VIEW.FOCUS.CLICK by Srijita Chattopadhyay

view.focus.click www.viewfocusclick.com

Issue 1 . June 2012

INSIDE >> EDITOR’S VOYAGE TO THE

FASHION AND ROMANCE CAPITAL, ITALY

AED 30/-

The Important 5’S of your photography << Read a review on Lightroom4 << Learn to make your own HDR and Tilt shift << photographs

Sometimes all you need to have is a little believe for a change to happen. This section will include a picture in every issue that will depict change. Because change is an unchangeable law. 2

“Sometimes all you need to do is to see ordinary things in an extraordinary way”

Editorial

For me photography is passion, it’s a hobby, an art, it’s love, it’s how I show my creativity, it’s fragment of my subconscious and it’s something that describes me beyond words. In this magazine I will try my best to bring out different ways to help you better your photography, what camera you should buy, ways to edit your pictures, answer different quires about photoshop and lots more. What’s more fun when it comes to photography is clicking pictures of destinations you travel to. Therefore every issue of this magazine will have a cover story describing my voyage to a new destination.

Editorial

And the first issue opens with a voyage to one of the

Editor: Srijita Chattopadhyay Sub Editor: Anzuma Akhter Designer: Srijita Chattopadhyay Writer: Srijita Chattopadhyay, Anzuma Akhter, Kevin Sebastian Photography: Srijita Chattopadhyay Published by: Crystal

most romantic spots in the world “Italy”. From collages of photographs, to information, to reviews, to the buyer’s guide; I hope you will benefit from this magazine. So hope you will enjoy yourself in the further pages, till then, VIEW.FOCUS.CLICK.

Srijita Chattopadhyay, Editor

Zoomed In

Know 5â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

PhotoshopStop Mosaic

Tutorials

Review

Contents...

06 10

30 18

Gallery

Among Us

Lets Compare

DIY

Rearview

12 14

36 28

Mosaic

As the name of the section suggest to you, this section brings together some of the best works of budding photographers we have come across. And we thought why not begin our magazine with some aspiring photography.

So, on this page we have displayed the works of, Puja Rashinkar and Srijita Chattopadhyay.

And, on this page we have displayed the works of, Anzuma Akther and Roshan Chikodi.

Know 5’s Having a SLR doesn’t imply that you are a photographer... ...Know your 5’s to better photography.

Zoom closer: Each time you spot a subject,

click a picture then zoom in for a better shot of the same. don’t b afraid to zoom in what you want to photograph. Some of the best pictures are a close up. Also a close up shot helps your viewers to identify the greater details involved in your picture and appreciate it.

2.Be quick and fast: As a photographer you

should remember that some of your best subjects can be captured only if you are quick enough. Hence, you should practise getting quicker so that you don’t miss out on some of the best shots. Always remember “Shoot first... Ask questions later...”

3.Composition is the key: Don’t click anything and everything just because you have a SLR. Stop, think, compose and only then click your picture. This is where you use perspective and the various rules that are involved in photography. A careful composition is the key to good photography.

4.Be selective: Choose a subject that is able

to convey to your viewers the story you want to tell. Look at ordinary things in new dimensions, and ask yourself, “how will this tell a story?” the greater the depth in your shot, the better a picture it is.

5.Vary

the light: You should remember that lighting is the essence of photography. A bad lighting will destroy a well composed picture. Hence, be keen on the lighting of the picture. One picture can tell different stories under different lighting condition. So, light your creativity. 11

rearview

1. How long did it take you to finally realise that you wanted to make a career choice of doing Food photography? I always thought that photography is a piece of cake; it’s been a year now since I fell in love with food photography. I think life is all about challenges, and food photography is a big challenge in my opinion.

2. And from where do you seek you inspiration? Do you have anyone specific whom you follow very passionately? There isn’t any particular person that I would say has inspired me, I just am very passionate about food and if not clicking, it’s cooking.

