Beautiful night sky colors

Captured this image late in the evening from Hosabettu Beach located in the west coast of Karnataka, India. It was a perfect evening during just before Christmas, with clear sky. I captured few time lapse videos of the sunset and have been experimenting with low light photography. 

In the background of this image on top is the dark sky just after sunset with starts and planets that are visible. What I love here is the different colors from orange to blue and then the gradual darkness as you see high above. If you look into the source of light then you will find two of them - one is the natural sunset and the other is from the port nearby which is to the left.

In the middle is the Arabian sea to the right and seashore to the left. Those bright light in the sea are from small fishing boats and the ship that are waiting in queue to enter the New Mangalore Port. To the left is the famous Panambur Beach, search lights from coast guard  and also the street light . You can also see the sea waves (seen as just a layer of water because of long exposure). 

In the foreground is the reflection of night sky and also the star/planet. Captured this image almost 30 to 45 mins after sunset. With no one in the beach after sunset, it was the perfect time to capture a photo of this kind. Used my tripod to capture this image in low light and long exposure photo, to avoid any blurring of image.

Camera: Nikon D600 Lens: Nikon 14-24mm FX lens (wide angle)

Settings: Tripod, 14 mm, 30 sec, f/20, ISO 2000

What is a Canon L-series lens ?

Canon sell a number of lenses in a special series they refer to as L for “luxury.” These are their most expensive and highest-quality lenses, and are readily identifiable by the red stripe painted around the end of the barrel.

L series lenses offer higher optical quality than their non-L equivalents, and have an important technical aspect in common. At least one element in every L lens is either made of fluorite crystal rather than glass, is a ground aspheric lens element (not a moulded/replicated aspheric lens as used in less expensive lenses) or is made from ultra-low dispersion glass. Most L series lenses are also sturdily built - many are encased in metal barrels and most are weatherproofed - and most are very fast lenses for their focal lengths. Nearly all telephoto L series lenses are also off-white rather than black.

These lenses are, therefore, marketed as professional camera lenses and are usually priced out of the range of most consumers. They can be used to take great photographs, but the cost, weight and size of these lenses are the tradeoffs.

Of course, a lens doesn’t have to be an L series lens to take good pictures. Many EOS lenses offer excellent optical quality - they just don’t need and thus don’t have exotic fluorite lens elements and so on. Many of Canon’s prime lenses in the 35mm to 135mm range fit in this category - see below. And some recent EF-S lenses offer near-L image quality but lack the red ring and the tough build quality of contemporary L series lenses.

Note also that the presence of a red ring around the end of a lens barrel only indicates an L series lens if it’s actually made by Canon. Some other makers happily paint red stripes around the end of their lenses too, but this in no way guarantees that the lens meets the quality standard of a Canon L lens.

Check out the list of “L-Series Canon Lenses”.

What is USM in camera lens mean ?

If you notice your Canon digital SLR camera lens has the letters USM written on the side, it means the lens has a small motor built into the body. Hence, USM is short for Ultrasonic Motor.

It is important to note that there are two different types of USM lenses. A Ring ultrasonic, is the one you want to purchase. Then there are Micro motor ultrasonic drives that Canon places into their cheaper lenses. Unfortunately, they also letter these cheaper versions with USM as well. While these cheaper versions are quieter, they don't however focus as quickly as a true ring ultrasonic lens. Therefore, you need to check the lens specifications before purchasing to ensure it is a ring ultrasonic lens, and not a cheaper version created for what is rumored to be marketing reasons.

Advantages of using Canons range of ring USM camera lens?

• The main advantage of using a ring USM, is that the motor is built into the lens so that it can auto focus faster than a standard lens.
• Canon's USM / Ultrasonic Motors, are also famous for being quieter than standard motors used in cheaper lenses. This is useful for wildlife photographers, where animals and insects could become spooked from noisy camera parts.

Disadvantages to using a USM camera lens?

• A USM lens will cost you a little extra than one without it.
• USM lenses are generally heavier than standard ones. You might need to take this into account if like me, you tend to carry around 3 at a time.

How are ISO, Shutter Speed and Aperture related ?

