Homa - Ritual
A Homa or Havan ritual is known by alternate names, such as Yajna in Hinduism which sometimes means larger public fire rituals, or jajnavidhana or goma in Buddhism. In modern times, a Homa or Havana tends to refer to a private ritual around a symbolic fire, such as those observed at a wedding
Homa or Havan is a sacred purifying ritual performed by Hindu pundits in temples, homes, working places & weddings by involving a sacred fire, Agni God. Offerings such as ghee, rice, dry fruits, honey, herbs, wood etc are offered to the sacred fire while reciting Sanskrit mantras.
As a kid I was fascinated by the different shapes we could imagine when we saw clouds. Hope you too had that imagination streak as a kid.
Well the fire of Homa too for me sometimes allows for vivid imagination.
Notice the images here; the first one looks as though a Horse if galloping out of the Homa, the next one is like the rise of the Phoenix and the next one if like a Peacock jumping out.
It has now become second nature for us to try and get such a image at every wedding, as we all know there will be no 2 such images.
iClickWeddings Photographers Note:
As always, there is no alternate to being alert when the Homa starts. This is also a time generally when all others things kind of slow down and people are to wait for this complete, giving you the scope to focus on this.
While it’s safe to say a tele (70-200) would be a good lens for this, it can depend on a few things that you could keep in mind. Like what if the kind of space you have available, if you are short of space then you would perhaps have to count on your 24-70.
We all know there are no rule in photography just guideline, here are the one we follow that give us consistent results of getting crisp flames in the image.
Shutter speed in the range of 1/800 to 1/1000.
ISO 800 to 1600 depending on your location.
F2.8. ( In case you have a F4, even that will do, just push the ISO 2 stops further up, and do a NR correction in post production)
If you use bound flash like I do, the flash is to be switched off (unless you have a High Sync Flash)
Notes:
These are inputs that we are sharing out of what we have learned and implemented and not any rules to be followed.
You may have a completely different way to approach this subject and if that is giving you results, then that is also right.
In case anyone wishes to share their workflow, we would love to know / hear from you on iclickweddings@gmail.com
