Aftab Nagar Strobist Meet, 01 May 2010

after a heck of a lot of debate, we finally were able to go out with our cameras..... the whole of Friday went through debates and counter debate before it was finally canceled..... it then became sort of a mandatory thing to make it on the 1st of May.... being a government holiday, things became much easier for most..... though we again struggled to confirm the venue and also struggled to find enough confirmed participants.....

the decision went in favour of Aftab Nagar...... the place, being on the eastern edge of the City, provided us with some open space, which has become so rare now-a-days..... though I'm sure that that open space would get concrete pillars drilled in soon enough..... anyway, we were so happy seeing that open space..... the weather was pretty warm though..... we waited for the afternoon sun to shine with all its warmth..... and then we began to bring our gears out of our bags.....

we started mostly with available light...... but soon figured out that we were not getting enough separation of the subject from the background..... we shaded the sun with a scrim and went on, but needed to set up some flashes to get the separation...... the idea of shooting a biker among the tall grasses was grabbed by others very quickly....... Hameem had the ultrawide to do the job..... I played as assistant holding the scrim..... others held flashes..... using warm gel on the flash also paid rich dividends......

From Aftab Nagar Strobist Meet, 01 May 2010

model: hameem
Nikon D700 + Nikkor AF 20mm f2.8D
f8, 1/800sec, ISO 200
Strobist info:
One SB-900 on camera left with warm gel filter on voice-activated tripod (rakib); TTL mode; triggered by SU-800 on camera.

From Aftab Nagar Strobist Meet, 01 May 2010

model: rezwan
Nikon D700 + Nikkor AF 20mm f2.8D
f2.8, 1/2,500sec, ISO 200
Strobist info:
One SB-900 on camera left with warm gel filter on voice-activated tripod (rakib); TTL mode; triggered by SU-800 on camera.



anyway, I also tried out the same frames I tried a while back; but this time with a flash...... the sun was well on its way down..... so, it wasn't producing enough pop to separate the background..... the flash with warm gel did the trick...... the same trick applied for another close portrait..... the sun was replaced in the sun-glasses with the flash..... the original sun was too low down at that time and was featuring too mildly in the on the sun-glasses....

From Aftab Nagar Strobist Meet, 01 May 2010

model: sadia
Nikon D700 + Sigma APO 150mm f2.8 EX DG HSM Macro
f3, 1/640sec, ISO 200
Strobist info:
One SB-900 on camera left with warm gel filter on voice-activated tripod (hameem); shooting though a white shoot-through umbrella; TTL mode; triggered by SU-800 on camera.



the last individual shot for me was with a tele..... the idea was to utilise some nice warm clouds in the eastern sky..... the sun was already down, so needed another flash to get the separation..... set-up an umbrella to get the light to soften.....

From Aftab Nagar Strobist Meet, 01 May 2010

The Koba Squad!!
Nikon D700 + Nikkor AF 20mm f2.8D
f8, 1/30sec, ISO 200
Strobist info:
One SB-900 each on camera left and right on tripod; TTL mode; triggered by SU-800 on camera.



the last effort of the day was a group shot...... it became sort of a pain to trigger the two flashes with the SU-800.... the angle was consistently becoming too steep..... anyway, we ended up with a decent shot to call it a day.....

just a couple of hours' effort..... life has become too hectic these days to manage more time than that..... for me, this has become the difference between being in photography and getting out of it...... I'm blessed with quite of lot of friends at TTL, who are helping me to keep in photography...... missed some regular fellas who had kept the strobist spirit alive..... Faisal Bhai, Biju, Tahmid, Saif Bhai jumped off the team at the last moment.... hopefully they will be there for the next meet..... may be another weekend...... lets just hope for that day everyday during the whole week!!

for more shots, please go to the gallery:
Aftab Nagar Strobist Meet, 01 May 2010

High-rise Graffiti Shoot, Dhaka, 23 April 2010

it was a very very sultry weather, but we braved the weather to venture into a room that drains the energy out of the body in minutes!!

it was another strobist meet..... a meet that we learned to call Studiowalk.... it got that sort of name because we not just shoot with strobes, but shoot with anything that we can put our hands on...... anyway, this short, but nice Studiowalk was organised by Zaim..... actually we couldn't even think of something like this without Zaim's proposal....... his proposal was unanimously greeted with excitement and the enthusiasm actually skyrocketed once we saw the samples of the graffiti over there... Zaim and his friends created these arts and gave a new horizon to think about.... at least, I haven't seen such graffiti in our country so far..... we simply didn't want to miss such a unique opportunity..... so, there we went.... it was a preparation of almost a week, yet we felt a little under-prepared once we reached there....

the building has been abandoned for more than four years...... and gives an eerie feeling inside..... there are marks of human activity, but not a single soul to be found..... the floors have acquired so much dust that one can create a graffiti using the dust!....... all the floors were empty and dusty.... we climbed to the top floor, the 10th floor..... and things began to clear up in front of us..... this floor contained offices, and there were plenty of files and other office stuff to corroborate the fact..... the floor was once fully air-conditioned; so, now it contains to air outlet..... we opened the door to the balcony and let some air and light in.... this made us survive there for around two hours.... the month of April was felt inside down to our bones..... it was sultry and exhausting.....

