Principles of Photography -I

• Role of the Light

The word photography itself delivers the very essentials of the process; photo is light while –graphic depicts making a picture. That’s enough to understand the role of light in photography. Essentially, photography is all about capturing the light that is reflected from an object but that doesn’t mean the light from a source can’t be captured. Had it been so, we wouldn’t have been able to capture the special moments of amazing fireworks on every 4^th of July.

That also makes clear one aspect of photography; with the right amount of light, a picture can be given a totally different dimension. For example, diffused light produces subdued as well as pleasing effects while from a point source, it can create rather harsh images with hard shadow lines. Apart from these, the right kind of light can bring about numerous color effects. Thus, it is vital to know how strong or how weak should be the light for a photograph to be worthy of a sincere effort.

SLR wedding camera

• Using good quality Lens and Camera

The camera lens owes to the human eye as far as the concept is concerned. In case of the human eye, light travels through the liquid crystalline lens with the eyelids allowing or barring the light from entering the eye, which then falls on the retina after being finally allowed by the iris. In a camera, the glass lens, the shutter, the sensor/film and the aperture execute the same functions. The lens focuses a parallel beam of light rays to form an inverted image on the sensor/film, the quality (i.e. clarity, sharpness etc.) of which is determined by the opening of the camera’s aperture.

But that was the most basic way the process was narrated; however, for extended fineness of an image, a camera needs to rely upon the balance created by its exposure/aperture, the lens aperture (f-Stop), shutter speed, ISO, white balance and its overall dynamic range.

So next time you get hell bent upon purchasing a camera with perhaps the highest mega-pixel value, remember that mega-pixels are not the only factor to make a picture come out better.

• Camera Specification

So what should you look in a camera if not mega pixels? A fast shutter response is essential (shutter lag must be lesser than a second); a fast start-up speed; automatic as well as manual controls (including focus) and of course, a design that’s far from being delicate.

Wedding Lens