Short film guide

Before I start off I would like to say that this is just a simple worded information on short films and a few ideas which help you to deliver a good product. This is also coming from a guy who is a movie maniac and who wants to make a short film someday.

Short films are mostly used as fillers in the movie festivals. Too bad there's not many in India as one would like. But they generate a great deal of interest in the international circuit. Only these days interest is being shown in the short film circuit. The reason being the landscape of Indian cinema is changing, the movie makers are looking forward to young and fresh talent to bring in bright new ideas. So all the more importance is being showered towards the short film circuit.

There's just a couple of things that you need to consider before you can make a short film. The international standard for a short film length is 40 minutes. But its best to keep a short film within 10-15 minutes. This will help keep the maximum concentration of your audience on the story. This also won't let you wander away from the plot. Short and sweet- conveying your idea is how a short film should be.

Making a short film is not as easy as it sounds. It has its own constraints. For some budget may be a restriction, for some the technique may be and for some the story. It is only when all these come together, will the film be successful. Sometimes these short films also seeds the production of a full length movie.

So here are a few things you may want to consider before making a short film-

1) Story : The story is the most important part of any movie. This is the primary need for an audience to keep glued on to their seats. This is basically what you want to convey, perhaps can be made interesting with the way the story is being narrated or being progressed. The crux of the matter is in this. Story, simply put is what you want to tell.

2) People : Like in any feature length film, people who enact these scenes have the power to brighten up scene or cast a shade of grey. People in front of the screen are ass important as people behind the screen. A good cast\team sharing a great rapport would make wonders if they get their act together. Choose your people well. 

One of the short film crews.

3) Planning and Brainstorming : These two aspects can help you organize your schedule. There may be so many external factors which may hinder your day-to-day activity while filming. A well defined set of ideas and plans to carry this out without any disturbance will not only help you increase your productivity but also will help you create a better product. Take all the time you want for your brainstorming, but make sure you are at your creative best while doing so. Mindset at the instant plays a very important in how you develop a shoot. A few factors to consider while doing so can be the weather, traffic, scene, location and natural light, noise etc. 

4) Scene Framing and Analysis : Once the shoot begins, make sure you go all out putting your best effort in making your product. Analyze and double check for errors. Once your done with the shoot (Which seemingly is the toughest part) , get back to your desks and try to make best of the technology you have now. Frame your scenes well, analyze the thought process well. Check if the story or the idea behind the story is coming out as you wanted to. Please feel free to get back on the streets and do the same thing again if you feel that there is something lacking in what you have in your hand now. Scene framing - absolute must.

5) Editing : Editing the movie is a crucial part of the film making process. The music, light, techniques and the various blends can be played with to make the movie more effective and grand. The unwanted errors can be removed and the much needed changes can be bought in. With the current advancements in technology, the movie can be made that much fun to watch and enjoy. Editing is to enhance the experience.


So there you go, a few tips which you can keep in mind while making a short film.

Keep a watch for all the movie festivals to showcase your talent.

All the best you enthusiastic young film makers. If this is your dream, go live it - Lights. Camera. Action.

Movie maniac!

Movies and Cricket have been the bigger than religion in India. Movie stars and cricketers are treated in a Demi-god stature. Being born in a middle class typical south Indian family it was hard for me to avoid the early morning devotional hymns and posters of Kapil Dev and Sachin stuck on walls, not to forget cricket being watched as a ritual in those old tunable 21inch television.

So every child basically grew up with a bat in his hand or dressing up as his favourite movie hero pretending to be as powerful as him.

I was no different, these two religions stood out for me. My cricket bat was my favourite companion in bed and jumping from the stairs to Akshay Kumar's tu cheeze badi hai mast were some of my earliest memories.

Since this is about movies, let me just stick to that now. Rajini Kamal, Shah rukh, Salman, Bhachan, Vishnuvardhan names were engraved in my heart while growing up. Then I graduated to Rishi Kapoor, Pran, Shivaji Ganeshan, Raj kapoor, Nagesh, Brando, Al Pachino. Then came the younger lot of actors Vijay, Ajith, Sudeep, Hrithik, DiCaprio, Jhonny Deep and a whole lot more and now finally back to Rajini- Kamal.

