20-21 January 2012
Rajshahi, Bangladesh
we were traveling to Rajshahi to attend the wedding of one of my close in-laws.... if you had been following our blog of late, you probably know this from the earlier blog post.... apart from some exclusive portrait of the couple during the event, we were aiming for some exclusive portraits of the bride.... portraits that most of the time get missed out in Bangladeshi weddings....
we went to Rajshahi with the minimum amount of equipment for portraiture.... two small flashes (YN-560) and a softbox (Lastolite 24" Ezybox Hotshoe).... we had a small program at the bride's home the day before the real event... so, we did some run-and-gun type portraits during the event.... we couldn't make everyone wait.... so, had to do it the quickest way possible.... I decided to use the 85mm lens for some shallow DoF.... @f2.8, it was really shallow... and in fact, I had work hard to keep my focus in the right place.... and this became even more complicated once I found out that the bride's room was reflecting too much light out of the white walls even when I was using the softbox.... I wanted the backdrop darkened out.... so, had to move up to the program stage on the roof to get the portraits done.... and there were lots of lights on that stage!!..... we made the lights (all the lights) go out!!.... yes, people were in complete darkness, literally!!.... and thank God that my D700 came with something called "focus assist"..... using that, I was able to focus in absolute darkness.... now the backdrop disappeared almost completely.... the whole session (from the start of the shoot in the bride's room to the finishing of the shoot on the rooftop) was done within 14 minutes!!.... and even for that wait, some words had to be swallowed by us..... never had the time to set up a backlight, which could've added a nice separation from the black backdrop.... anyway, sometimes you just have to live with what you have....
after the wedding day couple portraits, we had some time left..... it was late at night, but there was time.... just because according to the event agreement, the bride was coming back home.... another event would be there for the groom to take the bride with him.... anyway, that left us with another opportunity to do some more exclusive portraits..... we were particularly aiming to utilise the nice personal room of the bride, who had a bit of creative touch in her decorations.... in 2010, I had already had the opportunity to use her room for some portraits of her and also took some portraits of Lamisa there using some gel filters... so, it would've been just unfair if we felt too tired at the end of the day....
that said, we setup our lights in a hurry and went down to work.... but this time, that one softbox won't be enough, as the aim was to bring some elements in the room as well..... yet, we didn't want the whole room washed in light, which would've made it really dull.... to make it happen, we put up a YN-560 on camera left (the softbox was on camera right) and aimed it straight towards the white ceiling.... had to be careful though, as the walls weren't completely white.... on a D700, it was a 28-80mm lens... shooting @f8...
we got lucky with the expressions of the bride... she was very spontaneous and needed little instructions.... it was another short, but pleasant portrait session.... the best part of this late-night photoshoot was that we had a lot of fun.... the earlier two sessions were far from fun.... we were literally on the run.... a positive break is always welcome....
a lot more to come....
Rajshahi, Bangladesh
we were traveling to Rajshahi to attend the wedding of one of my close in-laws.... if you had been following our blog of late, you probably know this from the earlier blog post.... apart from some exclusive portrait of the couple during the event, we were aiming for some exclusive portraits of the bride.... portraits that most of the time get missed out in Bangladeshi weddings....
we went to Rajshahi with the minimum amount of equipment for portraiture.... two small flashes (YN-560) and a softbox (Lastolite 24" Ezybox Hotshoe).... we had a small program at the bride's home the day before the real event... so, we did some run-and-gun type portraits during the event.... we couldn't make everyone wait.... so, had to do it the quickest way possible.... I decided to use the 85mm lens for some shallow DoF.... @f2.8, it was really shallow... and in fact, I had work hard to keep my focus in the right place.... and this became even more complicated once I found out that the bride's room was reflecting too much light out of the white walls even when I was using the softbox.... I wanted the backdrop darkened out.... so, had to move up to the program stage on the roof to get the portraits done.... and there were lots of lights on that stage!!..... we made the lights (all the lights) go out!!.... yes, people were in complete darkness, literally!!.... and thank God that my D700 came with something called "focus assist"..... using that, I was able to focus in absolute darkness.... now the backdrop disappeared almost completely.... the whole session (from the start of the shoot in the bride's room to the finishing of the shoot on the rooftop) was done within 14 minutes!!.... and even for that wait, some words had to be swallowed by us..... never had the time to set up a backlight, which could've added a nice separation from the black backdrop.... anyway, sometimes you just have to live with what you have....
after the wedding day couple portraits, we had some time left..... it was late at night, but there was time.... just because according to the event agreement, the bride was coming back home.... another event would be there for the groom to take the bride with him.... anyway, that left us with another opportunity to do some more exclusive portraits..... we were particularly aiming to utilise the nice personal room of the bride, who had a bit of creative touch in her decorations.... in 2010, I had already had the opportunity to use her room for some portraits of her and also took some portraits of Lamisa there using some gel filters... so, it would've been just unfair if we felt too tired at the end of the day....
that said, we setup our lights in a hurry and went down to work.... but this time, that one softbox won't be enough, as the aim was to bring some elements in the room as well..... yet, we didn't want the whole room washed in light, which would've made it really dull.... to make it happen, we put up a YN-560 on camera left (the softbox was on camera right) and aimed it straight towards the white ceiling.... had to be careful though, as the walls weren't completely white.... on a D700, it was a 28-80mm lens... shooting @f8...
we got lucky with the expressions of the bride... she was very spontaneous and needed little instructions.... it was another short, but pleasant portrait session.... the best part of this late-night photoshoot was that we had a lot of fun.... the earlier two sessions were far from fun.... we were literally on the run.... a positive break is always welcome....
a lot more to come....
