Delhi & Uttar Pradesh rejoiced (horizontal series)

[charmingorion]

#161 our boatman at allahabad. he looks pretty uninterested in the ambience and the lighting. perhaps it is an everyday thing to him and what matter more is bread and butter. or perhaps it is a tiring work.

actually it is a tiring day for us too. we spent a pretty freezing nite along the river. walking to the site of celebration of kumbh mela at about 11-12pm, shooting for the next few hours. by 2am, i'm half sleepy but cannot sleep in the freezing open, at perhaps 5 degrees, i guess. not finding further vantage, and having scarce crowd without a high ground, gradually dry up the interest.... but it is still a long way from the dawn.... what's more we had difficulty getting a boat by the time we decide on one. almost feel like giving it up (i'm not the perseverent type that goes all out for photography). one of my mate, ramius, was however determine to get his shots of the nagas. and although with much tiredness and frustration, we eventually got a boat and found a new vantage and a really nice weather in the morning - although the few of us are pretty half-dead by then. in the end, we didn't get close to the nagas becos we are not authorized reporters. on our way off, ramius saw the newspaper photograph of a close-up wide angle and grumbled what a pity.

i shot close to 9-10GB just over that whole nite and morning, and even have to borrow extra memory cards (i got abt 7-8GB but all used up) from another half-dead mate who is probably too tired to shoot then. i think at some point of time here, they are dozing off while i'm taking pictures.

Hi Zoosh,
can u advice me how did u take this pic under the sun and yet getting details of the man's background without overexposing it pls? I tried taking pics with my lens focused on the man's face and when i take the pic, the back ground is washed out. What settings can u advice me and where did u focus pls?

Is this got to do with where u place on the 15%grey with the camera locks into focus before u take the shot?
thanks!

 

[zoossh]

Hi Zoosh,
can u advice me how did u take this pic under the sun and yet getting details of the man's background without overexposing it pls? I tried taking pics with my lens focused on the man's face and when i take the pic, the back ground is washed out. What settings can u advice me and where did u focus pls?

Is this got to do with where u place on the 15%grey with the camera locks into focus before u take the shot?
thanks!

lock focus on the face.

metering is matrix with EV -0.3 which probably equates to a slightly darker midtone spot metering.

and nope, your question pertains to the latitude of the sensor with wide tonal variability in the frame, which is not the same (but can be related to) with mode of and spot of metering, and has got nothing to do with focus.

my picture is not really backlighting but is more like a side or quarter lighting from behind, so the tonal discrepancy is not so high. also the sea water helps to bounce light and diffuse the lighting slightly. i used a grad ND filter to reduce the exposure from the sky too. i further retrieve some details on the face as my ISO is 400 and is not too bad (for me) for nikon D50. this part is for exposure and details.

as for your question about being washed out, first of all, washed out can mean different things. it would be your subjects are palely colored, or there is a lot of glare, and so a CPL may help, or it can be just a matter of lack of small area or large area contrast. i dunno if there are technical terms for that, but a barcode with black and white stripes are small area contrast where details are wide separated by contrasty tones. large area contrast is when you put a black box next to a white box. my picture is actually quite low in contrast, but the large area contrast is still there (the brown jacket versus the rest).

besides, my pic has a nearby sun but did not include the sun.

i supposed your issue is over-exposure and backlighting difficulty. i suggest you post your picture up for critique or post it in a gallery of suitable theme to ask for discussion.

 

[zoossh]

#175 can't decide whether to use original colors or to convert to fluorecent white balance

 

[zoossh]

#176 parades of the saree

 

[zoossh]

#177 the same old cliche shot of the corridor.... of jama masjid at agra. well, can corridor be new or different? i'm not so sure and never thought about it before i took this picture. an after review of why i like this picture but i always find all my previous corridor shots failures, may be explainable by the close intervals of beams which gives details in depth, and the window on the right does help too with some pattern.

for the question with regards to its colors, the color is indeed very red. a shot probably at around the same location by Mahesh Nair shows an even deeper red.

 

[wxwayne]

Hi Zoosh, the colours for the corridor shot are lovely! Was there any post processing?

