The Minister for Finance, Corporate Affairs and I&B, Shri Arun Jaitley will confer the 4^th National Photography Awards to eminent photographers on 20^th March, 2015 at a function being organized by the Photo Division, under the aegis of the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting at a function at the National Media Centre, New Delhi. The 4^th National Photography Awards is being organized to showcase the extraordinary talent in the field of photography. The awards will be conferred in three categories “Best Photographer of the year” and “Special Mention Award” in both Professional and Amateur category. The Ministry of I&B also confers the Lifetime Achievement Award for outstanding contribution in the various fields of photography at national and international level. The theme for the Professional Category is “Hamara Bharat Swachh Bharat” and for the Amateur Category is “Mother and Child”.

            For the first time, the Ministry of I&B is organizing a one day Workshop on Photography and Videography. Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting, Col. (Retd.), Rajyavardhan Rathore will inaugurate the workshop tomorrow at the National Media Centre. Secretary (I&B), Shri Bimal Julka will also address the workshop. The workshop has been designed to cover four sessions covering the twin themes of photography and videography. The sessions include:

(i)                  Art / Visual appreciation, including history of photography

(ii)                Technical aspects of Cameras / Lenses

(iii)               Process involved in Picture capturing and processing of images and

(iv)              Editing and finished product highlighting editing tools and visual effects, including a session of Digitisation of archives.

Approximately 25 organisations / Ministries of Government of India has been invited to nominate officials for attending the workshop.  It is expected that over 100 officers will participate in the Still Photography Workshop, while 35-40 persons will participate in the Video Photography Workshop. The participants to the workshop includes photographers from Photo Division, Doordarshan, Doordarshan (News), IIMC, DAVP and other photographers working under the Government of India.

The workshop seeks to provide these participants training in modern techniques and use of equipment of photography. The speakers for the workshop include Shri Santosh Sivan, renowned Cinematographer and Shri Rajesh Bedi, famous photographer and winner of Lifetime Achievement Award in the 3^rd National Photography Awards. Besides, representatives from Sony and Canon would also be holding sessions in the workshop to talk about the equipment and lenses. It also includes separate sessions for Videography which would see Experts from institutes like FTII, Shri Dharam Gulati, eminent Cinematographer and Representatives from eminent organisations dealing with technical equipments. One of the key session at the workshop would include session on post production including VFX/ Packaging of Finished Image and Image Capturing and Making.

The winners of the awards are selected by a Jury of five members headed by a Chairman. The National Photography Awards were initiated in the year 2010 which coincided with the Golden Jubilee Celebration of the Photo Division of the Ministry of I&B. Photo Division is one of the biggest production and documentation unit of its kind in the country in the field of photography for internal and external publicity on behalf of the Government of India.

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