03 December 2011
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh
this is a more of technical blog post for my strobist friends..... ever since I got the "Elinchrom Ranger RX Speed AS" in my hand, I had been looking for the opportunity to overpower the midday sun.... and actually thats probably the biggest reason why I opted for the Ranger RX instead of the much smaller and much more portable Ranger Quadra.... I just wish the RX had the weight of the Quadra... but that extra power would justify anything when you need it... if you can remember the TTL group portrait that we took earlier in 2011, you would know what this beast is capable of.... but that shot was done very late in the day, almost near sunset.... that 71-man portrait was done using a single light... the Ranger RX....
that time I used a reflector to concentrate light.... but that reflector is not very polite towards people with softer profile, say Lamisa.... for that, I needed a much bigger light modifier.... I had the 50cm x 120cm Simpex softbox for a while.... but that works more like a strip light and restricts the light within a tunnel... for a single person's portrait, that light source was surely big enough.... still, for some reason I didn't get the motivation to conduct this sort of an exercise.... so, right after getting the Rotalux 100cm Deep Octa in my hand, I started to feel for that kind of an image!.... just a few days back, AKA was showing me an example image that had a child under the midday sun.... that thing kinda reminded of my duties.... hmm.... enough of a motivation to pack everything up and carry it to the top floor of the building.... pain?... well, not as much as climbing the whole building!.... we only had to go from the 2nd floor to the 6th floor.... the 10kg or so weight of the Ranger system couldn't break my back within that short period....
the December sun was under extensive gloom, in an overcast day, which gave me quite a bit of latitude... the sun gave 1/640sec @f11 & ISO100 and 1/250sec @f16 & ISO100... I knew I had to shoot below f11 and also had to bring down the shutter below 1/160sec to reach the flash sync..... that brought the Cokin ND filters in action!!.... for the first time, I put those glasses in front of the 20mm wide lens.... and immediately, I could shoot @1/160sec.... the Ranger wasn't shooting at full power though... it was roughly around 80% power, translating to around 880w/sec..... that was enough power for f14.... tried out a few with f16 at the start, then switched to f14... the first of the below images was shot at f16....
I wish there was more texture in the sky, though there was more than enough cloud for a December sky... that gives me another excuse to try this thing out once again when there would be more cloud around... I'm not really a fan of tilted frames... but decided to try these out finding the rooftop railings too boring.... tilted frames creates some diagonal lines, which were at least somewhat better than the monotonous straight lines....
a lot more to come in a hurry!!
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh
this is a more of technical blog post for my strobist friends..... ever since I got the "Elinchrom Ranger RX Speed AS" in my hand, I had been looking for the opportunity to overpower the midday sun.... and actually thats probably the biggest reason why I opted for the Ranger RX instead of the much smaller and much more portable Ranger Quadra.... I just wish the RX had the weight of the Quadra... but that extra power would justify anything when you need it... if you can remember the TTL group portrait that we took earlier in 2011, you would know what this beast is capable of.... but that shot was done very late in the day, almost near sunset.... that 71-man portrait was done using a single light... the Ranger RX....
that time I used a reflector to concentrate light.... but that reflector is not very polite towards people with softer profile, say Lamisa.... for that, I needed a much bigger light modifier.... I had the 50cm x 120cm Simpex softbox for a while.... but that works more like a strip light and restricts the light within a tunnel... for a single person's portrait, that light source was surely big enough.... still, for some reason I didn't get the motivation to conduct this sort of an exercise.... so, right after getting the Rotalux 100cm Deep Octa in my hand, I started to feel for that kind of an image!.... just a few days back, AKA was showing me an example image that had a child under the midday sun.... that thing kinda reminded of my duties.... hmm.... enough of a motivation to pack everything up and carry it to the top floor of the building.... pain?... well, not as much as climbing the whole building!.... we only had to go from the 2nd floor to the 6th floor.... the 10kg or so weight of the Ranger system couldn't break my back within that short period....
the December sun was under extensive gloom, in an overcast day, which gave me quite a bit of latitude... the sun gave 1/640sec @f11 & ISO100 and 1/250sec @f16 & ISO100... I knew I had to shoot below f11 and also had to bring down the shutter below 1/160sec to reach the flash sync..... that brought the Cokin ND filters in action!!.... for the first time, I put those glasses in front of the 20mm wide lens.... and immediately, I could shoot @1/160sec.... the Ranger wasn't shooting at full power though... it was roughly around 80% power, translating to around 880w/sec..... that was enough power for f14.... tried out a few with f16 at the start, then switched to f14... the first of the below images was shot at f16....
and when I have a model as good as Lamisa, things become entertaining right from the word 'go'.... although it was typically challenging with Lamisa, keeping her in the frame and in focus amidst her big movement.... she at first featured with her new cycle (a blog post coming up) and then posed without the cycle...
I wish there was more texture in the sky, though there was more than enough cloud for a December sky... that gives me another excuse to try this thing out once again when there would be more cloud around... I'm not really a fan of tilted frames... but decided to try these out finding the rooftop railings too boring.... tilted frames creates some diagonal lines, which were at least somewhat better than the monotonous straight lines....
a lot more to come in a hurry!!
