DIGITAL PHOTO TALK

Move into Speedlites - Yongnuo Mantra

2011-10-30T23:13:00.000-07:00

Having gotten tired of the home studio that I bought a while ago (that still works like a charm), I wanted to try out the cheap and best Yongnuo 560 flash after reading rave reviews on Amazon.com. After I ordered it, it came to me in like 3-5days. I also ordered the RF602 (transmitter + receiver combo) so that I can enjoy off camera flash. The results have been unbelievable!

Here are the product links -
http://www.amazon.com/YN-560-Speedlight-Flash-Canon-Nikon/dp/B004GZLFHM/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1320038259&sr=1-1
+
http://www.amazon.com/Yongnuo-Wireless-Trigger-Receiver-Shutter/dp/B0042TYNJ4/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1320040596&sr=1-1

All you have to keep in mind is that if you shoot in manual mode with shutter speed = 1/60 & f/7.1, you get the best results.

Very Impressive! At around 60 dollars you can't go wrong.

Too much photography..

2011-10-25T20:26:00.000-07:00

Welcome to you!
I know, I know. There is nothing like too much photography! I have been doing many things in photography of late. But mostly I have been doing it on flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/raghu-gollapalli/) as there is no memory limit (literally). I can upload upto 300mb per month. But here it is 1gb for good. In fact I have been uploading every day one image.

Since too much has been happening, I will list them in chronological order.

Thanks for stopping by :-)

Several new photos uploaded into my flickr page

2011-07-16T17:01:00.000-07:00

Check them out on - http://www.flickr.com/photos/raghu-gollapalli

Feel free to leave your comments there..

Large Format prints

2011-05-24T18:38:00.000-07:00

Hello All Again,
It has been several months since I posted. That doesn't, as mentioned before, mean that I haven't been clicking. When I invited some of my friends and colleagues for photo shoots, I decided to make posters for them. I tried a couple of places - some advertisements in ebay offering each poster 16X20 for 10 bucks, costco around 14 bucks (good quality) before finally settling for www.shortrunposters.com after seeing their ad in photography magazine.

I got 18X24 posters for around 2 dollars each!! The quality, I would say, was good. Nowadays many stores like walgreens also have poster services.

You can try any of these..

Home Photo Studio !!!

2010-12-25T23:50:00.000-08:00

Studio 3 Lights Softbox Plus Backdrop Stands Kit! NEW! 600W - $360

(This is my colleague & Friend Masato)

I bought a home photo studio - a full fledged package at an amazing price - $360 - can you imagine? This is all it takes to set up a studio - perhaps in your garage or one of your rooms. I love the results! I never knew the soft boxes transform the results so much - in combination with Photo shop. I dragged in a couple of my friends and colleagues for photo shoots after my family got tired of posing for hundreds of photos :-( The results were, as expected, very impressive.

Here are the details -

Brand: Aiki Photo (never heard of it before)

This New system has 3 Three 200w/s strobe lights, at GN 150 feet at ASA 100:

It features: Built-in reflector and power cable. Remote slave sensor (For cordless strobe Slave effectiveness 33 feet. Sync voltage 6-9V Stepless 1/8 to Full power setting options. 75W Halogen Modeling light. Recharge readylight. Two-way fixing stand adapter. Built in umbrella holder. Easily changeable fuse holder. Fast recycle time:1-3 seconds. 5600K color temperature.

One Backdrop Stands kit included:

High quality background stand with 3 section cross bar, 4 section stands.
Cross bar junction tension Adjustable.
Suitable for both paper and fabric backgrounds.
Assembles in minutes without tools.
Collapses down into an 27" long package.
Supports backgrounds up to 90" wide.
Maximum stand height is 90".
(copied and pasted from the craigslist ad)

You can search for this brand on amazon & ebay and of course on craigslist!

HDR Play ground

2010-08-10T23:07:00.000-07:00

HDR seems to be the new mantra

Sunset@Rancho San Antonio, Cupertino

Having seen a number of stunning HDR pictures, I was really determined to do a HDR picture myself. Every one seemed to be using photomatix. At this stage, I didn't want to spend any money on it. So I looked around for free software. Ended up downloading qtpfsgui (mouthful to pronounce and remember). It is quite simple to use. My huge inspiration for HDR stuff is - stuckincustoms.com - yes wierd name, but really good stuff for all things HDR.

