Twisted Indifference

I was done with the photography workshop by 1400 hrs. A cola and a smoke and then a cab down to Jehangir Art Gallery. The street was already filled up with the artists setting up their exhibits. I met up with fellow bloggers for lunch, including celebrity bloggers like Sakshi and a blogger that churns out ideas by the dozen.

Now down to the photography. The photograph used at the top of this post was clicked with the intention of putting it as the opening photo. When I saw the sculpture of the paint cans hanging on the stand, I knew this was what I would want to open this post with. Confession time, I agree this is a clichéd snap. I believe a lot of people will have attempted a similar snap. With the plethora of photographers around I doubt that it would not have been attempted. Always fun to play with Depth of Field (DOF). Even though the aperture was stopped down till 5.6, which is not really something that would support a clear DOF in say a landscape shot but it was more than adequate here. You can still see the slight gaussian blur after the 5th can.

The correct DOF can make or break a good photograph. I believe that a proper tutorial on DOF would make a great post. That however would have to be kept for later. I have another post to make for the Kala Ghoda Art festival and I still have to feature the remaining vehicles shot at the Auto Expo 2008. I have a feeling that I am going to end up updating everyday this week.

Another couple of snaps that I clicked at the fest.

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I think I need to stop dubbing these as tutorials. It somehow goes against what I have mentioned in one of the earlier posts. To reitarate, photography cannot be taught. In a more general aspect, creativity cannot be taught. So what am I exactly doing telling you how I shot the photographs that are put up here? Think of it as me telling you what the rules are so that you can break them.

I started out breaking all of them. I could not conform to set standards nor did I want to. Experience taught me this much that to cross the line, you need to know where and what the line is. So in the photo you see on top, we go back maybe not to basics but to a boundary set by our predecessors. Negative Space.

One rule I continually keep breaking, is the rule of thirds. I will not go into details here, suffice to say that it also concerns what negative space does. Composition. The most typical shot, very popular with holiday makers is to put a bunch of people in front of a scenic backdrop and fire away. Nothing wrong with it. What you click should make you happy. Experimenting, however, demands more.

What is negative space? It is somewhat self explanatory. In the snap above the subject is not the larger part of the picture. The camera was held vertically and with my lens at its widest, I released the shutter. I will avoid mentioning the exposure details and such since it is a very basic shot.

Another example that you see here, shot vertically again albeit with a different perspective. Both these have been shot in Indore where I was attending the SAE India Baja (pronounced Ba-ha) event. Colleges from all over the country competed with ATVs they built themselves. This post is not about them.

In the second shot, my intention is obviously to put focus on to the box cigarettes, which incidentally are the brand I smoke. Yes lucky am I not, to have them when needed. Ash tray on its side, I think it might have looked better if it had been a clean one instead of one I had just tapped ash into. Regardless, I think the point is clear. It is still a use of negative space.

What needs to be noted here is the perspective and the point of focus. Now I cannot draw or sketch or I could have shown you with a diagram how exactly I was positioned while shooting this. It is kind of evident if you study the photo long enough.

Incidentally all this posting with the images on either side is making me do something tiring. Coding. I belong behind a camera not on websites learning CSS. Actually I know CSS but I keep forgetting the tags and have to keep referring to the websites that run the tutorials for that.Is it too late for me to ask you to ignore this paragraph completely?

I think I have given you a fair idea on negative space and its purpose. The latter, more difficult work of applying this knowledge is yours. I will not tell you how and if I do, ignore it. You are much better off doing it on your own.

I am pretty sure I haven’t pioneered this concept. Reason? I am a photographer and not a designer. It took me ages to do this (4 hours spread over 2 days). I guess the main reason bloggers (excluding the one’s running webcomics on theirs) would not want to follow something like this would be since it would screw up their SEO.

So why am I doing it? I am not going to say I that I do not give a damn about SEO. I would love it as much as the other guy if search results with photography as the keyword give Twisted Indifference Studios as the first result. Think of it as a burglar alarm. It may not be 100% effective but still makes the job a hell lot tougher for thieves. Not to mention the fact that I really like the way it has turned out.

Moving on to what went on while taking this shot. I wanted to shoot the scooter in an urban location. I agree this location is more residential than commercial but it suited my aesthetic purposes. Took the easy way out on the lighting. Sweet morning sunrise.

For this shot the sun was behind me, i.e. incident on the subject. Metering was on matrix but I shot a little to the right. Just enough that I could recover it in Photoshop. The histogram display has seriously become my new best friend. Shooting to the right ensured capturing the complete detail of the bike which I am sure you must have noticed is black. You might find it a little hard to note the details in the area a little behind the front mudguard. I am presuming this is on account of this being a low res photograph.

The colours underwent the maximum post processing (not to be read as dependent on post processing!). I shoot at the default settings without boosting saturation. Image Optimization is also at Normal. Please note that the nomenclature used for camera related purposes will mostly be unique to Nikon. Canon generally has different terminology. Semantics most of the time. Nikon has Vibration Reduction (VR) and Canon has Image Stabilizer (IS). I like how the camera sales people make it sound like that function is the lens’ USP.

I digress. Post processing involved playing with Levels a bit and a moderate hand with the Burn tool. It brought out the saturation required. I must also mention that while in Levels, I boosted yellow a notch. The result, a warmer tone on the buildings and a cool blue sky, is at the beginning of this post.

There are a lot of kinks to be worked out for a post like this. Suggestions and/or requests are always welcome.