What is a Photography all about?

What is a photography all about? Just graph (drawing) with photo (light)? Casual records of good memories in Snapshots? Or larger than that?

  

More times you do photography, the more realization in photography will come down to one word: vision.  Call it vision, imagination, or seeing; it all comes down to the same thing: the ability to envision a final result in your mind's eye, and then to make it so with your tools at hand.

Photography and painting are the same. Each renders imagination in tangible form. The difference is that painters can work completely from imagination.

(mud clay in sea-beach)

A camera, no matter how many automatic features it may have, is a lifeless piece of equipment until a person uses it. It then becomes a uniquely responsive tool-an extension of the photographer's eye and mind.

(photograph taken by a simple digicam in 2007: canon A430; 4MPixol)

A photographer starts to create a picture by a process of selection. Photographers looking through the camera's viewfinder must decide what to include and what to exclude from the scene. They select the distance from which to take the picture and the precise angle that best suits their purpose. The selection differs from photographer to photographer because that is the beauty of any art.

As per the definition it is ‘recording of light rays’. That's why taking a good picture depends so much on choosing the lighting carefully. In a good proper light, a simple basic digicam gives you almost the same quality as an ultramodern camera. In a nutshell tips ‘it is better to avoid hard sunlight for portrait’.

(under the shades at outdoor, I took this portrait)

ISO number refers to the sensitivity to light. With a lower sensitivity you also get a better quality image too which is why you should always try and use the lowest sensitivity you can get away with. But in a low light condition, high iso is needed to capture the image with some noise (grain) on it.  The rule of thumb is to keep the setting as low as possible until you absolutely need to increase it in order to get the shutter speed you need. Just remember to turn it back down low again when conditions get better.

(due to very bad light, I had to choose ISO 1600 to capture this picture with the noise)

Aperture is referred to the lens diaphragm opening inside a photographic lens. The size of the diaphragm opening in a camera lens regulates amount of light passes through onto the lens. Aperture also affects an important photographic element called "depth of field". Depth of field is just technical term used to describe the 'zone' of sharpness' between nearest and furthest of a subject in focus (to be more exact, distance of sharp focus in front and behind, subject on which the lens is focused). The bigger the apertures used, the zone of sharpness is shallower or vice versa i.e. smaller aperture used will has extended depth of field.

(less depth of field makes the picture beautiful)

Shutter speed may be used to control the amount of light striking the image plane; 'faster' shutter speeds (that is, those of shorter duration) decrease both the amount of light and the amount of image blurring from motion of the subject and/or camera.

(in a movable car shutter speed had to be increased to avoid the blur)

Post processing gives the ultimate touch as per photographer. Photoshop gives lot of choice for a photographer. Photographer should make change in new layer, so that the actual photograph may be recovered later, if needed. But it is advisable to make your mind before pressing the shutter so that minimum change is required for post processing.

Storing is the final step for a photographer. For digital photographs, Bitmap image (*.bmp) is unacceptable for a photographer. Photographs should be saved as Raw file (*.CR2) before completion and as Tiff file (*.tif) after completion of post processing so that the picture is saved, as well as it can be changed further if required further. For printing, it can be converted to JPEG file (*.jpg) temporarily. It is better to keep two copies or more: one in hard disk and other in DVD to avoid unwanted vanishing of your photographs.

But after all these technical details, it is only the 3P which drives to an eye-striking photo: Passion, Patience and Practice.

At last, enjoy, watch others’ photographs and take too much snapshots; one time it would be a very good photography.

[P.S.: I am only an amateur student, not a good photographer, so don’t compare with my photo.]

(From the studio of Mr. Rakesh Soni [http://visualpoet2011.blogspot.com], the creator of all the sculptures)