Backdrop

I was looking for a way to download all the pictures that I have published at clickography. Since the Export option of wordpress didn’t allow the users to export contents of media library, I took to googling searching for a plugin that will do the job. When I couldn’t find it, I went ahead and wrote one.

downall – Download Media Library : A wordpress plugin

To download and install the plugin, please follow the instructions listed below.

1. Download and install the plugin from here. (version 0.1)

2. Unzip and upload the folder “downml” to the “plugins”  folder of your wordpress installation.  Since now the plugin is hosted in wordpress.org, you can search for “Download Media Library Plugin” in the “Add New” page of Plugins section to install it.

• Click on “Add New” link under Plugins menu in the dashboard.
• Enter “Download Media Library Plugin” in the box and press “Search Plugins”
• Click the “Install Now” link to install the plugin

3. Activate the plugin from your wordpress’ administration page.

4. A “downML” link will be created on the side bar.

5. Click the link “downML” to create and download the contents of Media Library as  a zip file.

Video Tutorial

You must have seen the above cartoon regarding the evolution of ape. I have a similar theory of evolution but regarding DSLR usage.

Stone Age

Everything is so “auto”!

Iron Age

Why the heck is that I am not able to capture anything properly

Medieval Age

Oh! There is something called an aperture? Funny!

Revolutions Age

DSLR is fun! I am loving it!

Modern Age

How I ever lived without one!

Feel the connection? Told you so!

Tripods

Oft-Used orientation – Horizontal

Most of the times the tripod will be used to support the camera horizontally. Like this.

Vertical orientation

A camera can be placed to make a vertical orientation on the tripod. This orientation is useful when you want to take photos in portrait orientation.

Sky-face orientation

It is possible to make the camera face upwards using the same tripod. Here is how to do it.

Click to see a high resolution version of this photo

Also you can achieve this orientation with out rotating the moving flap of the tripod. It is by mounting the camera reversely like shown below.

I don’t know how often you would want these orientations, but it is always good to know. Aint it?

Richa Kashelkar, educated as an architect, started photographing weddings by a chance event. In this post, the lady who has fallen in love with her camera talks about her passion, techniques and work.

Richa Kashelkar Site | Facebook Technique: Wedding

Q. How did you take up photography? And how did you get into wedding photography?

A. By education I am an architect, which makes me heavily inclined towards design. At the end of the day, Photography is also about design. I realised that I enjoy making images and started doing it with my phone camera. Later I moved into a point and shoot camera and started clicking everything in sight. A very clichéd beginning, I tell you!

Wedding photography happened by pure chance. I had uploaded a few of my amateur works online and a friend’s friend saw it and asked me to shoot her wedding. It just went on snowballing from there as I kept uploading photos online! I owe my work to the vast spread of social networking.

Q. What kind of gear do you use?

A.
Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikkor 85mm f1.8, and 35mm f2 lens
Flash: Nikon SB600

Q. What’s your favourite lens during a wedding?

A. I love both my lenses equally, but the lens with a slight edge over the other would have to be a 35mm. I have quite recently begun to love it. The wide lens captures a lot of craziness and action which keeps happening at weddings!

Q. What lens would you recommend for someone starting in wedding photography?

A. A 50mm f1.8 lens. Because it will shoot great in low light (which is very essential at weddings). The price is easy on the wallet and so is great for beginners.

Q. Any gadget that you wish you shouldn’t have bought?

A. I have a really bad lens which is the Tamron 18-200mm lens. I was tempted by the idea of an “All in one” lens. They’re bad if you intend to shoot people, which is my love.

Q. What all do you carry while on an assignment?

A. A Nikon D700, a Nikon D90, my lenses, flash, chargers and an emergency bar of dark chocolate. The last one really helps!

Q. How do you prepare yourself for a wedding session besides getting your equipment together?

A. Getting a LOT of rest prior to it.

Q. In the field, what is your…

A.
ISO – Anything from 200 to 6400
Choice of focus – Autofocus / Manual focus – Auto, since you need to be fast in capturing moments. Cannot afford to waste time in focusing when an exciting expression gives you a glimpse and vanishes. I have missed many in the past.
White Balance – Auto, since the RAW files are all colour-corrected later.
Metering Mode – Spot.

Q. What is your most favorite part of a wedding? Don’t tell me it’s the food!

A. Food. Desserts especially! Haha! That apart, the joy on the couple’s faces.

Q. Does photographer’s block happen to you? If yes, how do you overcome it?

A. It does happen to me, but not in wedding photography. Weddings are such a power packed affair that they hardly give you time to even realise that you have a block. They are an inspiration in themselves.

