whats more dynamic than a white wall?

17 January 2013

just a few days back when we produced our winter theme photo, we received some nice feedback, including a praise for the choice of backdrop (from Mahmood Hussain Mehedi... thanks, buddy!!).... it was a grey backdrop, nothing more.... but this grey backdrop wasn't even grey in reality.... it was, in fact, a white wall and the control of light produced that grey background.... it produces images a lot different from that of a genuine grey backdrop... the biggest difference between the white wall and grey backdrop is the diversity that is achievable from the backdrop... the grey backdrop will not give pure white unless its blasted with a zillion watt-second of light!... the white, on the other hand, is much easier for producing diverse background... just a tweaking of light directions can produce completely different images.... its much more dynamic...

I've used my white wall to produce lots of images that are difficult to associate with the same backdrop.... using gels or cookies produce even more drama.... but just a mere control of light with softboxes or grids can produce totally different images.... the best part of using controlled light on such a backdrop is the gradient that I get.... that gradient produces something more natural, which can't be achieved only with a backdrop.... so, I would say its the combination of lighting and white wall that produces the diversity, not just a bare white wall....

my favourite lighting tool to be used with the white wall is the Elinchrom Ranger + Simpex 50cmx120cm softbox combo... it gives so much flexibility that it almost made me crazy, as I was constantly drawn to this combo alone... sometimes its good to have some fill-light options to cut shadows or back-light options to give the images more edge...

I would be glad to produce a video podcast with a review of the above lighting combo sometime... but as my main video podcast platform Youtube is currently banned in Bangladesh, it can't be done so soon.... I'm keeping my fingers crossed, though...

please give your feedback... whats your most favourite background option when it comes to dynamism?

the K.A.K. story..... part 3

31 March 2012
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

read the first part of the blog here....
and the second part here...

did we mention how much fun we had during the photo-session with KAK?.... can't say enough of that.... really!.... and the fun only got more concentrated when we introduced the other protagonists.... the characters who now play a very important role in the composition and relationship of KAK.... the whole story now became fluid and interesting.... the pictures speak for themselves...

the idea was to show the evolution of the group.... though the group is still known as KAK, it really showed something like KAKTP!!.... well, once you introduce people like that in your inner circle, things change forever and you have to live it, and more importantly, evolve.... and that evolution also indicated to changes in future... since we shared the images in Facebook, a lot of debate started among the friends community, and why not?.... everybody loves evolution!! :)

we introduced quite a bit of light without creating a washout... two softboxes on both sides (one 24" Lastolite Ezybox Hotshoe and one 24" Shashinki softbox).... two more lights on both sides with grid-spots working as edge lights... one more light in front, bouncing off a silver reflector to act as a low fill.... a total of five lights... all small lights... four YN-560s and a Nikon SB-900.... camera was a Nikon D700 with a 28-80mm lens and trigger was an Elinchrom Skyport on two flashes... the others were all in optical trigger mode...

a lot more coming up.... stay tuned... :)
 

the K.A.K. story..... part 2

31 March 2012
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

read the first part of this blog here....

if you had been following the K.A.K. story, you probably know that we had been through a lot of brainstorming... and one of the top considerations in relationship portrayal was 'friends in need'..... our second setup was based on that.... some of the tough moments in individual's life are sometimes taken care of by friends... the relationship of K.A.K. took a deeper meaning every now and then with the advent of such situations.... the ability of the group to solve problems together had always been a strong point of their relationship....

to highlight this, we decided to pick the guy most appropriate for the 'distressed' role!... and from there, it just evolved... we didn't forget to end the theme with some fun... so, we gave Kamal and Kamrul and open cheque!..... :)

lighting was simple for this.... one Elinchrom Ranger RX unit with a 100cm Rotalux "Deep Octa" on camera left.... and a couple of YN-560 flashes bouncing from the white wall on camera right.... trigger was an Elinchrom Skyport... the YN flashes were all on optical trigger mode...

for the third setup, we decided to portray 'fellowship'... its true that it happens to all friend circles... people have their differences... but in the end its friendship that clears everything up and wins the day... friends just end up following a single path even though there's disagreement.... we again needed to pick the right guy to show the dispute or tension.... every friend circle have people with roles... it wasn't that hard to pick, obviously.... the fun factor was important for this setup.... and yes, it was lotta fun! :)

we had two softboxes on two sides.... one Lastolite 24" Ezybox Hotshoe and one 24" Shashinki softbox.... two YN-560 flashes in them.... we wanted the light to be a bit moody.... so, we didn't want light all over the place.... the placement of the two softboxes made sure of the low spill of light on the backdrop... camera was Nikon D700 + Nikkor AF 28-80mm lens... Elinchrom skyport was the trigger for one flash... the other one was on optical trigger mode....

stay tuned for a lot more.... :)

the K.A.K. story..... part 1

31 March 2012
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

the original proposal for this photo-session came from Kamrul, an old photographer buddy of mine... a very popular photographer among the online photographers' community here in Bangladesh.... the basic idea of this photo-shoot was to highlight the exclusive friendship of Kamrul, Arif and Kamal... K.A.K., which is what they choose to call themselves... ("kak" in Bangla means "crow")... these three friends had a lotta photos taken as they're part of a pretty large photography group... so, it was a real challenge to do a photo-shoot that would not just tell a story of relationship, but would be different from all others photographs of theirs previously taken...


with Arif and Kamal already married, and Kamrul still being single, the story had some twists and turns that were dramatic in themselves... but we had to figure out where to start and where to finish up... we had a lotta brainstorming before we touched the camera... practicality prevented some of the photos... but that also opened the opportunity to tell an even better story...

every story has a start... and to start with, we decided to concentrate on the very backbone of their relationship... photography.... photography is the thing that brought them together and made them bosom friends... this friendship is a lot different from friendships that start in student life... having found one another during a more matured period of their lives, their story had more matured thoughts... anyway, their closeness was carried on by social networking.... that networking included physical hangouts, web chat, and mobile chat.... another very important thing that brought them on the same level field was their professional backgrounds.... they all work in the field of information technology.... that made it much easier for them to integrate different technological advances and put them to use....

to show this base of their friendship, we decided to make a photo that would not just show photography as the real base, it should also show their tech savviness and networking skills... this called for a complex lighting scenario.... we used a total of six lights for this one.... three YN-560 flashes were hidden on each of their laps which illuminated their faces and resembled the lights coming out their electronic gadgets... a fourth flash, a Nikon SB-900 was on top with grid-spot to put a focus light on the camera... we needed some fill light, as some details needed to been seen as well... the devices in their hands and also the networking cables coming out of their devices and joining up with the camera needed to be seen properly.... fill light was given by an Elinchrom Ranger RX + 100cm Rotalux "Deep Octa" unit on camera left and a fifth speedlite, a YN-560 was on camera right bouncing from white wall... the fill flashes reduced contrast to some extent.... camera was D700 with 28-80mm lens.... one Elinchrom Skyport radio trigger was used... all the other flashes were in optical trigger mode...

stay tuned for much more... :)

the drama that was always there.... part 3

10 March 2012
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

for an intro on the session, please visit the first part of this blog....
also, have a look at the second part of the blog here....

Pretty and Kamal are one of the most interesting couples we have had the chance to do a photosession with... as usual, we were thinking of building a story around them... a story that they live through everyday... we thought of bringing that story out within a dramatic context... the story would remain the same, but the screenplay would be from a drama series of some sort...

while playing with the contrasts, we decided to go with some unique liking and disliking... that uniqueness is what defines relationships among couples.... each couple is different and each couple have their own little story..... people may say that such stories are common... hmm... are they?.... probably they are common... but when you combine all those stories we begin to realise how unique each relationship is... its not that easy to bring out the uniqueness in each relationship... and thats why when you succeed in doing it, the satisfaction is so much more.... not just for the photographer, also for the protagonists.... they begin to understand that they are protagonists in their own drama!!

in the previous episode, we showed how Kamal was indulging in his own world.... this time, Pretty comes up with her revenge!!.... well, sort of.... she knows what puts Kamal off.... they were both very spontaneous with their expressions.... it had to be, as it was the story of their own life.... so, it came almost naturally.... we just put them in a dramatic context to bring some action in it...