Here it is: the one chart you’ll ever need to understand shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. It will help you to create better black and white photos, it helps to explain why your lenses are more important than your camera, how to get the most of them, etc. If you don’t understand any of this, take a look at our guide to terminology [Link below]. Or…take it with you.This chart will help you with the dark art of metering and shooting out in the field, like at pop culture events.

Source: The Photographer

How to do Levitation Photography

Not sure if you are crazy enough to try this. Well, I am. Some thing interesting and just for fun. Check out this funny video and you too can try this. The website below “yowayowa” is a Japanese term meaning "weak" or "feeble." Natsumi Hayashi shares some of her photos on her website. Her work involves "Levitation Photography", which is basically shots that make the subject look like they are floating in mid air.

More pic on http://yowayowacamera.com/

Source: DigitalRev TV, yowayowa

Google+ Photographer’s Conference

Designed to help you further develop your Google+ networking abilities and refine your photography talents, this this history-making conference will be powered by Google's Hangout (web conferencing) technology and the G+ platform to offer a collaborative mix of photography, social media, branding and networking sessions that will teach you how take full advantage of what's happening now and what’s to come on Google+. The informative sessions will be taught by the best Google+ photographers, top photography instructors and some of the geniuses of social media. This is the first ever Google+ Photographer’s Conference on May 22-23, 2012 at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

Adobe Photoshop CS6 Extended Finalized

Adobe Systems Incorporated announced Adobe® Photoshop® CS6 and Photoshop CS6 Extended software, major releases of the undisputed standard for professional digital imaging. Packed with new features and enhancements, the software includes groundbreaking innovations and unparalleled performance breakthroughs that expand the frontiers of imaging science, and deliver new levels of creativity and increased efficiency. Photoshop CS6 Extended integrates the state-of-the-art editing, compositing, and graphic design capabilities of Photoshop CS6, as well as advanced tools for 3D design*, image and video editing, and quantitative analysis which address the unique needs of the graphic design, video, Web, architecture, medical, manufacturing and engineering industries.

Photoshop CS6 features include:

• Content-Aware Patch – Allows greater control by letting users choose the sample area used to create a patch.
• Adobe Mercury Graphics Engine – Takes advantage of the graphics processing unit in modern hardware to speed up imaging and editing tasks, and process large images faster.
• New and Re-engineered Design Tools – Type styles enable consistent formatting; vector layers apply strokes and add gradients to vector objects; custom strokes and dashed lines are easily created; quick layers search and more.
• Intuitive Video Creation – The full range of familiar Photoshop tools and an intuitive set of new video tools to create and enhance any video clip.
• Blur Gallery – A simple new interface with on-image and in-context controls allows users to quickly create photographic blur effects including tilt-shift effects, blur everything with one focal point, or vary the blurriness between multiple focal points.

Photoshop CS6 Extended includes all Photoshop CS6 features and:

• Mercury Graphics Engine for 3D – Increased power and speed via engine optimized for 3D imaging.
• New 3D Controls – UI improvements for more efficient 3D workflows.
• New 3D Effects – Reflections and “drag-able” shadows to enhance images.

Source: Canon Rumors

Picnik still open ?

Recently I had written that the well known online photo editing tool Picnik’s last day would be 19th of April 2012 [Link here]. It’s 20th today and almost end of the day -- I see that the website is still open and you can still upload your photo and edit it. Google had acquired Picnik back in early 2010 [Link here] and they have now decided to close Picknik. You don’t have to be disappointed  as Picnik will now be available in Google plus as “Creative Kit” and you can still use the same features that you were using before. Recently, after the announcement of closure, Picnik had made all it’s premium features free of cost. You can still try uploading your photos and start editing it. The time is up and you never know when the site will be down. 

Update: Picnik is no more. RIP :(

National Geographic Ultimate Field Guide to Photography

The National Geographic Ultimate Field Guide to Photography spells out the basics of fine photography—whether you are using a digital SLR or a film camera—as well as more advanced techniques for the amateur photographer. From the top twelve color moves to creative gift ideas to quality camera phone photography, this guide will not only inspire you but also arm you with the practical know-how to get great images. It is the indispensable reference for photographers everywhere. Straightforward and entertaining, this is the ultimate source for people seeking real how-to advice from the editors and photographers of National Geographic. It is carefully designed to lead the amateur photographer to better pictures and is comprehensive in scope, explaining the entire process from choosing a camera to taking the pictures to printing, scanning, and archiving the images.