To start off, I just went to the nearest park - Rancho San Antonio in Cupertino, California. Just set up the camera for 2 stops either way. Took 3 shots at -2, 0, +2. Got home, used QTPFSGUI. Experimented with number of output settings. I wanted something surreal. This seemed to fit the bill.

Hope you like it!

Las Vegas back alley

2010-07-13T23:00:00.000-07:00

Las Vegas! the city of excess! Every thing here has to be beyond normal, beyond luxury, beyond riches! While going through the casinos one by one, seeing the money madness gripping everyone around you, you either end up loving it all or hating it all. I was slowly drifting into the later. In that mood when friends were at the 'machines', I slowly wandered off into peace (if only to be found in Vegas!). Suddenly I found this location which was completely off for Vegas. Idyllic and beautiful, this alley definitely needed capture..

(click on the image to see the original size)
XSI
18-55 at 18mm
f/3.5
1/10sec
ISO 400

Grand Canyon grandeur

2010-07-04T23:43:00.000-07:00

This is another of those on the 'must see in my life' list. When I first saw Grand Canyon, I was simply overwhelmed. This is something beyond my wildest expectations. Nature at it's Grandest. It simply mocks you to show how small you are in this world.

Took this picture after savoring the scale of the canyon for a couple of hours. Took it at the golden hour.

XSI
18-55 at 18mm
f/3.5
1/30sec
ISO 1600

Photo editing softwares

2010-06-20T22:44:00.000-07:00

From the beginning, I have been using Picasa for editing all my photos (typically for adding my signature). I always wanted to move to Photoshop - but is too expensive :-( Photoshop Elements seemed to be the only option. I started looking for deals even on the PSE!!
Finally I got it for $29 from newegg.com !! But I am yet to learn it fully even after several months. But I found you tube to be immensely helpful -

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=photoshop+elements+8+tutorial&aq=1

I found the software to be quite advanced and useful.

But here is the good news - have you even heard of GIMP? I heard it from my son! It is actually as good as Photoshop elements. But the best part is - it is FREE!! Open source package.
Try it out - http://www.gimp.org/

Some help - http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=gimp+2.6+tutorial&aq=2

Download it and play around. It is fun!

If you are intimidated by complex softwares - then Picasa is the way to go - really easy to use while being able to do most stuff about photos -

http://picasa.google.com/#utm_campaign=en&utm_source=en-ha-na-us-bk&utm_medium=ha&utm_term=picasa

Let's edit and change some faces!

Boston Cityscape

2010-06-13T21:28:00.000-07:00

Dear All,
I am back again! This picture is from a trip back to Boston from Niagara. We were driving back after our trip, we were tired, it was late in the night. Not many cars on the road and we were passing on this bridge to our friends' home. I suddenly pulled over, jolting my kids from sleep :-( That's a factory that we see in the reflections. The location is Malden (Boston,MA)

Tech settings: Canon XSI
18-55mm IS @55mm
1/5 sec
f/4.0
ISO 400

Niagara falls splendor!

2010-03-22T20:45:00.001-07:00

(click on the picture to enlarge it)

Hello All,
After a long drive from Boston, we arrived at Buffalo and checked into the Hotel around 8pm. Instead of hanging around, we thought we should make a trip to Niagara falls in the night itself. When we arrived there, the first thing that got our attention was the clouds of vapor raising out of Niagara! Then the sound, then the sights!

The night view was impressive. Saw a lot of photo geeks going gaga over the picturesque location. I didn't carry my tripod because of weight (we were flying to east coast). So I rested my camera on one of the railings and started firing away pictures.

Tech: Canon XSI with 18-55 IS @ 24mm
0.6sec
f/4.0
ISO: 800

Hope you like it!

On Road - Boston to Niagara

2010-02-23T19:50:00.001-08:00

(Click on the image to enlarge)

Hello All,
Welcome again! Last year, during my East coast trip ( July 2009), we were driving from Boston to Niagara. While driving we stopped for lunch some where on the roadside restaurant. After finishing mine, I grabbed my photo hoping to get a quick shot or two. While clicking, a passerby - an old lady who lived there, remarked she never noticed how beautiful the place was until then! How true!!

I really loved the shot and it is unedited. Didn't see a need for editing.

Tech: Canon XSI
18-55 @ 55
f/9.0
1/160s
ISO 400

Fireworks - July 4th 2009 - one more

2010-01-23T09:39:00.001-08:00

Click on the picture to see the real beauty!