Movies have made a strong impact in my life so much so that I actually feel that I have matured along with them. The way I feel about them now is filled with so much passion. I enjoy all kinds of movies and all languages.  Right from the black and white ones to the present day technically advanced ones. A wide horizon there. Its like how a fat kid loves food. You never get bored. Every movie has something to give you, be it the techniques, the story, the drama, emotions, even tell you what not to do in a movie and how not to make one. I dream to make a movie someday, if not a feature film atleast a short film. I totally respect the new directors who only breathe film making. There are certainly a set of film makers now thinking out of the box and really taking the Indian cinema to another level. You can see it in their work that nothing but passion for Indian cinema is what drives them. The Indiana cinema also celebrated its 100yrs of existence. what a brilliant occasion! pure joy! Indian cinema is certainly on the map now. We also have the techniques, only the budget lacks, now with public funding coming in I guess that will also be taken care of.

Parallel cinema has also come a long way now, in fact it is making a great foray on the mainstream field with the help of some well established stars. For all cinema enthusiasts like me, its a melting point of good story, culture, techniques, screenplay and photography. Of couese! the acting and the visuals are much appreciated.

There are also quite a few doors open now and the cinema industry is open with arms open for young and creative minds including entrepreneurs, marketing guys and finance guys to come in and help the cinema industry reach greater heights. For those like minded people go ahead and dive in, live your dream! its for you to conquer, and hopefully we shall meet someday on a movie making set!

Cinema and cinema enthusiasts shall prevail. Period.

A Woman

A woman is someone who'd calm your rattled mind,
She'll give you a gentle hug and a smile that's enough to erase half your miseries;
Her touch, her care, can make you feel like the king of the world;
She'll be more than happy to give you a beating when your're wrong,
and, she'll fight the whole world when your back is against the wall;
She'll sit you down and tell whats good and bad,
She'll also cleverly become a 5year old asking you for a chocolate;
She'll talk till your ears ache, and yell when your have a glimpse elsewhere;
her small tear can leave you downcast;
She'll take you shopping and ask you for compliments,
She'll ask you to try on clothes and mock at each one of them;
(Or is it the other way round :P)
She'll say she's as  strong as a rock, but cry even for a small scratch;
Her intuitions are so strong that she'll call you knowing that there's something wrong;
She'll say 5mins and make that 5 to 20; God only knows who taught her to see time;
Her anger can scare you,
her smile will make you;
A woman is one who'll deal with your good and bad,
Erase your insecurities, knock your head, grind your ears,
Teach you good and never leave your side.

SME - Its role and importance.

SMEs (Small and medium size enterprises) in India plays a very important role in building the country’s economy. They help in providing a constant economic growth, provides jobs and employment, not only this but also help in sustaining a downfall where there is a recession. So, I’d go a little higher and say the SMEs help in keeping the country’s economy alive.

In reality, there is not a sector or an industry to which the SMEs don’t cater to. They range from textiles, and agriculture, pharmaceutical to food and beverages and not to forget the IT sectors. So it covers a wide variety of sectors. While they work tirelessly day in and day out, they can be compared to the VVS Laxmans, the Rahul Dravids and the Steve Waughs of international cricket. Like them, they are the unsung heroes of the corporate world, quietly employing a staggering 81million in the 36units they work in and also providing an astonishing 45% of the total industry output as per the recent surveys by the ENTREPRENEUR MAGAZINE. I really loved the article on it, the importance of SMEs. This blog is inspired from it in a way. Providing a GDP of 7.9% in 2012-2013, the SMEs can be called as the backbone of India’s economic growth.

 Though the SME sector seems to be in a good state now thanks to the previous two budgets (2012 and 2013), it still has a few shortcoming and faces new challenges now. Why I stress upon this is because this sector has a great potential to help India outshine its neighboring countries and revive the economy in the county’s favor.

