The Self Critic Shutterbug

Av: F/5.6; Tv: 0.040s (1/25); f: 55mm (35mm-equiv:89 mm); ISO: 100

This is a photo I took on my visit to an old-age home. I just loved the way it came out as soon as I took it.

Highlights of the photo would be the Soft Focus with 1 person in full focus and others in varying degrees of lens blur. The expression on the face of the old man is a good catch. With the subject looking directly into the camera, it helps to relate well with viewer of the photo conveying a lot of emotions.
The black and white mode of the photo adds more to the emotions and brings in a hint of classicism. The angle of the photo is also a little different than the usual ones we see. It has got a good upward inclination.

I did not have to resort to much post processin. However, I added the Vignette effect using Photoshop. The Vignette effect is a sort of Lens Distortion which adds the Blackish touch to the edges of the photo. I love that effect as I find that it adds a lot more emphasis to the centre of the image.
I also added a thin border to just try out the framing effect.

Tags: B & W, Black and white, Old-age home, People

Av: F/5.6; Tv: 0.003s (1/400); f: 55mm (35mm-equiv:100 mm); ISO: 200

This was among my early pictures with my new DSLR camera Canon EOS 1000D and was taken when I was trying the capabilities of the camera.

* I like this photo for its contrast between the white flower and the dark background around it. I achieved this by using a very rapid shutter speed, thus ensuring very little light went into the sensor even though it was a very bright sunny afternoon. The main advantage of making the background dark is that we can make away with the other disturbances which might divert the attention from the subject in focus.

* The colour reproduction in other areas is also pretty good. I especially like the tinge of dark-yellow in the flower situated just above the name watermark, towards the bottom-right of the photo.

* The crispness of the focusing in this photo also catches the eye. The transition of the “in-focus” area to the blurred out area is very fast and smooth. It immediately draws attention to the flower.

I hardly did any Post-processing in this photo other than cropping out the edges a little bit.

Having said that, this photo needs to improve in areas like :

* The aperture value should have been decreased a little more or I should have used the Exposure bias, because the flower is a tad too bright in a few areas.

* The withered out flowers around the flower in focus could have been excluded from the photo.

Tags: experimental, flower, macro