Hello All,
Welcome again! I think I should get over more of my laziness in sharing what I am doing! Anyway this is one more shot which I took during the last July 4th celebration. I was sitting with a group of friends in the lawns of the nearby school watching the fireworks. I was holding the camera in my hand clicking away.. Since I was exposing it long enough, it came out wavy beautiful. Hope you like it!

Tech:
Canon XSI, 55-250mm at 96mm
f/5.0
1/6s
ISO: 800

Fireworks July 4th 2009, Cupertino, California

2010-01-12T22:35:00.000-08:00

This is one photo that eluded me for months! Finally I could fish it out. I casually went to the July 4th fireworks when one of my friends invited me over to the nearby school grounds. Since there were many people with not enough space to even walk around, let alone setup a tripod. I sat on the ground and started clicking away. Some shots made the cut. This is what I really liked! Hope you like it too! Click on the image to enlarge it. When you enlarge it, scroll up and down quickly using the scroll wheel of your mouse while watching the picture for a special effect.

Tech: Canon XSI with 55-250 IS - Hand held
f/18.0
15.0 sec
ISO 800

Thanks for visiting.

Months of silence

2009-09-01T16:56:00.000-07:00

Hello All,
I apologize for the long silence and I promise this will not happen again. I was not well and now I am back. I was traveling a bit too. Meanwhile didn't I take any new photos? No way! I kept taking but didn't stretch myself too much. Now I will start posting those photos and discuss techniques. Hopefully it will be useful for you all.

Hope you like it :-) Please feel free to leave your feedback for all my posts.

Love you all
Raghu

My favourite

2009-05-30T10:44:00.001-07:00

Welcome back Again!!

Click on the picture to see the real beauty!

As usual I started off for my lunch time walk one day - my back pack adorning my back once again! As many of my colleagues were walking too, I was hesitating to pull out my camera. My office buddy said - 'Oh Come on Raghu click this one'. Waited for others to pass, then pulled out my camera. This was just a wild bush. I had to pace around for some minutes before settling for this angle. It was a cloudy day and that added to the beauty too.

I just fell in love with it the moment I saw it on the LCD. Many of my colleagues liked it and used it as their desktop background. I really liked the bokeh. Hope you like it too..

Tech details: Canon XSI

Nifty Fifty - 50mm at 1.8

1/640 sec

ISO: 100

Spring showers

2009-05-30T10:41:00.000-07:00

Welcome Back!

To see spring showers you really need to get down! Looks like misty dew! As I was walking taking pictures of flowers, I noticed these flowers. But then there was a hitch. They were pale and didn't look quite beautiful as to keep. What do you do then? Just click them anyway. And use some picture editing software! Took a couple of pictures. This seemed to fit in well with what I had in mind.

It was an overcast day and that added to the beauty. All I did was saturate it a bit. Then it looked beautiful. Click on the picture to see the details. Hope you like it!

The tech details:

Canon XSI

Nifty-Fifty

f/1.8

1/800 sec

ISO 100

Used Picasa to saturate

Pine Cone

2009-05-30T10:39:00.001-07:00

Welcome back!

Ever since I read the strange importance of Fibonacci numbers in Photography, I wanted to take a picture of a Pine Cone. Incidentally we had kept a pine cone at home since I found it beautiful never knowing the scientific reason behind it's beauty! Two spirals go upwards in two opposite directions. Both these spirals have different frequencies - one goes 8 rounds when the other goes 13 rounds.

After having decided to take a picture, I wanted to take it in angled natural light - because I wanted to capture the contours of it to the maximum effect. When one day the late evening sunshine entered our living room, I set it on the floor, set the camera on the floor took some shots. This was the best of the lot. Hope you like it.

Technical details -

Canon XSI

50mm prime

f/2.2

1/250sec

ISO: 100

California dry grass!!

2009-05-15T20:49:00.000-07:00

Beginning of the dry summer of California!

As summer advances in California, the green grass ends up like this - scary particularly because of the frequent fires that break out. Very soon they will be mowing the whole place to avoid any danger of fire. But now it has it's own silky beauty you can see above!

This was taken during a photo walk to a location called DISH on the Stanford University campus. I had to sit down to get this angle in the hot sun light. But it was worth the effort because, in a week it would have all gone and also because it was picture perfect!

Tech:

Canon XSI

50mm

f/1.8

1/4000 sec

ISO: 100

Cherry Blossom!!

2009-05-12T20:39:00.000-07:00

Spring time!