Q. In India, where wedding photographers are predominantly males, have you found yourself to have any advantages over them?

A. Yes! People are very courteous since you are a lady. The bride enjoys your company even in the dressing room and you can build an amazing bond! And the other studio photographers can’t behave rough with you! It is a very physically taxing profession, so you need to be quite strong and healthy.

Q. Explain your post-processing work flow.

A. I go through the entire lot that I have shot and select the good pictures. Then they go through Lightroom and come out as shiny new images to be delivered!

Q. Whose work has influenced you the most?

A. I honestly avoid looking at other photographers’ works for inspiration. A favourite Architecture Professor of mine had once told us not to browse through any famous architect’s work’ opposite of what everyone else told us to do. Because whether you want to or not, you WILL get influenced. Then whether you want to accept it or not, you will end up copying.

Q. Is there something you wished you knew when you started photography?

A. Nothing! I jumped into it headlong, and I don’t repent it one bit!

Our favorite Richa Shot

She has been rightly credited with bringing cheer to many a soul with her shooting skills. And she sheepishly acknowledges her photography beginnings to “poor memory” which made her carry a camera where ever she goes! She is the beautiful Neeta Shankar, a young photographer whose passion is framing and freezing moments.

Neeta Shankar Site | Facebook | Twitter Technique: Portraiture Achievements: Official Photographer for “Tour of Nilgiris 2010″. Her short film U-turn was ranked as one of the top 6 films at International Short Film Festival, Bhubaneshwar. Official photographer for Celebration Run – Mysore Marathon.

Q. How did you get into photography? Was it a natural progression from your travels?

A. Yes. It was a natural outcome of traveling. I love traveling and been doing it quite extensively since I started working at HP. I used to trek quite frequently too. On all these trips and treks, I carried an old point and shoot camera (belonging to my brother) to capture some memories. My photographs were most often appreciated by my fellow travelers and I developed an interest in the art and science of photography. I started reading more about it online and put the concepts I learnt to practice. The more I learnt, the more I loved it.

Q. What does your gear consist of ?

A.
Body – I still have an entry level DSLR Canon 500D and I am quite happy with it.
Lens – I use the following lenses – Canon 10-22mm f3.5-4.5, Canon 50mm f1.8, Canon 100mm f2.8 macro, Canon 24-70 f2.8, Canon 70-200 f2.8, Canon 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 (Some of them I own, some I borrow on rent for my shoots).
Filter – I have UV filters for all my lenses and Circular Polarizer for my wide angle lens.
Tripod – I don’t own a tripod yet. I usually rent it out.
Backpack – I have a Lowepro Pro Runner A350 which allows me to comfortably fit in all the gear I use and my laptop. But I cannot really say that I can comfortably carry it around . I also own a Lowepro Mini Trekker.
Flashes – I use 2 speedlites Canon 580 ex ii with wireless triggers for triggering them.

Q. Which is your favorite lens? Why?

A. 50mm f1.8 lens because it is inexpensive, fast and sharp. Also because it is lightweight and easy to carry. Because of its small size, it doesn’t draw much attention to it. I also like the 70-200mm f2.8 lens which I rent out time to time. But it weighs a lot and carrying it around mounted on the camera is a pain.

Q. When you go for one of your travels, what all will you take with you?

A. I tend to overpack and carry most of my gear along as you never know what kind of photo opportunities will present themselves during travel. I carry my camera with 3 or 4 lenses and their filters, external flash, my laptop and external harddisk, protective rain cover for my camera bag, spare batteries and chargers, lots of spare cards. A small sling camera bag to carry the camera easily.

Q. Among the gadgets that you own, is there anything that you regret buying? If yes, can you mention why?

A. Wireless triggers. I should have probably saved up for a good expensive set. Mostly because the cheap triggers don’t work all the time. Out of every ten fires, one may work. They have a limited range and a weak success rate.

Q. How do you post process your shots?

A. I generally use Photoshop CS5 and sometimes Lightroom. I play with color tones depending on the mood that I want to portray in my image.

Q. I see that the models in your photos are at their natural best (except him, maybe). How do you build the rapport with your subject?

A. I smile at them!

A smile is the best way to communicate.

Especially kids warm up to me very easily.