From High-rise Graffiti Shoot, Dhaka, April 23 2010

model: biju
Nikon D700 + Nikkor AF 50mm f1.4D
f8, 1/250, ISO 200
Strobist info:
3 x SB-900 with warm gel filter outside filtered window glass on stand; TTL mode; triggered with SU-800+ extension cord

From High-rise Graffiti Shoot, Dhaka, April 23 2010

model: biju
Nikon D700 + Nikkor AF 50mm f1.4D
f5.6, 1/250, ISO 200
Strobist info:
3 x SB-900 with warm gel filter outside filtered window glass; 1 x SB-600 with honeycomb grid on left on stand; TTL mode; triggered with SU-800+ extension cord




anyway, we started off with the main graffiti..... the sun was exactly to the opposite side and there were huge windows with filtered glasses prohibiting light from coming inside.... the graffiti was pretty much in the dark, so, we needed to set up some flashes to light things up..... we set up three SB-900 flashes outside the window with warm gel filters to create late afternoon sunlight..... but it proved difficult to trigger the lights with the SU-800 from inside the dark glasses.... it took some effort to get an acceptable exposure.... we weren't absolutely happy about it, but accepted it..... needed to set up another SB-600 with honey-comb grid as fill light..... the samurai replica from Hameem gave us the opportunity create some drama.... the whole thing proved tough because of the extreme contrast created by the graffiti colours.... we couldn't find a satisfactory solution to it.....

From High-rise Graffiti Shoot, Dhaka, April 23 2010

model: dipa
Nikon D700 + Nikkor AF 50mm f1.4D
f3.5, 1/200, ISO 200
natural afternoon light coming through large filtered glass window

From High-rise Graffiti Shoot, Dhaka, April 23 2010

model: zaim
Nikon D700 + Sigma APO 150mm f2.8 EX DG HSM Macro
f3, 1/250, ISO 1400
natural afternoon light coming through large filtered glass window


anyway, shooting continued with strobes..... there were quite a few strobists there shooting away.... I gave a hand to some and helped create some great images..... I, on the other hand, found my frames with available light.... the huge filtered glass was holding enough of the afternoon sun to get some cool portraits.....

From High-rise Graffiti Shoot, Dhaka, April 23 2010

model: zaim
Nikon D700 + Sigma APO 150mm f2.8 EX DG HSM Macro
f3, 1/500, ISO 200
natural afternoon light coming through door

From High-rise Graffiti Shoot, Dhaka, April 23 2010

model: zaim and kamal
Nikon D700 + Sigma APO 150mm f2.8 EX DG HSM Macro
f3, 1/320, ISO 200
natural afternoon light coming through door

From High-rise Graffiti Shoot, Dhaka, April 23 2010

model: kamal + hameem's samurai
Nikon D700 + Sigma APO 150mm f2.8 EX DG HSM Macro
f3, 1/2,500, ISO 200
natural afternoon light


Hameem's samurai had seen some action, though mostly without its original owner... while I was shooting Zaim with the samurai and thinking of creating a scene where a samurai silhouette would be attacking someone else's silhouette, Zaim came up with a cool idea of creating a Japanese beheading ritual...... Zaim and Kamal created the scene, though there were not enough space to do this properly.... we also went outside and shot the samurai with the setting sun......

From High-rise Graffiti Shoot, Dhaka, April 23 2010

The Koba Squad!!
Nikon D700 + Nikkor AF 50mm f1.4D
f10, 1/500, ISO 200
Strobist info:
6 x SB-900, SB-800, SB-600 on stand (4) and on ground (2); TTL mode; triggered with SU-800


the last act of the day was a group shot..... the big graffiti was the obvious choice for a background..... it was real challenge to light everyone with strobes, since we had space constraints on one side, which left us with one side to setup the strobes..... we used a total of 6 speedlites to do the job...... killed the ambient light with a high shutter speed and set up two flashes behind the people in front to that we had enough light for the people in the far corner.... it wasn't the most ideal of group shots, but was enough for us start packing.... it was already quite dark and we had to go all the way down the dark stairs.... there was no electricity in the whole building.....