A few problems that I feel they face are discussed here. Firstly it’s the inadequate infrastructure. That seems to be the biggest problem in all the sectors here. Except the top industries who can actually afford something really fancy, the others out of great difficulty manage to get a decent infrastructure. The growing land rates and various other revenues hit hard on the entrepreneur’s heart and half the time this is the main reason why the man backs out to start his own enterprise.

Skilled labor is one of the biggest issues we face. There is no real technical knowledge imparted to the youth of India. Hardly 20% of the studying population has the ability to break through the chain and get them equipped for the existing industry demands. The large chunk of population suffers due to various reasons and the SMEs generally wouldn't have the resources and the capital, this’ll mean that they’re forced to hire unskilled labor and spend time training them thus hitting the level of production hard. This is a larger issue when the progress of the nation is taken into account. This has to be worked upon.

Finance was and always is a big issue for the Indian players. The system is very tedious and messy and funds are often misused.

With the rise in inflation being this high, another factor which becomes very evident is the power. The power generation and supply is very important to these tireless workers. There is not a single day in the SME sector when work is not done since they sometimes are seasonal operators i.e. they change with the production based on the demand and season.  One good thing is that there are some able leaders recognizing this and are willing to supply power and lands at reasonable rates but this plan is happening majorly in the north of India leaving the south behind and this shouldn't create a dividend of sorts. This is a challenge within the states and each state should adopt this policy to be more SME friendly.

There are two other major problems in this, since not all the SME sector require actual training and manufacturing techniques, there are hundreds and thousands of individual players who invest their money in building these SMEs this creates a lot of competition and it gets so bad that they run the show just to beat each other up. Also, marketing is a big factor. They must focus of this instead of trying to spoil one’s run. But the cost of marketing being this high and due to lack of information on how to market, this can be a daunting factor to make a name. But sadly many wither our and die before that can die.

But there is good news for the SMEs in this current budget. It has extended its non-tax benefits for SMEs and setting up new and better informed and equipped incubators and support centers for the growth of SMEs. There is also a talk of providing land and power at subsidized rates till the SME grows to be self sufficient. So a lot of good stuff is happening. The reach needs to be stronger. I sincerely feel India is at its transition state. I really do hope it catches up. We still have a long way to go.

But for SMEs in the current budget, things seem bright!

India and its need to build Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are people who help generate jobs, open new businesses and carry out business deals. They can also be recognized as people who are initiative, innovative and motivated. They look for opportunities, identify them and seize them with open hand to make merry of it not necessarily for economic purposes. A more truthful definition of entrepreneurs apart from the flashier pars mentioned above are people who work extremely hard in order to pursue their passion, take it to a new level, having sleepless nights till their dreams become a reality, and still continue to work hard to take this dream to heights that it hasn't seen before. Thus an entrepreneur has to constantly think, generate, innovate and recreate to channelize his dream. Sometimes the scratch is so scratchy that it is nothing but the belief for the man to do so.

Entrepreneurs are no doubt the best resources to any country. Entrepreneurs are primarily responsible for the growth of a nation in terms of economy, social, and cultural. And we have seen that countries which grow, and nurture entrepreneurs are the ones that have had successful growths. This again is mixed with the various actors of the country which may also include the political condition, the geographic condition etc to support it.

In a country like ours, which is tied to a lot of political and cultural baggage, it is difficult to sustain a growth for a start up. There are a 101 policies and round trips which you’ll have to make to various offices and hearing out the terms and legal constraints can leave you with a damped spirits. Of course! Money gets things done here too. But this should not be the case. Considering the period in which we’re at the leaders must re-think the start-up policies and make the system more entrepreneur friendly for growth to happen. We can be thankful enough to the entrepreneurs who have broken such barriers and have come out successful in our country. It is, for you, that they've laid a path of struggle to follow and lead once you see light and perhaps to spread it too.

