Category: Photo Effeccts

Some tricks, some layers and some filters and at least one underlying shot! Thats the secret here!

Dry Ice!

Hi there all. It has been quite sometime since the last post, I ll blame the hectic work schedules and in some effect, laziness for the same.
Anyway, today we discuss, Dry Ice. Frozen Carbon Dioxide, when made into pellets to be used for cooling duty, is known as Dry Ice. 

Dry Ice is of interest to us photographers since it produces thick smoke, when it comes in contact with water.

And the best bit, the smoke is cold, and heavier than air, so it flows!

This gives the opportunity to use the flowing smoke creatively. It can be used to provide artificial smoke in photos, to be used to as a background or otherwise. 

So, there you have it, the secret to thick billowing smoke in the photos. Have fun it. Be careful though, it is carbon dioxide, so, preferably do not inhale a lot of it, and experiment in an open space.

Cheers!!

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Fire works on Diwali Night at Marine Drive Mumbai

Diwali Night – 2017

This Diwali, I was at Mumbai. Had just a day of holiday, so it was out of the question to go home then. Instead, I came to office that night, went to the terrace, which is on the 42nd floor for a view. Looked quite nice, I must say, the photos didn’t come out to be that amazing though.

But, I wanted good photos, so, I went to the Marine Drive to watch the fireworks. With the rounded curve of the road, it is always amazing to watch the light trails. The glow from the lights add to the beauty, and the occasional police van on a patrol, makes it an interesting picture.

Fire works on Diwali Night at Marine Drive Mumbai
Fire works on Diwali Night at Marine Drive Mumbai

This, here is a composite image of 5 to 6 photos, each of 30 seconds exposure, and then stacked on photoshop. While I am not very deft at photo manipulation, it does help to know bit of retouching.

A bit of advise dear readers, always use a tripod and remote while shooting long exposures for stacking. No matter how stable the surface is, each time you press the button, the position shifts just a tiny bit, and that shows up blurred in the final stacked image.

Cheers!!

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Light Chaos

In a train, you dont have a lot to shoot, until, you stick the camera out of the window…chaos!!

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Glimpses of Mumbai – Nana Chowk, Grant Road

In my previous post, I mentioned that I take a tiny hop to a place to shoot a very particular signal, well, this is the one. Whats so special about it, you may ask, well, it was a pre decided and pre conceived shot. I knew the angles, knew the locations, just went in and took the shot.

Here are the results.

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The first photo is a product of a merging of 4 photos shot in quick succession from the same location, settings unchanged and then merged in Photoshop.

The next post, is one that is long overdue. I climbed the top floor of the site of my work, with the camera and shot Mumbai. The results, shall form the next post. Keep an eye out.

Cheers!!

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Light Trails

Photography is all about how you play with light. Whatever be the kind of photography you do, light is the essential common denominator, be it portrait, landscape, macro, or any other thing you can think of.

Light trails are a mix of use of depth of field, controlled shutter speed and ISO. Along with the basic trinity, you also bring in creativity, and different props. The understanding of how a shot is being taken, or how it should be taken, is paramount while doing light trails, light paintings and such.

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Its not always that a slow shutter is all you need. Sometimes, varying the light source also helps.

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In the end, all that matters is, that you must have a lot of fun.

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Have fun experimenting with different light sources. Understand this, when your shutter is open during an exposure, any and every movement of the light source pointing towards the camera, shall be captured by it. Use this to make shapes, letters, drawings .. the possibilities are limitless.

Good luck.

Cheers!!

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Proof Of Concept: Levitation

So, when someone asked me if I could make some tricks with the camera, I said, lets see. So, here I am, making my dear brother, who is holding the Tamron 150-600mm monster, levitate.

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Dont worry, no dark arts at play here. Its a very basic case of merging and two photos, shot at the same location, same settings and then a case of precise masking. Try it out with different backgrounds and poses, for much more amazing results. Below are the two basic files that had been used for the shot.

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Go stun someone, cheers!!