3. Can you throw light upon some of the techniques that you use to do this kind of photography?

I love using a 50mm when clicking food it just brings life and sharpness to food, there is nothing more to it is a Dubai based food just, LIGHTS, CAMERA, and FOOD.

osovon, photographer. He started his career by shooting for Roti Mum, a bakery in the city. Today he is known to have done shoots for over fifty resturants, and one of them being Gazebo. Being the genourous man that he is, he agreed to take time out and tell us about his career as a food photographer.

“Always have an APPETITE... (pun intended)” 12

4. What’s the main component that makes your picture look so real? I think keeping the food all natural and clean give a real touch to it.

5. How do you add the shine to the food you are photographing? Means just how does it look so delicious? I think the main component to enrich food photography that I do, to give it that extra shine and alive looks is, “always dress your food “so it looks yummy-luscious, or sometimes I just brush up some olive oil.

6. Lastly, if there are any pointers you want to share with our aspiring food photographers? I think if you need to be a food photographer, you need to know the ethics of food ,and mainly love and understand the foods of the world, because that really helps when it come to food set up for food photo shoots. And above all always have an APPETITE (pun intended).

diy

Doing photography

with your SLR just got more amazing. How you ask? Well because you can make your SLR look more fashionable around your neck as you click pictures, with the help of this simple DIY. This DIY is not just useful, where as it is also inexpensive, doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t involve a lot of complication and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a great fashion statement.

Strap up to a Fashion Statement Step 1:

So all we need is a very pretty scarf of your choice, thread and needle, a marker or chalk and some key chain rings. And make sure that the key chain rings you get are strong enough to withsand the weight of your camera. You can also get yourself ribbions to use it to cover up the stiching marks.

Step 2:

Choose a nice printed or bright coloured scarf, and hang it around your neck like it was a camera strap. Now using a marker, mark the place from where you want your camera to hang. Now make another mark 1 inch below also (you need place to stitch up the scarf there.) Repeat the same on the other side of the scarf also.

Step 3:

Now after you have done that on both sides of the scarf. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s time to put the key chain ring through the scarf, till the mid point and the fold up the scarf till the second line you have drawn.

Step 4:

Now sew it up. If you are using a needle and thread, be careful not to poke yourself. Or if u have a sewing machine at home, things just got easier for you.

Step 5:

Sew it up as neatly as possible, on both the sides of the scarf. After sewing up, check if the stiching is strong enough to withstand the weight of your camera. Also if you want it to look more finished, you can add leather tubes or ribbons over the place you have initially stiched.

Step 6:

Lastly, wear it around your neck and be admired. You can stitch up to a dozen scarf straps, to mix and match with your clothes. Just remember to keep it stylish.

stop

photoshop

Q.What is the difference between photo retouching and photo manipulation?

A.Many people interchange these terms and get

them all mixed up. Some may argue that these two terms mean the same thing, however they are not the same thing. The difference between these terms may be subjective or objective. Retouching is a process in which a digital image is altered to meet your approval in terms of the removal of image flaws (dust, scratches, blemishes, etc..) or the addition of color to a photo. Manipulation may sound similar to retouching that it' still a process in which an image is altered to meet our requirements. It is different, however, in that it is a higher level of alteration. Manipulation includes such changes as removal of objects and people and the addition of missing imagery.

nzuma Akther, is a recently graduated Visual Communication student from Manipal University, Dubai. She is keenly interested in various software and is a geek when it comes to useage of any Adobe softwares. Also in her free time she does photography and likes to spend time attaching her tab to the computer and drawing on photoshop. So when asked about the software â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Photoshopâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; she explained to us things that an average photoshop user may not be aware off. Hence, we give you Anzuma as she is ready to answer all your queries at Photoshop

Stop.