At the moment the tide is in India’s favor having a staggering youth population of more that 42% and this is a huge asset to our country. At this junction it becomes primarily important for us to build a society which is healthy, happy and productive in terms thinking, growth and manufacturing. India, being at its peak of demographic dividend (Demographic Dividend is the rise rate of the economic growth due to rising\large share of working age people in a population) needs to understand and utilize this opportunity to create and nurture more and more entrepreneurs. To do this, to see India sustain this period it is absolutely important to grow entrepreneurs.

The coming few years will help us decide whether the tied dies or grows with its potential and I sincerely hope that India does its best in opening its mind to entrepreneurs for they are the ones who can provide a better living. Once again stating, entrepreneurs are the rich resources of our country.

tisk tisk! First Love.

The more you deny it, the more it clings onto you. Let’s face it; whoever said that the first love makes a lasting impression in one’s life sure had a glass of vodka in his hand. You know... Men always speak the truth when they’re drunk. Well mine’s gone and been a while now and I’m totally over it. But I can’t help but acknowledge the little things that bring a smile on your face when you look back. You know after a while it probably doesn't matter if you had a sad ending or a happy one. You just get used to it after the mean Ekta Kapoor soap episodes of dim light falling on you with music that make you faint and tear drops filling up a bucket just enough to wash your car! The truth is your first love leaves a mark, sometime quite literally too!

Usually when you get hitched, and this may seem apt for the loves following your first love too, the first 6 months (generally in the case of your first love) or 2 to 3 months (generally from your successive ones) are termed as the honeymoon period where all’s forgiven. Even your biggest crime is treated with a laugh. Your insult is probably nudged by a shoulder. Perhaps after the first love... 2^nd, 3^rd, 4th and as the list goes on the tolerance level drops down until we’re sick and tired of it and ask our parents to find us a “good” girl\boy. Technically, for all the nerds, time is inversely proportional to tolerance and for the food enthusiasts, Love is like soup, the first mouthful is very hot, and the ones that follow gradually become very cold.

After a good time has passed and the beards are dropped\dark circles are removed and you turn on the search engine for the prospects, perhaps successful in meeting and talking to quite a few, you realize that this is a part of “growing up”. More often than not, your first love, however serious and eventful, will come to you as a roller coaster ride with a lot of curiosity and foolishness.  Mind you, I used the word roller coaster, so it is clear that there may be some with a lot of endurance and promises to be the only one, so with all respect to that comes curiosity and foolishness. You’ll laugh at how stupidly foolish you were trying to get a glimpse every time he\she passes by, ride your vehicle\flaunt your dupatta so fast in front of her\him that they’ll get impressed. Now, we all grown men\women look at our tiny little brothers and sisters do the same and can’t imagine how silly it must have been. As for people who took a long time to come out of it can refer to love as snakes, if they don’t kill you, they’ll probably paralyze you.

Now, there is not a darn thing that you wouldn't do to fight for your love. That’s all said and done. The problems start when you fight with your love. Usually if the guy\girl is a hot property there are a few hyena like scavengers waiting to grab on to every possible chance they get. When it comes to being foolish, not many of them pass in it. Because it is your first time, it’s okay to screw up. Raging hormones, parental pressure, peer pressure and the fact that you need to keep the other happy makes you go a step beyond and that is quite often referred to as overdoing or crossing the boundaries. Now the reason I say that not many pass in it is because we are too naive to understand where we come from. The ignorance is a tad too much for it to be understood or explained and that is what screws things up. Like they say “the magic of first love is our ignorance that it can never end.” That’s where we often go wrong. And for the ones who pass, well dear friends, lady luck has stood by your side.

After the honeymoon period has gone, Boom! Reality bites in and bites hard. Each and every move is scrutinized under a microscope. And once you’re caught up in this cycle it’s a herculean task to get out and start fresh.  And sometimes it ends in a break up. To those of you who get a second chance, well again you've got luck by your side and some of them who don’t, well it’s mostly a lonely couple of months, putting on some weight, watching the movies you probably would watch even under a threat of a gunshot and running through a few pictures of your happy times together.

