Photostory Archives - DU Beat - Delhi University's Independent Student Newspaper

A Lost Cause: A Testimony to Dying Jobs

By DU Beat November 26, 2019

DU Beat ventured into the lanes of Delhi, to explore the niches and corners of our city, and dig out the beauty in dying jobs.

1. Gajra Weavers

Gajra is a flower garland adorned with a traditional attire. While the enchanting fragrance of gajra, made from flowers like chameli, mogra, and bela, is ever lasting the people who weave these for us are now disappearing. Artificial gajras have now become a preferred choice being a cheaper substitute and due to its shelf life. The livelihoods of many depend on selling these gajras, especially in South India, but they now they face struggles to survive.

2. Handloom Weavers

In the rapid race of capitalism, where companies compete against each another, and corporate slaves exhaust themselves, our handloom weavers are overtaken by industries producing cheap, fast cloth in multiple designs. Handloom weavers invest greater time and efforts to create each clothing with their ancestral art but now struggle to make ends meet.

3. Nazar Battu or Lemon Chilli Hanging

Superstitions towards a black cat crossing one’s path, cutting nails after sunset and eating meat on certain days persist in India. One such superstition is that a nazar battu or a lemon and chilli hanging can ward off the evil eye. Several people have made a livelihood from selling these hangings but now they face a reduced market. The tedious task of replacing it every few days has pushed people towards buying artificial substitutes from markets.

3. Cobblers

Cobblers earn enough only to have a day’s meal. On speaking to a few, they displayed fear and apprehension for their survival on rainy days. The work of cobblers, who used to be in demand, is now scarce. Fewer people turn to getting their shoes repaired and prefer discarding them as they begin to tear.

4. Street Food Sellers

Indian street food is not just lip smacking and delicious but also famous all over the world for its wide variety. Due to concerns over hygiene, rise of food chains like Bikanerwala and Haldiram, culture of online ordering and home delivery street food sellers no longer enjoy the same popularity as they did before. Their job and snacks have become exotic touristic spots found in the small streets of Chandni Chowk and Old Delhi.

A) Nankhataiwala

Nankhatai is a short bread biscuit, packets of which we all receive from our grandparents during the summer vacations. The name of this nankhataiwala is Lal and he turns to this occupation to sustain himself during winters.

B) Kachauriwala

Breakfast kachauriwalas used to be extremely popular a few decades ago but now no longer remain a go-to option for youngsters or adults.

C) Feriwala

A feriwala selling aam papad, anaar dana, murabba, saunf (fennel) and other treats and spices from his stall.

Photostory Image Credits: Deewanshi Vats for DU Beat

Reportage by : Shivani Dadhwal for DU Beat

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Gallery

Photography in Motion: Kinetic Photography

By Kartik Chauhan August 8, 2019

Ever thought about capturing lights with physics and even with tossing your camera? Look no further, because there’s kinetic photography.

Kinetic photography is also known as camera toss photography. However, that’s not all you need to do in order to take pictures.

As complex as it sounds, it just needs patience, practice and the knowledge of some skills, and an inexpensive camera. Don’t worry about the quality of photos since kinetic photography can make pictures from an old camera look great too!

Owing to its dynamic nature, it’s recommended that you start out with a somewhat dark room with a single source of light and then experiment with more sources of light to play around with complexity in your shots.

As for the settings, use slow shutter speed and adjust the ISO and aperture accordingly. ISO is usually set low and aperture is high when the shutter speed is slow.

Before proceeding further, ensure that you’re in a safe environment and more importantly, ensure the safety of your camera. Then, press the shutter and go crazy! Swing your hands, go zig-zag! The best part of kinetic photography is the independence it comes with. You can also explore (with caution) tossing your camera in the air.

Here are a few pictures which were tried by DU Beat photographers:

EXIF Data:

Shutter Speed: 5 seconds

Aperture:f/20

ISO: 100

Photography by:

Surabhi Khare

[email protected]

Saubhagya Saxena

[email protected]

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The Fore Challengers of North Campus

By Anoushka Sharma January 22, 2019

Every sport event is more than just a contest for the testing of physical fitness. Each player represents his or her own dedicated effort and expectations in the act of living their favourite sport. Stories of the following sports teams and societies go on to show just how passion drives human endeavor.