Photoshop is largely used for this two functions. Scourge the Internet and you'll find plenty of tutorials describing how you can perform these functions at ease. Be it removing that annoying pimple of a face or changing the color of the person's eyes, changing the tone of your sunset photograph or erasing that bird off the sky because it disturbs the balance, or literally altering one person's looks to match a particular style (hint: air brushed models in magazines), everything is possible on Photoshop. But as a fellow photography enthusiast, I would advice you to use these features to the minimum; Photoshop is an amazing tool for altering reality, but it's only really great when you're aware of its effects. Like any tool, Photoshop can be used for the forces of both good and evil. Every photograph that we see today is slightly altered in some way of the other, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. But highly edited pictures can be misleading and therefore you would want to avoid doing that.

Q.What is the whole deal about adjustment layers Q.What to look out for, as a photographer, in the while photo editing in Photoshop?

new Photoshop CS6?

A.Read

A.If you have been successfully using other versions

any Photoshop editing articles or photography magazines, you'll always see how there's always this whole obsession of working with adjustment layers when it comes to editing photographs. I'm totally with that; I would do anything to retouch my image the way I would want it to look and also not lose or 'destruct' my image at the end of it. So the answer is; adjustment layers. Photoshop wouldn't be the world's most popular image editor if it didn't give us simple ways to edit, retouch and restore our photos. It's a good thing that the program comes with a collection of commands built specifically to handle many of our most common photo editing tasks, like improving overall contrast in an image, removing color casts, bringing out hidden detail in the highlights and shadows, and more!

of Photoshop for your editing works, then you'll be in love with the changes in this new series.

Adobe Camera Raw 7 works alongside with Photoshop CS6 and gives the most amazing editing options possible to retouch all your raw images, like never before. The interface of Photoshop CS6 is really pleasing to the eye, a complete change from that old boring gray look to the black and stark dark gray look. And with a dedicated interface for photography, all your tools would be at a mouse click reach, thus increasing the efficiency of the work. Not to forgot the amazing auto save feature of this software, which keeps on saving your work after a particular interval of time, so that you don't lose out on your work. The auto recovery feature is a hit amongst the users; Photoshop calls these commands Image Adjustments, imagine you're working on this very large file and the and we can find them all grouped together in one software crashes? Fear not, your work will now get convenient location by going up to the Image menu at recovered once you restart the software and you're the top of the screen and choosing Adjustments. back to the point where you have left before. As we can see from the list, there's plenty of image adjustments to choose from, and while some of them, like Gradient Map or Posterize, may not be quite as useful as others, commands like Levels, Curves and Hue/Saturation are indispensable to our daily photo editing work. But the main point is; do not use these adjustments directly on your pictures. Rather choose adjustment layers from the same menu and play around with these settings with different layers. It gives you the liberty to discard those layers if you aren't completely happy with them. That way it leaves your original image intact and not touched, and you would still get the same results. Play around with these settings, and you'll be widely amazed on how these affect your pictures and give you that editing you popularly see around and wonder how these people even achieved such a thing. Take my word for it, it isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t that hard!

If you've been an avid users of Gradient Maps on your images to change the color tones, now you'll have a wider range of gradient maps JUST for your photographs, to get you that desired look without working too hard on them. And last but not the least, the new blur features in this software. CS6 features three new blurs: Iris Blur, Field Blur and Tilt-Shift Blur; they are fast and easy to use â&#x20AC;&#x201C; simply drop pins. The outside pins are full strength, the inside are where the blur beginsâ&#x20AC;Ś between them is feathering, but without any manual drawing or changes. Everything can be done on-image.

zoomed in

With love, From Italy

The church at Duomo, Milan 18

The Navigilo Grande, Milan

Day 1: Milan

We reached Milan early morning, say around 8, and we took the bus to the hotel. And as we approached the high way; my camera and I were drunk by the beauty and the serenity of the place, like we could not ask for anything more.

Our hotel “Hotel Michelangelo” was located right opposite to the Milan central station, on reaching the hotel; we hopped on board to start our magical five day trip. And the first place we ventured was Milan itself.

