Rembrandt lighting/ Worcester Art Museum

June 17th, 2008, Shrewsbury, MA: On June 15th my wife Tripti and I, with our friends - Jeroen and Margaretha - went to the Worcester Art Museum. It's a nice museum and the best thing is that it is small and not crowded at all. While looking at some Dutch paintings I came across this painting by Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn which reminded me of learning about Rembrandt Lighting at school. It was so evident in the painting the triangle of light under one eye formed by the light falling on the nose at an angle.

Rembrandt lighting in photography is a lighting technique that is sometimes used in studio portraiture. The key in Rembrandt lighting is creating the triangle or diamond shape of light underneath the eye. One side of the face is lit well from the main light source while the other side of the face uses the interaction of shadows and light, also known as chiaroscuro, to create this geometric form on the face. The triangle should be no longer than the nose and no wider than the eye. Rembrandt lighting is a combination of short and butterfly lighting-- and as such it is actually the eye closest to the camera (on the broad side of the face) that should have the triangle of light. The narrow side is illuminated. This technique may be achieved subtly or very dramatically by altering the distance between subject and lights and relative strengths of main and fill lights. It is a common photography technique.

Dutch Art Painting, Jeroen, Margaretha, Rahul, Rembrandt Lighting, Tripti, Worcester Art Museum, Indian, Wedding, Photographer, Worcester, Massachusetts
Source: Wikipedia

Also see this YouTube video by Photoshopmama

My Talk at Boston Photography Center, April 9th 2008

I was invited by the Boston Photography Center to give a talk about my project in New Orleans. The talk was held at New England School of Photography (NESOP) on 9th of April, 2008. (Click for the link)

It being my first ever photography related seminar (I have given several as a scientist) I was a bit nervous, yet very excited. I got some great advice and help in preparing for the talk from my wife Tripti, Alan, Randy, Aimee, Julie, Liz and Cary.

I reached NESOP at 7:35 pm after spending 15 minutes looking for a parking...it was also a RED SOX match that day...! I found a spot in BU's student residential complex (10 min walking distance from NESOP). NESOP is definitely at a nice location on Com Ave! That's all I can say about it for now...anyways...I met Benjamin there…, one of the members at the BPC...he was the first one to be there and I was the second… we talked for a while till Benafsheh (Founder and President of BPC) came with Katherine (another member). B, as she is mostly called, was coming directly from Santa Fe after a month log trip. She did look exhausted, but still had so much energy in her... :o)

We waited for a little while and when the attendance was around 30 ish we started. I had to use one of the laptops from NESOP, it was a mac, I guess was an old mac, and my fancy wireless presenter did not work on that mac...guess the two were not compatible! Bloody mac!! Anyway... I used the arrow keys on the mac...(wow so many macs…).

I started… talked a little about my background as a scientist, then about the practicum module at the CDIA and why I chose to go to New Orleans to do my practicum. The talk went on for about over an hour… and it went pretty well… Cary had advised me to make sure that I take my audience to New Orleans for that one hour that I am talking…and I could see from the faces in the audience that I did manage to follow Cary’s advice…I felt I succeeded in taking them to New Orleans for that one hour …people in the audience were frustrated to see the destruction and that not much has been done to get the gulf coast back to normalcy, even two years after the hurricane! I received very positive feedback from the audience after the talk and also through emails and on the BPC's Meetup site. Overall it was a very nice and satisfying experience…my first talk as a photographer!