Q. When you are on a photo session, what leads you – your instincts or the model?

A. Mostly my instincts but it is very essential for the models to be comfortable with the poses too. Otherwise it may appear unnatural. Sometimes its a team effort where the models have their own ideas. I generally start with their ideas and then go by my instincts.

Q. Does photographer’s block happen to you? If yes, how do you overcome it?

A. Sometimes, Yes. I travel to get my creativity going. Also I discuss photography with my peers. This year I have also taken up 366 project to keep myself motivated every single day of the year. You can find the shots on my facebook page.

Q. How do you educate yourself to take better shots?

A. Read. Read. Read. There’s a wealth of information online and numerous blogs explaining the technical aspects as well as the rules of composition.

The most important thing however is to practice what you have learnt.

Q. Where should a newbie start, according to you, if he/she is interested in pursuing portraiture ?

A. Start off with a 50mm f1.8 lens which is not an expensive buy. Learn about the rules of composition and the use of light. You can look at some beautiful portraiture in 1x.com or flickr for inspiration.

Q. Who or what is a nightmare when you are on an assignment?

A. My biggest nightmare is camera break-down amidst a shoot. Once this nightmare did indeed come true. My camera shutter broke while I was shooting a wedding and luckily I had a second shooter with me that day whose camera I could borrow and another photographer friend of mine brought me his camera in less than half an hour!

Q. What is the one thing that you wish you knew when you started photographing ?

A. Self learning has its benefits. Trial and error is time consuming but since we learn from our mistakes, it is more effective in the long run.
I wish I knew how important it is to keep your images organized. I have thousands of images from my early shoots just lying in a hard disk and not really in an organized structure which has made it hard to find the ones I want.

Our favorite Neeta Shot

Align Center – Eyes straight

An insane close-up of the face with the eyes staring straight at the viewer can be both captivating and menacing.

Align Side – Eyes sideways

In this type of framing, subject’s eyes lead you out of the frame’s border from one corner to the other. Normally eyes will be placed according to the Rule of Thirds. Also, most of the time, the subject itself fills the canvas in its entirety in the direction of the eyes.

Align Side – Eyes straight

The subject will be placed in the right or left corner of the frame with eyes looking straight at us.

This post is an attempt at generalizing the approaches of better photogs to help photogs like us to make a better and learned judgement about the shots we are about to take. Keeping in mind that the key to better portraits  is to keep on experimenting, I would like to hear your observations on the topic.

Q. Is there anything you wish you knew when you started photographing?

A.

Sriram Guruswamy (Style – Potrait)

I never had the luxury of a mentor or of a formal training. My Photography style is totally self-taught and it took years to get evolved. I realized late that photography is not just about capturing something that is already beautiful.
There is a bigger dimension to it as being an honest perspective into those real moments of truth depicted in an aesthetic way.

Fabien Bravin (Style – Macro)

He he… On my side, there is nothing that comes to my mind right now. But, I think my wife wish she knew, when I began photography, that macro was a kind of drug and that you can become quickly addicted to.

Richard Gastwirt (Style – Stage Show)

If I didn’t learn by trial and error, the lessons probably wouldn’t have stuck. So I’m not sure that if there’s anything I wish I knew. But it took me a while to realize that the histogram was more important than my exposure needle and that cameras aren’t very intelligent and their metering isn’t suited to concert photography.

James Brandon (Style – HDR)

In the beginning, I wish I had surrounded myself with other photographers. I’m currently a part of a local photography group through meetup.com and it is awesome. I think a new and aspiring photographer should surround themselves with other photographers to learn from them and grow.

Mukul Soman (Style – Street)

I wish I knew how to anticipate a moment and wait for it, before taking that photograph at the right time.

Phalgun P (Style – Wedding)

Yes! There is one thing which I came across very late. It is the podcast series of the photographer Brooks Jenson called Lenswork. Each of them is just three minutes long and it leaves you thinking at the end. I wish I’d started listening to his podcasts before.

Enjo Mathew (Style – Visual Art)

I am painfully self taught, so yes, there are a lot of things I now know, that I wish I knew back then. I have never gone for any formal photography classes nor have I gone to anyone to formally train me. I just had the will and a lot of patience to discover things around me on my own.

Nidhin G Poothully (Style – Wildlife)

I usually travel to the jungles in Karnataka as they are nearer since I stay in Bangalore. In my earlier days, I used to get excited a lot while seeing a bird or a mammal. I have tried to capture them in my camera as soon as possible. I used to chase them away as they see the sudden flurry of my activities. Now I know that I need more patience to get the click without causing the least disturbance to the subject.