we kept the lighting as simple as possible.... we didn't want a wash of light, as we were after some uniqueness of two characters... there had to be two sides of the characters... so, we kept a play of light and shadow on their faces.... two softboxes on two sides (one Lastolite Ezybox 24" Hotshoe and one Shashinki 24").... they were placed in a way so that the background doesn't get washed and there still remains some contrast in the image... two YN-560 flashes did the job in the two softboxes... 28-80mm lens was on the D700 and the trigger was an Elinchrom Skyport on one of the YN flashes... the other one was on optical trigger....

stay tuned for the rest of the story... :)

the drama that was always there.... part 2

10 March 2012
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

for an intro on the session, please visit the first part of this blog....

Pretty and Kamal are one of the most interesting couples we have had the chance to do a photosession with... as usual, we were thinking of building a story around them... a story that they live through everyday... we thought of bringing that story out within a dramatic context... the story would remain the same, but the screenplay would be from a drama series of some sort...

one of the first stories that emerged from the couple was their love-hate relationship with certain objects and habits... every relationship has its contrasts... and sometimes the contrasts are so stark that its hard to believe that the relationship actually exists... but we tend to forget that the contrasts show the real strength of the bonding.... a bonding that is strong that despite all those contrasts, love prevails....

anyway, actually it doesn't really require any description for a series like this one.... the visuals are strong enough to understand what goes on in their minds.... Pretty and Kamal both were very spontaneous with their expressions.... it had to be, as it was the story of their own life.... so, it came almost naturally.... we just put them in a dramatic context to bring some action in it...

lighting was critical here... there had to be two layers of lighting here, as the subjects had a fair bit of gap between them.... used the 28-80mm lens (on D700) for convenience here... and was shooting between 35mm and 40mm.... this focal length gave a chance to use perspective to bring out the drama.... two softboxes (Lastolite Ezybox 24" Hotshoe and Shashinki 24") were used for the two subjects, both camera left... a YN-560 flash in each of them.... Elinchrom Ranger RX system played a secondary role as an edge-light with a grid spot... also camera left... a single YN-560 with blue gel and grid spot was on the other side to provide edge light for the subject in front of the camera... Elinchrom Skyport was the trigger used here on the Ranger unit... other flashes were on optical trigger mode...

thats it... hope to publish the rest of the story ASAP.... stay tuned... :)

the drama that was always there.... part 1

10 March 2012
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Pretty and Kamal are one of the most interesting couples we have had the chance to do a photosession with... as usual, we were thinking of building a story around them... a story that they live through everyday... we thought of bringing that story out within a dramatic context... the story would remain the same, but the screenplay would be from a drama series of some sort...

Kamal had been a friend for long.... an old photo-buddy with whom I had many a great moments... and Pretty had become a very close friend of my family through their unique family photo-session... a very couple, we knew we would be able to make some great photos with them... as we were thinking of making drama, we decided to start off with a picture that put them in a dramatic context.... it was to be more like a formal photo, but we thought it would be nice to add a pinch of difference...

so, rather than setting a clean frame, we purposefully made the scene a bit complex... more like the set of a TV drama/movie... we left a big light in the frame with barn doors attached... and also left some of the studio stuff around the corners of the frame.... lighting was critical... we didn't want a flood of light, which would've been enough to undo all the effort that went in to design the set... a total of six lights (1 x Elinchrom Ranger RX, 4 x YN-560, 1 x SB-900) were used in this shot... two lights on camera left in two softboxes ( Lastolite Ezybox 24" Hotshoe & Shashinki 24").... Kamal and Pretty were in different height, thats why one softbox for each of them... one light with grid spot giving Pretty a hair light.... one light on Kamal from camera right to provide an edge light.... one light with blue gel and grid spot on the backdrop to add some drama.... the blue light went through some studio rigging, producing a bit of effect like 'cookies'.... and lastly, the big Elinchrom Ranger RX unit in the frame with barn doors to symbolise a movie setting.... just one Elinchrom Skyport trigger was used here... all other flashes were in optical trigger mode...

a lot more coming up... the story of Pretty and Kamal has just started... :)

under the Minar....