I found this tree right in front of my office. Though I noticed the white bloom a bit early, I was not satisfied with the light. I had to keep an eye on it for the right direction of light and amount of light for a FULL week. Also, I wanted to make it as discreet as possible - I didn't want to show off in front of colleagues. Finally I got the right moment in an afternoon. I quickly clicked a series of pictures - it was worth it - because, after one more week, this tree was completely green!! No trace of white.

Technical:

Canon XSI

55-250IS at 84mm

f/4.5

1/320sec

ISO: 100

Respect the KIT lens

2009-05-09T16:33:00.000-07:00

Really!

As I bought the 55-250IS along with the XSI, I never respected the KIT lens (18-55IS) and hardly used it for any shooting. But recently when I went to the meetup group of Southbay Photography group, I saw a photographer show off his work which was done using this KIT lens and I was clearly impressed. From then on, particularly when I travelled to Anaheim and Disneyland, I used it exclusively. The result is I use it now regularly.

The above rose was captured during one of my walkarounds. I really loved the result - it is now hanging on my living room wall.

Settings:

Canon XSI

18-55IS at 55mm

1/320sec

f/5.6 (I couldn't go to f/4.0 as I was already at 55mm)

ISO: 100 (lowest, it was a bright sunny day)

Canon 50mm 1.8 - cutting edge of creativity

2009-05-06T21:17:00.000-07:00

Welcome back!

Hmm, being a lazy guy, finally I took the effort to walk around only to find this fabulous stuff just around the corner from my lunch time walking path next to a creek. Beautiful setting ofcourse..

So just to give a short intro - I finally got my canon 50mm 1.8 - the 'nifty-fifty' But was lazy to check it out around. Finally I took some pictures during my lunch walk.What I learnt about this lens is - it will keep ONLY ONE layer absolutely in focus. Whatever is 1 inch before or 1 inch behind will be out of focus. That is what I have learnt.

I really loved the result! Loved the Bokeh too!!

Technical data: Canon XSI(as usual)

50mm 1.8mm

f/1.8

1/1600 sec

Portrait photography - Best suited lens

2009-05-02T11:11:00.000-07:00

Welcome back!

Though I had an SLR for nine years, never experimented much because of, you know what! Cost!! Now that I moved to DSLR and three lenses - 18-55 + 55-250 + 50mm 1.8 - I have got enough resources to play around for free ( already paid for:-) )

I got the most flattering results with my 55-250 telephoto zoom at around 100mm WITH NATURAL LIGHT before noon - indoors. I stand next to the window and I ask my subject (so far only my wife) to stand facing me (window). I can not post these photos as she didn't agree to.

Cut the crap - my personal style is to focus as close as possible with just the face filling literally the whole frame - if that suits you. The results are usually very flattering. Try it.

General technical data I used:

Canon XSI with 55-250 at around 100mm

f/4.0

1/2 sec - 1/50sec

ISO: 200

Without flash

Moon Dance

2009-04-26T19:23:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Digital photography discussion!

Yes Moon dance! What do you do when you get a DSLR and you can control the exposure? Play with long exposure times! That's what I did. When I just got my XSI, I was playing around with the long exposure times. 1 sec, 2 sec, 20 secs etc. Did you see the sunset pic with 20sec? Just check it out.

By the way, when I was heading back home one day, I noticed Moon & Venus so close to each other and bright too. As soon as I reached home, pulled out my XSI, hand held it and set it for 4 sec and manually moved it to make a pattern. The result is this witch face :-)

Canon XSI with 55-250 at 250mm

4.0 sec

f/5.6

ISO: 400

Palm Tree on a rainy day

2009-04-22T21:51:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Digital photo talk again!

What do you do when you have to just wait in your vehicle doing nothing but staring into the sky and it is raining heavily? Just pull out your camera! That's what I did. I focussed on the sun roof of our X5. The rain drops made it an interesting composition. I took a couple of shots (power of digital!). This one had the palm tree clearly in a number of drops. I really loved the way it came out. By the way this photo is absolutely un-edited! Taken at Anaheim, california.

Data: Canon XSI with 18-55IS at 20.0mm.

f/3.5

1/1000sec

ISO 800

Beautiful sunset at Orange county, California

2009-04-20T23:06:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Digital Photo Talk !

When I visited the Newport beach in Orange county, I had nothing much to do. So I wanted to enjoy the sunset in this beach. By the time I reached there the sunset was over. But the colors were so beautiful. Since it was getting too dark, I decided to use a long exposure with a high ISO.

