The Making of TTL Group Shot at Shaheed Minar
17 March 2012
Central Shaheed Minar, Dhaka, Bangladesh
TTL's (Through the Lens: Bangladesh group of Flickr) group shoot right before the Bangladesh in Frames (BIF) exhibit has become something of a yearly event for the last several years now... its an event that produces a lot of enthusiasm and a lot of expectation... last year's shoot at Martyred Intellectuals Monument was a big success and created expectations for this year.... its never an easy job to handle that many people for a single shot... there isn't anything called perfect that you can achieve from such a shoot... usually you end up being happy with something that is workable... and because of the involvement of so many people, luck plays a important part as well... meticulous preparation leaves less to luck and can make the shoot look more an outcome of planning... that was ultimately the aim, but there are always some things that just don't go according to plan.... and you have work around it... thats the reality... always...
anyway, the shoot's original idea came from Avik Bhai (Avikbangalee)... he devised the the idea of shooting in front of the Central Shaheed Minar... we were to illuminate the Minar with light in low light conditions and bring everyone's face out in the dark with another source of light... that source of light would probably be candles.... so, candles in the foreground in everyone's hands and flash on the Minar... some drama it is... but it had its inherent challenges...
I paid a visit to the Central Shaheed Minar couple of days ahead of the shoot to do some feasibility study.... the main problem there was getting a formal permission... I went there on a Thursday and the crowd there was appreciable... Saturday (shooting day) was likely to attract even more people... and the more people there, the harder it would be to get a cleared ground.... and without a formal approval, people are not likely hear us... there weren't any big shooting challenges though... the only challenge came from the big lights there on the sides.... the lights may cause flare on the lens if they somehow end up in the frame's corners...the lights were possible to be kept out through composition though.... if the group was positioned in the centre, right in front of the Minar, it would be much easier to avoid the lights... but if we wanted to be a bit creative and shoot from a corner, there were possibilities of getting the lights in the frame... because of the stairs in the front of the Minar, use of some sort of ladder was a must to get a bit higher vantage point.... on the shooting day, we decided to shoot from a corner, which also presented with a higher vantage point... and with the ladder on top of the position, it was even higher.... this corner position allowed us to use some creative composition, using some designs (Alpona) on the ground that were drawn during last 21st February, International Mother Language Day...
safe shot at 5:39PM
the other thing that played a very important part on the shooting day was weather.... it already rained before the shoot and threatened to wash it away while we were shooting.... in fact, we were just about lucky as heavens broke down the moment we packed things up!!... the weather dictated the duration of the shoot.... because of the time constraints set by weather, we went for the safe shots at the start... just available light... f9 for depth and shutter between 1/60 and 1/160sec.... pushed the ISO with consent from Avik Bhai, as the light was really low to start with.... he was going to be end user of the photo, as the huge banner to be produced in front of Drik Gallery for the exhibit was to be ultimate outcome of this shoot, and Avik Bhai was to be the editing guru for that... we shot at 1600 ISO.... and got at least something if it rained off completely...
second shot at 5:56PM
as rain stayed off after the safe shot, we went for the second try.... we used a similar setup as that of last year's.... one big light illuminating the group and the Minar to be illuminated only by ambient light, which was by then pretty low.... one Elinchrom Ranger RX unit was the main light for this... f11 aperture, shutter varied between 1/60 and 1/20sec.... because of the use of flash, we could bring down ISO to 250...
final shot at 6:26PM
with the second shot done, we could go for the ultimate idea... the one with candles... it was difficult still, as it was windy, but it wasn't raining as yet... although there was lightning around... it went dark enough to light the candles... this time we moved the Ranger unit to the back and illuminated the Minar with it in 'full power'.... yep, that it... all 1,100w/s of it!!... the group was illuminated by six speedlites (4 x YN-560 + 2 x SB-900)... now, why use speedlights when you have two candles in everyone's hands?.... well, this picture was to be printed really big... sharpness was critical... if we exposed for the candles, there was a possibility that candle lights on the faces would make the faces blurry.... it not physically possible for 60+ people to stay absolutely still for a period longer than 1/15sec... so, we decided to expose for the flash keeping just a bit of exposure from the candles... f10, ISO 100.... it was possible to bring out the faces more in post production, but the image wouldn't lose sharpness in that case...
final output.... edited by Avikbangalee
we used Elinchrom Skyport trigger for the shoot... one receiver was with the Ranger unit... and two with two speedlights... the other four speedlights were in optical trigger mode, taking orders from the other flashes.... Avik Bhai's name doesn't need mentioning as he was co-producer of the shoot... big thanks to Shudipto, Kamal, Tahmid, Hameem and others for helping with the shoot in many ways.... Nasif gets all the credit for the BTS video shooting... and how can I not thank everyone else for their patience and enthusiasm?.... it was the spirit of TTL that lived through.... it rained heavily right after the shoot... in fact, it was already raining when we were packing things up.... we needed some hands to keep the equipment safe....it was a great experience... and was lots of fun....
don't forget to enjoy the BTS video... lots more blog posts coming.... stay tuned....
