10 February 2012
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Tahani just turned one and it was time for us to prepare.... this strobist assignment had its own challenges and uniqueness.... we prepared ourselves for a cake-smashing event... each one-year-old has his/her own style when it comes to handling a big pile of creamy yummies!!... and we knew that Tahani would have her own style as well... and while Tahani was thinking in her mind what on earth was going on in their house, we proceeded with the set-up!!....
anyway, Tahani didn't get her excitement going at first.... she was more like at a loss.... but after a bit of encouragement from her parents, she got herself going..... and once she proceeded with it, there was no stopping her!!.... before the session was over, she had cream all over her body.... but it was fun like no other.... she had a field day with her freedom.... it was her day and there was nobody to stop her!!
big thanks to Tahani's parents who showed all the enthusiasm and spontaneity to make this session happen.... I was still a bit out of sorts from the prolonged illness... but didn't want the moment to slip away.... that child would have these pictures as a treasure for the rest of her life.... so, I decided to give priority to things that should get priority.... and we are glad that we did....
now the boring tech stuff..... we wanted an illuminated backdrop, but didn't want it absolutely washed out.... there had to be some degree of separation between the backdrop elements and our little subject... the first separation was provided by the aperture; as we used a pretty wide aperture with the 50mm lens on D700.... f3.2 created just enough DoF to put backdrop elements out of focus, yet keeping enough in focus to let us know what they were.... and the second separation was provided by those subdued lights.... two lights on the backdrop.... two YN-560 flashes in two softboxes (Lastolite 24" Ezybox Hotshoe and Westcott 28" Apollo).... kept the diffusion on the softboxes to keep harshness away.... the bokeh on the elements needed to be as soft as possible.... using a second light on the backdrop also had the aim of eliminating shadows, which might have made the bokeh a bit harsher and more prominent than desired....
the main light was another YN-560 in a Shashinki 24" softbox.... used only one Elinchrom Skyport radio trigger to trigger one flash.... the others were in optical trigger (S1) mode.... the room had a lot of light, but not enough to give it a good direction... so, we couldn't shoot in available light, rather needed to bring the available light down..... 1/200sec shutter solved most of the problems, although some remained....
a second part of this shoot is coming up..... so, stay tuned!!
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Tahani just turned one and it was time for us to prepare.... this strobist assignment had its own challenges and uniqueness.... we prepared ourselves for a cake-smashing event... each one-year-old has his/her own style when it comes to handling a big pile of creamy yummies!!... and we knew that Tahani would have her own style as well... and while Tahani was thinking in her mind what on earth was going on in their house, we proceeded with the set-up!!....
anyway, Tahani didn't get her excitement going at first.... she was more like at a loss.... but after a bit of encouragement from her parents, she got herself going..... and once she proceeded with it, there was no stopping her!!.... before the session was over, she had cream all over her body.... but it was fun like no other.... she had a field day with her freedom.... it was her day and there was nobody to stop her!!
big thanks to Tahani's parents who showed all the enthusiasm and spontaneity to make this session happen.... I was still a bit out of sorts from the prolonged illness... but didn't want the moment to slip away.... that child would have these pictures as a treasure for the rest of her life.... so, I decided to give priority to things that should get priority.... and we are glad that we did....
the main light was another YN-560 in a Shashinki 24" softbox.... used only one Elinchrom Skyport radio trigger to trigger one flash.... the others were in optical trigger (S1) mode.... the room had a lot of light, but not enough to give it a good direction... so, we couldn't shoot in available light, rather needed to bring the available light down..... 1/200sec shutter solved most of the problems, although some remained....
a second part of this shoot is coming up..... so, stay tuned!!
