The essence of photography

[Sumanta]

For many years I have been feeling that Chandigarh has become a concrete jungle and that nature is slowly disappearing from the city. But the fault lay not with the city, or it's surroundings, but within me. I have been spending far too much time glued to a computer, hiding from nature, isolating myself from it by preferring the synthetic comfort of moving from an air conditioned room into an air conditioned car.

But photography (especially after my recent acquisition of a wide angle lens) has reignited my love and contact with nature. I have always dreamt of (and most of the time lived) an outdoor life. A life sans commitments, obligations or responsibilities! Winning and retaining your freedom as an individual is not easy. Most people can't handle freedom. Free people from their work, family, friends, newspapers and television and most of them would feel completely lost. They would not be able to handle the unbearable lightness of simply being. But I have always preferred to live in my dreams. Solitary dreams, populated by the far more interesting people and sensations, one encounters in fiction, cinema and music. And now photography. A camera allows you to dream. It allows you to focus on the things you really like about the time and space you inhabit. All the banal and boring stuff can be conveniently left outside the viewfinder.

A short cut into the mountains. The new Himalayan expressway which connects Chandigarh with Simla, bypasses the bottlenecks of Pinjore, Kalka and Parwanoo. Now it's a short drive my house, into a fairy tale world of cloud shrouded mountains, rain, mist with plenty of photo ops

himalayan expressway #1 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Ajay,
Your almost like a self realisation made my tiring and frustrating (due to fighting for rights and logics among giant Germans) day ending towards a lonely night (alone in a foreign country) into a shining short story. I can so much connect to it.
Thanks a lot.
I liked some your photos too, specially of the brown mountain cut out and road shot and shots of lake.
Carry on living friend.

 

[ajay124]

A forum member had inquired about how to best utilize 80K for a Nikon kit. I suggested more or less what I have bought myself. Lowepro and Manfrotto can be bought online from smartshopper.com on C.O.D basis. Their prices are normally better than Flipkart. The body and lenses would work out cheaper from a big dealer, willing to offer a 10-12% discount. The MRP of most Nikon lenses have gone up by 10% since last week. Most dealers would be sitting on stock bought at older prices. Some of them may be open to a bigger discount, than the routine 10%. Online sites don't seem to be offering any discount on body or lenses. I was quoted the following prices before the recent price increase:

D90 (body) 37K

50mm 1.8D 5.5K
85mm 1.8D 20K
28mm 2.8D 13K

Manfrotto 679B monopod 2.5K
or
Manfrotto tripod 190X PROB 8.5K + Manfrotto 498RC2 MIDI Ball Head 5.5K

Lowepro toploader AW 45 1K (DX camera + small lens)
or
Lowepro Slingshot 102 (DX camera + 1 small lens +1 medium lens + small accessories) 3K
or
Lowepro Pro Runner 200 (FX camera +2 or 3 lenses + small monopod or tripod + flash, cards, batteries, lens cleaner) 3.5K.
or
Lowepro Flipside 200 (same as above, better design) 4.2K

I use the (Lowepro) Toploader AW45 and Flipside 200. Both are excellent bags. No regrets. The only flaw with the Flipside 200 is that my 679B monopod does not fit snugly. I prefer to carry it in my hand. Once in a while I am accosted by aggressive monkeys and dogs while shooting. The monopod is a good weapon for self defense

 

[Shivam]

The only flaw with the Flipside 200 is that my 679B monopod does not fit snugly. I prefer to carry it in my hand. Once in a while I am accosted by aggressive monkeys and dogs while shooting. The monopod is a good weapon for self defense

I too carry my monopod in hand. It doubles up as a good walking stick on long treks.

 

[ajay124]

Ajay,
Your almost like a self realisation made my tiring and frustrating (due to fighting for rights and logics among giant Germans) day ending towards a lonely night (alone in a foreign country) into a shining short story. I can so much connect to it.
Thanks a lot.
I liked some your photos too, specially of the brown mountain cut out and road shot and shots of lake.
Carry on living friend.

sumanta

Words and images can build powerful bridges over time and space. I am glad that someone I have never met, living far away, connected with what I wrote.

 

[ajay124]

I have made functional a vacant room on the first floor of my house. I am planning to convert it into a studio for my personal pleasure and for product, food and portrait photography for clients. Until now I have been dabbling around with shooting in natural light. And I love it. It has given me a reason to roam around and get badly sun tanned in the process!

But lately I have begun feeling that for taking my skills (and my burgeoning romance with photography) to the next level, it is essential to have a knowledge of shooting with studio lights. I have begun researching continuous and flash lighting kits. I am more inclined towards continuous lights as they are cheaper, simpler and (probably) good enough for still and product photography. I will be looking for a complete, entry level kit comprising a key light/fill light/back light, stands, reflectors, two soft boxes, two umbrellas and a white back drop. I would appreciate advise and information relating to continuous (tungsten/fluorescent) and flash lighting for indoor and outdoor use. I don't want to make the mistake of buying in haste and repenting at leisure. I have been through that scenario several times, with both photography and audio related stuff :sad: For the last few days I have been reading up on studio lighting and it's a whole new ball game. Camera and lens basics will remain almost the same, but lighting up the subject in various ways and isolating him/her/it from the environment, promises to be an interesting and challenging exercise.

