Used Camera Market, Lahore

26/01/2023

1 Dollar is now equal to Rs. 255

Credit goes to the people of Pakistan who are buying dollar as investment.

Credit goes to investors of Pakistan who are either investing in real estate of Dubai through drainage of dollar from Pakistan or prefer to invest in local real estate instead of investing the same in trade, commerce or industry/manufacturing wherein local work-force could be engaged/employed.

Credit goes to the dummy/ghost/benami importers (almost 40% of total imports) who make payments through hawala and caused increase in dollar value in local market.

Credit goes to exporters who make exports of 60 billions but declare the same up to 30 billion and retain the rest which is utilized by hawala hundi handlers abroad.

Credit also goes to expatriates who, in order get few more rupees, handover forex to hawala/Hundi handlers abroad to remit the same to their Families in Pakistan such hawala handlers help benami importers as well those who short declare import value in import GDs, commercial invoices and pay the rest through hawala handlers abroad.

Little credit goes to importers of coal from Afghanistan who handover local currency to Afghanis who then buy dollars from local forex dealers and smuggle the same to Afghanistan.

Major credit goes to the importers and manufacturers who sell old stocks at new prices coupled with families of expatriates in receipt of remittances and get the courage to say "we can't compromise over quality thus cannot buy local/indigenous goods because we got the money equivalent to the increase in forex".

Credit goes to free trade agreement with China who helped us close local medium sized and cottage industry and made our labor force unemployed forcing them to commit street crimes coupled with fraud and robbery.

Credit goes to the trade policy through which dollars earned through export of textiles were given to importers of Chinese finished goods including toothpicks, earbuds, plastic goods, toys, decoration stuff, car/mobile accessories, confectioneries, copies, rubber, pensile and other stationary goods,, cosmetics/personal hygiene, toys, tiles, bath/kitchen accessories, electrical home appliances, cutlery, fabrics, garments, shoes etc and for import of oil & gas, edible oil, tea, lentils, raw material etc dollars were obtained from IMF.

The rest enjoys effects of deteriorating forex reserves specially the salaried class whose employer doesn't want to pay them according to augmentation in forex parity.

Moral of the story

Those who don't compromise over quality of local goods have to compromise over rising prices, low salaries, influx of Chinese goods, unemployment, increase in crimes, depleting forex reserves, meagre resources for security forces, increase in prices of agricultural produce and decline in purchasing power of the masses.

Credit goes to the policy of entire Nation for following the phrase " we can't compromise over quality thus can't buy local goods".

Credit goes to my Nation for its odd behavior compared to rest of developed world who gives first preference to indigenous products and services.

230 countries of planet earth are watching us and learning lesson so much so that it would be taught to little kids in school as to how a nation collectively deteriorates its own economy while blaming the government for non-correction of behavior of entire Nation.

It would be taught that a Nation did not like the phrase "Made in Pakistan" and how it faced repercussions of its collective behavior.

Be mindful that all Chinese finished goods are being imported out of dollars obtained from IMF and our children would have to pay of the dollars which are being spent by us on Chinese finished goods. Our shops and bazaars are full of Chinese goods because of demand created by us and only reduction of demand from our side can forestall such importers from consumption of dollars obtained from IMF.

18/10/2022

How to Shoot in Manual Mode (+ Cheat Sheets for Beginners)

Want to use and understand Manual mode like a pro? In this article, I’m going to explain everything you need to know about shooting in Manual, including:

What it actually is
How to use it for amazing results
Why Manual mode might (or might not!) be a good idea
I’ll also share with you a few helpful camera settings cheat sheets, courtesy of the London School of Photography.

So if you’re ready to become a Manual mode master, then let’s get started!

How to shoot in Manual mode
What is Manual mode in photography?
Manual mode gives you complete control over your camera settings. Once your camera is set to Manual, you can adjust different settings and even control your flash.

Most importantly, shooting in Manual lets you independently adjust the three key exposure variables:

ISO
Aperture
Shutter speed
Together, the ISO, aperture, and shutter speed determine the overall brightness of your photos (i.e., the exposure). They also affect your photos in other key ways – by adjusting the sharpness, depth of field, and overall image quality.

That’s what makes Manual mode so powerful. In Manual, you can make your photos appear exactly as dark or light as you want. You can also ensure perfect sharpness, create different depth of field effects, and keep your low-light photos looking high quality.

Now let’s explore these three settings in more detail:

ISO
Simply put, ISO controls your camera’s sensitivity to light.

So by adjusting the ISO, you can increase your camera’s light sensitivity which will, in turn, give you a brighter image.

Say you’re shooting at night and your shots keep turning out too dark. If you’re working in Manual mode, you can boost your ISO – and your images will instantly brighten up.

latern at night high ISOA low-light image like this one can benefit from a high ISO.

On the flip side, if you’re shooting on a sunny day and you want to reduce your exposure, you can drop the ISO to achieve a darker result.

Unfortunately, ISO does come with a significant drawback. As illustrated by the ISO cheat sheet below, the higher the ISO, the noisier your photos become. Noise rarely looks good, and it’s an easy way to ruin an otherwise great image.

For that reason, I generally recommend you leave your ISO on its lowest value unless you specifically need to raise it (e.g., you’re shooting in low light).

Manual mode ISO cheat sheet
Aperture
aperture blades of a lens
The aperture is an opening in the lens. The wider the aperture, the more light it lets in and the brighter the resulting exposure (see the aperture cheat sheet below):

Manual mode aperture cheat sheet
Note that photographers use f-stops to refer to aperture sizes, where a smaller f-stop refers to a larger aperture and vice versa.

