How to photograph water drops with a point and shoot camera

Water drop photography makes me feel happy and ecstatic. Small diamond like shiny water drops bouncing off a surface is something really inspiring and spellbinding. The main principle behind capturing water drops is to freeze their rapid motion with such an arrangement and precision that the camera does not induce any sort of motion blur. Quite obviously to do so, the exposure time has to be many fractions of a second. The second most important worth noting point is that we have to capture the reflection of the light produced by the water drop so the use appropriate light exposure arrangements has to be considered.

When it comes to point-and-shoot cameras it becomes all the more difficult to maintain all above standards to photograph water drops. But again it’s not impossible ! I will explain you how…

Water drop photography with a compact camera

Requirements :

1. an ordinary point and shoot camera

2. a plastic tray partially filled with water (prefer not to use white one)

3. water drop source (use a water filled polythene bag clamped to a suitable height above the tray)

Setting the camera to capture water drops :

Ok. Now prick the polythene bag so that water drops fall regularly into the partially filled tray. Now is the time to set the camera. Set the camera to manual mode – choose an ISO the lowest available on your camera, set the exposure to a point level and turn on the flash. The lowest ISO will ensure that the water drop is highly focused while the flash will help in capturing the reflection produced by the water drops. If the burst mode (multi-shot mode) is available on the camera settings then turn it on. This feature will help in not missing any drop to water interaction.

Now take your camera closer to the falling drops (not too close) and hold it firmly since it will be likely to induce motion blur on account of low ISO if your hands shake. If possible, use a tripod instead. Now take a series of shots and experiment with different positions.

Some of the water drop shots I took with my point and shoot camera – Sony W320

   

I hope that you all have must enjoyed reading this post on water drop photography. For any query or feedback feel free to comment below.

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How to Photograph Food With A Point And Shoot Camera

Food photography is that art of photography which can easily tempt anyone with it’s liveliness and vibrance, if done properly. Have you ever been tempted by looking at those delicious food snaps on the cover page of a cooking magazine? Food photography is not just any another piece of photography. After all it’s not just about capturing the food with the right camera and knowledge; it’s all about having that capability to easily spellbind anyone looking at your work.

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Yesterday I was wondering how will my Sony point and shoot camera perform at photographing the food. Combining the right imagination(how to place the food, where to place and with what background) and my photographic skills, I managed to capture some of the great shots which I would like to share with all of you.

How to photograph strawberries

Strawberries are vibrant red in color. So in order to capture strawberries just keep in mind to…

• Wash them under running water before taking the shot.
• Keep them in a white colored bowl/plate. This complements their natural red color. Make sure that the background is neat and complements the color of strawberries.
• Take the shots in natural light( DO NOT use flash as it will cause the yellow dots on the berries to be highly accentuated and the natural berry color will be out of focus). For taking the shots in natural light prefer to keep the berries by the side of an open window.
• Use the combination of macro and the rule of thirds. This will improve the overall composition of the photos and the berries will perfectly stand out by using the macro mode.

Example shots:
Note: These shots are not framed or taken by any professional DSLR camera. These are just a few example shots taken by a simple point and shoot. So do not judge these photos professionally.
   
With almost the same settings water-melons can also be photographed…
   

How to photograph dry fruits and snacks

Here I will be capturing cashew nuts and almonds. These are light in color so using the flash on the camera is again not recommended as it will cause over brightness due to the flash being reflected by the light color of nuts.

• Use a glass bowl/plate. Keep the background clean or you can also experiment by putting various other nuts in the background.
• The color of cashew nuts is more appealing if flash is used at a distance with half the optical zoom. Set the ISO level to minimum incase you opt for this setting.
• If you are not using the flash keep the ISO level around 400 to 600. This helps in sharpening the photo, giving more details to the almonds and cashews.

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How To Do Long Exposure With A Point And Shoot Camera

Doing long exposures with a point-and-shoot camera is a bit tedious task because it requires the photographer to set the camera to various types of settings and to ensure that the camera takes these long exposures quite precisely with the main object kept focused.
A photographer with a DSLR enjoys control over a wide range of manual settings required to perform a long exposure photography. The camera’s shutter is left open for any indefinite amount of time and the results are spellbinding ! Whereas in case of a point and shoot, the camera’s shutter can’t be left open for that much amount of time hence it doesn't produce that impressive results! That’s the power of a DSLR. But what if you have a compact point and shoot camera and you are getting irresistible to capture those breathtaking shots with long exposure? This post clearly explains how to perform long exposure with a basic point and shoot/compact camera.

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How to set the camera for long exposure?

To perform a long exposure with a point-and-shoot forget about operating the camera in auto mode. Since in the long exposure photography you have to control the shutter speed of the camera it’s an obvious reason to operate your point and shoot in manual mode.

