Showing posts with label bollywood. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bollywood. Show all posts

Friday, July 31, 2009

How to Photograph People - Portraits

Shooting People fall into two categories: portraits and candid. Either can be made with or without your subject's awareness and cooperation. However near or far your subject, however intimate or distant the gaze your camera casts, you always need to keep in mind the elements of composition and the technique that will best help you communicate what you are trying to say. Use the background to your advantage to make the whole picture filled with elements that bring graze and poise. The most common mistake made by photographers is that they are not physically close enough to their subjects. So don't be shy. If you approach people in the right way, they'll usually be happy to have their picture made. In total you have to make sure that the subject is comfortable with you so that you finally get the portraits you wanted of the subject. Always be on the lookout for those moments when a person's character shines though. If you have a formal portrait session with someone, make some frames of him while he straightens his tie or while she brushes her hair before the formal sitting. Walk back to the car with her and shoot her on the street, this will help you have a variety of formal portraits and candid pictures of the subject. The best place to shoot some of the good portraits is use the natural shadows of a tree shade, under a porch, or even better the room where most subjects feel comfortable in. The Shutter speed varies when one uses or not uses a strobe. If you are going to use a strobe it is better to bounce the light source so that the soft light is evenly distributed on the subject body and also the background.

Indoor Portraits
The normal Shutter speeds for indoor with Strobe:
Exposure: 1/125, Aperture f: 8

Without Strobe: (if the room is well lit)
Exposure: 1/15 or 30, Aperture f: 5.6 or 4

Outdoor Portraits

Exposure: 1/ 250, Aperture f: 11

All the above technical details are for ISO 400 ASA.

These pictures of Kris Gopalakrishnan the Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director of Infosys were taken in his office during a exclusive chat with Bangalore Mirror on Tuesday 7th August 2007. Since i had to get some very good pictures of the CEO I had to make him feel comfortable before making sure that he would oblige my demands. And I used the strobe as a bounce light to give me the equal distribution of light.

These above pictures are the Portraits with the subject fully comfortable with the camera lens staring on the face.

The below pictures are the Candid Portraits of People with them not conscious of them being photographed.

These pictures of Kris Gopalkrishnan on the left was taken soon after I had entered his office and the one with the coffee cup was taken during the interview.

These candid portraits of renowned Vocalist Balamurali Krishna were pictured during his interactions with the media on the eve of his performance at the Ramnavami Ugadi Utsav in Bangalore on Tuesday 13th May 2008.

These informal candid portraits of former Miss India and Bollywood actress Neha Dupia was taken during her chat with the media at the launch of the Flying Cats air hostesses set up in Bangalore on Saturday 4th August 2007.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Life Imitates Films - for Sibling Duo

This story of the of an brother an sister who had lost each other was found in an Children's day function held in Bhopal on 15th November, 2000. To my luck I happened to be at the function when there was some kind of commotion of a sister having found her long lost brother in the function.
This story became an big hit for the Hindustan Times readers that they started coming forward on their own to donate huge amount of money for the studies and lodging of the siblings as both of them used to live in an children home since they had lost their parents in an accident and their aunt had left them when they were in the toddling ages.
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A Children's Day function provided the setting for a lost-and-found screen fantasy coming alive for two siblings here in Bhopal.
Fourteen-year-old Shobha was reunited with her 16-year-old brother Neeraj after three years in no less dramatic circumstances than dreamed up by the potboiler Bollywood filmmaker.
The occasion was the sports meet for children from juvenile homes at the Police Parade grounds here on 15th November, 2000.
Spotting a boy playing a cricket match, who resembled her lost brother, Shobha worked up courage to go up to him. A few pleasantries later, she asked him his name, tallied a few details an wept for joy. "I have found my brother," she said. Her brother Neeraj, seemed no less astounded.
The two children are residents of juvenile homes in the State of Madhya Pradesh. While Shobha comes from Krishna Balika home in Bhopal, Neeraj is from Kishore Grah of Jabalpur.
This reunion of the brother-sister after a gap of more than three years came about thanks to the sports meet organized for the children of the juvenile homes throughout the State. The meet was inaugurated here yesterday by the Chief Minister Digvijay Singh.
According to Ajita Bajpayee, commissioner, panchyat and rural development, "neeraj was playing cricket when Shobha noticed him."
However, when Shobha was asked how she recognized her brother she said, "I do not know."

Her brother Neeraj was more forthcoming. "Shobha spoke to me about an aunt with whom we had spent some time together. It was then that i struck me that she was my sister," he said.
The two children who have been housed in the juvenile homes for the past eight years do not remember their parents as they had lost them in a road accident when they were in their toddling ages. All they have is a hazy impression of an aunt in Seoni near Jabalpur and their elder sister Aarti.
The reunion has come as a shot in the arm for the commissioner who was laughed at by all and sundry when she decided to organize a sports meet for the inmates of the juvenile homes.
Ms Bajpayee says: "These children are less privileged but I feel that they should be given a chance to move around in the main stream society. This will help them come out of their shells."
These juvenile homes also repose faith in children by allowing them to enroll themselves for various vocational courses outside the confines of the homes, thus ensuring gainful employment for them.
And guess what the brother-sister duo are looking forward to now? A reunion with their elder sister - Aarti.
And they are not alone in their mission. In real life-filmi climax- the staff of the juvenile homes have vouched to reunite the brother-sister with their third sibling.

Saturday, February 28, 2009

Unforgettable Assignment

On the eve of my son's birth I was busy covering the wedding of Bollywood actor's Ashutosh Rana and Renuka Shahne at Damoh in Madhya Pradesh during my stint with the Hindustan Times in Bhopal. I was asked to go for the wedding as no reporter's were free. The RE me to file the story too. Since my wife was expecting our only child, and I was living as an temporary bachelor I agreed and left in an office car to Damoh. The next morning I attended the wedding from the room to the temple and back to the ashram of Ashutosh's religious guru. The third morning (26th May, 2001) when I reached Bhopal and called my in-laws, I was told my in-law that we were blessed with a boy.So the wedding of Ashutosh and Renuka will never be etched out of my memory.

Ashutosh, Reunka tie nuptial knot


Cine stars Ashutosh Rana and Renuka Shahne tied the nuptial knot on May 25th, 2001. at the famous Jageshwar Nath Shiva temple at Bandakpur in Damoh district. The marriage was solemnized by Ashutosh's religious guru Dev Prabakar Shastri in the presence of family members and close friends. Around 10,000 people had thronged the temple even before the bride and groom could reach there. Later, the couple went to the ashram of Dev Prabhkar Shastri to seek his blessings. The marriage ceremony was attended by State Minister Ratnesh Solomon, Raja Pateria, former MP Rameshwar Nikhra and Rajpal Yadav.
Stone -Throwing: Irate over the killing of a local youth in a road mishap involving a vehicle carrying people for Ashutosh Rana's marriage, some unidentified persons hurled stones at the motorcade of the film star. Prior to this, the mob also set ablaze a bus, which had struck the motorcycle –borne youth, killing him on the spot.

Ashutosh Rana and Renuka perform the puja during their wedding ceremony at Jageshwar Shiva Temple in Damoh on Friday.