The fact is your first love does leave a mark. None of the sadness will probably sting if you’re heard out properly and if patience can be the key. Time does heal everything. All the pain, the anger, the love or the hatred.  Even to people who've had bad ending, after the process of “growing up” you’ll now keep laughing at the slightest remembrance of an event that’ll link you to your past. Well this is life folks! We all grow up. For the ones who don’t, life will rot and lie in an egg shell. But for the ones who do life is all about seeing things in a different way and you imbibe so much from seeing others and learning from the mistakes of the past. You grow and become a better person so much that you wished if your past was with you at your present.

For all the first timers out there, this is no history lesson. This is just to tell you that the first love is perhaps going to be with you for a very long time. Worry not of what things are in the end, just take the leap of faith and live it up fully. If you’re a bit to serious about it, show patience and love when they’re low. That’s when they need it and it makes wonders. Personally, I respect my first a lot. I wished I’d saved some of the photos of my past instead of burying them to have a happy laugh in the present now. Like Daphne du Maurier says I'm glad it cannot happen twice, the fever of first love. For it is a fever, and a burden, too, whatever the poets may say. Live it with no regrets. Hell! You can always blame the raging hormones for any flaw!  But first love.  Magical and Stings like a bee.

Land of Scams?

The 1st of March will mark the second month anniversary of the Delhi girls’ death. But still one question still rings and rings repeatedly in my mind and that's if anything has really changed in these two months’ time. Has it? Well I’m afraid we've to again settle for something we Indians are quite used to right now - that's a big NO.

From the land of culture, the land of peace and heritage, from the land of joy and the land of learning, we've gone all the way down to the land of rape, the land of corruption, the land of misfortune and the land of hatred. 

Make no mistake about it, I’m not one of those guys just commenting or writing a blog and finally shying away from facing the harsh reality. I'm just one of those guys living in the daylight hoping for a change and like a lot of you out there wishing and praying for a better future for India. 

Sometimes I begin to feel if the things happening around us have no impact on the "aam Jantha". I, as an individual can’t help but look for hope and support in the society to help fight and win the challenge to make India what we always boast it to be made of. 

Now, it’s going to be 2months come this march 1st, after all the walks, protests and tearing your throat out in the media and in the public. Why did you guys stop? There have been a hundred cases filed after that and probably a thousand which weren't. Why did the fizz run out so soon? Weren't they your sisters or brothers too? I'm in no way saying that all of these incidents should be dealt with protests and walks. We as a nation should find a way- I’m not sure what it is though, to make sure these miscreants think twice before doing anything unethical. 

This Delhi rape case, as I see it, no doubt very hurtful, is a pixel that adds onto the blackened image of India. 

You see the terror blasts of Hyderabad today. The media reports say that the ministry knew and had warnings, we probably were sitting duck and puppets in the hands of these ego filled money minded fellows in the political parties.

Didn't it prick you when the air force was hit with a scam?

Didn't it prick you reading about the coal mining scam? 

Commonwealth games scam?

2G spectrum scam? 

OMG! Congratulations! We've become a land of scams now!

It certainly isn't a joke, many lives are at stake. As much as I want to blame the government for the way we've become now. It’s each one's fault right from the time of our independence. Perhaps the controversial reports of the independence being delayed to us because we weren't ready are true. We've been tamed to use the minds of others and rely upon the neighboring countries for our growth, seeking a chance every other time shamelessly to pop our names up when an Indian origin guy gains success in a foreign soil and we've done nothing. But yes, Indian wasn't ready. Maybe, back then. But years have passed. We should feel both jealous, shameless and look in awe with the growth shown by our neighboring countries over the years. They were in worse conditions and have now grown to greater heights. Why are we still playing catch up?

It can’t get sillier when Mr. Sushil Kumar had some Intel about the possible blasts just passes on the blame by saying the states were informed. What is he in place for if he can’t ensure that the information passed on not put in use? This could have saved the lives of 11 men and prevented over 60 from being seriously injured. Worst part is the TV reports say that terror returned to Hyderabad, it’s not your playground to keep returning to. It’s a livelihood, its precious lives of men and women. Its peace and harmony.

