Tips for Capturing Great Candid Shots

Candid photography is all about catching people in the act of being themselves. This type of photography demands lot of patience & practice at the photographers part, as being a photographer you have to wait for the right moment to happen and then capture it creatively. Candid shots are simple, natural and beautifully mirror essence of the moments. Capturing candid shots is not that easy as it may appear, so here are few tips to adopt when taking candid shots.

1. Keep your camera ready all time - Keep your camera available, as you never know when a fantastic frame will occur. Whenever you see a moment unfolding, capture it in your camera. Keep the camera charged enough, so that you do not miss any moments. Candid photography is all about spontaneity, so carry your camera everywhere.

2. Background - When taking candid shots, select a shooting position that provides a distraction free and clean background. You can shoot using a wide aperture; this will fill the frame with subject and blur the background. To overcome any background disturbances, you can frame tightly.

3. Capture people unaware - Now this sounds so obvious but the beauty of candid shots lies in capturing people unaware. This way you can produce shots that are more natural. Even if they know you are clicking pictures, let the scene play and keep yourself uninvolved in the scene. Wait patiently and let them do whatever they are doing setting their hair, dancing, laughing, talking to someone or whatever, when moment happens capture it in your camera without subject intentionally interacting with your camera. 
   
   
   
   
   

4. Use different angles - Experiment with photographs using different angles like from the side, up above, from front, behind; this provides an unconventional angle and can give your photos an interesting depth. Especially when you taking candid shots of kids, get down on your knees while clicking photos.

5. Use continuous shooting mode - More the number of clicks, more are the chances of capturing interesting candid moments. For this, you can use continuous shooting mode on your camera and capture multiple shots, this provides you an edge when it comes to selecting best shots. When you watching a scene you want to capture, take at least 9-10 photos of the same scene, later you can select the ones that perfectly describes the moment.

Tips for capturing compelling Athlete Portraits

An ideal Athletic portrait depicts an athlete’s true personality and magnifies their persona to their fans, teammates, and coaches. The professional athletic portrait can be considered a calling card to build their brand, reputation and career. Here are five tips for capturing compelling athlete portraits:

1. Eye Contact - Eyes are main attraction of face, and has remarkable impact on an image. When shooting portraits, the thumb rule is to focus on the person’s eye since eyes is the focal point of an image. Convey emotion in your shot, by including laughter, surprise, intensity & passion. These kinds of shots create relationship, and connection.
2. Composition - The most followed rule for composition is ‘Rule of thirds’ but there is no need of sticking to traditional techniques every time, you can push the creativity by placing your subject dead center or off to one edge. You can also enhance image quality by using a solid color backdrop that enhances their skin tone and uniform color and brings out overall color and contrast.
3. Lighting - While there are numerous lighting in portraits, the choice of lighting depends upon the kind of portrait you want to capture. You can experiment with side-lighting, back-lighting, and silhouetting the subject. For creating softness or hardness in shadows, you can make use of lighting modifiers like Soft boxes, reflectors etc. If you get inspired by seeing any existing lighting portrait, you can follow their lighting set up to achieve desired impact.
4. Candid shots - Though portraits are shot in pre-arranged settings, and are all about posed shots. However, you will be surprised to see the result, you achieve with the candid shots such as when athlete is tying their shoelace, adjusting their gear, playing with props, having a natural laugh. Candid shots are a great way to reflect true personality of the athlete and look natural. On the contrary, posed shots can sometime make them nervous or uncomfortable.
   
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   Props - Props are a great way to add point of interest in the image. For athlete portraits, props such as gear, rackets, trophies or medals, uniforms, balls, and sticks adds a story and drama to the image. Let them play around with prop, or make them pose with prop up close to their face, this will tell the subject’s full story in a compelling way.

A simple guide to Camera Lens Filters and their Usage

Camera Lens Filters are widely used in photography for several different reasons such as to enhance contrast, reduce reflections, changing the exposure or capturing beautiful shots even in difficult lighting conditions. Most of the camera lenses have the ability to add filters, by mounting them on in front of the lens but there are some lenses, which require filters to be attached at the rear end of the lens. There are different types of filters available such as UV filter, Polarizer, ND filters etc and each serves a specific purpose.