17 March 2012
Central Shaheed Minar, Dhaka, Bangladesh
TTL's (Through the Lens: Bangladesh group of Flickr) group shoot right before the Bangladesh in Frames (BIF) exhibit has become something of a yearly event for the last several years now... its an event that produces a lot of enthusiasm and a lot of expectation... last year's shoot at Martyred Intellectuals Monument was a big success and created expectations for this year.... its never an easy job to handle that many people for a single shot... there isn't anything called perfect that you can achieve from such a shoot... usually you end up being happy with something that is workable... and because of the involvement of so many people, luck plays a important part as well... meticulous preparation leaves less to luck and can make the shoot look more an outcome of planning... that was ultimately the aim, but there are always some things that just don't go according to plan.... and you have work around it... thats the reality... always...
anyway, the shoot's original idea came from Avik Bhai (Avikbangalee)... he devised the the idea of shooting in front of the Central Shaheed Minar... we were to illuminate the Minar with light in low light conditions and bring everyone's face out in the dark with another source of light... that source of light would probably be candles.... so, candles in the foreground in everyone's hands and flash on the Minar... some drama it is... but it had its inherent challenges...
I paid a visit to the Central Shaheed Minar couple of days ahead of the shoot to do some feasibility study.... the main problem there was getting a formal permission... I went there on a Thursday and the crowd there was appreciable... Saturday (shooting day) was likely to attract even more people... and the more people there, the harder it would be to get a cleared ground.... and without a formal approval, people are not likely hear us... there weren't any big shooting challenges though... the only challenge came from the big lights there on the sides.... the lights may cause flare on the lens if they somehow end up in the frame's corners...the lights were possible to be kept out through composition though.... if the group was positioned in the centre, right in front of the Minar, it would be much easier to avoid the lights... but if we wanted to be a bit creative and shoot from a corner, there were possibilities of getting the lights in the frame... because of the stairs in the front of the Minar, use of some sort of ladder was a must to get a bit higher vantage point.... on the shooting day, we decided to shoot from a corner, which also presented with a higher vantage point... and with the ladder on top of the position, it was even higher.... this corner position allowed us to use some creative composition, using some designs (Alpona) on the ground that were drawn during last 21st February, International Mother Language Day...
the other thing that played a very important part on the shooting day was weather.... it already rained before the shoot and threatened to wash it away while we were shooting.... in fact, we were just about lucky as heavens broke down the moment we packed things up!!... the weather dictated the duration of the shoot.... because of the time constraints set by weather, we went for the safe shots at the start... just available light... f9 for depth and shutter between 1/60 and 1/160sec.... pushed the ISO with consent from Avik Bhai, as the light was really low to start with.... he was going to be end user of the photo, as the huge banner to be produced in front of Drik Gallery for the exhibit was to be ultimate outcome of this shoot, and Avik Bhai was to be the editing guru for that... we shot at 1600 ISO.... and got at least something if it rained off completely...
as rain stayed off after the safe shot, we went for the second try.... we used a similar setup as that of last year's.... one big light illuminating the group and the Minar to be illuminated only by ambient light, which was by then pretty low.... one Elinchrom Ranger RX unit was the main light for this... f11 aperture, shutter varied between 1/60 and 1/20sec.... because of the use of flash, we could bring down ISO to 250...
with the second shot done, we could go for the ultimate idea... the one with candles... it was difficult still, as it was windy, but it wasn't raining as yet... although there was lightning around... it went dark enough to light the candles... this time we moved the Ranger unit to the back and illuminated the Minar with it in 'full power'.... yep, that it... all 1,100w/s of it!!... the group was illuminated by six speedlites (4 x YN-560 + 2 x SB-900)... now, why use speedlights when you have two candles in everyone's hands?.... well, this picture was to be printed really big... sharpness was critical... if we exposed for the candles, there was a possibility that candle lights on the faces would make the faces blurry.... it not physically possible for 60+ people to stay absolutely still for a period longer than 1/15sec... so, we decided to expose for the flash keeping just a bit of exposure from the candles... f10, ISO 100.... it was possible to bring out the faces more in post production, but the image wouldn't lose sharpness in that case...
we used Elinchrom Skyport trigger for the shoot... one receiver was with the Ranger unit... and two with two speedlights... the other four speedlights were in optical trigger mode, taking orders from the other flashes.... Avik Bhai's name doesn't need mentioning as he was co-producer of the shoot... big thanks to Shudipto, Kamal, Tahmid, Hameem and others for helping with the shoot in many ways.... Nasif gets all the credit for the BTS video shooting... and how can I not thank everyone else for their patience and enthusiasm?.... it was the spirit of TTL that lived through.... it rained heavily right after the shoot... in fact, it was already raining when we were packing things up.... we needed some hands to keep the equipment safe....it was a great experience... and was lots of fun....
don't forget to enjoy the BTS video... lots more blog posts coming.... stay tuned....
