Focal Lock- A lifesaver for your pictures!

You apparently took a good photo: Picked put the subjects in middle of frame assuming your camera or smartphone will know where to focus and clicked. However what actually happened is that your camera had no idea which object in the picture is your focus. As a result, your intended subject is treated as foreground and thrown out of focus. 

Being creative with your photos like applying rule of thirds technique, often they end up in this disaster if you do not know about focal lock. Now camera and mobile industry are producing products with the facial recognition or smile detection technology, which tells the camera where to focus. But not always your subject is a human face. That's why you need to know how to use focal lock. 

How To Use Focal Lock

• Aim At your subject
• Put your subject in the center of your frame.
• With the subject in center point, halfway press the shutter button (do not press fully) to sure it ''locks'' your subject in focus.  
• Without letting go of the button (still half pressed), move your camera as you want to shoot the image now.
• Once you get it all set, now press the button completely and you'll get the right focusing in the image even of your subject is not now centered. 

This technique is useful in many other ways, for example in macro shots when you want to focus on a flower off the center, or in landscape when you want to focus more on a tree in the foreground off center, or as i mentioned above applying rule of thirds to the picture. It is something a photographer needs to have on his fingertips and beginners should start practicing in early days. 

Photography Basics For Beginners

You'll find a complete set of photography learning here for beginners, amateurs, and cellphone camera owners, the easiest way possible!

Basics for the Beginners

How to Hold Your Camera to Avoid Blurry Photos

Know Your Camera: Common Automatic Modes

Know Your Camera: Creative Semi-Automatic Modes

Better Photography with a Smart Phone Camera

Exposure Basics

What is Exposure Triangle?

Exposure Triangle: An illustration

Aperture Basics

What is Aperture?

Measuring Aperture Size: An Illustration

What is Depth of Field, and its Relation with Aperture?

Experimenting with Different Aperture Sizes 

Exposure Triangle: An illustration

Shutter Speed Basics

What is Shutter Speed?

How Shutter Speed Affects Exposure?

Slow Shutter Photography: Water Blur

Slow Shutter Photography: Motion Blur

Slow Shutter Photography: Light Effects

ISO Basics

What is ISO?

How ISO Affects Exposure?

The Perfect Illustration for Exposure Triangle Elements

I recently found a very helpful illustration for complete measure of the elements constituting the exposure triangle. It will be of very much use to the readers, since you have gone through my earlier posts, and this will support the information in a visual form. 

If you are a beginner you can start from over here- Photography Basics For Beginners, and in no time you'll be able to apply this illustration easily in your photography, to help you ahead.

The Rule of Thirds: Give a creative edge to every shot!

This may not be something you here everyday but believe me most photos look better when your subject is not essentially centered. You might have noticed a grid option in your digital camera or even your smartphone setting, enable it and you'll see a grid of nine equal sections overlaying your viewfinder/ screen. Place your subject of interest for photography on these lines or their intersection, and check the results! This Rule of Third originate from the theory that human eye instinctively gravitates towards the intersection points that comes when image is divided into thirds. It gives a natural pleasing affect to the viewer and also allows a creative use of negative space, the empty area around the visual interest. 

It is a play of ''third lines''. In case of a landscape, If you are capturing a horizon place it by either the top or bottom third line, depending upon whether the subject of your photography is above or on the ground/sea. For instance you are capturing a building, your horizon should fall near the upper third, but if your focus are flying birds or a sunrise, the horizon should be placed near the lower third. If a foreground subject is present- like a person, tree or animal, compose it against the left or right third line. 

Photo Credit: K Praslowicz

In case of portraits, our stare naturally wanders towards the subject's eyes. Place them on one of the intersections in the grid, the upper preferably.

    

In case of vertical subjects, they can be placed splitting the photo in two similarly as a horizon does horizontally. In case of moving subjects, make use of the direction of their movement. Leave space in their front to give the sense of their direction.
You can always use an editing software and apply the rule of thirds by cropping your picture and then see the positive change. 

You can be Better Photographer with your Smartphone Camera!

Photography is about capturing moments, and sometime when the perfect moment is right before you, the only equipment at hand to save it is your smartphone. Camera phones don't produce a point and shoot camera quality at first attempt (far from reaching DSLR standards), but nevertheless knowing some really handy tips you can squeeze out worthy shots out of your smartphone.

1. Use Surrounding Lights:  Though camera phones have all their unique features and different picture quality, most have an inability to produce good result in low light. You need maximum light on your subject. Don't stand facing your light source but instead put it at your back and over your subject. 
2. Clean Your Lens: Yes! Wipe it off with some clean cloth that don't scratch off on the glass- if you are in a hurry just use somewhere on your clothes. It it is hard to keep your fingers off the lens all the time you hold your camera, plus all the dirt!
3. Step Closer- Say No to Digital Zoom: If you can't be much closer to the subject, just crop the image later, but please don't ruin your snap with this useless feature.
4. Know Your Camera Modes: If You should check out your camera settings and apps. There are many options available that are easy to switch when taking a shot and produce a far better result in that particular situation. I have shared a well-explained posts regarding this earlier: Know Your Camera Preset Modes. 

Choosing Your ISO Settings: What to Consider?

When you choose a particular ISO setting it affects both Aperture and Shutter speed, if you want a the perfect exposure. For instance, if you set the ISO higher, it will render a higher shutter speed or/and smaller aperture.

Ask yourself following queries while setting your ISO:

1. Light: How is the light provided for the shot? Is the subject well lit?
2. Grain: Do you want an image with noise/grain or not?
3. Tripod: Is a tripod or supporting equipment in your use? 
4. Subject Movement: Is your subject moving or still? 

The Above picture renders an image with changing ISO ratings and Shutter speed and Aperture kept constant. You can understand the various difference in the picture, other than grains.

If there is a lot of lights, you have no issue with some grain in the picture, you have a tripod or some equipment to stabilize your shots and the subject is still, then setting the ISO rating quite low will do your work.

On contrary, if your surrounding is dark, you want a grainy picture on purpose, your subject is in motion or you don't have a tripod, then increasing the ISO number will let you shoot with a fast shutter speed and well expose the shot too. 

Points to Remember:

High ISO: More Noise, Fast Shutter Speed, Small Aperture
Low ISO: Less Noise, Slow Shutter Speed, Large Aperture

What is ISO?

ISO is an equally important part of Exposure triangle we have discussed in detail before. After going through the first two elements: Aperture and Shutter Speed, in detail in many posts, we will start working on ISO.

What is ISO?

ISO is the sensitivity of the image sensor towards light.

The lower the number representing the ISO measure is, the lesser the sensitivity is towards the light, and the grains of the image are finer.

Increasing ISO number is usually used in dark places to get higher shutter speed, where you want to capture the action in low light. 

One thing to remember is that the higher your ISO settings are, your image becomes noisier. Normally ISO 100 is considered standard for good shots. 

We'll further discuss how a change in ISO impacts aperture and shutter speed. and what else to consider while choosing ISO speed. Keep tuned!