UV Filter- UV stands for Ultra Violet and main purpose of these filters is to protect the front of a lens from dust, moisture, scratches and block the ultra violet radiations. Due to advancement in technology, now cameras are not really sensitive to ultra violet rays and that is why UV filters do not enjoy much prominence in digital photography. Their function is now mere limited to protecting the lens of camera as they are easy to clean and cheaper to replace.

ND (Neutral Density) Filter- These filters are used to reduce the amount of light that reaches the sensor, thus resulting in decreased shutter speed and increased exposure time. Without a ND filter, most lenses would not be able to use a larger aperture for a longer period. That is why ND lens are considered effective for capturing stunning shots of flowing waterfalls, rivers or moving people, in simple words useful for situations where motion blur needs to be created. They are most preferred filters for Landscape & flash photography.

Graduated ND Filter- These filters work great in high contrast situations, where the sky is much brighter than the foreground and the horizon is flat. These filters have same principle as ND filters, the only difference is, they do not have natural density effect on the glass. They are used for Landscape Photography. GND filters can be further divided into 2 categories such as Soft-edge GND filters and Reverse GND filters.

Polarizer Filter- Polarizing filters are favorite of photographers as it has the brilliance to dramatically improve the image quality. These filters reduces reflections, harsh glares and give better color intensity especially when shooting in sunny weather it gives bluer skies, greener foliage etc. They filter out polarized light and color saturation is significantly enhanced. There are two types of polarizing filters available Linear and Circular.

Macro Filters- Macro filters also known as close-up filters, allows a lens to focus closer on subjects. Technically they are not ordinary filters but accessory lenses. The insertion of a converging lens in front of a taking lens reduces the focal length of the combination. These filters are used for close-up or macro photography.

Top considerations while selecting a Tripod

A camera tripod’s function is not limited to holding camera in a precise position rather it is a

necessary equipment for capturing razor sharp and quality images. It enables photos to be taken with less light or a greater depth of field, in addition to giving complete freedom with your exposure settings. Tripods come in various sizes, shapes, weight and price ranges, enlisted below are some important factors to consider, for selecting a tripod that fits best with your shooting style and gear.

Sturdiness- Stability and sturdiness is the most important feature of a tripod. Sturdiness of a tripod depends on several factors such as the no. of tripod leg sections, length of the legs, the material and thickness of the leg units or weather a center column is needed to reach eye level. The best way is to take a trial, place your camera on the top and take a few test shots.

Maximum Height- When selecting a tripod, make sure it extends to a level that you do not have to bend over to look into the viewfinder for every shot. Many tripods come with a fully extended center column, limit your choice to the one where centre column is extended only halfway or not at all extended, as they are more secure and stable.

Minimum Height- How small can it fold is very important especially for macro or landscape shooters as the minimum height will determine how low you can keep your camera for taking ground level shots. Now –a-days tripods come with 4, 5 or even 6 segments, the more segments in the legs, smaller it folds. In addition, tripods that come with a central column further limit its minimum height

Weight- Weight of a tripod determines its sturdiness, strength & portability. Light weight tripods are easy to carry and do not cause fatigue but make sure in lieu of portability you are not compromising on its stability as weight & stability are closely related. Lightweight tripods are good for outdoor locations especially hiking etc and heavy tripods are often used in studios where weight is not a concern. Depending upon your shooting needs, you can select the one, which is not too lightweight but still a quality tripod.

Material- There is generally two basic choices in materials for tripods: Aluminum, Carbon fiber.

Aluminum is heavier and cheaper than carbon fiber. Further, in aluminum there are two choice available casted and forged. If you want aluminum fiber, go with the forged one as they are more durable and weight a little less. Carbon fiber is much lighter and sturdy as compared to aluminum ones and can be carried along easily.

A quality tripod does not only supports your camera gear, but also helps you capture the ideal shot in all circumstances, without fear of camera move or shake. So, grab the one which serves your needs best.