TriAum

TriAum performed live at Tilak Smarak Mandir and i got an opportunity to shoot them again.

Here are a few selected images of the same shoot.

Portrait: White umbrella and softbox

Strobist info: 1 vivitar 285HV 1/4 power with white shoot through umbrella, camera left and above. 1 vivitar 285HV 1/16 power camera right for fill. Triggered using rf602. Model: Pranjali.

Portrait using gels and softbox

Strobist Info: 1 vivitar 285HV 1/4 power, camera right, behind the model, with blue gel, fired on the plastered grey wall as background. 1 vivitar 285HV , 1/16 power upclose through speedlight softbox, camera right.

50mm is brutally sharp lens!!

Closer to You- Sony Vaio

Every day, while returning home from my office i stop at the jahangir hospital signal (You have to stop, its like a tradition). Without fail i stare at this big hoarding with Kareena Kapoor on it. She is promoting Sony Vaio now-a-days. I always kept thinking if i could re-create the lighting in that AD. So, did a little reverse-engineering and then could figure out what kind of lighting may have been used. The next step was to find a model who would suit to this kind of attempt. After explaining the idea to Pranjali, she happily jumped on this crazy ride. The aim was to just have fun and try to re-create that AD based on the resources we had. We know that we may not be close to the quality of the real AD but still it was a fun shoot. Hope you all like it. Any feedback is welcomed.

Strobist info: 1 Vivitar 285HV at 1/4 with wide angle diffuser to wash-out the white wall which was used as the background. 1 Vivitar 285HV at 1/4 with white shoot through umbrella, camera left, high up and facing down on the model. A few white thermacol reflectors on camera right and down-front of model.

This was also the time when i tested my new kick-ass Yongnuo RF-602 2.4Ghz flash triggers. extremely stable with 100% triggerings.

Thanks to Pranjali, for being a very nice and enthusiastic model

Bokehlicious

Well, 55-250mm is not really a macro lens and this is not really a macro shot and i am not someone who does macro photography.....but here is an attempt, hope you like it :) Taken at Okayama garden on one of my sunday morning walks :)

Bhigwan

Pilatus

Greetings from Germany

Hi Guys, I am in Germany right now and will continue to be here till November end. Its cold out here and to make things worst, its raining. I am on official tour and havent been able to go out much for photography. So i decided to take candid pics of the people i am working with. Hope you like them

From germany 2009

From germany 2009

From germany 2009

From germany 2009

From germany 2009

Kass, Satara, Maharashtra, India.

Been to Kass plateau, valley of flowers and the lake recently. Here is one of the scenes:



This image made it to the front page of Flickr.com and was EXPLORE #1 on OCT 4th 2009

Another one

Product Photography

Got my hands on yamaha FJR 1300.
Here are the specs:
Cylinders: 4
Displacement (cc): 1298
Engine Type: Horizontal In-lineHorsepower
(bhp): 145 bhpTorque (Ft Lbs): 99 lbsRedline
RPM: 11000
RPMCost: $16,290.00



Well this one dosent cost $16,290.00 coz its a 12:1 scale model, a toy. Here is the setup shot and the strobist info:

Strobist info: Vivitar 285HV snooted+red gel 1/16 for background. Another vivitar 285HV 1/4th power diffused from top through thermacol sheet. Triggered using cactus v2s

Model Photoshoot

Recently, I did a model photoshoot
Model: Pranjali.
Here are a couple shots from the shoot:

Here is a slide show of the rest of the shoot.

TriAum

This is Anup Joshi, a friend of mine and a master tabla player. He is part of the musical group called TriAum.They performed live in the city recently and i got a chance to shoot them live in concert.

Low light theatre photography is always a big challange and thanks to 50mm f1.8 and the fantastic low light, high ISO performance of Canon 40D, i was able to capture this event



Here is the rest of the event:

Shutter operation of Canon 5D captured at 2000fps

Here you can clearly see the shutter operation which involves the flipping of the mirror and the motion of the first and second curtain.

Monopod: Simplex 1055

I recently tested the Monopod-simplex 1055. I put it through very extreme condition, exposure wise, to test its effectiveness as compared to hand-held photography.

Test conditions:

Lens used: Canon EF-S 55-250mm IS lens

Camera used: Canon 40D

Focal length: 250mm

Shutter speed: 1/6

Aperture: f5.6

ISO: 800

Time/location: 8 PM , My room lit with CFL tube lamp.

According to thumb rule, while using 250mm hand held, the shutter speed should be atleast 1/400 on a 1.6x cropped sensor. IS gives you an advantage of 2-3 stops which would make the recommended shutter speed of a minimum of 1/50 seconds for a sharp shot.

For testing purpose i chose the shutter speed of 1/6, which is another 3 stops below.

The test sequence:

1. Photograph with Monopod and IS active

2. Photograph Hand-held and IS active

3. Photograph with Monopod and IS Off

4. Photograph Hand-held and IS Off

The photographs were taken straight ot of camera without any PP and their 100% crops were used for comparisions. Please note that 55-250 is in no way an indoor lens but i have put it through extreme conditions. Hence along with the monopod, the low light performance of the lens and that of the camera is also getting tested. This test will also show the effectiveness of IS of this lens.

The following are the results:

1. Photograph with Monopod and IS active

2.Photograph Hand-held and IS active

3. Photograph with Monopod and IS Off

4. Photograph Hand-held and IS Off

Please remember that these are 100% crops.

Conclusion: The monopod seems to be really effective in gaining us a stop or two in low light conditions. Keeping the IS active on monopod is very effective and both together can give us atleast an advantage of 4 stops. The monopod also takes away the load of the heavier cameras and lenses and helps in gaining stability. It can be useful in situations where carrying and handling a tripod is difficult.

Canon EF-S 55-250mm IS lens

I was testing my new Telephoto zoom lens, Canon EF-S 55-250 IS lens. Here are first few shots with it: