Archive for the ‘Exposure’ Category
18 Jan
Speed boaters
Image & text Copyright Praveen Chamarthi
This boatman makes a living taking tourists from the beaches of pattaya to the near by islands with coral reefs. He took me to the para-gliding spot..under water sea walking and showed me some amazing reefs..
I thought he looked like Danny Dengzonpa (India actor from Sikkim)
Somewhere in the sea between Koh Larn and Pattaya
Thailand
May 2006
Larger version here
3 Oct
Avoiding Camera Shake
If you are an ardent shooter using a SLR (Single Lens Reflex) camera then am sure you would have experienced some shots with camera shake, even though it’s not dark. You would experience this quite often if you shooting in “M” (manual) mode.
Well there is a reason behind this and this is often referred to as the “Camera Shake rule”
The safest shutter speed you can shoot without a camera shake is when you have shutter speeds greater than one over the focal length i.e. 1/f, where f is the focal length in mm, of the lens in use.
e.g. If you are engaging a prime lens like 50mm then for shake free shots make sure you shoot with shutter speeds greater than 1/60 seconds.
As the shutter speeds get slower the probability of loosing sharpness increases greatly.
Not enough light? use a tripod (with a shutter release), engage the flash depending on the distance between the camera (you) and the subject or brace the camera against any solid object. If you are not carrying a tripod then try to place your camera on solid base like a railing or any slab of stone near you alternatively you can try leaning on to a wall, take a deep breath and release the shutter without shaking the camera.
IF you have stable hands and follow the “photographer’s stance” with discipline then you can manage some sharp shots even at slower shutter speeds.
Hope this helps.
Good day and happy clicking
28 Sep
Wat Pho, Wat Arun & Khao San Road
19 Sep 2006
After catching up with enough sleep I got out of the guesthouse (K.T Guesthouse, Sutthisarn Road, Inthamara soi 14, Single: 560 Baht Double: 690Baht A/C,Hot Shower no T.V, Has a pool too)
to catch some authentic Thai breakfast and then I remembered that they don’t have any breakfast..they either eat what was cooked in the night or may be have a soup. I wandered my gaze around the street to find a lady cooking something in her wok. I walked to her and asked her to give me a Khao Phat (KHAW PAT: Thai for fried rice) I learnt this from the Lonely Planet – Thailand I purchased in Cambodia for 5 USD.
After polishing another plate of Khao Phat, this time with sea food varieties and a nice plump cake I headed back to the guest house. Even though the guest house was very clean and quiet I’ve come to know that there are more cheaper and lively places in Bangkok to stay. So, I decided to catch some action and I checked out from the guest house and hailed a cab to head to the backpackers ghetto: the Khao San Road. It is often made fun of that if you stay at a guest house in Khao San you have a freak show at your doorstep. Thanks to Lonely Planet.
Khao san road is infact a back packers paradise, as I walked with my 20kg backpack I think I spotted a tourist from every nation I know. Guesthouses, cheap clothes, food carts, massage parlors, Internet cafes, tuk-tuk drivers, shoe sellers, restaurants..boy this place was bustling with action or what. I walked down the street and checked a couple of guest houses only to find that they were already full and other guest house have shared bathrooms and some say that the only room available was the executive or special room what they call which costs around 700 baht a night. So I pulled out my Lonely planet and found that there are most quieter and cheaper guesthouses at Thanon Phra Athit (by the way Thanon is Thai for ROAD and SOI – pronounced as soy, is STREET) just off Khao San Road. I walked into one of the quiet bylanes and found SUKPASATH HOTEL for 400 baht a night with A/C and hot shower.
The clock now stuck 2:30pm I quickly had a shower and headed to the nearest “place to see”, WAT PHO, thanks to the map I picked up at Airport. In fact all the famous “must see” places of Bangkok are situated very conviniently near Th. Khao San. The National Museum, National Theater, Grand Palace & Wat Phra Kaew (Emrald Buddha), Wat Pho (Reclining Buddha) and Wat Arun (Temple of the dawn) are at walking distance range from this road.
