So here goes the amazing tips and tricks collection:

It’s all about the concept

Beautiful photographs are not taken. They are created”.

We have seen zillions of people photographing their friends and loved ones in a same age-old and boring kind of pose. And it’s quite funny to see that the same pose acts as a de-facto standard for every photograph they take. And then there complaints! Boooo!!

If you take photographs every time in the same pose, they are bound to look similar (in a good or a bad sense). What we want to say is, unleash your creativity! Change your perspective. Change the pose. Experiment with lights. And you will see how amazing the same subject looks with the same camera you have!

Lights and Shadows

Lately, we have seen a very small number of people that actually understand how to use lights (and shadows) to give that effect in photographs. If you have always been thinking that you just had to press the shutter button anywhere and everywhere you want and the camera would take care of the rest, it’s not the case. Your camera is not intelligent enough to consider the factors that you can consider in your quest of making that amazing composition. So, stop relying on your camera computations and begin experimenting with lights and shadows. Always remember lights and shadows are everything in any kind of photography. Without lights, there is nothing.

Don’t Flash

Got obsessed with the amazing flash you got with your camera and then complaining about how easily it ruins your photographs? Well, you’re not the only one. Many people believe that using a flash will light up the whole scene and will make their photographs better. But actually, this isn’t the case always. Most of the time, flash ruins your photographs like hell. In my journey as a photographer, I don’t remember lifting the flash of my camera more than 10% of the time I shot photos and the reason being, it ruins the photographs. Simple! Using point and shoot and camera cell phones, you don’t have much flexibility with the direction of flash. Since we’re talking about taking photographs of your loved ones, you won’t obviously be shooting them at a distance of hundred yards. Mostly, you would be shooting them within some feet of distance. And in that case, try to avoid using flash as much as possible because a direct hit of light on the face will always have adverse effects. However, in low light conditions, flash may act as a life saver, use flash wisely.

Shoot Un-expectedly

This may sound a little awkward to some of you, but it is arguably the best method of getting the best photographs possible. What I mean to say here is that you should avoid getting the person in the picture “pose” every time you are taking one. Take natural shots. Shoot them while they are walking. Shoot them while they are smiling. Capture them when they are lost in deep thoughts. And you’ll surely be amazed on the quality of photographs you get following this strategy.

Well, those were some of our tips and tricks that would possibly help you taking flattering photographs of your loved ones. Do let us know if you find these useful. We would also love to see your creations. Happy clicking.

Photo credits :
1. http://www.flickr.com/photos/ericperrone
2. http://www.flickr.com/photos/byfer39
3. http://www.flickr.com/photos/notsogoodphotography
4. http://www.flickr.com/photos/heartfatality
5. http://www.flickr.com/photos/_-amy-_

Guest Post by Rishabh Rishabh is musician and a photographer from heart and soul respectively. While doing engineering, he loves to do everything that’s irritating and interesting. He blogs at Shutterskills (http://shutterskills.com) and can also found tweeting around @rish404

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Update: Sorry folks, the video is no longer available. Smugmug has been asked to take down the video, apparently Canon didn’t like the free publicity!!

 Update 2: And Smugmug has put the video back up now – click here

So if you shoot on the automatic mode, then believe it or not, all these play together to create the right photo for you, and your camera sensor does all the hard work behind the scenes. But when you really want to create a photograph that is “hatke” – for eg. that dreamy portrait of your loved one with a fuzzy background, or a freeze frame photo of water splashing, well then you’ll need to get your hands dirty with these numbers. So here’s a really effective way to learn those nuances – the SimCam. This virtual camera will programmatically reproduce the effects of those camera settings on a pre-set image. You can compare how two different settings will change the final output. Its a surprisingly good learning tool as you see the results side by side. Check it out and be a pro with those nifty controls!

Not sure how effective this is.. will have to try this out! But without a doubt, this poor man’s monopod could save the day when you don’t have one.

The weather looks great this time, so this should be a blast. And this announcement is well in advance now.. so looking forward to seeing some new faces there :)

Dates:
For DSLR’s and lenses:
Gurgaon – 18th Oct ‘07 to 20th Oct ‘07
Mumbai – 26th Oct 2007 to 28th Oct 2007
For other cameras and camcorders:
Gurgaon – 22nd Oct 2007 to 24th Oct ‘07
Mumbai – 29th Oct ‘07 to 31st Oct ‘07

Click here for more details

“Photowalking is the act of walking with a camera for the main purpose of taking pictures of things you may find interesting“.

Photowalking has been catching on in several countries as a fun way to discovering interesting sights, possibly even in your near vicinity, which otherwise went unnoticed in the rush of daily life. Its a great way to meeting new people, spending some quality time with your attention deprived camera (if you’re like me!) and sharing your tips and techniques, and hopefully learn a few nuances of this wonderful art :)

So this is a call to everyone interested to spread the word and join in this fun past time. The first Photowalk is this Sunday (16th September) and you can sign up on the mailing list at www.photowalking.info to get the updates. Its great to see that Abhishek took the time to get things moving. I’ll try my best to make it Abhishek, hope to see you then.

Update: Check out Trevor’s article on Photowalking. Trevor has a great blog on photowalking at http://photowalking.org