In all wildlife encounters, there are a thousand possibilities to take a bad photo and there are only one or two opportunities to take a good photo. A nature photographer learns to be ready for that perfect moment. This needs years of patience and practice.

Jyothy Karat (Style – Photo Documentary)

Ayyo! I can’t think of anything specific at the moment.

When you are starting out and learning the photography basics in the Academy, you will be flooded with the works of other master photographers. They are the references that will inspire you.

The study on the history of a painting or an object of art can also have a profound influence on your photography style.
That’s something I could have started earlier. Nowadays I am reading a lot on these subjects.

Akosoto.com is a place where nursery rhymes, songs, riddles, games, do it yourself toys, illustrated stories… are compiled in the Malayalam language. This is a new venture from antzFx.com. Let us try to know more about the website.

Click on the following images for full size view.

Here are the posters in the language we all speak.

What is ‘Akosoto?’

No, the word is not Japanese. The name ‘Akosoto’ is a tribute to the 1992 Malayalam Film ‘Yodha’ directed by Sangeeth Sivan. The hero of the movie is fondly addressed as ‘Akosoto’ by the Rimpoche – a small child. We are sure that all the Keralites will identify themselves with the name. We are presenting Akosoto as a friend of your child.

A small talk on the inspiration

It was some months ago. When I was singing a nursery rhyme to my daughter (now she is two years old), my father asked me in surprise “Do you still remember this song? I taught you this song some 30 years ago from a children’s magazine!” My father has forgotten many of the lines. This made me to think about a website where we can collect and publish old songs, stories, games, ‘do-it-yourself’ toys…

My brother FULLfx | aneeskA immediately jumped into this and he made sure that the website will be up and running. He plans and posts the articles and does a lot of house keeping of the website.

The Akosoto Team

I must say that a big group of people contributed and encouraged us. Apart from my brother, my wife and daughter, my parents, my in-laws, my friends… are consulted for various articles posted here.

I should name two friends here: Geo Paul E and MahEsh C Menon. They are with us in every step and provides unconditional support, ideas and criticisms.

@AkosotoDotCom

Our Twitter handle is ‘@AkosotoDotCom.’

Tell us what you think

Simple. Shoot an email to:
write[ at ]akosoto[ dot ]com

Image Credits

Following images are used to design the poster and header of the website.

• Think: Jesse Therrien, Alberta, Canada.
• Pills: d-s-n, Warsaw, Poland
• Medicine 2: Sergio Roberto Bichara, Sao Paulo, Brazil

Download JPEGs of the whole Calendar (ZIP, 4.38MB) »

January 2012 Download (JPG, 1440x1030px)	February 2012  Download (JPG, 1440x1030px)

March 2012 Download (JPG, 1440x1030px)	April 2012 Download (JPG, 1440x1030px)

May 2012 Download (JPG, 1440x1030px)	June 2012 Download (JPG, 1440x1030px)

July 2012 Download (JPG, 1440x1030px)	August 2012 Download (JPG, 1440x1030px)

September 2012 Download (JPG, 1440x1030px)	October 2012 Download (JPG, 1440x1030px)

November 2012 Download (JPG, 1440x1030px)	December 2012 Download (JPG, 1440x1030px)

Design Thoughts

Compared with the designs of previous years, we have changed the format of the calendar.  Earlier we used to give two months in a sheet. This time, only one month is in a sheet and the digits are arranged inside ‘S M T W T F S’ — representing ‘Sunday Monday… Saturday.’ The digits are in the font Constantia.

Following images show the metamorphosis of  ’S M T W T F S.’

The first version had  ’S M T W T F S’ in Constantia Uppercase. The second version had Constantia Lowercase. The current version uses an outline (without fill) of modified Swatch font.

I modified ‘t’ and ‘m’ in the Swatch font to better adjust the digits inside. The ‘s’ for Saturday and Sunday are rotated 90 degrees. These changes ensured that the dates coming under a particular week are in a single column rather than staggered as you can see in the first two versions (Sunday, Wednesday and Saturday). Also, I removed the black fill of the ’S M T W T F S’ and retained a thin grey outline to give more emphasis to the dates and images on the sheet.

Dear Reader, I hope all of you will like this and will buy a print version from us.

Design Date: 09-Nov-2011

Extra – Our calendar designs over the years – 2011 Flowers, 2011 Green, 2010, 2009

Guest Author

Barun Patro is an architect and designer from Chennai, India. He is passionate about creative ideas and love digging anything that comes under design. He is also a part of a global design community called ORTAP. He loves to travel and socialize.

