Author Topic: PART 1 - World Heritage Site - The caves of Ajanta (Read 617 times)

Chillum Baba · « **on:** July 13, 2012, 01:09:07 AM »

Weekends is of no use visiting Ajanta because of the rush. Dumped my work today and went to Ajanta. As it was a working day, there were less people and I managed few decent shots. Almost all are shot using UWA (my second outing with this lens). Conditions were tricky. Very low light inside the caves (some didn't have any light). Flash, of course is not allowed, which is understandable. But what's the point in not allowing tripod? I still carried it, just in case but wasn't able to use the tripod inside the caves.

I am so glad @VikramF stressed upon going for 10-22 instead of 12-16mm. 10-22 is an awesome range in a closed environment and is very flexible under tricky conditions. These are my best handheld shots till date, especially shooting at shutters like 1/10. Never got them earlier without a blur at these shutter speeds

Please bear with the number of images. I have tired to keep the image size small.

Your C&C are eagerly awaited.

Thank You.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9. (these are the paintings on the roof!)

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

21.

g13a · « **Reply #1 on:** July 13, 2012, 07:53:44 AM »

Nice Series.I liked 1,13,16,18.
Did you used off camera flash in 5 and 8 ?

ISO · « **Reply #2 on:** July 13, 2012, 09:20:18 AM »

Nice series. My pik goes to 2nd

rajib · « **Reply #3 on:** July 13, 2012, 09:57:33 AM »

@Chillum Baba: Thanks for the wonderful photographs. I have not been to the caves yet, but your images certainly give the feeling of 'being there'.

Madhav Bhakta · « **Reply #4 on:** July 13, 2012, 10:19:32 AM »

Quote from: rajib on July 13, 2012, 09:57:33 AM

@Chillum Baba: Thanks for the wonderful photographs. I have not been to the caves yet, but your images certainly give the feeling of 'being there'.

+1

Very nice series.

Chillum Baba · « **Reply #5 on:** July 13, 2012, 02:13:10 PM »

Thank you for your C&C.

Quote from: g13a on July 13, 2012, 07:53:44 AM

Nice Series.I liked 1,13,16,18.
Did you used off camera flash in 5 and 8 ?

No. Flash is not allowed and was not used in any of the pics. Its their own lighting.

Sunil_Pawar · « **Reply #6 on:** July 13, 2012, 05:34:27 PM »

Nice Series...I know how its difficult to capture with such low lights.

toofan · « **Reply #7 on:** July 13, 2012, 09:06:30 PM »

Nice series,

2nd,4th, 8th and 16th are best for me.

bodhijobs · « **Reply #8 on:** July 14, 2012, 11:18:10 AM »

Never been to this wonderful place. Thanks Doc for providing such a wonderful virtual tour.

Amlan Sanyal · « **Reply #9 on:** July 14, 2012, 11:21:24 AM »

Lovely series. TFS. A few of these calls for some HDR conversion. You can give it a try.

Chillum Baba · « **Reply #10 on:** July 14, 2012, 06:10:51 PM »

^^^ Havent tried HDR yet. Dont HDR shots need a tripod? Will read about it (its high time now

)

I have recovered some 8-10 more images after contrast / brightness adjustment, tilt correction and little cropping. Will post it in a new thread as this one already has too many images. I am glad that this time my surprising number of photos came out good. Otherwise in usual trips, there are just 4-5 pics worth sharing of the whole lot. Maybe Ajanta is too beautiful.

ArindomRC · « **Reply #11 on:** July 14, 2012, 07:44:08 PM »

HDR can be made from a single shot, with some degradation obviously, whats lost is lost .. .but you can give it a try ...

Search for Single Shot HDR in google

theqca · « **Reply #12 on:** July 14, 2012, 08:59:37 PM »

nice pics...i liked pic 1, 13 and 16 the best from the ones you've shared..

i would suggest convert a few into b&w..

Chillum Baba · « **Reply #13 on:** July 15, 2012, 09:59:36 AM »

^^ Yes..need to try B/W.

Quote from: ArindomRC on July 14, 2012, 07:44:08 PM

HDR can be made from a single shot, with some degradation obviously, whats lost is lost .. .but you can give it a try ...

Search for Single Shot HDR in google

Looks like it needs RAW ideally. I usually shoot in jpeg, just to save the space. Will try on jpeg.

vishals · « **Reply #14 on:** July 15, 2012, 02:14:35 PM »

Jpeg's don't allow any room for post processing. Very nice series Chillum baba, and pics came out great considering you shot handheld at very low shutter speeds.

What is the ISO and Aperture for most of the pics?

Chillum Baba · « **Reply #15 on:** July 15, 2012, 06:05:22 PM »

For most of the indoor shots, Exif would be something like
Shutter 1/5, 1/10, 1/20
ISO 1200,1600 (sometimes 800 depending on the amount of natural light)
F4.5 (would have loved F1.8 of my 50mm but wanted to capture more story through 10mm).

lightwave · « **Reply #16 on:** July 16, 2012, 01:43:52 AM »

Good use of the UWA I must say. I like the external shots like the 1st one more. Their artificial lights inside are taking away from some of the internal shots but nothing you can do about thet I guess.
The first thought that came to my mind as well (having seen some HDRs of church interiors) was do they allow a tripod inside? If yes you could have got some even more rocking shots.

gopalji · « **Reply #17 on:** July 16, 2012, 02:11:17 AM »

It is good to note that you got more successful results than before......However,1,2,5,8,9,16,20,21 I liked most....Second is more a silhouette and does it convey anything, except 3 small statues below?Thnx for sharing Doc.

Chillum Baba · « **Reply #18 on:** July 16, 2012, 10:19:57 AM »

Thanks Gopalji.

@lightwave I was all the time carrying my tripod on my back while shooting, which made clicking even more challenging. No, they strictly dont alolow use of tripods though I fail to understand logic behind it.

Chillum Baba · « **Reply #19 on:** July 17, 2012, 01:18:57 AM »

Few more in Part 2 series :

http://www.jjmehta.com/forum/index.php/topic,20392.0.html

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Author Topic: PART 1 - World Heritage Site - The caves of Ajanta (Read 617 times)