Ettukudi photos : A village off Nagapattinam

Finally got time to host these photos. Not many pictures on the web of this temple.





Nikon D5000 18-55mm VR

M urugan Temple

Action photos: The pool on a sunny afternoon

In mid - air action photograph: the cannon ball jump in a 4ft pool!
And the splash

Under water!!

ISO 200 // f/3.2 // 1/2500 s // Nikon D5000// 35mm f/1.8G

When to use manual focus in a DSLR?

Ever since I got my prime lens AF-S 35mm f/18G I have got a couple of out of focus shots in portraits.

I have switched off my auto focus assist light when shooting low light photos of my kids. I find that the Auto focus is unable to focus at large apertures and does not snap the moment when I want it to.

In fact, if forced, it gives out of focus pictures. The best thing to do in low light with large apertures is to switch to manual focus.

An example of low light auto-focus

A better in-focus image in low light with manual focus

Two photos to show what you can do with a Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G prime lens

The prime lens that I wrote about is best for taking photographs with (1) Closeups and (2) background blur. I have never taken these ISOs in a moving car in low light!

From Blogger Pictures

From Blogger Pictures

It definitely is proving to be my street lens! (Nikon AF-S 35mm F/1.8G)

Nikon just yesterday has announced a f/1.4G lens but I dont think I can afford that price - at close to Rs1 Lakh + compared to around Rs. 15K for this one.

My top reasons for getting a prime lens for DSLR and things to watch out

Here are my top reasons for a prime lens: (Post buying)
Mine is a AF-S f/1.8G 35mm Nikkor lens on Nikon D5000


1. Nearly 90% + of my photos are in tubelight and indoors, and my kids. This makes the need to have a fast shutter, good ISO and low aperture opening. This is a slightly wide angled lens capable of f/1.8 and am getting great shots.
2. I have always felt that a background blur enhances a portrait photograph. I think the low f stop provides a great background blur (Something I used to do in photoshop earlier (See earlier post), but is time consuming and does not give the right effect)
3. Very good shots even at 1~1.5 ft away from the subject. Especially useful in taking candid photos of kids
4. Its lighter and kind of looks normal in the hand

Some things to watch out for when using a prime lens:
1. Takes a few seconds to focus compared to smaller aperture lenses. You can get poor snaps if you do not focus properly. Often a good thing to manual focus
2. If there are two subjects in 2 different planes (Example, people one behind the other), because of low depth of field at high apertures, you can get one of them blurred. Watch out.

and a prime lens!

Got myself a External Flash

How to make a portrait stand out against a lousy background using photoshop

1. Use the magic wand tool to select the picture. Invert it to select the background using Ctrl-Shift-I
2. Run filters [I like the gausian blur or glow edges - see pic below]


I use it typically to remove people whom i dont want in kids pics or littered kids rooms. It is better than to fill with a background and run a gradient as it gives it a lot more natural feel to the pic.

After the selection and glow edges filter