it was a cool outing.... though tough from the conditions point, it surely helped us learn quite a few things..... lighting and other conditions were quite different from what we had encountered in other places.... the challenge was great and we thought we came through..... lessons were learned, for another day..... we have to come back.....

for more shots from same venture, please visit the following link:
High-rise Graffiti Shoot, Dhaka, April 23 2010

Second TTL Studiowalk, Mohammadpur, March 2010

Its been a while since I've been posting blogs regularly....... and I had been pathetically busy, as well as lazy in recent times to be able to write anything...... I also managed very little time to even shoot...... so, when we started planning for a second "Sudiowalk" last December, I was up on my toes not to miss this event..... it was still a struggle to find a suitable schedule for it...... finding enough participants was another challenge.... the number of strobists were increasing at slow rate among us...... so, we knew that participants would come in small numbers...... still, we had the hope to getting more people this time round.....

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.....

Really struggling with busy schedules........

it had been some time since I've come back from Nijhum Dwip...... I've managed to have so little time since then, that it has become virtually impossible for me to anything timely...... the images from the TTL Nijhum Dwip Safari had been edited, but they still haven't found their home online...... so far I've only been able to share some activity pictures from the tour...... work on the travel blog hasn't even started yet.....

but this all hasn't been that bad..... I've had a nice event within this time..... the TTL Studiowalk was a huge refreshment...... I had completed all the work from the Studiowalk within one night..... if I failed to keep that time, it would've added to my backlog..... I still haven't been able to write a word on my last trip to Sundarbans..... its a real pity, since that tour was my longest trip to that area..... anyway, lets see that there for me in the coming days.....

First TTL "Studiowalk", Dhaka, November 2009

actually it required some real effort to make it happen..... after going through some busy schedules, at last we were able to assign some time for it..... Bijuman takes full credit for this meet..... he propsed the original "Studiowalk" at his place..... and the liberty of using his place, where a whole floor was empty of anything, was a big convenience..... great support and enthusiasm came up from the four initial participants, Bijumna, Atia and Shawon, along with me....... Gazi Bhai joined later to give more impetus...... thanks to all of them to make this a success!!

it was a bright sunny day..... and the empty rooms at Biju's place were washed with light..... late morning hours produced enough light to give our thinking a specific direction...... we started with available light.... we used the great big windows as softboxes.... and the light wrapped around the subject pretty nicely..... we also used ambient lights through windows to give some efects......






then we started to think crazy...... the first thing that came to our mind was to overpower the sun..... because the sun was too strong to think in any other direction..... high-speed sync (Auto FP in Nikon) was the result...... we used a single flash light with snoot to illuminate the subject's face, grossly underexposing the bright window in the back..... our idea was to make it look like a late afternoon shot......



setup......


next, we decided to use an empty white wall as the backdrop.... light was falling on the wall from one direction...... but it wasn't really strong..... we opened up a door on one side, which gave stronger light from the opposite direction.... but that light wasn't strong enough to really overpower light from the other direction.... so, we set up a flash with an umbrella beyond the door to give a soft, but natural-looking light on the subject...... I didn't really take any shots here, because I was adding some fill-light on the subject from below using a small reflector..... others took shots of this setting......

the next setting took place at Biju's second floor living quarters..... we had a nice setting in the cozy living room..... we subdued the light coming through the big window with a thick curtain, which allowed us to control light at our own will..... we setup a single flash on a stand and added a snoot..... somehow, light spilled from the snoot on the wall gave the setting a more interesting look...... so, we kept that same light setting.....



setup........



we then setup another flash a minimum power behind the couch to eliminate shadows created by the snoot.....





setup...........


the next setup was again a high-speed sync setup.... we tried to make some "kewl" portraits using a darkish setting..... we used two flashes at full power, one from below with snoot and the other from top behind as hair light...... the hair light, for some reason, didn't give expected support..... anyway, the outputs looked "kewl" enough for us......





setup.........


the next setup was for a high-key lighting...... the idea was to illuminate the background with a flash and to give nice even light from two sides on the subject using shoot-though umbrellas....... we used a higher vantage point to give more emphasis on the subject's eyes.....





setup.........


then we had the crazy idea about capturing motion...... we created action and setup two flashes, one with an umbrealla as the main light and the other as background light...... the outputs were interesting......



setup.........


the last setup was for a "kewl" group portrait...... the idea was to make all the flashes pop with the shutter..... somehow, it didn't go as smoothly as we had wanted.... but it was interesting for sure.......

The Koba Squad!!



can't wait for the next round.......:)