May 2013

Monthly Archives: May 2013

Best Photographers for family shoot – the story of a mother and her 2 sons

[Post titled "Best Photographers for family shoot - the story of a mother and her 2 sons" by Amrit, co-founder ShaadiGraPher]

This is once again, a non-wedding post. I had a wedding shoot scheduled in Mumbai. Few days before that, Varun, my class mate of five years from IIT and a good friend (we were placed in the same company after graduating / post-graduating), asked me if I knew any photographer who could do a family shoot at his place for few hours. His sister and her two children were going to be there with him, and it was her sister who wanted this shoot. Varun had tried Googling for best photographers for family shoot in Mumbai and around. He even contacted few people but those who seemed to do a good job had charges which were mind numbing. I told him about my existing shoot in Mumbai and that if he wanted, I could come a day before and shoot myself. He readily agreed.

And thus, I met Varun’s didi and her two cute, adorable and shy kids. We had decided to do some outdoor shoots but I was free only in the morning and Mumbai was too hot to try venturing outdoors, especially with kids. So well, I shot mostly in Varun’s hall and when we got totally bored of shooting just in the hall, we went down to the apartment’s garden and within 10 minutes, headed back to indoors – it was so hot (at about 10 in the morning!).

A few days after the shoot, Varun’s didi compiled together few quotes which Varun forwarded to me so that I could use it in a photobook layout which could be printed. And that is what I have posted below. Hope you enjoy it.

Best Photographers for family shoot – the story of a mother and her 2 sons

Keywords: Best Photographers for family shoot, leading photographers in India, lifestyle photshoot, children photography

Bare flash Vs plastic diffuser Vs umbrella Vs softbox

We hate to use flash during wedding shoots. Being able to shoot just with the ambient light ensures the pics look just like the place looked in reality (and often even better). And that’s why we use lenses that can let maximum amount of light pass through them and camera-bodies that have sensors to give acceptable image quality in least amount of available light. And yet, once in a while, the available light is just not enough to be able to click a nice clear picture. This typically happens during night time baraat processions and cocktail parties (where it is a need to have very dim light). But once in a while, even the phera-venues and other venues end up being badly lit and it becomes next to impossible to take good pictures in such cases. And this is when, it is better to use a flash (also called speedlight). If you can, off camera flash light always gives better results than on-camera. But even when using off-camera lighting, there are various levels of effort that you can undertake. Here in this post, I have tried to compare the difference in results from four different options, all of which I have explored in real wedding shoots.

To begin with, have a look at the following four pictures that I shot few hours ago, of my wife.

The basic difference in result can be observed by noting how the shadow on the wall right behind her gets blurred. During weddings, even if there generally is no wall behind a person, there are so many people all around that shadows inherently fall on the people behind your main subject. So it makes sense to have the shadows diffused to the extent possible. If best results were the only consideration, I would always use a soft-box. But then, I will try explaining soon whey soft-box is not always the best solution even when it gives the best result. By the way, also note that bare-flash does not light up a bigger area properly (notice how the bed sheets are darker in the bare-flash picture compared to other three).

Let us now try focusing on just the face (ignoring the blurriness of shadows). Does the lighting on the face start getting better as we move from bare flash to plastic diffuser to umbrella to soft-box? What do you think, from the zoomed in pictures below?

Well, as you can see for yourself, bare flash gives kind of harsh shadows which get slightly okay if you use a plastic diffuser and get significantly soft and natural if you use an umbrella. Picture from a softbox and an umbrella look almost the same. At least at this level of zoom. Will this opinion change if we zoom in further and observe? Let’s do it.

In the above example, there definitely is not much difference between the umbrella and the soft-box result. So other than the extra blurriness of shadows that softbox can achieve for you, an umbrella is almost as good. And so yes, I mostly use umbrella, when I have to. Another reason for not favouring softbox is that it is kind of bulky and big to move around in a crowded place.

When its not possible to use an off camera flash (especially when you are shooting the baraat in dark night on a road), I at least put on the plastic diffusor to smoothen the shadows to the extent possible.

So well, in case you hadn’t experimented with these four options yourself, hope this post is helpful to you. Keep clicking and keep sharing what you learn. And as Steve Jobs once said (and so did couple of characters in Go, Goa, Gone) – What do we know? What have we learnt? :P

PS: she has been reading Shantram since past two years – she bought it on our first date!!

Best photographer Ahmedabad – a family shoot story

[Post titled "Best photographer Ahmedabad - a family shoot story" by Amrit, co-founder ShaadiGraPher]

Amit (the dad in the above picture) is a great friend of my wife. When in Ahmedabad, we have partied together a few times. These pictures are from few hours spent during a late afternoon at the farmhouse of his wife’s parents. Amit wanted me to capture candid moments with his first child – Vivaan. Vivaan would soon be turning one year old. Now of course, myself, Neelabh and Ankit mostly do wedding photography. But then once in a while it is not such a bad idea to do such family shoots. Such shoots are so much more intimate and different from elaborate wedding shoots!

Amit and his wife Nina loved the pictures later. I also hope that Vivaan, when he grows up, loves these pictures as much! :)

Best photographer Ahmedabad – a family shoot story

I think within one hour of the shoot, Vivaan fell asleep. So I took some shots of him sleeping. We then left him to take a longer nap. And I tried few couple shots of Amit and Nina. “We should hire you more often”, Amit remarked after the shoot. “We haven’t been so romantic together in months”, he explained. :)

I hope you enjoyed these sample pictures from the shoot. And if you are looking for the best photographer Ahmedabad has to offer (not just for wedding photography, but also for such candid family photoshoots), do let us know. We would be glad to take up such assignments once in a while.

Keywords: best photographer Ahmedabad, Candid photographers Ahmedabad, top photographers Ahmedabad

May 2013

Monthly Archives: May 2013

Best Photographers for family shoot – the story of a mother and her 2 sons

Best Photographers for family shoot – the story of a mother and her 2 sons

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