Image Credits:Surbhit Rastogi for DU Beat. — Image Credits: Surbhit Rastogi for DU Beat.

Winning their first match in an official tournament, the Girls’ Basketball Team of Hindu College defeated a presumptuous patriarchy. Being the first team of its kind in more than two decades, a team with minimum amenities, these self-trained ‘underdogs’ thrive on passionate interest and intoxicating energy for their game.

Championing the second most expensive sport, the Ramjas Archery Team has registered itself as a leading team in the varsity. The girls’ team has won gold for four consecutive years. Playing at the national and inter-college level, the team is expecting even brighter prospects in the upcoming Nationals; for which, two women archers of the team have already qualified.

Image Credits: Aakarsh Gupta for DU Beat.

Defined for its individuality, the game of Shooting tests every player’s talent to add up to the team’s overall performance. Four members of the team have been selected for the World University Trials. With the vision of representing India in Olympics, every shooter plays importantly for a sense of gratification and satisfaction. Hansraj College is known for its excellent produce of opportunities for these young shooters.

With the background score of players indulging in a game of Cricket, Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Khalsa College’s cricket team’s coach recounted countless achievements of the team. The team won Lala Raghubir Singh Tournament this season. Looking forward to a better and more rewarding season ahead, the team exudes dedication.

The housing of agile talent in University’s North Campus is only a fraction of the vast multitude of achievers and to-be olympians in the varsity. DU Beat wishes all of them luck.

Feature Image Credits: Surbhit Rastogi for DU Beat.

Kartik Chauhan

Mahi Panchal

Surbhit Rastogi

Aakarsh Gupta

DUB Speak

Distractions During Exams

By Anoushka Sharma November 24, 2018

Studying is never as simple as it sounds.Targets are set and schedules are made to be followed during the preparation leaves before the semester exams. But, the fortnightly ‘vacation’ is riddled with distractions and procrastination.

Friends

A very important group of people in your life that will surely ping at all the wrong times during exams. Exchange of notes over late night cups of coffee acts as a great stress buster, but not when you have the syllabus piled up!

Image Credits: Mahi Panchal ad Vaibhav Teckchandani for DU Beat. — Image Credits: Mahi Panchal for DU Beat.

Lovers

Lovers, the people you can rely on for almost everything. They will pick you up when you fall down, and love you even at your worst. But have patience, young lovebirds! Love can wait, but exams can’t.

Image Credits: Mahi Panchal for DU Beat.

TV Shows and Movies

TV Shows and Movies gravitate a serious attention during the exam time. One might resolve to watch them during breaks, but at times it happens that some videos that we watch tend to stay with us and, hence result into a major distraction. A subtle escape mechanism from the melancholic exam schedule, watching movies is definitely one of the most time taking distractions.

Image Credits: Mahi Panchal and Vaibhav Teckchandani for DU Beat. — Image Credits: Vaibhav Teckchandani for DU Beat.

Party Plans

A party during exam? Doesn’t sound that bad. That is what you find yourself saying when your phone pings on the table covered with books. Friends are going, what is the harm? Well, the harm is that the party will turn into an after party, and you won’t know when to stop. Be the party pooper if you have to. Reserve such parties after exams when the weight of the semester lifts off your shoulders!

Late Night Hangout Plans

How could you say no to a late night plan of driving across the city with friends or simply hanging out at a friends’ place? After all, it does seem to be relaxing, especially after a day wrapped in a tight schedule of studies. Everything seems to lure during the exams, but drawing a line between a ‘relax-time’ and distraction is what it’s all about.

Feature Image Credits: Aakarsh Gupta for DU Beat.

Akshada Shrotiya

[email protected]

Mahi Panchal

[email protected]

Vaibhav Teckchandani

[email protected]

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A Beginner’s Guide to Photography

By Vaibhavi Sharma Pathak August 31, 2018

College gives us space to acquire different skills. Students are extremely enthusiastic about trying their hand at new things and exploring their skills. One of the most tried-out and deceptively easy-looking hobby for students is photography. You may or may not have made it to your college’s photography society. But don’t worry, DU beat brings to you a whole bunch of ways through which you can click professionally and finally get your hands on your camera’s manual mode.