 

[zoossh]

Hi Zoosh, the colours for the corridor shot are lovely! Was there any post processing?

the original dun differ much from the edited. the tonal contrast is already there and i did some minor selective area leveling (equivalents to curves).

 

[zoossh]

#178 Angoori Bagh and Khas Mahal at Fatephur Sikri, near agra

 

[zoossh]

#179 streets of allahabad at its "taxi" stand.

 

[BornToRide]

Simply BEAUTIFUL !!! Love the series.......

 

[zoossh]

Simply BEAUTIFUL !!! Love the series.......

thanks, but hoping to start another trip...

 

[zoossh]

#180 huge torsols of the cows/buffalos. a favorite of mine although i understand such unconventional takes is probably not seen the same way by the others.

 

[zoossh]

#181 taj mahal, from the backyard. we initially intend to cross the river, but the boatman ask for an impossible sum (i can't remember how much but it is definitely that is simply ridiculous). not yielding and getting late, we walk around the rubbish-laden backyard of taj mahal and with the river having a little stench. it is vastly different from the interior of the taj.

when i saw the advertisement, i have wonder if they did some serious video-manipulation or did they really do some cleaning up of the river like what is done with singapore river, at least for that stretch... nonetheless, neither me nor the advertisement is there to do any photo journalism, so i guess it dun really matter, except i do hope things gets better.

there is a strong tinge of maroon/purple that comes with the hitech GND filter, perhaps intensively strong due to the low exposure i did with the sun getting low at the same time. the mellow sky didn't fight with the unwanted tinge of the filter, although i would wish that didn't affect the taj building itself too much. but i didn't get the best of both worlds and just carried on with what my gear gives me.

this is one of the shot that is taken at the last few mins before the guard come and hush us away, perhaps becos we are lying too near the slope, squatting suspiciously with our tripods engaged. and precisely becos it is very near the fence, this pic didn't show too much rubbish except for a ticket that lies just in front of me in the middle.

by the way, i tried to capture the birds flying around with the wide angle, but my travel mate is right. they look like filter and sensor dirt as they are small and are blurred esp when they are flapping their wings.

 

[zoossh]

#182 some foreigners came up to meditate by the ganges at varanasi. i'm unsure if they are doing yoga or having other forms of belief, or if they are hindu followers.

somehow i start to wonder if the palette tone i created takes a step backward, or could i have done it in other way. it looks like the guy is sitting next to a billboard, and the depth is somehow not there.

 

[zoossh]

#183 a cow's eye. i'm very near the cow to take this.

 

[zoossh]

#184 i'm usually not used to food when overseas, but varanasi serves it fairly well probably becos of much tourists over here. the chicken meat (not taken in the location below) is slightly fatter than elsewhere and the omelette and potatoes (in agra and varanasi) are served pretty well too, at very affordable prices for us.

this one is taken at sanktha guesthouse, near the manikarnika cremation ghat but not so near to be dusty. in fact, this is still at about 9am in the morning (after morning boat ride + walk, for about 2-3hrs), at the top of the building. light is beautiful, air is not too warm, and the surrounding seen from the top of the building is also great.

 

[zoossh]

#185 taken from the mansoleum of taj mahal, the building on the side of the morning sun in the east is the jawab. due to backlighting, the colors are very washout but if taken from the opposite direction, the feel of the shoot will be completely different and that is much of a difference between the human eye and the camera's sensor.

 

[Ah_K]

#167 details isn't great becos of the haze, the filter and the high ISO used without tripod. but thankfully the relatively sharper and warm red of the fountain head in the front gives some details.

well, another cliche shot of taj mahal.

you somehow always seems to be able to turn obstacles like haze and dust into your advantage! although this angle has been shot till death by many photographers, i feel yours stands out lor!! :thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

[zoossh]

you somehow always seems to be able to turn obstacles like haze and dust into your advantage! although this angle has been shot till death by many photographers, i feel yours stands out lor!! :thumbsup::thumbsup:

think there should be better takes although they are of a salon nature.

 

[sigg]

keep this

#175 can't decide whether to use original colors or to convert to fluorecent white balance