Off late, a lot of our friends have been asking us to tell them how do I make money online. One of the favorite ways of mine is – stock photography.

What is Stock photography?

How do I make money through Stock Photography?

Stock photography refers to a collection of photos that are available online for use to designers and individuals for free or for a nominal fee,  to be used in their design projects and presentations. It can be the picture of a ball, a chair or even the sky that people can download and use.

For example, consider that I am writing an article on chocolates. Instead of googling up an image of a chocolate, I download stock photo of a chocolate and use it . Stock photos are licensed for such kind of use. Some sites offer them free while others offer them for a small fee which goes as royalties to the photographer .

Here are a few links to stock photo sites:

• dreamstime
• iStockPhoto
• SXC
• shutterstock
• gettyimages

Who can be a stock photographer ?

Anyone who is interested in photography, knows how to operate a digital camera and can shoot decently good photos can become one. I am a stock photographer myself and I don’t even own a camera myself. I borrow “point and shoot” camera from my friends to take pictures.

You must know a little about noise and exposure which determine the quality of your photos. Otherwise when you submit your photos to those sites, you might get rejections. But that also is a good learning experience.

A decent camera and understanding of photo editing tools like Photoshop or Lightroom to fine tune your photos, if needed, are the basic necessaries for becoming one.

What type of photos can I include in my stock?

It depends on the website where you upload your photos. The subject of your photography can be anything – from safety pins to mountains, pencil sketches to illustrations.

For example, SXC allows only photo upload. While iStockphoto, in addition to photos, allows uploading of vector images, illustrations, flash animations, videos, 3D animations etc. You are only limited by your creative talents.

How much will I earn per photo?

It depends on the dimensions of the photo the user downloads. You should always upload the largest and highest quality photo that you have. The website will automatically generate different sizes for your photograph. If a user downloads a thumbnail version of your image, you will probably earn $0.5. Higher earnings are credited for bigger dimension download. The exact rate varies form site to site. When you reach a minimum earning total of, say $50 or $100, you will be allowed to transfer it to your bank/paypal account.

Check out the screenshot below of my account in “dreamstime”, with my total earnings on the top right corner and detailed earning for each image.

Keywording your photos

Keywording your photos is also known as labeling your photos with IPTC tags. This is a very important part in managing your stock photos. It is the process of embedding keywords to your photos that describe them. When a user searches for a photo, the results shown will be based on a match against the tags that you have given. The general approach should be, “the more the number of keywords, the better.”

The above photo, for example, can have the following keywords:

interior design, white, clean, 3D, rich, living room, concept, bungalow, space,black and white etc.

Keywording for Batch  upload

Every time you upload an image you will be asked to fill in the keywords manually. This can get a little tedious when you plan to upload your photo on multiple sites. Instead you can keyword the image before hand and upload. To do this, right click and check for properties of any image/photo and you’ll find the option to add keywords. Otherwise you can also use Photoshop software to add keywords to image properties. Now when you upload your photo to the stock website, the site automatically detects the keywords/descriptions attached to the image. That’ll save a lot of your time.

Cautions

Rejections

If your images are rejected , they will mostly be done so with an explanation for the rejection. It may be because of factors like excessive noise, chromatic aberration, artefacts, over saturation, low exposure, low resolution etc.

Basically these sites just want a good photo and over a period of time you will learn to get your photos approved with lesser rejections as you learn. Most of the times, you can simply correct the image and upload a better one and it gets approved. In any case be prepared for rejections and learn from every fedback to improvise every photo you take.

Logos

Be careful to avoid taking photos with any brand names/logos . You are not supposed to do that. In case they come in, try to remove such signs from your photo before upload.

Plagiarism

You cannot download some photo from the internet and do minor modifications and upload it as your own. That’d be illegal and you’ll be in trouble if caught. It is better to go through the terms and conditions of these sites or go through their guidelines.

Managing your multiple stock photo accounts

The more number of sites you post your photos to, the more wil be the money you’ll earn. To manage my stock photos, I keep a track of them in an Excel sheet, and I track my image uploads like this

Photo1 —> Website 1—> Website 2—> Website 3

This way I know which all sites I have uploaded my works to. You may also use software like http://prostockmaster.com to manage/keyword your photo collection.

Getting Started

To get started, you can register yourself at dreamstime by clicking on this link. Don’t forget to check out my SXC portfolio.

I’d love your comments and feedbacks. Let me know if you have any questions. Cheers !