I used my Canon XSI with 18-55 IS at 55.0mm, ISO 800

Shutter priority - Shutter speed 20.0 sec, f/29

It was so windy I had to hold the tripod -I was afraid it might fly off. But when I saw the result, I was really thrilled. It was my first sunset picture. The long exposure also caused a glitter to the lights. The pier added a eye-guide into the picture and the beach added foreground.

Lonely Autumn Tree

2009-04-19T17:54:00.001-07:00

Welcome to Digital photo talk !

Autumn trees always fascinate me - may be because of their bare bone structure. You can see everything they have! And they are not covered up by the leaves.

I had stopped at a red signal while driving home one day. It was a waiting time of around 1 1/2 minute. Hence I was lazily glancing around. When I noticed this tree, just jumped up and pulled out my camera and clicked it. Took only one shot in

AV mode.

Equipment: Canon XSI

55-250 at 55mm

1/2000 sec

f/4.0

ISO: 200

Only hitch - there were electrical wires running just behind the tree. That was a spoiler! I used MS paint to manually remove the wires. Later, I added some saturation using Picasa 3.

My Beautiful photo gallery

http://raghugollapalli.imagekind.com

Bedroom window Bokeh

2009-04-18T13:12:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Digital Photo Talk !

I was playing with my brand new canon tele-photo 55-250 IS to focus on a distant home through the gaps in this tree. Later I noticed that this tree itself was beautiful. I shot the picture in the header above using my XSI with 55-250 IS at 250mm using Manual focus, f/5.6, 1/10sec, ISO:200. Taking the picure at f/4.0 was keeping only some leaves in focus. So had to turn it down a bit to keep more leaves in focus.

I really loved the shades of green in this picture.

What to read in Digital photography

2009-04-17T16:31:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Digital Photo talk !

I am sure there are many like me - just stepped into the world of digital photography. I have been reading a lot of books, blogs, websites, magazines and the list goes on. Let me list them down so that you too can get benefited - I am not listing useless books which waste your time.

1. Most important: Read your camera manual. You should know how to handle your camera completely. Trust me. I know the manual is small in size and not easy to read. You can download a soft copy and read it - this is a lot easier. Handling your camera should become your second nature. Particularly Canon models where many settings go by menus unlike Nikon where there are buttons on the back of the camera body.

Also the canon online resources for the cameras are very informative. Check out -

http://www.usa.canon.com/dlc/controller?act=HomePageAct

--> tips and techniques & EOS digital sections

--> it also contains videos explaining stuff.

2. Scott Kelby's Digital photography vol 1 & 2 : This is the set of books where he tells you exactly what to do in a so-and-so situation. You don't have to buy them. I borrowed these books from my local library repeatedly.

3. KODAK digital photography books: If you really want to understand why some photos work and some don't, I found KODAK books to very authentic. I never thought I would read about Fibonacci numbers in a photography book.

4. National Geographic publications - Field guides & magazines.

5. YouTube: Can you imagine, YouTube contains tons of videos explaining everything you ought to know about photography using YOUR camera. All you need to do is search for your camera model and some one there will be explaining how you can do this and that using YOUR camera. For example search for Canon XSI and in the list, look up for what you want to do, like for instance - setting custom white balance (pretty easy), recompose a shot using exposure lock etc.

6. Blogs:

http://www.digitalprotalk.blogspot.com/

http://digitalphototalk.blogspot.com/ <-- you are already here!!!

7. Websites:

http://digital-photography-school.com/

8. Your own vision: develop a sense of photography. You have to start to see things differently - as if you are always looking TTL :-)

Welcome! An intro about me and my camera(s)..

2009-04-17T11:50:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Digital Photo talk !

Hi,

Welcome aboard ! I hope to entertain you with my photography talks, discussions and titbits.

(Updated on June 29th 2010)

About me -

You can call me Raghu. Born in India. Lived in India and Germany. Currently living in the sunny california.

Always been interested in Photography ever since I remember. Got into Film SLR around 2000(around 9 years back). Didn't dare to experiment with film because of cost. Recently moved to DSLR. I have always been a CANON guy.

Camera's owned:

Film SLR: Canon EOS Rebel GQD with Sigma 28-80 with Macro at 80 (used mostly while in India & Germany)

P&S: Canon IXUS 40 (used mostly in Germany and US)

DSLR: Canon EOS XSI with EF-S 18-55 IS f/3.5-5.6

+ EF-S 55-250 IS f/4.0-5.6

+ EF 50mm f/1.8 II (ordered recently)
Bag: Lowepro Nova AW 170

Tripod: Dolica Proline AX620B100 (updated on June 29th 2010)