I caught Aarohi in the act of gobbling down Bobbies (Golden Fingers) and used the Continuous Burst Mode on the Camera to capture her activity:

Click to Enlarge

Color, B/W and Tint: Click to View

This next one captures one of the rare moments in which Aarohi lets someone style her hair and at that time it was only her Azoba (Grandfather) who was allowed to even come near her with a comb, as her mother looks on:

Keeper: Click to View

Color, B/W and Tint: Click to View

Next I caught my wife’s mother enjoying the above scene. I did frame this one with the Principle of Thirds in mind, but managed to also pick-up a little bit of Snehal in the process. This was a sure shot candidate for image correction and I removed Snehal’s arm from the image using the Awesome Cloning tools in Photoshop:

Keeper: Click to View

Before and After: Click to View

Color, B/W and Tint: Click to View

Then I found her brother hanging around and got him to pose for me. Since I wanted to decide later how to frame him, I took a wider shot of him with a lot of background and then later cropped it to get the correct Composition. The reds in his T-Shirt really gave the image a lot of vitality and with a little Spot healing, I was able to clear out the blemishes, the Camera picked up on his face:

Keeper: Click to View

Before and After: Click to View

Color, B/W and Tint: Click to View

As I bought my attention back to Aarohi, she was generous enough to offer me a share in her spoils. This time I had to Crop the image to better focus on the subject. Another rare moment which had to be captured without fail…ha ha ha:

Keeper: Click to View

Before and After: Click to View

Color, B/W and Tint: Click to View

At the end of the day, as we settled back home, away from the cold weather outside, the little one snuggles-up next to her Aaji (Grandmother) in a cozy blanket and taken away on another amazing journey into the fantastical world of Disney’s Flying Elephant. I corrected the composition to better focus on the main subject and used a Blur Filter to remove focus from the surrounding:

Keeper: Click to View

Before and After: Click to View

Color, B/W and Tint: Click to View

Cheers,

Yours Truly,

Abhijit Roy

Taking Photos - First Steps

Finally, it was time to bring out the mean machine (in my case a Canon EOS 600D) and just like every other noob who picked-up a camera, I also started taking pictures, left, right and center without much thought to Camera settings, Composition, Exposure or any of the other technical jargon the professionals keep taking about all the time.

And Loved it…Someone once told me and I quote -

“Untrained Photographers sometimes have a great sense of Composition"

First thing I did was picked up one of Mom’s Flower Vases and clicked it from every angle imaginable. Most of them were useless, some were interesting but only one was a Keeper. I’m not gonna bore you and embarrass myself with the useless ones. So here’s a coupla interesting ones:

Click to Enlarge

And here’s the Keeper:

Click to Enlarge

Now, when I start clicking, I take a tonna pictures. At this stage I’m not really worrying about anything else, other than just capturing what I see, in as many interesting ways as I can. For every Keeper, I’ve got like 20 pics that never see the light of day. The ones that seem interesting are the ones that I keep in my computer and the ones that are Keepers are the ones that I actually take the trouble of processing in my choice of image editing software, the almighty Adobe Photoshop.
Well to be honest, every photo I click goes thru a Post-Process before I share it with the World. Here’s a small Before and After for my first Keeper (basic Color Correction): Click to View

Since I’ve worked in the creative fields for quite a long time. I truly understand the importance of keeping track of all my assets and sorting them into appropriate folder structure. I NEVER delete images from the Camera. I always copy all of them and decide which ones to work with, on the computer. It’s just my opinion, but I like deciding which ones to delete by looking at them on a 21-inch computer screen rather than the 3-inch screen on the camera. I keep the original images in a folder called; you guessed it, ‘Originals’. Then I make another folder called 'Keepers' and sub-folder called 'Color' and copy the one that I wanna keep, here. I also make a 'B/W' and a 'Tint' folder, as these are the two post processes that I always experiment with.

Folder Structure:

Originals
Keepers – Color, BW, Tint

Here's the Color, B/W and Tint for the Flower Vase: Click to View

After the Flower Vase I went for the Window Grill.
Here’s the Keeper: Click to View

Before and After: Click to View

Color, B/W and Tint: Click to View

Then the Wind Chime on the Window caught my imagination. I went all around the hanging beauty and here’s the Keeper: Click to View

Before and After: Click to View

Color, B/W and Tint: Click to View

And the first day of adventures ended with photos of Trees growing outside the window, in these cases, the B/W versions turned out to be the Keepers: Click to View, Click to View, Click to View

Before and After:

In this case, besides the B/W Conversion, I also Cropped the image to better focus on the subject and removed the annoying black rod, right in the middle of the scene, using Cloning: Click to View

In this case, it's just plain B/W Conversion, although there's a tonna stuff you can do with each Color when converting: Click to View

Here I've again Cropped as well as Blurred the background, to focus more on the subject: Click to View

Color, B/W and Tint: Click to View, Click to View, Click to View

Cheers,

Yours Truly,

Abhijit Roy.