You can view and purchase it here:

National Geographic Ultimate Field Guide to Photography from Flipkart.com

National Geographic Ultimate Field Guide to Photography from Amazon

deviantART– Community of Artists and Art Lovers

If you are an artist, photographer or a designer then here is the online community where you can share your work to gather ideas and get yourself inspired, you can even make money out of your work. There are millions of visitors and this is one place where you can share all your work, all of them for free. Below are some of the features of deviantART.

• Explore over 100 million original works of art.
  
• Exhibit your artwork to an audience of over 12 million members.
  
• Set up a profile, create galleries, and build a fan base.
  
• Communicate, collaborate and learn from artists from over 190 countries.
  
• Make money selling your art in the deviantART Shop.

Visit my deviantART  account http://ravindrajoisa.deviantart.com/
Check out the video below:

Top features in Photoshop CS6

Here is a list with some of the favorite features that you may like in Photoshop CS6:

1. Crop tool –  Cropping an image has been the same without any enhancement for a long time now. CS6 crop is non disruptive, it will not throw away data after cropping, you can always go back. Even after cropping, you can get the cropped image back and then edit. You can use the classic crop tool as well in the new CS6 if you are used to the older version.

2. Filters – Blur gallery now has 3 different types - Field, Iris and Tilt blur. You have great control over the blur and you can edit your photos which can't be captured photographically like focusing on more than one object at the same time.

3. Adaptive Wide Angle - Instead of cropping and do lens correction go for adaptive wide angle filter. Example is if you have a photo with too many buildings which appear curved because of the wide angle lens used, Photoshop CS6 allows you to adjust manually by drawing lines and edit the image and make it look much better.

4. Video Editing - You can edit videos using Photoshop but using CS6 it is much more streamlined. You can go to timeline and select the right layer and then add effects to your video. This can be done to the objects in the timeline. You don’t have to be a video editor to do this.

5. Content Aware Patch - This feature helps in a great way when it comes to editing your image at the edges. Usually in older versions, when we try to edit image at the edges; it used to leave white patch. This is not the case with the CS6.

6. Content Aware Move – This is a new feature in CS6. If an object in your image is in one corner and you want to drag that object then this tool is very helpful as it will recreate a background which looks so real.
Check out this video by Terry White:

Adobe Photoshop CS6 Beta

The world’s best digital image editing software is about to get even better. Photoshop CS6 beta is now available as a free download from Adobe Labs in English and Japanese.

Here are some of the Photoshop CS6 Highlights:

Content-Aware Patch — Patch images with greater control using the newest member of the Content-Aware family of technologies. Choose the sample area you want to use to create your patch, and then watch Content-Aware Patch magically blend pixels for a stunning result.
Blazingly fast performance and a modern UI — Experience unprecedented performance with the Mercury Graphics Engine, which gives you near-instant results when you edit with key tools such as Liquify, Puppet Warp, and Crop. Plus, a refined, fresh, and elegant Photoshop interface features dark background options that make your images pop.
New and re-engineered design tools — Create superior designs fast. Get consistent formatting with type styles, create and apply custom strokes and dashed lines to shapes, quickly search layers, and much more.

Download Link: Adobe Photoshop CS6 Beta

Picnik will be closing

Back in 2010, I had written an article on Google acquiring Picnik, the online photo editing tool in another blog of mine—Ravi’s Blog. And its hardly 2 years after acquisition of Picnik by Google and they wants to close Picnik.  This is one of the products which Google has and will be closing in recent times. Picnik will be closed on 19th of April 2012. Some of  the best features which were meant for premium users are now made free till the closing date. Premium users who had updated their subscription will get their entire money back. For those who were using Picnik, you don’t have to be sad as Picnik will now be embedded into Google+ where you can find many of your favorite Picnik effects. You can edit your photo that is uploaded on Google+ by clicking on “Creative Kit” under each uploaded photo.