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....

damn good shadows... part 1....

03 February 2012
Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

personally, I'm not that fond of photos that don't have any shadows in them... in fact, its the shadows that give objects their true shape... the three-dimensional feel of an object is never apparent without shadows... although in some cases I do try to eliminate most shadows, I still try to keep some of it to fulfill my inner desire... at least, it gives sort of a direction to the light.... but there are times when I found shadows more important than the light itself!!.... so important that I went ahead modifying the shadows, rather than modifying light.... well, it sounds silly, as they're just opposite of the same coin... this is the first part of such efforts....

 I'm always heavily influenced by Joe McNally.... he's one of my lighting gurus.... one of the things that Joe does quite regularly at the end of his superb workshops is a shadow projection using the audience.... he sets one light at the end of the hall-room and tells the audience to raise their hands.... that way, he creates a great backdrop for his talent on stage.... and the kind of talents he manages for his workshops are one-of-a-kinds... with McNally behind the camera, you can guess the quality of outputs....

 
I never had the opportunity to use a hall-room for a shoot.... but also never thought that I couldn't do anything without it.... it may not be as easy without the hall-room, yet, it might still work out after all.... with that hope, I thought of creating something for Lamisa that wasn't possible for us in real life (well, at least, not for now).... we created a shadow audience for her and turned her into sort of a star.... oh yes, when she stood with that colourful guitar of her, the audience just went 'gaga'..... well, sort of...

just one YN-560 flash, triggered with an Elinchrom Skyport..... we used the maximum length of the room (no hall-room).... the flash was placed as close to the ground as possible, but not on the ground for obvious reasons.... the shadows were provided by some "hand-made hands" (no real audience was manageable).... the white wall was was the back of the "stage".... the main challenge was to figure out the distance between the light and the props, and between the props and the wall.... it turned out nicely in the end, though we had to adjust quite a bit during the shoot.... a small bit of change in placement of the props meant a huge change of direction of the shadows....

Lamisa had a lot of fun getting to use her "guitar" to her heart's content.... that guitar didn't last longer than that shoot.... actually it was already running on repairs when used during the shoot!!

a lot more coming up.... stay tuned....

back to the big whites.....

10 February 2012
Dhaka, Bangladesh

if you had been following our blog, you probably know how Tahani smashed that pile of cream!!.... well, that wasn't the end of the session for her though.... we also wanted some photos of one-year-old Tahani in her playing mood with her own possessions... one very important part of Tahani's session was that she was able to walk, with some help, of course.... we wanted to make sure that particular skill didn't get missed out, as that was actually one of the most important traits of her age....

Tahani was quite at home with her toys.... and she wasn't put off by all that photoshoot arrangements.... that was a huge plus.... but we did have to give way to her to get some rest mid way during the session.... and that rest allowed us to finish the session on a really successful note... Tahani was truly amazing... she was really expressive and spontaneous.... we just ensured that she was within the frame, as that became bit of an issue for some moments.... but we were able to handle that with ease with the help of Tahani's parents, who had been really wonderful....

now the boring technical bit.... for this whole session, we wanted to have a high-key sort of lighting.... no clutter.... hadn't shot on white backdrops for some time.... it was nice to be back to the big whites!!..... for this to work, we set two lights aiming at the white backdrop..... the YN-560s were inside the softboxes without their diffusion covers (a Lastolite 24" Ezybox Hotshoe and a Westcott 28" Apollo).... the softboxes ensured an even flow of light without falling on our little subject.... and key light was a third YN-560 flash inside a Shashinki 24" softbox.... one Elinchrom Skyport radio trigger was used on one flash and the others were in optical trigger (S1) mode.... the whole shoot was done with a 50mm f1.4 lens on a D700.... took the risk and shot in a fairly shallow DoF (f2.8-f3.2) to get a good enough recycle time with the flashes.... that put a challenge on getting a proper focus, as Tahani wasn't really in her static mood... but it turned out fine, especially because the faster recycle allowed for more moments to be captured...

a lot more to come.....