Hopefully photography will provide a new avenue for exploring both creativity and commerce. I wound up my catering business... because I was bored with the hollowness and uninhibited vulgarity of the great Indian wedding... because I could not tolerate the music which the DJ's played (there may be a few good one's around in some never-never-land, but the ones I've heard in this-here-land, were all insufferable noise machines) ... because I was growing old and wanted more time for my family and myself ... and because I wanted to do something more creative than merely make money by serving Butter Chicken, Shahi Paneer and Dal Makhni by the truckloads!

 

[Shivam]

Start with a manual flash and learn the basics of guide numbers, exposure calculation, bouncing and soft-boxes and the compensations needed.

Once you understand all this, opt for Nikon CLS. You'll be able to concentrate on the photos then.

One thing to note is that when you buy the manual flash, make sure that its voltage at the hot shoe is not so high as to fry the camera's electronics.

 

[ajay124]

shivam

At the moment I am gathering information about Nikon CLS and Elinchrom D-Lite-it systems. Any idea about their pros and cons for product, food and portrait shoots?

Nikon CLS Home Page

ELINCHROM - D-Lite-it 4

 

[Shivam]

shivam

At the moment I am gathering information about Nikon CLS and Elinchrom D-Lite-it systems. Any idea about their pros and cons for product, food and portrait shoots?

Nikon CLS Home Page

ELINCHROM - D-Lite-it 4

Both have their advantages and disadvantages. In my opinion if you are not able to decide says that you are still not ready for them. Take my advice and learn with an inexpensive manual flash first. This will mean time and some money being spent but you will know what to buy in future as per your requirements.

This is like choosing a good AVR or stereo amp. One has to know what is the end result needed.

 

[Sumanta]

In your shoe, I would have bought two manual flash, two slaves. I would have stick them somehow to two tripods or stands or window. I would have used my on camera flash with a reflector to bounce it up. It should be used only to activate two slaves.

I would have tried various positions of these manual flashes to learn basics in my way. and then go out in the market to buy commercial lighting system.
I would have never use manual flashes on any dSLR, it mostly will cook the camera electronics.

 

[ajay124]

shivam, sumanta

I am not going to buy anything in a hurry, as I have made that mistake before. Two recent blunders:

In January 2010 I was looking for a stereo system and came across this forum. I checked out a few threads and reviews related to speakers, amps and cdp's. One week later, without any auditions, I bought Dynaudio Audience 122 speakers+Nad C375 BEE amp+Nad C542 cdp+Chord silver screen cables and interconnect. The build quality, finish and sound of the speakers was decent, but I wanted something better. The Nad's were too plasticky for my taste. My earlier Yamaha avr and dvdp which I had sold for a pittance had better build quality and finish than the Nad's. I did not do any side by side comparison, but they may even have sounded better. I have good memories of the Yamaha source and amp+Wharfedale Diamond 8.4+Wharfedale SW150 sub. I paid 80K for the entire system and was happy for 5 years. But I could not live with the new set up. I had budgeted 100K for the upgrade and spent 180K! After a couple of months of misery, I sold off everything and got 115K for my pains. One third of what I had spent was wiped out in the resale!

Similarly in January 2012, I bought a D5100+35mm 1.8G+55-200 for 62K. A month later I sold off everything and got 51K :sad:

*Opinions are very subjective and vary from person to person. None of the products I have mentioned can be termed as good or bad, per se. They just did not fit in with my scheme of things. Just as the best PC would never satisfy me, because I can't see anything on the horizon, beyond a Mac.

 

[ajay124]

I spoke to a few dealers and distributors regarding studio lighting. Read many 'sponsored' and actual user reviews. Visited a photo expo in Ludhiana yesterday, where I actually got a feel of how studio lights work. More or less every bit of information I have collected is pointing towards one brand only -Elinchrome - a Swiss brand of world wide repute. Their manufacturing facility is probably in India, which is why their stuff is considerably cheaper here than abroad.

Lighting options include:

Elinchrome D Lite 200 it 18.5K
Elinchrome D Lite 400 it 21K
Elinchrome FX 200 Ri 21.5K
Elinchrome FX 400 Ri 27.5K
Elinchrome D Lite RX 100 6.5K


The first two are referred to as the 'amateur' series and the latter two as the 'pro' series. Feature wise there is very little difference, except that the FX series are slightly more ruggedly built and better for rigorous out door use. I am personally inclined towards the D Lite 400, as they are cheaper, lighter and will more or less perform equally well. The D Lite 400 kit contains 2 lights, 2 stands, 2 soft boxes, 1 transmitter and a carrying case. The RX 100 is a smaller light which can be brought separately, if someone requires a third light. I intend to buy it at a later date. I will also be ordering some more stuff like a snoot, grid, boom stand, translucent and reflector umbrellas.

