PHOTOGRAPHY - COPYRIGHT

Many of the photographers are unaware of the copyright of their images and those who are aware may not be serious about their hard efforts in clicking the images which come under their copyright....please note that the owner of the copyright has the unquestioned right to do several acts with regard to his/her created works....This right is the exclusive one ensured in section 14 of the 1957 Act.

Nature of the aforesaid exclusive right or rights varies according to the type of work or works. Grouping of the said works run as under:
Copyright dwells in literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works. It is also found in a cinematograph film and in the case of a record, CD, DVD etc.

A photograph - good,bad, or otherwise - falls into the group in an artistic work. The exclusive rights afforded to the owner under the 1957 Act go as follows:

1. to reproduce the work in any material form;
2. to publish the work;
3. to include the work in any cinematograph film (not to mix cinematograph film and photograph - both are different -and here we concentrate on photographs taken by still cameras and handicams.)
4. to make any adaption of work;
5. to do in relation to an adaptation of the work.-any of the acts specified in relation to the work in sl.no. 1 to 3 above.....besides this copyright is a statutory right. It is an intellectual property right. And offence against it can be set right under the Act and its provisions.

It is obvious that such a right vests in someone and that someone is classified as the owner of such right. AS far as photography is concerned Section 02(d)(iv) states that in relation to a photograph, the person taking the photograph, ''remains its author''.

If a photograph taken in a studio of a client of the photographer, though the client has paid the charges, he cannot claim to handover the film or CD to him by the photographer, unless he had a contract in writing with the photographer about his/her photographs...The copyright vests into the photographer.

EXPOSING DANCE PHOTOS IN AUDITORIUM

Dance itself is a great subject, on which lots have been written....But here I wish to convey my co-photographers some code of conduct and regarding exposure in this sort of photography, where the dancer is giving his/her performance and the auditorium is full of the admirers of this art form.

Some expert said that why the photographers shouldn't have the code of conduct of their own?..there is nothing more annoying that the photographer attending a function or performance disturbing everyone by cutting across their view and firing his flash in their faces.

For an example during a dance recital, the noted Bharat Natyam dancer Bala Saraswati was so annoyed with a photographer's flash that she stopped dancing and refused to proceed till the photographer was thrown out of the auditorium.....Here the clear answer wud be to do away with the flash completely and increasing the ISO of ur camera to 400 to 800.Thus u can standardise ur technique for getting consistently good results. And with the onset of the DCAMs it has become more easy than in the days of film, finding out the higher ISO film of ISO1000...so photographers of that time used ISO 400 film by changing after every 36 exposure...But in dcam just u turn the dial,or press a button and any ISO is ready upto 3200 to 6400. so getting 400 or 800 is easy and set the shutter for ISO 400 as 1/60 AT F5.6 AND WITH THE BRILLIANT LIGHT OF THE STAGE, u can capture the perfect performances....however still in doubt, there is the LCD screen to tell u to increase or reduce the ISO or shutter speed....

Make sure for ur sitting, there is a press gallery, where u can set ur tripod or some solid support if u use big zoom and are afraid that pictures may go blurry...Here the fast lenses are of great help e.g.f2.8 in zooms or if u are close enough to the dancer, the prime lens with f1.4 is again of great value....and hand held shots upto 1/125 can be taken easily....there is no binding in exposure since u already have a 2GB or higher GB memory card....the editing u can do later at ur home since u are not a prss photographer...u can do it leisurely and use them for magazines, brochures etc later on....U are lucky enough, if the background is black where u can shoot multi exposures....with different postures.....so good with dance photography......shroti08@live.com

THE SPORTS photography is the need of today and thousands are specialists in their respective fields and earning a good sum....U must have witnessed in cricket ground the photographers with big-big lenses worth lakhs of rupees....However before u start taking shots of sports , a basic understanding of the sports is important...and particularly, what u can anticipate is when the exciting moments may happen. For example, in football match, the best photographs can be captured near the net when the strickers shoot a fast ball at the goal and the goalkeeper jumps to save in mid-air...Even for fast moving sports such as cycling, bike and martial arts....better to know ur position which angle will suit u for the best shot....As happened in the side photo of bike race, I chose this turn point, where the most excitement was seen in the bikers and the audience....And in fast races, it is also the danger point...so the best shot cannot be missed.

