I went to attend the Alpha Photography workshop today, hosted by Rohit Gautam from Sony India Alpha team North Zone and Hitesh Mahajan and they both are local guides from Delhi. Special thanks to Hitesh for informing me about this photography workflow.
The workshop was superb and very informative as well as insightful. Rohit taught so much about the basics of photography, cameras and its settings, do’s and don’ts. We were actually practicing with Sony newly launched Alpha A7 IV mirrorless cameras. It was intriguing to have an understanding of the Sony ecosystem, the SD cards and Alpha’s full framework lineup, eMount full frame lense lineup and the basics of camera-exposure meter.
He also told us how to adjust the depth of field to get an excellent photograph using more or less focus. We also learnt about aperture, ISO and shutter speeds required to click better picture. I also learnt about slow shutter speed to create a blur photo.
We got to know about the wide range of courses they have in Alpha series related to different kinds of photography and videography that cleared the basics about using various kinds of cameras available in the market.
Rohit also showed us how to avoid overheating of camera while shooting for long hours. The impact of light used to show the variation of subject, which helps amateur and professional photographers was also shared.
Then there were refreshments which included coffee, tea, Coke and alphonso mango juice, pizza and garlic bread.
It was followed by a QnA and practice session which covered all that was taught in the day. Here are some shots that I took. He also taught us a few free to use tools and cloud storage for people who use Sony cameras. One example of this was the fact that a person can upload any of their best photographs to be reviewed by Sony Experts.
With this the session was concluded. Looking forward for more such interactive sessions and meet such amazing people.
Here are some tips and tricks to improve your camera by changing some settings:
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AF/MF setting should be on to set focus better on the subject you want to click- by switching on Face/Eye AF, Face/Eye Subject - choose Human or Bird or Animal if doing wildlife photography or sky photography and also switch on the Face/eye Display this will help with focus tracking.
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Cleaning of lens every six months is good for any camera especially a mirrorless camera. Also, make sure now to blow air directly on the lens of mirrorless camera as it might damage the sensor and make it non usable.
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Always use orignal batteries for your camera where it is a secondary battery and if you are using your camera for a longer time and if it has started heating to much then keep it’s screen open to let the heat out or stop using it for a few hours and let it cool down. Get the servicing and cleaning done if required every 6 months from a registered service centre as you might damage the lens or sensor if not properly trained.
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Focus issue can be fixed if you select the right option on your camera settings such as, ISO, shutter speed and Aperture. It will help you get either a blur background, or more focused elements in your picture. For example, a FULL FRAME camera settings will enhance speed, image quality, battery life and better light or darkness as aperture value of increased or decreased can change the way a photo can be clicked.
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Catch light is another term used in portrait. As the lens is circular when a image is captured and projected on the sensory panel it creates a image depending on the brightness or low light so some photographers use circular lights or beauty lights to brighten the face or the object in photography.
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For sunset/sunrise photos we should ideally use Polorised filter
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Aspect Ratio is easy to understand when you want a photo in a jpeg or RAW Format as a jpeg or jpg file is smaller in size and a RAW Format file is always bigger file size. If you choose 3:2 ratio file size is 33mp, 4:3 is 22mp and 16:9 and so on depending on what photo you want to post for which platform. But incase, of videography or cinematography you will see HS (high standard) - long time recording (10 bit), S HD(standard high definition) - video - movie settings on your camera (25 bit rate) - setting should be 50M 4:2:2 10bit, JPEG - Photos and RAW - Photos.
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Sony provides cloud to save photos and videos which is IEDT Also known as Imaging Desktop for photos and videos. Recommended camera for stacking issue is Sony 7R5 camera also good for focus brackets.
P.S. : permission to post all the videos and photos from Sony India already taken. Thank you every one.
Regards,