Flowers

Below are some photographs of flowers taken in garden, garden centres and various National Trust Gardens (United Kingdom)

Please see link below on how to photograph flowers.

Bhupinder Ghatahora

Ghatahora Photography
www.ghatahora.co.uk
info@ghatahora.co.uk
@Ghatahora
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Urban Landscapes

I will briefly explain the techniques on how to photograph cities, towns, illuminated signs and traffic trails in low light. Night photography is simple, fun and creative, especially at this time of the year as you don’t have to wait long for nightfall.

It is always best to photograph cities, towns and traffic trailing lights when there are still some shades of dark blues, purples, pinks and orange in the sky. The final photograph becomes more interesting with lots of colours rather than a darkened sky in the background. When photographing illuminated signs, it is advisable to shoot them in close-up, therefore the background may not be an issue.

A few points to keep in mind:

Camera settings: Use Aperture Priority mode or Manual mode on cameras. Cameras which do not have the Aperture Priority or Manual mode will often allow selecting different scene settings, such as ‘dusk/dawn’, ‘nightlight’ or ‘sunset’ modes. Please choose which suits you and your camera best.

When using the Aperture Priority mode, set the aperture at f16 (the camera will automatically adjust the shutter speed).

For Manual mode, set the aperture at f11or f16 and the shutter speed at 15 seconds. Use this shutter speed as a guide only, as your exposure time may vary depending on the available light. You may either have to increase or decrease the shutter speed depending on the image produced.

If you are using a SLR, there is normally an exposure indicator visible through the viewfinder which looks like -2||||1||||0||||1||||2+. Adjust the shutter speed whilst looking through the viewfinder and ensure the indicator is on 0, as this will give you the correct exposure.

On compact cameras choose ‘Nightlight’, and the camera will adjust aperture and shutter speed accordingly.

Exposure: due to low light, exposures will be long ranging from 10 seconds to 90 seconds. Use a tripod to avoid camera shake, or alternatively change the ISO on your camera to 800 or higher to minimise camera shake.

Composition: It is advisable to frame your shot before you press the shutter release as it avoids ‘unwanted’ objects in your photograph.

Equipment: camera, tripod, watch or a stopwatch to time exposures.

Bracketing: as we will be using a small aperture (f11/f16), it is advisable to over and under expose your image by ½ a stop. When using bracketing, you will have a selection of images with varying degree of exposure. This will allow you to select the desired exposure by duplicating the settings of your preferred image.

Warm clothing: coat, gloves, hat and umbrella.

I have used my SLR and compact camera to take the following photographs. When I used the SLR, I set the camera on fully manual mode mounted on a tripod. As for my compact camera, I used the ‘night landscape’ mode without using a tripod or flash (the camera needed to be handheld very steadily). 

Examples of photographs taken using a compact camera set on ‘night landscape’:

Examples of photographs taken using a SLR set on manual mode:

The face in this image was created by laser lights:

Outside a restaurant:

Illuminated huts near the waterfront:

Bhupinder Ghatahora

Ghatahora Photography
www.ghatahora.co.uk
info@ghatahora.co.uk
@Ghatahora
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Behind the Scenes - 02.12.2015

In the 'Behind The Scene' I will talk about my work by giving an insight on how I took that shot. (The lighting, the set-up and how to set the mood to get the right shot).

Light is the most important element in photography. The subject has to be lit well to give it the three dimensional feel and most importantly to enhance the mood if that’s what you as a photographer wish to achieve. I love dramatic lighting and that’s how I light my subjects.

Basic lighting for a portrait is to position the main light to the right side of the camera pointing downwards from the model’s face. At this stage look at how the light falls on your subject – look out for shadows under the nose and under the lips.

You can add a fill-in light on the other side of the face at a lower power to fill-in the shadows.

However I have just used one light on the below photograph, the main light is positioned approximately 40 degree from the camera.

  

Lighting diagram for the above image:

Below is the lighting diagram for the next image that I took. The camera and the model both remain at the same position. I have only changed the angle of light in order to achieve the desired look.

Lighting diagram 2

The model is looking towards the light, with her head slightly down, so the hair also catches the light. The main light is positioned at approximately 45 to 55 degree from the camera. The light stand has been moved slightly higher in order for the hair to catch the highlights.

The final image and the setting that I used: - F-stop f6.3, Exposure time 1/60, ISO 320.

Bhupinder Ghatahora

Ghatahora Photography

www.ghatahora.co.uk

info@ghatahora.co.uk

https://twitter.com/Ghatahora

https://www.facebook.com/GhatahoraPhotography

https://www.pinterest.com/ghatahoraphotog/

Photography Techniques - Links to other articles

Links to other articles on the blog on Photography Techniques

1. Creating a feeling of movement in your photography
2. How to photograph flowers?
3. Low light & Night Photography
4. Winter Photography
5. Nightscapes
6. Understanding your camera modes
7. Useful definitions (part 1)
8. Landscape Photography (part 1)
9. Capture the Autumn Colours
10. Morning & Night Photography
11. Understanding your composition
12. How to take photograph of smoke?
13. Photographs of smoke
14. Understanding Apertures
15. Landscape photography (part 2)
16. Photographs of sea shells

Bhupinder Ghatahora

Ghatahora Photography
www.ghatahora.co.uk
info@ghatahora.co.uk
https://twitter.com/Ghatahora
https://www.facebook.com/GhatahoraPhotography

Woods

Photographs of woods taken at different days. These photographs have been edited in a editting software.

 

 

Bhupinder Ghatahora
Ghatahora Photography
www.ghatahora.co.uk
info@ghatahora.co.uk
https://twitter.com/Ghatahora
https://www.facebook.com/GhatahoraPhotography

Photographs of models

All the following photograhs have been taken using 1 lighting set-up. See link below on a simple lighting set-up http://ghatahoraphotography.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/behind-scenes.html

Photo theme: Tattoos, take in the studio, Basingstoke

 

 

 

Photo theme: Punk Rock - taken on location Abbey Park, Leicester

 

Photo theme: Portrait - taken in studio Basingstoke

 

Photo theme: Fashion - taken at clients home

 

Photo theme: Portrait - taken in Basingstoke

 

 

Bhupinder Ghatahora
Ghatahora Photography
www.ghatahora.co.uk
info@ghatahora.co.uk
https://twitter.com/Ghatahora
https://www.facebook.com/GhatahoraPhotography