Wat Pho or Wat Phra Chetuphon: Built in 17th century is one of the oldest temples in Bangkok. Wat Po hosts one of the largest reclining Buddha, gold plated is 46 meters long and 15 meters high, illustrates the passing of Buddha into Nirvana. The eyes and the feet are engraved with mother-of-pearl decorations. The feet is decorated with 108 auspicious charecteristics of Buddha.
Wat Pho being the oldest wat in Bangkok, is the finest center for traditional Thai massage. Courses are also offered throughout the year if you are interested to learn Thai massage. I think the duration is 30 hours costing approx. 4000-4500 baht over a span of 10-15 days.
Tickets at Wat Pho: 50 Baht
then we headed to the closest ferry station “Ta Tien” to catch a ferry to cross-over the Chao Praya river to Wat Arun, the Temple of the dawn, by paying 3 baht each way..wait a minute that was the cheapest denomination I paid during this whole trip. Then it stuck me that I could reduce my costs by utilising the ferry service. I read a bit about the ferry service in Lonely Planet and with my little smiling skills I was able to understand the routes and for the next four days this would become my preferred mode of transportation in Bangkok.
Wat Arun, The temple of the dawn: One of the most published site by the tourism authority and the only tourist attraction on the other side, Thonburi side, of the Chao Praya river. Construction has an elongated prang(tower which is built in Khmer-style) which is surrounded by four smaller prangs. The prangs are decorated with bits of porcelain. It is also said that the wat hosted emrald buddha for a brief period of time.
Tickets at Wat Arun: 20 Baht
Wat arun when viewed across the Chao Praya river when the sunsets down is breath-taking
11 Sep
Nature’s Delight
It is fascinating to experience what mother nature has given to us.
If you see closely you’ll find beauty everywhere…
you can see more here
9 Sep
What is HDR?
I was introduced to HDR a few months ago through another flickr member.
The first thing you’ll notice in a HDR image is that the light is evenly distributed and the tones are more pronunced than a picture exposed using normal digital techniques.
Basically it means when you employ this technique you can produce images with a very high dynamic range for exposures in other words when you expose your picture most of us usually follow the light meter inside our cameras and some of us use external light meters: based on these readings we expose this picture but we will never have an exposure which is technically perfect i.e. we cannot have all the shadows exposed in a way so that every detail in the dark area is visible and at the same time expose all the highlights to avoid burn outs. Basically, it is difficult to acheive this dynamic exposure range using film, slide or digital techniques. HDR helps you to acheive that thus allowing you to create some nice and surreal images.
I hope you guys understood what I wrote up there anyways here is the definition
Definition:
“In computer graphics and cinematography, high dynamic range imaging (HDRI) is a set of techniques that allow a far greater dynamic range of exposures than normal digital imaging techniques. The intention of HDRI is to accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes ranging from direct sunlight to the deepest shadows.”
You can wiki this for more information.
all right since we now know what HDR means so how do I generate one?
How do I generate a HDR Image
Things you need to generate a HDR image
1.Most importantly your image(s) itself.
You would require an image that has been bracketed for +/-1EV(Exposure Value) i.e. basically you shoot the same picture with different exposure settings, one slightly overexposed(1 stop), one slightly underexposed(1 stop) and one with exact exposure settings as suggested by your camera.
2.A software that can generate a HDR
PhotoMatix Pro is a popular one (HDR, Tone Mapping)
You can also acheive HDR using Adobe Photoshop CS2
Example:
Original Image
HDR Image
Original Image
HDR Image
Some interesting links
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/hdr.shtml
http://www.cybergrain.com/archives/2005/05/photoshop_hdr_i_1.html
http://www.hdrsoft.com/examples.html
Through the lens 
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