HIT THE CLOUDS

THE most forgotten aspect in photography....generally the clouds are included in landscape, or in cloudscape, where the vast sky is covered....what u see in my photo at left....i was out to shoot this type of dispersed clouds.... This type of clouds happens when the rains are over and the clouds are scattered in bunches sometimes covering most of the sky and sometimes in pieces like this.

BE sure if wind is there the clouds after formation will disperse in seconds, but it is important to note that such formation happens once in a year, and in India, it is in august and september.....be ready with at least a 70-200 zoom, so u can catch well....i recommend 70-200, because sometimes there are small pieces which will not cover with a kit lens.....even ur compact camera can work wonders.....so when u see such play of ''hide and seek'' go in the nearby ground or on ur rooftop......rest is left to ur luck and the target.

PORTRAIT LIGHTING.......next

Ideally, the light source shd be no more than thrice the size of the object........The object shd be at a distance of around three to four times the size of the light source......Since an average adult's face is about eight inches in height, the size of the light source shd be around 24 inches in diameter for circular light sources, or the longer side of the retangular soft box.....This sort of arrangement works well for b&w and in certain instances for colour, when fairly graphic quality is needed.

However generally for colour photography, one needs softer lighting, since sensor has much less exposure latitude......TO achieve this softness, a larger light source is required, placed around the same distance (as mentioned above), softening the shadows ....since the area required to be covered by lighting is large , it is obvious that the distances of the light sources need to be greater than that for portraits......As the source of the light source has to be that much larger one cud use a strip light, which is a soft box about 25cm wide and 100cm long.....It is used in the vertical position so that it more or less evenly lights the figure from top to bottom......The light and shade effect around the figure is thus retained.....TO fill-in from opposite side, a thermocol sheet of 5x3ft is placed......

Since the reflector cannot be too close to the model/person being photographed, use a second light source covered with milky-white or tracing paper as closed to the camera axis, so that it can lighten the shadows. THE object of the portrait photography is to make the sitter look as charming as possible.....To achieve the softer effect, the kind of lighting we are using shd not create hard shadows.....However to glamorise the pic, it is recommended the use of a soft focus filter.

Besides the above, more is dependent upon the photographer to experiment and achieve the best possible effect with various subjects/sitters by the scrupulous use of lights available with him, as mentioned above.

Digital Photography Forum : photozo :: View topic - yawning in captivity

Digital Photography Forum : photozo :: View topic - yawning in captivity

u have gone thru about the placements of lighting for portraits and its satisfaction to the clients....we have already discussed ''available light source'' somewhere else......we are in the STUDIO AND CLIENTS vary according to age, height, mood, physique, etc. ....and it is the duty of a pro/studio owner, to satisfy his customers......let us see how lighting works in different distances.

THE importance OF THE SIZE OF THE LIGHT SOURCE and the distance from the subject cannot be emphasised more strongly. .....the larger the light source and greater its distance from the subject, the softer quality of light obtained is less contrasty, because the rate of the light fall-off at a greater distance is much less than at shorter distances due to one of the major laws of the optics.....THE INVERSE SQUARE LAW......which states that the intensity of light is inversely proportional to the square of the distance. hence, light falling on a subject from a light source two feet away will be four times as bright as when it is placed four feet away.

MOST photographers including some pros., however, do not understand this. they believe that larger the light source for instance, a larger soft box, and closure it is to the subject, softer will be the quality of light......it is not really so....what really happens is the sheer size of the light source at such close proximity simply smothers the subject from all directions, thus making the face flat and featureless. .......sometimes this effect works as an advantage for certain situations in fashion and beauty photography. and perhaps a good makeup artist accentuates the features which are likely to get lost with this kind of lighting.........to continue......gshroti@in.com.....