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Up Close…Encore

Today I got my 100th follower, and I was very happy. It made me think that today something special needs to be done, something innovative. So, I revisited an issue I had previously, how to take macro photos on a budget. The macro lens I am aiming for, is still pretty much out of my reach, but lens reversal, that can be done right…so lets try it.

I pulled out my body cap and hollowed it out, and stuck one of the UV filters to it, thread facing outward. IMG_20150703_175844124-1

I put a bit of sticking tape to reinforce the joint, and voila! my lens reversal system is ready. Now, does it manage to hold the lens?
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Oohhh yeeaahh!!! Works fine till here. Lets test!

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By the results, I am happy. No, they are not as nice as a macro lens, but surely a huge improvement than using the macro filters. Check the previous post here and see for yourself.

The DOF is incredibly small, maybe 2 or 3 millimeters deep, at a maximum, when the aperture is open wide. Keeping the aperture open is an issue, needs to be done manually. I wont lie, to take a photo, I needed to shoot at least 10, and it is tiresome. But the results are very much satisfying. Am working on some more close ups, hopefully will post them soon.

Cheers!!

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Multi face smoke demon

My Muse

It has happened to me before, and I know it shall happen again. The feeling that I have had enough of taking photos and now its time to throw in the towel and give up, but then, my muse keeps me ticking.

Muse, when used as a noun is defined as a person, especially a lady, who inspires creative talent. If I go by that, then this is that lady right here.

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But then, extrapolating the definition a bit more, the extraordinary sights during my travel, maybe they make me creative, so, these too are my muse.

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Creativity may not always be original, it may be a tiny trick for the eyes. My muse is inspiring awe.

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My muses belong from far and wide. I met her again recently at Delhi, and the views followed too at Delhi, Jaisalmer and Shankarpur. And the rest, I found near to home. A proof of concept and a bit of patience, they helped me muse my muse. Have a look at what others muse right here.

Cheers!!

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Proof of Concept!

So my dearest cousin showed me a photo. It looked awesome and had clever use of photo editing tools too. She said, “Bro, how is this done? Can you too do it?”
I got the concept all right, but was a little skeptical. Still, no harm in giving it a shot! A little tweaking and a few repeats down, I got the proof of concept shot pretty clear.

This one, is for my dear cousin 🙂

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Photoshop, really is amazing! 🙂

Cheers!!

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Peekaboo!!

I dont take selfies often, but when I do, they are a bit…shall we say….uncommon!!

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I saw a similar photo while browsing through the internet, and creating this was not tough at all. Two separate images merged in photoshop, thats all. This is an example of Double Exposure though. Some cameras, the high end ones offer this function in body, others, like me, we merge. For perfection, ask someone to take the shot, selfies, can actually be a bit tricky 🙂

Happy Shooting. Cheers!!

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String Of Pearls

Admit it dear readers, you have all done it too, sat staring at the wires as it rained and imagined the raindrops to be racing each other.
Few days ago, suddenly it was cloudy and rainy here, and when the drizzles stopped, I noticed that the wires out in my balcony looked like a starting line for the drops.

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A little channge in the perspective, at they became a string of pearls.
Shot using both my 50mm and the 55-200mm zoom, and then retouched in the digital darkrooms.

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Never let the weather dampen your spirits, every day and moment is unique…and so is every shot…Shoot away friends.
Cheers!!

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New Year :)

Another year gone! A year which had more of dips than the ups in whole. Settled in a new city for the greater part of the year, made some friends, developed a few crushes….met some disappointments too. The good things … got my first camera, got appreciated at work, started the blog…not bad in total. Anyway, thats past, wont come back and the year hasnt been that awful that it would come back to haunt me…so…am done with it. For the new year, I hope to obtain new educational qualifications, some new camera gears, lots of views and comments on the posts and a lot of opportunities to explore and experience the world.

Enough with musings. This photo was shot yesterday as I was returning home via the highway. I love the way the cooling towers of the power plant give boundary to the scene. Shot on aperture priority mode on my zoom, lowest ISO. Hope you like it. Happy New Year to my dear readers, and I hope that this year, is better than the previous 🙂

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