Behind the Picture

Divine Makeover

Idea:

I do lots of Black and white close portraits. I wanted to get a striking color portrait once. I came to know that there is a festival going to happen in a village a little far from my place. I have seen pictures of previous year’s festival of the same place. Those pictures are an inspiration to go there and shoot. 

Planning:

I live in Chennai, India. This particular festival happens in Kaveripattinam, a small village, 166 miles from Chennai. This happens on a special day just after Mahashivarathiri which happens every year in the month of March. This was my first trip to this village and especially for this festival (2013). I reached this place a day before to get to know about the people and the place where the festival happens. Spend some time on the first day exploring the place and clicking some pictures. Found out the place where this makeup happens and the very next day, I reached this place early and waited for the moment. I have carried my Canon 5D Mark II, 24-105, and Canon 100mm Macro lens.  

Preparation:

Initially, I was shooting with my wide-angle lens to document the events and then I saw some of them are getting makeup. I switched back to my favorite 100mm Lens for a close portrait.  I always use Aperture Priority mode if I have to shoot fast. I use AE lock to get the right exposure. There were lots of people putting makeup on their faces. But, I liked this kid's face and his innocence. There was a group of people who put makeup on this kid. I talked to them and this kid that I will be taking a picture of him. I did not disturb them while putting on makeup.

Execution:

I have a 100mm lens to get the close portrait. I normally dont use flash and I take pictures with natural available light if possible. The light was not great enough to have a lower ISO even at 11.30 am in morning.  So, I switched to ISO 800 to get the right shutter speed and f4 to get better details. I took several pictures from a different angle. But, this particular shot is close to my heart. Everything is in right place in the frame and the kid just opened his eyes and gazed at me. That made the magic.

Post-processing:

I always shoot in RAW mode. I use Adobe Camera Raw and Photoshop for processing my RAW files. This is pretty straightforward processing. I have increased the contrast and adjusted the white and black points a bit in the basic tab of Camera Raw. Increased the Clarity and vibrance a bit to have good mid-tone contrast and colors. This is taken @ ISO 800. So reduced the noise and adjusted the detail in detail tab to overcome the detail loss. I wanted to create a focus on the face, so added a little bit of vignette and did the lens correction. The picture is almost ready and opened it in PS and increased the contrast a little bit more with levels. The final picture is ready.  The picture is not cropped at all. 

Result:

There is room for improvement in any picture. I could have covered the hands in full. But, I am pretty much happy with the output. This is what I wanted to show to the world. The kid was having a makeover as a God. That is the reason, I titled as “Divine Makeover”. This picture is so special to me. It won me many awards including the “Natgeo Travel Award”, “1x Photo Award”, Shoottheface international portrait award, and many more. It also got published in many magazines.

  • NatGeo Travel Award 2014 - Merit Award

  • 1x Photo Awards 2013 - Winner

  • PX3 - 2014 - Gold Medal

  • Shoottheface 2013 Winner

  • Siena International Photo Awards 2019 - Remarkable Award

  • International Photo Awards 2014 - Honorable Mentions

  • ND AWARDS 2014 - Honorable Mentions

  • Life Framer - World Traveller - Editor's Pick

  • reFocus Awards. - Honorable Mentions

Magazines

  • One World Calendar 2024

  • Wanderlust Magazine, UK, Dec / Jan 2015

  • National Geographic Traveller, US, Dec / Jan 2015

  • Turkish Airlines Inflight Magazine “Skylife”

  • Digital Photo UK

Hints:

  1. Make connections with them

  2. Wait for the moment and Focus on Eye

  3. Before pressing the shutter, analyze the frame for any distraction

  4. Don’t do over-processing.

Additional Information on How I take portraits. 

I mostly take close portraits and I take pictures with their permission. I watch people and their characters. If I found something unique or something special about their eyes or the gestures or expressions, I approach them and talk to them. To my knowledge, most people want to be photographed. But, it is quite not easy to straight away click pictures. I am a slow photographer.  I mean, I dont take pictures instantly. I prefer some good background or dark background for my portraits and I always make use of good ambient light. So, I plan for a portrait and ask them to pose for me in specific places which have good lighting and backdrop in their own environment.

Ethics Which I Follow

  • Respect Other Humans and give them space.

  • If they dont want to be photographed, I dont take their photographs.

  • Never ever disturb them for the sake of photography

  • Never exploit human conditions

  • Humanity is more important than photography.