[tsk1979]

Grainy pics are due to noise of high ISO, not due to dirty lens. Lens can be cleaned with soft cloth and any off the shelf cleaning solution. You can basically use the same cloth and solution which us used to cleaning spectacles!

[Fordmanchau]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Grainy pics are due to noise of high ISO, not due to dirty lens. Lens can be cleaned with soft cloth and any off the shelf cleaning solution. You can basically use the same cloth and solution which us used to cleaning spectacles!

Got it regarding the cleaning of the lens, but how to reduce the noise of high ISO.Will try it today with my camera.Probably I need to check if I can lower the ISO.

[amikacin]

Originally Posted by Fordmanchau

Got it regarding the cleaning of the lens, but how to reduce the noise of high ISO.Will try it today with my camera.Probably I need to check if I can lower the ISO.

Go to the settings in the menu and set the ISO to the least value available.
Mostly it is set on the automatic mode. If i am not wrong, this will help in reducing the graininess and noise in the pics.


Please correct me if i am wrong.

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

The horizon is tilted, and sensor looks really shot! What F-Stop were you using?
Anways, try the rocket blower.
To do a before an after analysis.
Set you lens at F22, point at blue sky(with focus on infinity) and shoot.
then after blowing the sensor with rocket blower, do this again. You should see a lot fewer spots. I do this very six months since my 350D does not have a sensor shake function. One of these days, I am trying to muster courage to use Ethanol+Microfiber cloth on a plastic stick.

Yes, those pictures have been taken deliberately in a tilted angle so as to avoid buildings coming into the frame. No other option, as you may know view from Mall road is quite crowded with several buildings coming into the view.

Here is the details of the first picture in the landscape installment of pictures, the greenish one.

Focal Length : 82mm
Exposure Mode and Time : Shutter and 15 S
Fstop : F4.5
ISO : 100
Exposure Bias: -1:00
Metering : Matrix

I think the lower F-stop played the spoilsport here, isnt it?

Originally Posted by Fordmanchau

Got it regarding the cleaning of the lens, but how to reduce the noise of high ISO.Will try it today with my camera.Probably I need to check if I can lower the ISO.

Try to reduce the ISO to 100 which works the best, in DSLR's you can go way up to 1600 and still the grainess wont be that much of a spoilsport. But, for point and shoot, maybe 400 ISO is the max you can go for clarity of image.

Here is another set of landscape views, hopefully this is "slightly" better

[pulsar56]

Beautiful pics of Shimla from the Mall road, Avi.
The first two are simple awesome!

[Fordmanchau]

Pandeyji,
these are again wonderful night pics.
Liked the 2nd and 3rd pic more.
Nice work.

Regarding the ISO : In my powershot SD 600 , the minimum ISO setting is 80 and the maximum is 800, and then HI and Auto options. I have selected 80 as of now. Will take some pics and see how it comes out.

[adzegeek]

Hey Avi,
Reading this takes me back 10 years when going to Shimla and Kufri was annual affair. Great stuff, keep going.
which camera are you using, BTW?

[btirthankar]

Great photoexpedition. Treat to the eyes. Night Sky snap was the best.

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by pulsar56

Beautiful pics of Shimla from the Mall road, Avi.
The first two are simple awesome!

Thanks Nazim !

Originally Posted by Fordmanchau

Pandeyji,
these are again wonderful night pics.
Liked the 2nd and 3rd pic more.
Nice work.

Regarding the ISO : In my powershot SD 600 , the minimum ISO setting is 80 and the maximum is 800, and then HI and Auto options. I have selected 80 as of now. Will take some pics and see how it comes out.

Thanks Manish. Try with 80 and in low light conditions pump it up to a maximum of 400 and see the results to decide which ISO works better during low light conditions.

Originally Posted by adzegeek

Hey Avi,
Reading this takes me back 10 years when going to Shimla and Kufri was annual affair. Great stuff, keep going.
which camera are you using, BTW?

Thanks Rajesh, Yeah, Shimla, Manali are great places to unwind. Matter of fact, Himachal, is simply beautiful. I just can't seem to get enough of it and keep going back again and again.

Btw, you handled my camera during the boats club meet. It's an humble Nikon D40x

Originally Posted by btirthankar

Great photoexpedition. Treat to the eyes. Night Sky snap was the best.

Glad you like it Basu. Look forward to some night shots from yourself as well.

Posting a couple of pictures taken pretty late in the night ( around 11:30pm or so) after finishing our dinner on Mall road, with bone chilling cold, covered up with several layers of clothing including some fat gloves.

Took these shots operating the camera with gloves intact

[mobike008]

Here is a shot of Gandhi statue on the Mall road and also a few night shots of the famous church on the Mall Road, Shimla.

I just played around with the color balance feature in the camera to get different color effects for the church.

Critical comments are welcome

[pulsar56]

Excellent Long Exposure pics Avi. (Critical comments will be left to the Gurus)
Keep posting.

[PVS]

Originally Posted by mobike008

Thanks Praveen. How come you just enjoy our travelogues and dont get to see some pictures from your end?

Point noted Avi, posting my pics here would amount to a thread-hijack, I will post some pics from my end soon.

[mobike008]

Continuing with where i left off last time with my travelogue. We spent 4 blissful nights in Shimla and it was a fantastic experience of unwinding by doing nothing.

Our next destination was spending a night at Narkhanda which is about 65 kms from Shimla. I was visiting Narkhanda for the first time and had lots of expectations. Mind you, we hadn't seen snow till now. And, this is where we hit on to the first snow here.

We checked into Hotel Hatu which was a nice quaint place perched on top of a hill. We got ourselves a nice cozy room and quickly unpacked and wanted to visit Mt.Hatu which was about 10kms-15kms away as we only had one night here.

Trust me, we went through some narrowest roads that i ever encountered and finally after 10kms or so those narrow roads opened up to an open area and we were stunned to see some beautiful scenary right in front of our eyes ( including a small water body that was completely frozen)

[mobike008]

We spent a great deal of time up there as we didnt want to leave that spectacular place with beautiful scenario all over.

We hiked over from the main road to the end of a side road where we noticed huge amounts of snow ( probably from the night before) and were excited like some school kids.

This place was indeed peaceful and extremely beautiful.

[Ravveendrra]

Hatu and Narkandha seem truly awesome locations. They just went onto my 'must go' list.

Though repetitive, I must say those are great snaps. This travelogue seems to be picking up speed now as it heads away from the beaten track.

Cheers,