we had been talking of doing this round outdoors...... so, we were looking for a suitable location...... a location where we could see enough of the afternoon sun..... but finding such a location proved to be a pain...... ultimately, we banked on my place...... we decided to shoot indoors until the sun was low enough for outdoor shooting.....
we were models ourselves...... last time we started with ambient light....... but this time, ambient was less available....... so, we started with flash straightaway....... we setup my black backdrop to create a temporary studio..... it worked well, though not excellent...... space limitation was an important obstacle towards exploring different ideas.... yet, we explored different settings...... I was more on the assisting role during this part of the event..... so, I don't have outputs from this shoot...... we explored two light solutions.... one umbrella and one reflector worked with the SB-800+SB-600 combination..... they didn't give extraordinary results, but worked........ my daughter also featured as a model and we had to lower the lights as well as our cameras to extreme level to be able to shoot....... she hardly gave us enough opportunity to shoot..... I spent most of my time managing her..... Bijuman and Shawon did the shooting.....
we studied strobe-related videos and had a nice discussion before and after lunch..... a relaxed time later, we decided move to capture the golden times..... we went to the rooftop and began to get creative.......
Network turbulence!!
setup....
Shawon brought up the idea of utilising the cell-phone tower..... we had Gazi Bhai as the model, as he forgot to bring his Canons.... I was able to get an exclusive shot of "crappy mobile network" thanks to Gazi Bhai's extraordinary facial expression....... the challenge was to shoot while the sun shone on Gazi Bhai's face..... we used my 24"x22" home-made diffuser to hide the direct sun from his face..... and we used flash as fill light...... I shot TTL (inspired by Joe McNally) totally and adjusted EV to get proper lighting on subject's face..... used a bare SB-600 to do the job...... SU-800 worked outside after all......
High-speed sync.....
setup.....
one of my ideas was to shoot high-speed sync.... the sun was still not red.... and shooting straight into the sun had its own challenges....... I also wanted to get some action...... a dull portrait is something that I hate to take.... Gazi Bhai again did well to grab my ideas and put it into action..... but I had a hard time getting enough light...... I measured the exposure from the typical frame without flash and found out that I needed 1/1250 shutter to accomplish the job at f8!!...... I used one SB-600 and found a silhouette....... I then used three flashes together (2xSB-600+1xSB-900) triggered by the SU-800...... TTL +0.1EV...... I found Gazi Bhai in the frame!!
Extreme vantage point....
setup....
next came my other idea...... extreme vantage point.... I brought the aluminium ladder from my house to get the elevation...... it looked risky to put Gazi Bhai at the edge.... but we managed it somehow..... Gazi Bhai was excellent at this one as well....... I needed soft light for this that would not make it look artificial..... bare light washed out the subject and clearly indicated at the presence of a flash...... use of the home-made diffuser did the job......
Bijuman and Shawon did the rest of the shooting..... they took great vantage point shots using the ladder...... and also used the setting sun and nice cloud patterns as background..... I relegated myself to assisting and helping with ideas.....
The Koba Squad
the last shot of the day was the group shot....... I set my camera on the tripod and we all kept the flashes in our hands...... I exposed for the evening lights and that was it......
my SU-800 worked really well...... Bijuman had the advantage of using the radio triggers....... but I was stuck with this IR trigger..... I knew my limitations.... I didn't try extravagant things with the SU-800..... but still, shooting into the sun with IR trigger; shooting at 1/1250 shutter speed; and also to shoot at extreme angle of view were not typical shooting......... the trigger failed sometimes.... but it actually did fire most of the times.... it failed when I actually forgot the line-of-sight thing of IR triggers..... it was my fault....... I shot only TTL, deviating from the usual manual settings..... the SU-800 allowed me shoot much much quicker than I could think of while using radio triggers..... its a superb thing if you know how to use it; even in seemingly extreme conditions.......
anyway, I broke off and others took off for more evening shooting on the streets..... we thoroughly enjoyed this little eventful day..... we missed the others who could not participate........ but we thought the event was a great success, surely an encouragement for participation next time...... can't wait.....
