Raga Megha Malhaar Photo

Photographer’s Note

Raga Megha Malhaar is one of the most powerful Ragas in the Hindustani classical music tradition. Sung characteristically during the rainy season (every Indian classical Raga has a time syndrome, be it the time of a day or a year), this Raga evokes sights and sounds of the rainy season in a symphony of unique beauty.

This image of monsoon clouds seen at 6 this morning from the balcony of my apartment house evoked in my mind its association with the Raga Megha Malhaar.

The picture was shot at 1/1000 in order to lend greater intensity to contrasts and colours that characterize an early morning view of a typical urban Indian set-up. A degree of graininess (noise) is inevitable in a picture taken with the given camera settings. However, it has its own beauty in terms of photography as an art form. Removing noise with a noise filtering device such as NeatImage also results into removing the artistic beauty of an original capture, so I have desisted from doing that.
I wouldn't like this image to be mutilated by some noise removal freak, so please spare me the favour.

Here is Exif data on the picture:

DSC-P200
2007/08/08 03:50:05
Image Size: 3072 x 2304
Focal Length: 7.9mm
Exposure Mode: Manual
Metering Mode: Multi-Pattern
1/1000 sec - F/5.6
Exposure Comp.: 0 EV

Thanks for having a peek and have a nice day.

mpb001, rjb874, nirajsinha, delic trouve(nt) cette note utile

Critiques | Translate

mpb001 (4600) 2007-08-07 20:06

Hi Ram,
I like the richness of the colors and your composition. Your note on image noise is well received. I do believe that some here on TE get a bit carried away with this detail. I come from the days of film, so I can appreciate some minor noise in photos and it does give some photos character, like yours here. Well done, Mike

berek (28983) 2007-08-07 20:44

Hi Ram,
great architecture . beautiful clouds . I like your composition. greetings.
B.Erek

stiginthedump (1823) 2007-08-07 21:06

I'm too sure about this one Ram. While I can understand your desire for a strong contrasty image, I think you would have been better off applying the 'effects' in post processing. As it stands I find the image too soft (too much in camera noise reduction?) and the sky too noisy.

Thanks

nirajsinha (822) 2007-08-07 21:25

Hi Ram Ji,

Sometime technical issues get back seat and artistic value lead the way. Your picture is looking great in artistic sense. See the colours of sky, the light and shadow on apartments... they are simply great.

Regards

Niraj Sinha

delic (6735) 2007-08-08 0:50

Hello Ram,
Good to see you post here again. Quite a unique shot you have here. The high contrast is indeed effective. I'm not sure about the degree of noise though. Also, I would like to see more of the arch. Perhaps taking one or two steps back would work better. Regards,
Hakan