The romance capital

Milan, the fashion paradise of the world, is really not how we imagine it to be. When we think of Milan we are immediately transported to the Duomo area, with all the big branded shops flooding the streets and celebrities stepping out of these shops with a bunch of branded plastic bags, etc. But to be very honest, that is just one side of Milan, this city is much more than satin gowns and leather shoes. As you walk towards the Naviglio Grande area, ones sight is totally mesmerized by the beauty of the place, especially if you go there during the sunset. As you further walk down the roads of this area you might smell freshly brued cappuccino, catch a glimpse of the chef of a pizzeria, writing the menu for ‘Today’s Special’ or you might hear the faint laughter of a couple in love. And once you find yourself amongst such scenery, you would just want to close your eyes and feel every second of it.

The authentic Maranara Pizza 19

St. Marks Square, Italy 20

The vast stretches of beauty

Day 2: Venice

Have you ever imagined a place, where you wake up in the morning and you go to work not by your car, but your boat? Well, if you have then, Venice is the place where you should be living your life, an entire civilization afloat from Shakespearian era, till today.

As you row yourself through the ‘Grande Canal’ you will be awestruck by the simplicity of the place. It is a town which has practically all components of a 21st century, and yet its miles away metaphorically. And once you reach the island of St. Marks Square, you will find yourself at the hub of hand made products, specially the authentic masks. Truly, they sell nothing ‘Made in China’.

The depth of field of a child’s view

As you walk further over the island you might have a Rendez-Vous with a masquerade parade or a small glass moulding shop. And once you are done venturing, the island, it is ideal to take a ride of the ‘Gondola’ and watch the sun slowly set over the floating city.

The Gandola ride 21

The stained glass of scarifice in the Vatican City, Rome 22

Statue of Mother Mary with baby Jeasus

The curve at the Colosseum

Day 3: Roma

Rome truly was not built in a day. Our next destination was to the ‘Eternal Roma’ the capital city of Italy. The best way to see around Rome is to get on the hop in and hop off buses. And since we were on a tight schedule, it was in our best interest.

Rome is a place with some of the most ancient churches, bridges and statues. You could say, every pope or a higher authority of the church has a church named after them. So you can just imagine how many that would be. As the bus swiftly moved from one thin lane to another, we reached our first hop off destination, the Colosseum. (Well if you don’t know what it is, I suggest you watch Gladiator before you read any further). And as you climb from lower to the higher grounds of the Colosseum, you will thoroughly be intrigued by its history. Standing there in the arena, where thousands were killed, it is just marvellous to wonder how life used to be back then. After the long tour through Colosseum, we went to the most awaited destination of all, The Vatican City. And walking through the chapel, it’s just overwhelming, as to how beautiful and ancient it is. Every painting, every statue, every sainted glass is a piece of art. And the wonder is that, it still lives- the beauty and the history.

Colosseum from the tour bus 23

David by Michelangelo, Florence 24

Day 4: Florence

Once upon a time there lived a boy named Pinocchio, his master made him of wood, as real as he was, he was cursed. Every time he lied, his nose grew long... but where was he from?

The grenery against the sky

The answer to that question would be Florence or as an Italian would call it “Ferenze”. Florence as a city is a very small place, but it is the shamiana of some great people, dead and alive.

The bird’s eyeview from Piazza Del Michelangelo

As we travelled through the tour bus, the lady on the speaker explained to us some of the historic places in Florence. She mentioned a graveyard that has the cremated bodies of various famous poets and actresses of old times. Then she showed us the olden day mint and a huge castle just opposite it. And for people who are not aware, Florence is a city made on a hill. So as we climbed the hill gradually, the entire city was just in front of our eyes. From the station to Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore to the kings castle, everything was at the bird’s eye view. And at the apex of the Piazza Del Michelangelo stood the 5.49 meters tall ‘David’ by Michelangelo, an art beyond manifestation.

Tulips during the Spring 25

The leaning tower of Pisa, Pisa 26

The medivial Duomo of Pisa

Day 5: Pisa

Our last and final destination was to watch an architecture, which was built with a tilt, and the angle of tilt, made it the seventh wonder of the world.

