Susheel Chandradhas

Susheel Chandradhas is a Photographer and videographer. He has been taking photographs and studying photography since he was a kid. His classmates all believed that he would write a book on photography... Instead, he writes this blog (because - isn't a community more fun?). His passions include photography, parkour, wide-angle lenses, blue skies, fire extinguishers and fast computers.

Photo Project: Environmental Portraits

Welcome to the Beyond Photo Tips Photo Project: Environmental Portraits. In this post we are going to look at what portraiture aims to do, and have an overview of what Environmental Portraits are, and how you can get started off with Environmental Portraits.

What Are Portraits?

Portraits try to evoke an understanding between the viewer and the person being photographed. Or at least that’s what the photographer is trying to do most of the time. Other times, he’s just trying to make the subject pretty.

When you look at a portrait you wonder what the person in the photograph is like in character… are they serious, jovial, nutty or geeky? Apart from their usual outlook, what other emotions are they likely to face on a daily basis? These are the questions that a strong portrait makes people think about; and hopefully find answers to.

Environmental Portraits

Girl in field (spring)
by Katrijn Michiels

Now, Environmental Portraits introduce an exciting factor into portrait photography. You guessed it, you dawg, it introduces the viewer to the subject’s (sitter) environment. Big words? Ok. Its a picture of a person in a place that has some connection with whom they are and what they do… So, instead of just the person being the subject of the photograph, elements of the surrounding area become part of that subject too.

Why is this sooo interesting? Because it helps the viewer understand a bit more about the sitter. If the sitter is an engineer who works on houses, posing the them at their work location helps… or maybe posing the sitter at a table with blueprints would work…

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Understanding Photographic Filters for Your Lens

Why Filters are Fun

Using filters have always been a fun part of my photography. They allow you to take a photograph of a normal scene, and make it look extraordinary. There are various kinds of filters; coloured filters and special effects filters.

Digital photography allows you to apply much of what these photographic filters can do even after the image is captured, but sometimes using filters while taking your photographs makes a massive difference, especially when you use filters that dramatically change how the image is captured – like an ND filter or starburst filter. That’s when they become fun to use.

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Do You Need More Megapixels? Megapixel Myth

Since the advent of digital photography, photographers have wanted more detail, and to many this translates to ‘more megapixels’. But does more pixels being packed into sensors that are not getting larger mean more quality? In fact, today, there is a rush for up to 100 megapixels to be packed on to tiny cellphone cameras. So what does this really mean? Do more megapixels actually mean better quality images? Let’s go over some facts and see whether this is the case, or not.

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How to Take – A Better Picture

Three years in the Advertising business has convinced me that ideas are really powerful and that a photograph that has a strong idea is the most powerful tool to convey a message. A strong idea is always brought out in a simple, clear picture that has a strong subject and minimal interference from un-necessary elements.

Everyone’s seen pictures where things have gone wrong; Bleached out faces, heads cut off, tilting horizons and telephone poles sticking out of heads! All of which interfere in our understanding of what is happening in the photograph itself.

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