Hey Maestro!
Hey Maestro!
Hey Maestro!
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Apr, 2014Views
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Awards
Zenith Award
Creative Winter Award
Curator's Selection
Top Shot Award 21
Legendary Award
2020 Choice Award
Featured
Staff Winter Selection 2015
Runner Up in 1000 Dogs Photo Contest
Peer Award
Superb Composition
Absolute Masterpiece
Top Choice
Outstanding Creativity
Exceptional Contrast
Magnificent Capture
All Star
Superior Skill
Jaw Dropping
Great Find
Genius
Top Ranks
Top 10 rankTop 10 rank week 1
Top 10 rankTop 10 rank week 3Top 10 rank week 2
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
I took this picture (believe it or not) in my garden. I stay in Dehradun which is a small town in the foothills of the Himalayas.Time
Well it was almost mid night and it had just rained. It was winters hence the cold breath of my pet dog was visible.Lighting
This is a fairly simple and cheap lighting setup since there are no fancy lighting equipment involved and I've made use of a daily utility object as a source of light. For the light I made use of the headlights of my car, rather headlight since I covered one of the headlights with a thick blanket and the used the other as this warm back light.Equipment
At the time I clicked this image I had the Nikon D90 with a prime lens NIKKOR 50mm f/1.8D lens. And yes I had to use the tripod since I did not want any camera shake to ruin the moment. Apart from this there was no fancy equipment used.Inspiration
Well silhouettes have always intrigued me and hence I wanted to take a portrait of my pet dog (in a different way). This was my second attempt at this kind of a shot. I had previously tried a similar shot (in 2011, two years prior to this shot) but in that I had used the kit lens instead of the faster prime lens hence it lacked a sense of depth but even then it managed to attract a few publications as it got featured in a number of journals and magazines. So I wanted to improve upon my previous shot. I find silhouettes to be mysterious and revealing at the same time.Editing
Of course with the cheap lighting source I had to indulge in a bit of post processing involving the basic retouching. All of it done completely using Lightroom since I prefer limiting my post processing to LR and avoid PS as far as possible. To be honest there was no heavy post processing required but I did have to remove some stray distracting light elements from the image (all using LR tools) so that the viewer's attention does not sway from the dog.In my camera bag
I normally keep one camera body in my bag (currently a Nikon D750) along with three or four lenses that include a Nikon 50mm, Nikon 85mm, Nikon 70-300mm and the Tamron 15-30mm. Along with that I keep a couple of filters including the polarizer and a Nisi close up lens.Feedback
If you are trying to capture a similar shot then the only and most important advice I'd give is to be patient with the subject which here is the dog and always keep a close eye on the subject's movement as it'll be a very short span of a second when the dog will give you that perfect pose and that will be "the moment" because if you miss it it is highly unlikely that you will get another shot. Also it is good to take the help of your family member (which in my case was my mother) to try and keep the dog still and make him sit and pose for your photograph. The only other advice I'd give is to not limit yourself and rather keep experimenting with different lighting and styles. Because unless you experiment you cannot innovate.