So an aperture of f/1.4 lets in a lot of light, giving you a brighter image. An aperture of f/22 lets in very little light, producing a darker image. Make sense?

Aperture is also responsible for controlling the depth of field – the amount of your image that is in focus. The larger the aperture, the smaller the depth of field.

Here’s an image with a shallow depth of field (shot at f/2.8 or so):

shallow depth of field flower
And here’s an image with a deep depth of field (shot around f/11):

deep depth of field train tracks in forest
See the difference? The wide aperture ensured a very blurry background (though a portion of the flower is still sharp). The narrow aperture, on the other hand, kept the shot sharp from foreground to background.

So if you want a nice, blurry background, you can use Manual mode to dial in a low f-number. And if you want a shot that’s sharp throughout, you can dial in a high f-number instead.

Shutter speed
Shutter speed is essentially the exposure time of an image; that is, how long the shutter stays open to allow light to hit the sensor.

The faster the shutter speed, the less light that hits the camera sensor and the darker the final image.

The shutter speed also determines image sharpness. A fast shutter speed freezes the action, while a slow shutter speed will produce motion blur:

How to Shoot in Manual Mode Cheat Sheet for Beginners
In general, it pays to use a higher shutter speed to capture sharp images. But there are times when you might want to create motion blur for artistic effect, in which case a slower shutter speed is the way to go.

slow shutter speed car moving with background blur

One extra setting: white balance
White balance is one final Manual mode setting worth learning.

It lets you remove color casts from your scene – and by adjusting the white balance, you can achieve neutral white tones. (It’s especially useful for removing harsh yellow tones or redness on the skin.)

Manual mode white balance cheat sheet
White balance can be used in unconventional ways to get different creative results. For example, you can use the Tungsten white balance preset on an overcast day to produce blue hues and enhance contrast. Or you can use the Shade white balance preset at sunset to enhance the golden light.

Therefore, it’s highly beneficial to experiment with the various white balance modes; you never know what creative looks you might produce!

How to use Manual mode: a three-step process
So, Manual mode lets you adjust your ISO, aperture, and shutter speed to get a well-exposed – or poorly-exposed – final image. (It also lets you adjust your white balance setting to remove color casts and produce creative effects.)

And once you’ve switched your camera to Manual mode, the goal is to carefully set your variables for the results you’re after. But how should you approach this? What’s the best way to go about determining the right Manual mode settings?

While there’s no single correct approach to adjusting settings in Manual, here’s my step-by-step advice:

Step 1: Set your aperture based on depth of field considerations
Do you want a shallow depth of field? Or a deep depth of field?

Start by dialing in your desired aperture. If you want a blurry background, pick a wide aperture. If you want a sharp background, pick a narrow aperture.

Step 2: Set your shutter speed for sharpness
Ask yourself:

How fast is my subject moving? What shutter speed do I need to keep it sharp?

Here, you might think about using the handy Reciprocal Rule, or you might estimate based on previous experiences. When shooting handheld, I rarely stray below 1/125s or so (and if my subject is moving quickly, 1/800s is my bottom limit).

Of course, if you’re after artistic blur or you’re using a tripod to photograph an unmoving subject, you’re free to lower your shutter speed to 1/30s and beyond.

Step 3: Set your ISO (and adjust your shutter speed/aperture) for the best exposure
At this point, you should have picked an aperture based on artistic considerations, and you should have a shutter speed dialed in for perfect sharpness.

So all that’s left is to nail the exposure, and I recommend you do it with your ISO, if possible (though you may also need to tweak your shutter speed and aperture).

Start by setting your ISO to its lowest value. This is generally ISO 100, but might be ISO 160, ISO 200, or ISO 50, depending on your camera.

Then simply point your camera at the scene you want to photograph and carefully observe the exposure bar at the bottom of your viewfinder. If the bar is showing underexposure (skewed to the left), you’ll need to increase your ISO until you get a centered exposure bar.

If the bar is showing overexposure (skewed to the right), you’ll need to either increase your shutter speed or narrow your aperture until you get a balanced exposure bar. Which setting you adjust doesn’t really matter – the key is to preserve any creative effects you want to produce. So if you’re using a wide aperture for a shallow depth of field, then boost your shutter speed instead. Whereas if you’re using a slow shutter speed for artistic motion blur, then narrow your aperture.

21/07/2022

Now that exchange rate is touching Rs. 230/- per dollar it is imperative for us to reconsider and reset our priorities as a prudent NATION while choosing from imported goods vis'a'vis downward 📉 trend in prices of domestic commodities and services as well as imported goods upon appreciation of Homeland currency.

Over the time Pakistanis as a NATION have chosen imported goods over domestic ones of which results are abundantly vivid.

If you don't have the courage to compromise over the quality and prefer domestic goods over imported ones, you don't have the right to complain over devaluation of your currency and rising prices because you deserve it as repercusion of your own actions.

Still import of lot of non essential items need to be banned such as plastic toys, decoration stuff, mobile/car accessories, finished goods and raw-materials of which Pakistani alternate is available or can be made available. Finished imported garments, shoes, cosmetics food stuff etc are killing our economy while depriving our labor earn livelihood. The foreign exchange sent to importing countries induce them to employ more labor to meet international demand owing to which we see street crimes where people buying imported stuff are looted by unemployed labor class whose livelihood is being transferred to foreign countries. We need to learn from Indian and Bangladeshi people who over the decades developed the tendency to prefer domestic products compared to imported ones. We are only able to see their development and rising forex reserves but we are not willing to follow their trait of preferring domestic goods compared to imported ones while compromising over the quality.

The more my nation would take to understand the core issue and transform it's buying habits the more it would take my nation to get an escape from the clutches of debt repayments and current account deficits.

26/02/2022

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