Exposure Triangle

The Exposure Triangle consists of the three basic elements of the camera: Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO. We use these three in different combinations according to the type of photography.

Aperture

Aperture is a hole or an opening in the lens. While pressing the shutter release button of your camera, a hole opens which allows the sensor of your camera to catch a glimpse of the scene you want to capture. The Aperture that you set determines the size of that hole. The larger the size of the opening, the more amount of light gets in and vice versa.

We use f-stops to measure aperture. Aperture also helps in determining the depth of field. Depth of field determines how much your image will be focused. A smaller aperture is used to get larger depth of field. This is used in landscape photography where all the elements of the frame should be in focus. A larger aperture is used to get shallow depth of field in which a part of the frame is focused.

This picture was clicked in large aperture to create shallow depth of field, and hence the image is brighter. (Image Credits: Surabhi Khare for DU Beat)

The same picture, when clicked in smaller aperture, results in less background blur and the image is not bright enough. (Image Credits: Surabhi Khare for DU Beat)

Shutter Speed:

Shutter speed is the length of time your camera shutter remains open, exposing light onto the camera sensor. Basically, shutter speed allows the camera to capture a frame with different speeds. High shutter speed means that the shutter will close fast resulting in shorter duration of time in which your camera shutter remains open. Less amount of light enters, so the picture is not so bright. Similarly, more amount of light enters in the case of low shutter speed as the shutter remains open for a longer time. High shutter speed is used to freeze motion while low shutter speed is used to create motion blur and light paintings.

High shutter speed used to freeze motion of animals. (Image Credits: Saubhagya Saxena for DU Beat)

Low shutter speed used to create light paintings. (Image Credits: Saubhagya Saxena for DU Beat)

ISO:

ISO is the artificial light created by the camera’s sensor. Low ISO will create pictures with lower brightness and lower noise while high ISO will create pictures with higher brightness and higher noise.

Low ISO picture with less exposure and less noise. (Image Credits: Adhitya Khanna for DU Beat)

High ISO picture with more exposure and more noise. (Image Credits: Surabhi Khare for DU Beat)

The following infographic will help you understand aperture, shutter speed and ISO in a better way:

White Balance

Another important element of the camera is white balance. White balance is used to adjust colours in the picture so that the picture looks more natural. White balance also defines how white the whites are in the photo. There are seven white balance presets in a camera which adjust the colour according to the lighting. Some of them are:

Daylight (Image Credits: Surabhi Khare for DU Beat)

Shade (Image Credits: Surabhi Khare for DU Beat)

Cloudy (Image Credits: Surabhi Khare for DU Beat)

Tungsten (Image Credits: Surabhi Khare for DU Beat)

White Fluorescent Light (Image Credits: Surabhi Khare for DU Beat)

You can notice the different colour tones in each of the presets. You can also customize the white balance through bracketing.

Metering

Metering is how your camera determines what the correct shutter speed and aperture should be, depending on the amount of light that goes into the camera and the ISO.

Most of the DSLRs have an integrated light meter that automatically measures the reflected light and determines the optimal exposure.

There are three common metering modes in the cameras:

Evaluative (Canon) or Matrix (Nikon) metering: This kind of metering takes the complete exposure in count. This is used in landscape photography where you want all the elements of the frame to be perfectly exposed.

Centre-weighted Metering: Center-weighted Metering evaluates the light in the middle of the frame and its surroundings and ignores the corners. This is used when we want the centre of the frame to be perfectly exposed and not the entire frame.
Spot Metering: Spot Metering only evaluates the light around your focus point and ignores everything else. It evaluates a single zone/cell and calculates exposure based on that single area, nothing else. When your subject occupies a small part of your frame, it is best to use the Spot Metering Mode.

Source: AllEars

Click as many pictures as you can, play with your camera, participate in different competitions. As the famous photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson had said, “Your first 10,000 photographs are yourt worst.” Keep clicking!

Feature Image Credits: Saubhagya Saxena for DU Beat

Surabhi Khare

[email protected]

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Inexpensive Photography Supplements

By DU Beat April 28, 2018

The art of photography is heavily dependent on a variety of skills. Apart from knowing the technicalities of the cameras and lenses, a skilled photographer has a keen eye for detail. A lot of times, however, this skill is subject to the availability of the proper photography equipment. Many amateur photographers do not wish to pursue this lucrative career path by the virtue of the fact that almost all equipment is expensive. To help such people, the photographers at DU Beat have compiled a list of inexpensive photography supplements, detailing the importance of each and listing down the expected price rates as well.

