niraj's blog

What a busy half year it has been for me..! No time to write. I covered weddings and receptions, that were both challenge and fun at the same time. For someone into people and portrait photography, there is probably no better occasion than a wedding. You have people dressed to their best. the Bride and Groom are decked up to perfection and the rituals, customs and culture add spice to the recipe. The challenge is – there is no margin for screw-up; no one out there is going to enact all that a second time just because you werent ready, or your camera didnt work, or you were talking on phone, or simply because u were in a bad mood…

Rather than getting into specifics of events; something that has been discussed a lot elsewhere, here are some of the images that I loved the most. The moments these images depict make them special to the people that they were made for.

The Beginning

My efforts are always focused around making an impact..! and it starts with shooting an image, followed by the post-processing. After having seen thousands of photos from a hell lot wedding photographers, only some make an impression.. the reason is they infused their images with something unique. This is just such an attempt.. There is always a room for improvement and I will keep improving with each pass

Getting ready for the big day

I have noticed a lot of photographers of late dont spend time doing their own workflow. A selection of images is handed over to a professional third-party processing house where they go through from RAW to being made into albums — Outsourced . I dont say thats bad, but then the photographs lack that signature touch of the photographer who shot them. And who else but that photographer has seen the wedding day? You get images that have the same kind of mundane feel to them – probably handed down by the ubiquitous photoshop action. It probably works for those who shoot lots of weddings and have no time to process the pictures… Surely not me..!

Committed

I added these fancy borders for an extra dimension to the pictures. Albums may not need them as an album page itself borders the picture. Personal choice though. I spent several hours processing this pic, and some others took even more time. The time isnt needed to get the technical details out, but for several passes of trials to let creativity take over.

The Dance

I loved this pic of the couple dancing. I shot 6 different images with my canon 7d and 17-55 f2.8 lens. The light was very poor and I had to fire the flash 580exII for each pic to get light on them.

7 phere

I am a great fan of having text along with pictures. They add a whole new feel to the image and the right words can make such an impression.

Fun moments

Some fun moments in between the events.

Angel

This is one my my fav pictures. The setting sun was casting an intense orange-red light on her face (which I toned down a lil) and it was cut in half by the glass door of the first floor balcony, almost as if with a knife. The split light probably echos her apprehension just before the wedding.

Smiles

Another example of picture and text together. I always look for available light and background. Here the  background was a brilliant yellow-orange of the setting sun shimmering through the tree canopy but her face was backlit, so used the flash minimally to put some light back on her. 580EXII e-ttl works pretty well.

Closeup

A large empty space around the image helps the viewer focus straight image, avoiding distractions.

Almost there

And finally the ‘Final touch’ from the best man, just before he walked out of the room…

Like the pics..? want yours to be made..? contact me here …