Spot the Dumbledore(s) and Tricks

First of all, lets play a spotting game like last time and you know what you are looking for this time from the title. So plough ahead (If you need higher resolution images, head over to my Flickr Photostream!):

Post your answers in the comments and if there are more than ‘n’ answers, I’ll post the correct answers in a later post!

Finally, let me show some more tricks – a continuation of last post – concerning physical properties of the lens and different camera settings.

Firstly, as ‘shown’ in the last post, aperture size controls depth of field:

Secondly, focal length controls the extent of view:

Thirdly, different exposures for the same scene can be taken by choosing Exposure Bracketing and continuous shooting mode:

so that they can be combined to give a HDR (High Dynamic Range) image using one of the many available softwares (I believe some DSLRs can do HDR processing even in situ!):

Fourthly, Image Stabilization is very important and every little bit of stabilization helps. In the following image, I held the tulip’s stem in my hand but the wind was still able to sway the tulip. However, the shot proves that in-camera IS does work:

Lastly, shooting the same shot with different camera settings tells you what works and what does not:

From the above images, it seems like the iAuto mode gives the best image but from another angle (literally) such that the sunlight falling on the umbrella is directly reflected towards the camera, the Beach & Snow setting works best (deleted the others so can not ‘provide’ the comparison!):

BTW, what does dumbledore mean exactly?

Here’s the Answer!

(Re)Learning Forgotten Tricks

This post is sort of a continuation of this post about my ‘new’ camera.

So what have I learnt in all these past months? I’ve gotten some hang on the use of Aperture, Shutter Speed, ISO, Exposure Compensation, Flash, Art filter effects, Histogram, etc. My post title refers to the fact that I learn the ‘trick’ in the morning and forget it when I’m shooting photos in the evening and realize at night that I should have used the trick I learnt earlier in the morning to shoot those photos I shot in the evening. That’s why, I don’t think I'll ever be able to achieve everything just right manually! I’ve also started appreciating the need for a telephoto zoom lens so am thinking of buying a Panasonic 45-200mm μ4/3 Lens. These are all the practical stuffs that have been keeping me busy.

One of the theoretical aspect of photography I finally understood was: Why do smaller apertures (larger f-numbers) give greater field of depth and larger apertures (smaller f-numbers) give shallower field of depth? [First of all let me rant: Why the hell are f-numbers inversely related to aperture sizes? Couldn’t they come up with a proportionality scheme? This scheme confuses the hell out of me! OK, now let’s get back on track…] I’m not going to spell out the answer but will give a hint: Make a ray diagram with different aperture sizes, you’ll get it and when it clicks (maybe after a μsec or a week) you’ll be the happiest person alive at that moment!

Anyway, lets start with the photo show for which we’ve all gathered here (at least I’ve!). First of all, let me demonstrate the 6 Art Filters of E-PL1 [I should’ve done this in the last post already but better date than fever!]:

Today’s post is basically devoted to Springtime, specifically Sakura (not a girl). So lets start with an iAuto Photo:

Lets cool this photo:

Different exposure settings:

As SD expected Histograms in such posts, here they are:

A pretty artistic shot:

bent into a 180° polorama:

A grazing goose:

Shot 14 photos in continuous burst mode [I guess the theoretical speed is 3 fps but in reality it would be somewhere between 2 & 3 (maybe ‘e’) and if you keep on pressing the shutter, it will definitely get below 1 fps due to the simple fact that writing on the memory card does take finite amount of time.] and combined them into a panorama [MICE is too damn fast in showing up the stitched result but took nearly 5 minutes in saving the file! PoloramaG is better in this respect as it takes most of the time in transformation stage only. ]:

Lastly, a nod to childhood memories:

For these & more photos with higher resolution, go to my

Flickr PhotoStream

Entanglement

Read the 5^th & 4^th line, ignore the 3^rd line and read the 2^nd & 1^st line:

If you get it, you’ll most likely think of it as things getting

Tangled

Ambidextrous…

…Who the hell truly is???

I think I’m ambidextrous… well, excluding writing (R), erasing (L), playing badminton (L), throwing / catching things (L)… OK, it seems I’m more of a left-handed person but still ambidextrous for purposes of this post.

But something happened today involving my perception of my ambidexterity, which flipped my top. After an hour or so, I was still struggling to get the correct outline of Kokage Kuga, a ‘dark’ character in Sketchbook:

Guess what was the reason for this pathetic display of my artistic ‘prowess’? Yes, you guessed it right… I was trying to draw her facing RIGHT!

After that revelation, I fished for a different picture in which she’s facing left and found one here. After one more hour, I completed my 4^th portrait of a character from Sketchbook. I present Kokage Kuga:

Ok, granted it is not as great as Hazuki’s portrait, in that the chin needs a little more work but after two hours of erasing completed outlines at least 7 times, it looks pretty decent to me right now. Also, the background color scheme may feel a little weird compared to the other 3 portraits. The reason is that her signature look is her black eyes & hair (single ponytail) so if I don’t colour them, the portrait may as well be of Natsumi with an altered hairstyle:

Anyway, that’s enough of Sketchbook for this post. I leave you with a ‘unique’ take of Dylan Moran on ‘vegetarianism’ in this

Short Interview

Yahooooooooo, woḩ maara̅ paapadwaalé ko̊!!!

India has… whatever…

What I’m more excited about is the beginning of scanlation of Sketchbook Volume 7!

This volume introduces at least two new human characters (not in the first chapter, though)! “How do I know that?”, I hear you ask… Well, I’ve seen raws (originals) of first few chapters of this volume! Anyway, this volume started out with a bang, without any words:

If you get this strip in less than 3 ‘going throughs’,  you’re better than me at ‘getting’ physical / visual comedy! Speaking of physical / visual comedy, how can we not bow our feet, bring together our heads and fall at his hands: the ultimate physical comedian extraordinaire of all times to have walked this planet gracing us with his ennobling existence (that’s all the clichés I can think of right now), the indestructible

Mr. Bean

Happy Fool’s Month

This photo was on Bing.com today with one of the four ‘squares’ showing, “What in the world could be tickling this guy’s funny bone today?”

Anyway, here’s a prank to pull on one’s God (as usual, first read the disclaimers regarding my translations of shayaris here or browse other related posts from the tab titled ‘Shayari’ above on this page just below my blog-title & image to get used to what follows!):

भीड़ इतनी थी कि दर्शन पास से सम्भव न था
दूर से ही देख आए हम उछल के देवता
-ओम प्रकाश यती

Bheed itni thi ki darshan paas se sambhav na tha
Door se hi dekh aaye hum uchhal ke devta
–Om Prakash Yati

It was too crowded to get blessings from up close
I returned after a jump with a faraway glimpse of God
–Om Prakash Yati

Now, let me show off some of my polorama creations:

That’s too much showing off… I’ll stop now and let you get back to

the full Ghazal