-Learning- Photographing The Festival of Colours: Holi

-Learning- 
Photographing The Festival of Colours  *Holi*

Holi is a festival of colours and joy. This is full of opportunities for memorable pretty photographs. Every one of us has a keen desire to capture this festival. Here are the points which can help us photographing this occasion:

1. Care of camera and lenses: Since our camera is very important for us, we have to be very careful regarding its safety. While shooting the occasion we should try to hide ourselves at a proper place so that we may save our camera and lenses from spray of colours and water-splashes. The easy way to protect the camera is to cover it with plastic/polythene bags. We don’t have to cover the front portion of the lens with such bag. This part is to be covered with a good quality UV filter and a lens hood.   

2. Care for ourselves: We have to be very conscious while shooting because we are on an assignment. We should keep ourselves at a distance from the carnival. Any colour may harm our eyes. Sunglasses are very friendly for our eyes as they protect them well against a splash or chemical based colour. Nevertheless, we have to be aware of the fact that we can get drenched any time.

3. Selection of proper lens: Selection of proper lens is a key part of our project. Use of a long focal length lens or a telephoto zoom will be an ideal choice for our purpose. (However there is not any set law for selection of lens. This depends on the requirement of the occasion.)

4. Knowledge of Event: Knowing about the event in advance is very important. This helps us capturing the occasion in justified way. Moreover, we should reach at the place in advance.

5. Portraying the occasion in true manner: Our aim should be to capture the festival of colours with true feel. We should take enough photographs and with different angles so that every aspect of the festival may be captured.

6. Play of shutter speed: Selection of appropriate shutter speed plays an important role. If we want to freeze a moment, we should set a high shutter speed (Like 500 or above). On the other hand, the use of a slow shutter speed (like 1/15 sec. or 1/8 sec.) sometimes can result into remarkable images having pretty graphical streaks. Shooting on shutter speed priority mode is advisable on this occasion. By using this mode we can adjust the shutter speed according to our aim. The aperture will be set automatically. However, if we need enough depth in the scene, we can use aperture priority mode with a small aperture. Here the camera will set shutter speed accordingly.

7. Important Instruction: We should keep enough memory cards and extra batteries in order to avoid disappointment.

Photo: Courtesy: Mr. Kailash Mittal, Mr. Dilip Lokre, Mr. T. Srinivasa Reddy, Mr. Akhil Hardia and Mr. Ankur Thatai.
(Note: Above tutorial is purely based on author’s personal experience. This may differ with the views of others)

I wish the readers of our blog a 
*Happy Holi*

--Dr. Pankaj Sharma