Why Photography...???

By profession, I’m in the creative fields. I’ve worked in the Animation and VFX Industry for the last 13 years and counting. I also teach Animation VFX softwares, like, Toon Boom Studio, Maya, MotionBuilder, Nuke, FCP and many more. Although I have a certificate in Digital Character Animation from VFS (Vancouver Film School, Canada), I’m mostly self-trained.

Animation Film Making involves 3 major departments. Pre-Production, Production and Post Production. Ideally one should get training in these departments in this sequence, but due to a “series of unfortunate events”, I learned the process in a very haphazard manner. I first got to learn the 3D softwares, then VFX and then Drawing. To explain what I am talking about, I’ll need to fill you in on what these departments are all about.

Pre-Production mostly takes care of Designing all the elements of the film, starting from Sets & Props (Concept Design), Character Design, Storyboarding, Setting the mood with Colors and Animation. All this is done on paper and one needs to be very good at drawing to be a part of this department.

Production is mostly the 3D part of the pipeline. All the designs created by the artists, is now re-created in 3D using any one of the many 3D Modeling and Texturing softwares. These are then Rigged and Animated and finally the output is Rendered out as an image sequence.

Post-Production mostly involves, Compositing and adding VFX, followed by Sound & Video Editing.

Now, as I mentioned earlier, I got trained in 3D first, then VFX and finally Drawing. It should've been - Drawing, 3D and then VFX. Eventually I realized my mistake and started self-training thru a buncha online Tutorials and Courses.

When I was studying Concept Design, I got introduced to the term - Value Shading. I was following Scott Robertson’s awesome Perspective Drawing and Shading DVD series for The Gnomon Workshop.

When I was studying Character Design, I got introduced to the terms - Direct and Indirect lighting. I was following Glen Vilppu’s Awesome Human Anatomy Series.

When I was studying Storyboarding, I got introduced to the term - Shot Framing. I was following Feng Zhu’s Awesome Fundamentals of Shot Design for Environments DVD for The Gnomon Workshop.

When I was studying Color Theory, I got introduced to the terms, Color Harmonies and Contrast along with Bounced light, Shadows, Atmosphere and Camera Effects. I was following Richard Keyes’s Awesome The Mechanics of Color and Jeremy Vickery’s Awesome Practical Light and Color DVDs for The Gnomon Workshop.

The one thing that was common in all the above-mentioned study material is, understanding how light effects everything that we see, how to capture it and how to show it to others thru your drawings. They all talk about the importance of observation and some of them directly talk about how learning Photography helps an artist in creating compelling Artwork.

This became very evident in Storyboarding and Practical Light and Color. Here the instructors very clearly stated Camera Esthetics, like, Placements, Angles and Composition along with how the Camera captured Light & Color, Depth of Field and Motion Blur. The more I studied these topics the more I got interested in actually holding a Camera in my hands and practically trying out what these instructors were encouraging me to do.

That’s when I started doing my online research to find ways to learn Photography and the very first name that came up was the Awesome Karl Taylor, a British Photographer, who also offers Photography Master-Classes, perfect for amateur photography enthusiasts and even professional photographers.

After getting introduced to Photography thru Karl, I bought my first Camera, an entry-level Canon EOS 600D, that I wrote about in my earlier blogs, Anatomy of My Camera Part1 and Part2. I also did more research and found the Lynda.com's Photography Series, which I wrote about in another one of my earlier blogs, The Learning Curve.

As I learnt more about photography, I also started fiddling with the idea of maybe finding a way to sell my Photographs. Further researches lead me to the stunning new world of Stock Photography. I’ll be writing about how to sell photos online in subsequent blogs.

Cheers…!!!

Yours Truly,

Abhijit Roy.

The Learning Curve

Ok, so now I have a Camera, a DSLR no less. The next thing, is to find out what to do with it. You guessed it, gotta Learn how to use it…!!!

My learning Curve started by searching the Internet for learning recourses and tutorials on Photography and ended with an Awesome website called Lynda.com. I must say, Lynda.com is, by far, the best one-stop-shop for all your learning needs. They are an Online Tutorials and Training website and have a huge repository of training material delivered by highly experienced Gurus who are themselves experts in their fields, be it, 3D, Animation, Audio, Business, Design, Developer, Photography, Video or Web.

The first one that caught my interest was by Author Derrick Story, a Professional, Writer and Teacher. 

He also runs a very informative website - The Digital Story where he shares weekly Digital Photography Pod casts, Photo Tips, Reader Submitted Pictures, Equipment reviews and more.

DigitalPhotography Principles: The Camera - This tutorial shows us how to master digital cameras and their settings to create magazine-quality shots.

Once I got a good understanding of the Anatomy and various key features of a DSLR camera, I did what Mr. Story mentioned as one of the most important things to do when starting to use your camera for the first time, and I quote ‘Read the Manual’. Although I won’t claim to have read the whole thing, whatever I did read made me a better Photographer for sure.