Yes, I am talking about the leaning tower of Pisa, situated in Piazza dei miracoli (square of miracles). It had always been pictures that make you imagine how it would look, but once you get there and watch the tower leaning at the background of the clear blue sky, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s just marvolous. On reading the history of how this architecture was built, you would come across that this building which was used by the Government of Pisa once upon a time, was built by 5 different architects. No wonder it is said that too many cooks spoil the broth.But honestly, Pisa is a magnificent product of 5 . The Baptisary of St. John

The leaning tower of Pisa 27

letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s compare

to be canon or no quest

Well, I use canoon because my father and my brother have used it and they feel aquantied to Canon, so I feel the same. But other than that, I feel Canon is good. Its not something everyone buys, I really dont know why. But I really like this brand.

Canon is very handy and easy to use, as per me. I had a Nikon SLR before and my first DSLR is a canon and I am aquainted to both, but I still think Cannon is a better choice.

When asked others about it, most of the crowd seemed to have a Nikon rather than a Canon, say only 35% of the camera owners have a Canon and rest all seem to favour Nikon.

ot be nikon is the tion? Hi my name is Diana and I strongly feel that Nikon is a better brand to use because, it is very user friendly and at the same time it gives very good quality picture. I would definately recommend a Nikon. even though I have a Nikon D3100 which is a beginers camera. I still feel like I am holding a professional camera. Works for me.

I have been using Nikon SLR from a long time ... Infact have gifted my dad and father in law the same.... Not only that I had been teaching the basics of photography on an Nikon SLR. Well the reasons for using first and foremost very easy to operate and still you get a professional quality photograph ...

When asked others about it, they all agreded that Nikon is a very user friendly camera, and said that it made learning photography easy for them. So from the team of VIEW.CLICK.FOCUS. we recommend you a Nikon. 29

among us

Barath Masamsetty is a 2nd year Mechanical Engineering student studying at Manipal University, Dubai. Well, Barath has some keen interest like cooking, singing, playing various instruments and photography. When asked more about his interest in photography, he said...

“I just don’t like people asking me why ‘this’ picture because when it comes to photography you can’t always tell why.”

Tell us about your hobby- photography?

I am not a professional photographer; hence it’s implied that I don’t have the detailed knowledge of the rules that should be followed to click a good picture. But what I do believe is, that photography takes no one direction, it is in every term the most dynamic hobby I indulge myself in.

Where do you seek your inspiration from? As for inspiration... well, I get inspired by anything intriguing. I still remember the first picture that I clicked was in India with my friends SLR, and by the output of the picture I was so shocked and happy, that I had to start nurturing my new found hobby. Also in the recent past another friend of mine has been inspiring me to go out and improve this hobby of mine. How would you define photography? Photography does all that a naked eye can’t. It helps me capture the finer details of what I see. I also believe that a subject from different angles at different lightings from different distance can mean different things all together. It’s like there is Barath’s first inspirational click, that made him fall in love with photography. an array of perspective just out there waiting to be attended to. Hence if you ask me what the definition of photography is, I can’t really express, because Lastly, what are the subjects you prefer taking photography is ‘EVERYTHING’. pictures of? Do you think an SLR is what yo need to do photography? Trust me; I don’t feel the need for a SLR to click good pictures. If you are good at something you don’t really need the best to prove yourself. I click most of my pictures with the Sony digital camera that I have and sometimes when I get hold of an SLR I try to learn more things about it.

Haha...again I don’t have the technical know how’s to answer your question, but in lay mans language I enjoy clicking photos of ‘emotion’ ‘symmetry’ and ‘silhouettes’. As these genres of photography are very to the face. In the sense, it is what is it, there is no second thought involved in what the picture wants to unfold. Maybe I just don’t like people asking me ‘why’ this picture because when it comes to photography you can’t always tell why, isn’t it? 31

review so how is lightroom4? So after finally waiting for Lightroom to come out, here’s Lightroom 4 or as it’s otherwise known, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4, there always has to be something corporate about design software’s after all. So here’s a small review on what I think about the new version, I tried and tested the usual but nothing too professional. Lightroom 3 had very limited video file support and it was such a shame, imagine the possibilities of enhancing video with some 70’s filter… Your videos would be recognized on import and they'd get a poster frame, but they would have to be played externally. Version 4, finally, adds playback and surprisingly, Adobe added some basic editing features that should up the bar of what's expected of a program handling video and you get to put some filters on it, though not all. But impressing enough, you can do some balance and tone tweaks on video footage within the Library module and get feedback in real time and still get some of those wonderful drastic tonal and color tweaks. As far as interface goes, Lightroom 4 has rearranged the Tones section of the basic adjustment sliders in an effort to make tonal adjustments clearer and improve dynamic range adjustments.