The Britishers were clever this way, killing all the awesome men we had, who fought for our country, they probably knew the impact they had. Once they were all done and dusted. The government became an association for people who wanted to make money, have power and feed on the lives of the poor. The ones who really wanted to make a difference joined in becoming greedy or left due to disgust. This carried on for generations and look what we have left now. The ministers have more criminal cases against them than these notorious criminals. I am myself caught up with my daily routine of work and I’m sure it’s the same with most of you out there. But when your motherland is involved how can you keep quiet, sit in the rooms and have coffee? This is a heavy price we're paying for bringing in the MNCs here with the netas licking their monkey asses to stay in power. 

To me, it all boils down to this, India was a great country and now is living on borrowed time only because of a certain good deeds fortunately done by a few good men we've produced. 

The reports of a 5th std girl getting raped, repeated girl child deaths, bribery, assault on women, corruption, illegal activities and allegations, scams all seems to be running India. The only people making profit are perhaps the media and the political parties feeding on us ignorant and restless "fast"moving Indians. 

 If you didn't realize even now, all this is falling to your own pockets. Don’t go complaining of inflation, price hike and high cost of living when it’s your mistake for not burning the roots of such bad governance. It’s a heavy price we're paying. We've living in denial. I'm in no way giving you gyaan on how to live and on what to spend on. But I am telling you not to spend on power, corruption. If you're facing any issues report it to the unions and the associations nearby. In-fact, I fully support these bureaucrats entering the politics now, people like Nandan Nilekani, Jayram Ramesh, Narayan Murthy etc are wonderful leaders. Report it to the unions headed by them, I’m sure you'll see the changes. But before that you must help them in eradicating the evils of politics. They’re sustaining it to help you live better, to help India see a way through. Helping India to gain back its respect. 

Support the film-makers who're constantly trying to make India a better place, Oh! I forgot we're Indians, we can’t do without our daily dose of masala!

If there is one thing I want to urge the nation to do, it’s to stop the Hindu-Muslim war. We are Indians, diverse in religion, looks, caste. But should not be so in harmony and peace for we are one and we are Indians. Other communities included. You have to stop paying the cops, the ministers. Stop abusing power. You find a fault, go report, there are quite a few people standing up now for the betterment. If you aimlessly support the noise makers, the music makers won’t be heard. I think you get my point, support the right one. Stand up for India, Don’t give in to power. Put India first. It is your home Keep it clean. 

Basics of Photography

According to Google Photography is defined as "The art or practice of taking and processing photographs."

I'd just like to share with you some of the basic elements of photography. Understanding these elements is gonna make photography a whole lot simpler. It doesn't matter what kinda camera you have, be it a digital camera or the high end studio SLRs, all work on the same principle. The 6 elements are Light, Optics, Subject, Aperture, Medium, Time. 

Now LIGHT is all around us, its the most basic element we use to capture a subject or make a composition. There are various kinds of light, various ways in which it can be tweaked or used. Various ways in which it can be interpreted. 

OPTICS is simply the equipment that we use. The lenses that we have on our camera. The light detecting device. They focus the light to a particular point so we can capture an image easily.

SUBJECT is what we take the photo of. Its often called the composition of the photo. In simple words its the person or the object u show in a photo. 

APERTURE  is the hole in the lens through which the light enters. We control the aperture to permit the amount of light entering inside the camera.

MEDIUM is simply what we record that light into, now this might confuse u but medium is simply the film or the sensors inside the camera which is used to record the photo shot. Medium, in the earlier days was the films that were used in the cameras and now the ever advancing  field has made humongous progress with the high end sensors which do the same purpose more efficiently.

TIME  is a very important factor in photography, its the amount of time we're able to record or shoot something onto our cameras. The Shutter controls the amount of time needed to record or shoot an image (shutter speed).


