Espíritu Libre: From Absolut Negative to Absolut Positive.

Today's session on Artifical Lighting was rather interesting. I entered the studio and there he was , My Sensei, standing with a tiny box in his hand. He told me to setup one single light with a 16 degrees medium grid (it is a light shaper), which I did. Then he told me to open the box. I open that tiny Ilford box and was taken aback. It has been on my bucket list to learn analogue photography. But to shoot a completely exposed roll of negative film (as the main subject by the way) was something that I hadn't even thought of. So there it was a tiny roll of negative film containing 12 years old 36 negatives from Sir's Absolut Vodka collection (one of my favourites)

His next words gave a different kind of a high. He said, " You have 4 hours to shoot this keeping in mind the long shadows. I have to finish the Sherlock series and then clear my post production. So do not disturb me over silly things."

Believe me, when I say this. My Sensei has never behaved in such a cool and a casual manner. It took me atleast 20 minutes to realise that he is actually going to watch a freaking T.V. series (that too Sherlock!! hmpf!!) while I slog my ass off.

Since I didn't have any other option left, I started setting up the background and camera. I focused on two types of angles with the help of tripod. One was around 45 degrees and another was 90 degrees. In the end I had to shoot handheld as I was using a 105mm Macro lens.

For the first time, Nrupen sir left me on my own in the studio. And in the end (after slogging and experimenting for 2 hours with the light) I started getting decent results. By the time it was 6:30 pm I had taken some really good shots and developed a clear idea about the post production.

These are the best 7 photographs. (Also, the first seven to be showcased from the White Cube Zone series, as promised!)