March 29th, 2008, posted in Nature Photography, Still Photography
Still life is a good option to explore photography. It gives you a great variety of options on subject and techniques. You can explore every object you want from flowers to your watch to shoes, wine glasses or even cell phones. Here the good part is you need not wait for the right time, as soon as you get the light right you can go ahead and shoot. The first thing is to get your end result visualized in your mind so that you can accordingly conceptualize it. It can differ from an old Victorian interior idea to a modern sheek concept. You can experiment with a soft box, but simple easy to get light options are good idea as well. You can start by trying out with a torches placed in the correct angle to supply light.
It is important to get the background accurate; you could use a colorful table cloth, textured paper, or even a plane wall. White background is in so you can get that to work for you.
Still life photography gives you the space to understand your exposure, by experimenting with your shutter speed and aperture. It is important to get the color of your subject properly. Over or under exposure will kill the color so you should get the exposure correctly.
Still life also helps you develop sensible lighting which in turn will help in outdoor shots too. Try different backgrounds with the same subject and try positioning the subject in different positions. Try to avoid harsh shadows, if you need the shadow then get single side lighting. Avoid the clichés and explore wider options.
March 19th, 2008, posted in Greeting Cards, Holi Celebrations, In the News
Holi is here, and it is that time of the year when the town becomes a canvas and we a part of the canvas. By now everybody is quite used to the G.K.Vale way of celebrating. We like giving celebrations our own touch, in an endeavor to offer something different this Holi, we have created a whole new section completely dedicated to Holi. The Holi photobook seems to be the winner and the greeting cards rate close.
Since Holi is the festival of colors, we thought why not add color to your old damaged photographs and surprise your parents / grandparents with the revived pictures! As part of our celebration, we are offering digital restoration to all your photographs at a discounted price. Have your grandparents or parents Black and White photograph converted to color. Just mail us and we will help you restore the picture to color along with any damages done to the image.
So this year no more making round trips to the various gift stores, wondering what would be the perfect gift. Just log in to www.gkvale.com , this holi we have plenty of options to surprise your near and dear ones with a Holi gift!!
-Select a your favorite photos and make a photo book or a photo greeting card, customize and add captions or if you have some specific ideas we will get it done!
- A poster or collage print is a fun way to make a slice of life more memorable. Create a poster from wall-worthy photos of your child with the water gun, friends spraying colours or you splashing balloons on friends and passers-by!!
-Take a favorite picture of your kids enjoying Holi with Pichkaris & Water Balloons. Select any of the Holi Frames, upload the picture and give it to a proud grandparent or aunt.
And what’s more we can have your order shipped to anywhere in India for just Rs.25/-
Cheers,
G.K.Vale.com Team
March 14th, 2008, posted in In the News, Visa Photos, Visa Pictures
Gkvale.com, the recently launched online facility from the Photography experts, G.K.Vale has just announced the launch of their online Visa section. With an experience of over 100 yrs in photo printing to boast about, and 17 branches in south of India, the online Visa section comes as a respite especially to all those IT companies that have ever so many expats constantly travelling all over the Globe.
3 simple steps and your Visa photograph will be printed and delivered at your doorstep.
All you have to do is upload a passport size photograph and get the picture processed for any country Visa you would like to. And in case you are uploading a visa picture that you took for some other country and would now like to process if for another country, you can do that as well, but there are exceptions like a Singaporean visa photo, which cannot be converted to any other country Visa picture.
What sets us apart is not only the fact that all Visa pictures are printed as per the updated requirements from the respective consulates but the service that is offered. If you have any problem all you have to do is, just call us or shoot us an e-mail at online@gkvale.com and we will ensure that your query is resolved at the earliest.
For all you globe trotters out there, here’s something to ease the last minute tension and one less thing on your to-do list!
Bon Voyage!
G.K.Vale.com team
March 14th, 2008, posted in Landscape Photography, Nature Photography
Nature photography as beautiful as it can be and can be equally pains taking. In nature photography the most important thing is to get the light right and also to be at the right place at the right time. If the photograph needs to look picture perfect then the lighting should be perfect and for this a little bit of attention should be paid to the weather updates. It is not a very good idea to start on a day with overcast. As the situation cannot be constructed one should always play according to nature and work with it. Most photographers would vouch for a time around the sunrise or sunset to get perfect pictures. This time is called the golden hours for photographers, but this can also be tricky as the horizon will be well illuminated with not too much light in the foreground but this problem can be solved in certain cases with adding a water body in the picture which more often than not provides the amount of light needed as it reflects the light from the sky. Other most convenient way is to just wait for the right time to get enough light on the foreground. Or have a silhouette for a foreground which can bring more character and texture to the composition.
It is always advisable to carry a tripod for nature photography. This will not only give good results but also more space to experiment. If a tripod isn’t available then you can always rest the camera on the nearest rock or anything sturdy enough. While having to take waterfalls and a slow shutter blur is required then a tripod is a must. If the light is too much and wouldn’t allow a slower shutter for a blur that’s when a ND filter comes handy. A Neutral Density filter reduces the amount of light overall and of all wavelengths. This allows a slow shutter helping acquire get the desired effect. The same tip can be used if you want a blur in the fields.
The composition becomes inevitably the thing of concern after light. It is always advisable to imagine a frame and then shoot, with a digital camera one can always experiment and derive the best composition. It is good to have an object to one side of the frame which will provide more definition to the picture as well as make it aesthetically sound. A tree, a rock or if in the countryside even a house, if in water then a boat. A well contemplated effort can work wonders, one can have the viewer to visualize according to what the photographer wants by emphasizing on the object and letting the viewers eye to travel along the picture.
Black and white is also a very good option; most people fail to realize the power of Black and white photography as against color. For nature photography especially the tonal variations of BW can bring about the most wonderful effect to a picture, one because our normal eyes see in color and a BW will be different and refreshing. Another thing in BWs is that it can reduce distractions and focus on the subject. A subject that has been used to the max along with a landscape in BW is abandoned cars, trees and ruins. One can always move out of clichés and experiment. Clouds make great subjects as well with BW.
The key word is to experiment and trial and error method to get great pictures, worthwhile and different. It’s a good idea to also mock already existing works and learn what works best for you.