evin Sebastian, a freelance web designer is keenly intersted in photography and in various software. He is a true critic Since "Recovery" is vague, "Fill Light" is a little of most of the design softwares we use. confusing. "Brightness" just reminds you about So this is what he has to say about

LIGHTROOM 4.

the days when brightness adjustments were a gain slider that just added whiter in our picture, Good old Adobe’s made a panel that cuts the luminance spectrum into something we can understand. Overall, Lightroom 4 doesn't really make the big leap I expected in terms of quality, but the new features are much needed and pretty darn good. If you're looking for the best option for video handling in a photo management app, this is definitely the best lightroom yet. Lightroom's results aren't as good as what you would you expect from other RAW apps that can execute chromatic aberration. This is the only underwhelming part of version 4. Overall, this is a great update to a great application.

Lightroom 3's adjustments panel

Lightroom 4's adjustments panel

Pros

Cons

•GPS and mapping features

•New chromatic aberration filter is not that great •Some minor bugs like import thumbnails not updating •No improvements to the weak Grain effect introduced in Lightroom 3 and no film-like grading profiles

•Tonal recovery updates are very good •Basic video editing

tutorials Tutorial 1: how to make your own tilt shift photo? One of the most intriging means of photography is through ‘Tilt Shift’. But sometimes its more convinent to create a title shift on photshop, well one is because some of us dont have the right lense, and well the rest of us are lazy. So heres how you go about making your own Tilt shift.

step 1: Taking the photo. An above ground shot is usually best for this type of technique. Cityscapes, crowds, streets, and similar things are perfect.

step 3:

Select the gradient tool select the “reflected gradient”.

step 2: Open the shot in Adobe Photoshop and click onto “quick mask mode”.

step 4:

Draw vertically upwards from where you want the point of focus to be up the screen to the top of the window, and release the mouse button. A red transparent line should appear.

step 5:

Go back into “Standard Mask Mode”.

step 6:

In Photoshop go to Filter > Blur > Lens Blur (Or if you have Photoshop 7.0 you can use Gaussian Blur). Then select the amount of blur you’d like. You can experiment with the radius value a bit to see what amount of blur looks best.

step 7: And voila, you have your own Tilt shift

Tutorial 2: how to make your own HDR photoGRAPH? The first question that comes to our mind is what is the full form of HDR? Well, HDR is the short form of High Dynamic Range, it’s a form of photography, in which you expose you subject to three different exposure levels, and the out put is, in simple words, BRILLIANT. So, here’s how you can make your own HDR at home.

step 1: Duplicate your background layer by right clicking on the layer and call the new layer ‘B&W’. Change the blending mode of B&W layer to Overlay.

step 2: Now desaturate the B&W layer. This will convert it to a black and white image. To desaturate, go to: Image > Adjustments > Desaturate Now, we’re going to invert the B&W layer: Image > Adjustments > Invert

step 3: To add Gaussian Blur to the B&W layer, head to: Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur Tweak the Radius amount to around 30pixels.

step 4: Duplicate the Original Layer and call this Layer ‘Linear’. Place the Linear layer above the B&W layer. Change the blending mode of Linear layer to ‘Linear Light’. Tweak the Opacity of the Linear layer until you’re satisfied. I’ve made mine 65%.

step 5: Once you’re happy with everything, combine all the layers together: Layer > Flatten Image

Gallery

“ You don’t take a photograph, you make it ” - Ansel Adams