As mentioned before, the mechanics of all the cameras are the same, right from the film camera to the SLRs or the high end studio cameras. The principle is that the light has to go through the lens, then through the aperture. the aperture is simply a hole, we control the size of the hole to control the amount of light getting into it. The next step is to control the light for a specific period of time and this is done by using the shutter. We can set the shutter speed to the desired levels for a designated time. The shutter helps then to capture the light and store it in the medium. The mirror in the SLRs is actually not part of the recording process, its simply there to view the image.  Basically the light strikes the mirror at 45 degree angle and bounces up and through the prism and by the view finder to be able to view the photograph before we press the click button this is then recorded onto the film or the sensor to record it.

By varying the aperture we can control the
 amount of light entering in.

EXPOSURE : It is the brightness or the darkness level of the final picture. This is very important to get right cuz this makes the photograph more pleasing to look at. The aperture and shutter serve to control the exposure level. We can modify either of the two to get the right exposure. There are three conditions here, underexposed, overexposed and correctly exposed. As the names tell, underexposed is when we don't expose the image to the right amount of light and vice versa with overexposed.  The correctly exposed is to say that the image has been exposed to the right amount of light for the right amount of time.

The LCD display on a Nikon D90 camera. We can use this
to vary the aperture and shutter amongst other factors.

The F-number sometimes called the 
focal ratio, f-ratio, focal ratio or relative 
aperture is a measure of lens speed. It is a very important concept in photography.

SHUTTER SPEED : It controls the amount of time that we can capture the light for. It is as important as the aperture is cuz it allows us to freeze the action or blur the action for creative effect or sometimes a horribly misplaced effect. It is very essential to capture the image of a suitable shutter speed, the composition can horribly go wrong if the wrong shutter speeds are used and this can spoil the image and blur it out completely. By using a fast shutter speed, we'll be cutting down on the amount of  light that reaches our medium and the exact reverse on a slow shutter speed, so its very important to get the shutter speed right.

Description of an image with various
shutter speeds

There are generally 3 modes on the camera dial  which are the semi manual modes, they are the program mode, shutter mode(TV mode) and the aperture mode. In the program mode we can vary both the aperture and the shutter. In the S mode we can vary the shutter and the aperture changes suitably and similarly in the aperture mode , we change the aperture and the shutter changes suitably.
We use a technique called panning in which we follow the image shooting with a suitable shutter to give a  sense of motion in our picture while keeping the main subject sharp.

On the image quality it is mandatory to use a tripod when we use extremely low shutter speeds in order to avoid camera shake.
This also helps us to build on our creativity especially for landscape photography.

Focus is very critical in photography, its absolutely important to get ur image or part of the image absolutely sharp. It in a way defines the quality of  ur image. 

ISO :  The letters ISO on your digital SLR camera settings refer to the sensitivity of the image sensor. Even in the film cameras, its about the film speed.  The ISO camera setting still has the same function as older film cameras. Camera ISO determines how sensitive the image sensor is to light.

Photograph at various ISO levels.

The focus is on the wood and the background
is blurred(or not in focus).

They are inter-reated
A good image has a
good mix of these.

Now, putting it all together. It is very important for the photographer to respect the scene. As the great Ansel Adams said, “You don't make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved.” 

Its absolutely important to have the correct combination of the aperture, shutter, focus and the ISO. All these are inter-related to get the composition right.

Personally I've always been fascinated by the way the lenses work. It amazes me how the lens can magnify or diminish an image and for a fact even to this day i can play with a lens like a toy given to a kid. I'd absolutely love it.

To sum it all up this is my first blog and I definitely don't know how its come out. I must say that it was my effort to help amateur photographers like me to come out the automatic mode and switch over to the manual mode or the semi manual mode at the least. Though i firmly believing learning by doing, this was the least i could do. I hope u guys move the dial to the manual mode,  Hope u guys click more!!  too much is never enough in this!  Happy clicking!  and thanks for reading my first blog.
Cheers!