1. Lenses Filter

Polarizing filter: A polarizing filter removes the reflections of glass, water, plastic and everything. It helps to pop up the colours of the image and increases the contrast a little bit of the picture. Neutral Density (ND) Filter: A Neutral Density Filter helps to cut the light entering the camera. It is used in various ways in daylight shoots when you have to take long exposure shots say for example a picture of a waterfall.

Price: INR 50

2. Flash Gels

A flash gel is not like a gel at all. It is a sheet of transparent plastic that colours the light cast by the flash. You should frequently use flash gels when doing shoots to get the light match the ambient light or to introduce a creative colour into the scene For example Yellow, Green, Red etc.

Price: INR 1000

3. Gorilla Pod

The biggest advantages of the Gorilla Pod over a tripod are portability and the ability to attach to a vertical surface such as a railing or a street light pole. There are many Gorilla Pod hacks that help to make a video better than a tripod that too in creative ways.

Price: INR 700

4. LED Lights

LED lights are available in a wide array of colours and intensities, which allows you to see lighting as you compose your shot. LED Lights provide you as much light as three 300w tungsten lights uses less than half the power of a single 300w tungsten bulb. LEDs leave immense room for creative lighting by incorporating different colours.

Price: INR 1700(Approx)

5. Flash Diffuser

A flash diffuser is a simple light modifier that attaches to the upper part of an external flash unit. It’s used to soften or spread the harsh, concentrated light that bursts out of the flash, creating a more even and flattering light on the subject. It also helps in removing heavy shadows created by the harshness of the strong lighting. When using a flash diffuser, it’s best to point the external flash unit at an angle (and not directly at the subject) so that you can bounce the light off of a somewhat reflective surface—like a white ceiling, a nearby wall, or perhaps a reflector.

Price: INR 150 to 799

6. Reflectors

A reflector is an improvised or specialised reflective surface used to redirect light towards a given subject or scene. They are used to bounce the light on the subject when there is insufficient light on the subject or the picture is taken against the light. Silver, white and gold are the three main colours that are used to reflect light on the subject. One can easily use their own creativity to play with lights and thus enhance their pictures with the help of reflectors.

Price- INR 600 (approx.)

Feature Image Credits: Epinium

Akarsh Mathur
[email protected]

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Features

Must Try Street Food Joints in DU

By DU Beat February 12, 2018

South Campus

In a splendid atmosphere of college revelry of the South Campus, rests this stall. Specialising in Momos, their chicken momos-a plate of which doesn’t cost more than INR 30-are spectacular.

Nestling cozily next to the LSR back gate is a Chinese stall whose Mutton Kathi Roll valued at INR 50 and the Chilly Potato fries sold at INR 30 are the best sellers.

Perched next to the Kamala Nehru College Gate, this Bhel Puri stall sells it’s appetizing Bhel Puri priced at INR 30. Certainly a treat for the vegetarians.

Resting opposite to the CCD in Satya Niketan, Mr. Madan Lal is the proud owner of this stall which sells mouth-watering sweet corn at varied rates: small for INR 20, medium for INR 30 and large for INR 40

Image Credits: Surabhi Khare for DU Beat

Famous for its exquisite Kathi Rolls and momos, Shop number 93 at Chowringhee sells a its products in a variety of ranges. For instance, its speciality double egg roll is priced at INR 40.

North Campus

Reputed for its “chai pe charcha” that takes place amongst students and professors alike, J.P. Tea Stall inside DSE is nirvana for those who have tasted its Masala Coke

Image Credits: Akarsh Mathur for DU Beat

Famous for the age-old delectable cuisine-Masala Maggi-Tom Uncle Maggi Point will be a delight to anyone who is new in North Campus. This small shack rests commodious behind SGTB Khalsa College and sells its forte at just INR 35

Image Credits: Ayush Chauhan for DU Beat

Finally, no research on food joints would be complete without acknowledging the gravity of how succulent and inviting the Oreo Shake being sold in the Kamala Nagar Market is.