Next up I came across another Awesome Author, Ben Long, also a Photographer, Writer, and Teacher. Mr. Long has a buncha courses that really helped me in improving my skills as a budding Photographer. 

I picked up some of his courses and am studying them in the following order:

Foundations of Photography – Lenses - This course shows us how to understand, choose, and properly use lenses.

Foundations of Photography – Exposure - This course describes how shutter speed, aperture, and ISO settings relate to one another, and how these settings expand your artistic options with any photograph.

Foundations of Photography –Composition - This course is a detailed exploration of the concepts of composition, from basics such as the rule of thirds and leading lines to more advanced topics such as entry and exit points.

Foundations of Photography - Black and White - This course describes strategies for capturing the best black and white images and techniques for converting to black and white in Photoshop.

Foundations of Photography - Night and Low Light - This Course covers the tools, creative options, and special considerations involved in shooting with a DSLR camera at night or in low-light conditions, such as sunset or candlelight.

Shooting and Processing High Dynamic Range Photographs (HDR) - This course describes and demonstrates high dynamic range (HDR) photography, a technique that broadens the luminance or range between the lightest and darkest areas of an image.

By the time I will finish the above listed courses, I’m pretty sure my Photography will be way better than when I began. 

Now, most of the Professional Photographers whom I have spoken to, as well as Trainers, advice to achieve the best possible version of the Photograph, ‘in Camera’. But some times a little Photo-Retouching can really bring out a look and feel you could never achieve otherwise. In this matter, the go to Digital Software is Adobe’s hugely popular Photoshop, now in it’s CS6 version. Yet again, Lynda.com has a huge collection of Courses for Photoshop and it’s implementation in Photography by various Authors. 

Following are the ones that I’m studying:

PhotoshopCS6 Essential Training

Author - Julieanne Kost

This course explores the Photoshop features and creative options and shows efficient ways to perform common editing tasks using Photoshop, Camera Raw, and Bridge.

PhotoshopCS6 for Photographers - Camera Raw 7

Author - Chris Orwig (www.chrisorwig.com)

This course provides in-depth training on Camera Raw 7, the Photoshop CS6 component that enables photographers to open and manipulate raw format images.

Photoshop CS6 for Photographers – Compositing

Author - Chris Orwig (www.chrisorwig.com)

This course covers the essential techniques to create composites from multiple photos using Adobe Photoshop—from working around tricky exposure challenges to creating stronger group photos and crafting creative photo illustrations.

Photoshop CS6 Insider Training - Enhancing Photos

Author - Bryan O'Neil Hughes

This course takes you on an insider's tour of the key photo-enhancement features in Photoshop CS6.

Cheers…!!!

Yours Truly,

Abhijit Roy

The Journey Begins

Well, my Photographic journey started with buying my first DigitalSLR camera in the year 2012, an entry level Canon EOS 600D. (Canon India)

I live in a city called Pune in Maharashtra, India. The easiest way for me to search for cameras was to go to one of these electronics outlets, like, Vijay Sales or Reliance Digital. But eventually I found that Canon itself had a few showrooms in Pune as well. So, I went to their Camp branch on M.G.Road and found their customer interaction very hospitable and friendly.

Canon Showroom -   Shop no 11, Sterling centre,

 M. G. Road, Opp Hotel Aurora Towers,

 Pune - 411001.

Contact -                    Kishor Kunal (9657573581, 020-26138227)

The executives there were very informative and I immediately realized that I had taken the right decision to have come to an authorized Showroom, instead of buying it from some bulk outlet. I left the Showroom with a smile on my face and a promise that if I would end-up buying a camera, it will be from this very place. They did have finance option for the purchase, but unfortunately it was only applicable to HDFC Bank Credit Cards and since I had an Axis Bank Card, I could not avail it. So, my options were to either go for an EMI based payment structure with interest or full down payment.

After a week or so, I was able to finalize on my decision and came back to the very showroom with my wife, Snehal and our 2-year-old daughter, Aarohi. The people there were again very friendly. They recognized me and greeted me with the utmost kindness. Once I placed the order, the package was revealed and the necessary formalities were carried out, while I waited on pins-and-needles to be able to hold my very first DSLR in my hands. The executive briefed me with the basic functions of the Camera and clicked a few photographs to demonstrate key features.

The first one was mine of course:

Then he went around the showroom and caught a few gorgeous snaps of Aarohi having a great time in wide eyed wonder:

I also grabbed the camera and took a few clicks of Snehal, which, in the hands of a novice like myself, came out so bad that my wife has threatened me with murder if I ever share it with the World…Ever…ha ha ha…!!!

End of the day we walked out of this Awesome experience of buying something exciting for the first time and I would like to forward my gratitude towards the cool peeps at the showroom for their kindness…Cheers…!!!

Yours Truly,

Abhijit Roy