I have already placed an order for Manfrotto 190 PROB tripod and 498 RC2 ball head. Can anybody suggest options for a light tent and a few studio backdrops?

Photoquip - About Us

 

[ajay124]

Today I got in touch with a local photographer who is moving abroad and is interested in selling his equipment, lock, stock and barrel. I intend to give it a look tomorrow. He is also interested in selling his D700. If we work out a deal, then I may have a complete studio at my disposal. And it may be time to sing goodbye D90, hello D700

 

[Shivam]

Today I got in touch with a local photographer who is moving abroad and is interested in selling his equipment, lock, stock and barrel. I intend to give it a look tomorrow. He is also interested in selling his D700. If we work out a deal, then I may have a complete studio at my disposal. And it may be time to sing goodbye D90, hello D700

Chek the shutter count of his D700 before finalising the deal.

 

[ajay124]

Chek the shutter count of his D700 before finalising the deal.

My earlier (two) attempts to acquire a D700 failed because the shutter count was 60K+ in both cases. I would have still brought the camera if the price had been reasonable. But the trouble with some Nikon models is that their demand is always greater than their supply. Prices of used D40, D90, D200, D300, D7000, D700 will remain high for many years to come.

I shot a few pics with the D700+18-35mm today. I was absolutely floored by the vista which opens out at 18mm on a full frame. It took me less than 5 minutes to start using the D700 fluidly. It feels purr-fect in your hands.The other thing I will check tomorrow is its ISO performance. I never shoot beyong ISO 400 with D90. If D700 provides clean images at ISO 800 then I will be happy. And if it provides clean images at ISO 1200-1600 then I would be ecstatic!

I discovered that Manfrotto tripods are available locally and went to buy the 190 PROB + 498 RC2 for which the dealer was quoting 14K. All my internet research had pointed towards this combo. But I learnt that an actual audition is more revealing than research because I did not like either this tripod or the head. Instead, the moment I laid my hands on the slightly more expensive 055X PROB, I knew I had found a tripod which I could use for the rest of my life. I was equally impressed with the three way 804 RC2 head which was cheaper than the 498 RC2. The extra outlay on the tripod was balanced by what I saved on the head. The net price of 13,800 worked out cheaper than the combo which I had gone to buy. The sharpness of pictures taken with this tripod and head is absolutely s-t-u-n-n-i-g. My days of shooting hand held or even with a monopod are probably over!

 

[josephjohnt]

Hi Ajay,

Go through strobist.com. Its a wealth of information on how to use small lights creatlvely. He has tutorials and how he approcahes his shoots on the website. He also has two video sets which are nice.
Joe McNally is like the guru of CLS. He has many video tutorials on the topic. Search hos site or kelby training.
I also think Zack has a one light photography workshop video.

Joseph
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk 2

 

[ajay124]

Dream come true! Finally bought a D700 today. Virtually new. I am :yahoo:

 

[jitubisht]

Congratulations Ajay! I have a D700 myself and can understand the :yahoo:

 

[ajay124]

Wide angle with D700 and 18-35 lens:

Chandigarh IT Park | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

 

[ajay124]

More Nikon Rumors:

D7000 is listed as "discontinued' on Amazon.de.
D700 has vanished from the shelves of online vendors like B&H and Adorama
D600 (the worlds first budget FX DSLR) may be launched on September 13.

Nikon Rumors

I was extremely happy with my D90 except for (what I perceived to be) three handicaps:

There was unacceptable noise when I boosted the ISO beyond 400.
I found the 11 point focusing system too limiting.
The 1.5 crop factor effectively converted my 18-35mm wide angle lens into a 27-52mm lens.

D700 has sorted out all those problems and absolved me from yearning for any other camera body. More than anything else I wanted the bigger viewfinder and Multicam 3500 FX 51 point autofocusing system of D700. I was not willing to compromise on this point. Both D800 and (probably) D600 do not have this focusing system. Therefore, personally I was not very hung up on either of these cameras. My budget was 80K for a D700 and happily I found a virtually new one for that price. Today morning I shot a few pics at ISO 1250. There is hardly any noise visible when I view them on my computer screen! A couple of days ago I shot at ISO 4000!!!! and was happy with the results

The boosted ISO performance will allow me to shoot at much faster shutter speeds. With my monopod I seldom shoot at speeds less than 1/1000.

 

[Shivam]

During the film days,
I used to shoot under 100 ISO most of the time. 200 was for occasional use. Never did I use 400 or 800.
1600 and above were used only when I needed the grains and the best technique to attain that was to further push the film and then push-process it.

Now with digital, I still never go beyond 200 ISO.
(Is it like sticking with LPs even when people have moved to HD flac?)