In most advanced point and shoot cameras you must have came across the feature called ISO. ISO is the ultimate key to control shutter speeds of point and shoot cameras. Hence to do long exposure, set your ISO to the lowest possible value (i would recommend 80 to 100. Forget about using flash (especially when you are taking long exposures of fast moving lights under dark or at night). Finally set the camera’s white balance to auto mode and use a tripod to ensure that the camera does not shake and defocus the main subject (light) ;)

please note: Operating the point and shoot camera in night mode can also produce similar results for long exposure.

Some Examples of long exposure with a point and shoot camera

Here are some of the examples of long exposure photography taken by the point and shoot camera SONY cybershot DSC W320 with the above explained settings.

Example 1 : Burning match stick shaken rapidly to illustrate how to take long exposures with point and shoot camera.

Example 2: Several interesting shapes, letters and alphabets can also be captured (using a laser or flash light/torch) by using these long exposure settings for a point and shoot camera.

 

 

Example 3: In the following example I have used an ordinary television remote control to illustrate the concept of long exposure taken with point-and-shoots. It’s simple to perform. First of all make the room darker by turning off all the lights and then securely place your camera on a tripod (set the auto timer to 10 seconds). Now position the remote control (with any button being pressed) towards the camera lens at some distance. Now press the shoot button of the camera and with the remote control device make random shapes and patterns. The camera will capture these patterns and you will get similar results as I got with my compact digital camera. 

And here’s the classic example of long exposure photography that i did with some fire-crackers (using just a simple point-and-shoot camera) ;)

I believe that you must have enjoyed reading all these long exposure tips. Now try to do a long exposure with your own point-and-shoot camera and feel free to share the results with us. Best of luck !!

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Smoke Photography

Capturing smoke and fumes is a topic of fascinating photography. Capturing the details of smoke leaving its trail behind against a dark background is definitely a spellbinding experience for passionate photographers. The purpose of this post is to deliver a crisp-clear tutorial on how to photograph smoke.

Things needed:
A point-and-shoot digital camera/DSLR
Some incense sticks and match sticks

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So are you ready with these things to try smoke photography? Wait. There is one thing that has to be considered before capturing smoke, and that's a dark background. A dark background complements the smoke and makes it more perceptible. Smoke photography includes 2 steps as discussed below…

 

Step 1: Getting the right smoke

Here are a couple of suggestions for getting the right smoke to capture…
 
1. Lightning incense stick
2. A hot cup of coffee or water giving off a steady steam

Step 2: Setting your camera to capture smoke flames

You must operate your camera in manual mode with flash enabled. The flash aids in halting the motion of the smoke and makes it clearly stand out from the background. Next, set the ISO to a medium value (200 to 400). Why not a low ISO? Because shooting with a low ISO is more prone to vibrations and blur. Why not a high ISO? If you are using a high ISO (greater than 800) then you may end up capturing smoke that is too bright and may not stand out off the background. Next thing is to set the focus and metering. Since the entire smoke fume has to get the attention, it is recommended to use multi focus setting combined with multi metering mode. This ensures that the entire smoke and fumes are in the necessary focus of the camera.
That is all you need to know before trying this artistic photography – smoke photography.
Sample smoke captured by my digital-camera 
 
  

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How to shoot subject with blurred background

Shooting a picture with a blurred background is very simple. You just need to know the basic concept behind this effect. Before we carry on with this tutorial to shoot subject with a blurred background, let’s understand the basics as to how this optical effect occurs.

Try this: Keeping your right eye closed with one hand, take your finger close to your left eye. Now focus on the finger. You will see a blurry background. So what exactly happened?
Your eye lens adjusted it’s focal length to a smaller value in order to focus the subject of interest(your finger, in this example), thereby blurring the background. The camera’s lens works in the same manner.

How to defocus the background with your digital camera?

Remember: Your subject must be close to the camera and the background must be a bit distant (4 feet approx. from subject). Secondly, try to go for a colorful background instead of just a plain one(in this way the defocused background can be clearly seen).

Settings for DSLR Cameras:

Operate the camera in manual mode with flash turned off. Choose the lowest possible f-stop value and a high shutter speed value. For example – you can start with the lowest possible f-stop value of 2.0 and a shutter speed of around 200 or 400. Bring the subject closer to the camera and start shooting with these settings. Now gradually increase the f-stop value and shutter speed. Compare the two results and stick with those combinations of shutter speed and f-stop values which give better results.

Settings for Point-and-Shoot Cameras:

Switch to manual mode with flash turned off and choose the lowest possible ISO value (preferably 100 to 200). Now start shooting with these settings. Low ISO values are responsible for inducing blur in photographs, so consider using a tripod while shooting the picture.

Sample photos that i clicked with my digital camera:

 

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