An Interview With Baber Afzal: Light Painting a Porsche Commercial

Baber Afzal is the soft-spoken talent who only found his way to photography after picking up his sister’s Sony point-and-shoot nearly over a decade ago. That twist of fate has led him to work for some very well-established clients in the UAE, including the Porsche UAE’s new Panamera campaign.

The Photographic Spark

The Karachi-born native grew up in Islamabad and Lahore, and on a visit to the Margalla Hills with friends, he decided to bring a camera long. Margalla Hills is a scenic range of hills overlooking Islamabad, Pakistan. Baber had been studying a BSc in computer science up until this point, but the experience of creating images and the environment changed his long-term career path.

Baber soon moved to Dubai to work as a business development executive, but the spark for image-making had already been lit. In addition to his previously mentioned bachelor's, Baber has also studied filmmaking at the New York Film Academy. He reveals that learning image-making in a formal setting offered him a breadth of knowledge and exposed him to different aspects of image-making, including various programs, in a short amount of time.

I love to evolve and grow and learn new applications.

He primarily creates still images now but confesses that at heart, his focus isn’t about photography or video but rather telling a story. The medium of the narrative isn’t as important, and he will utilize whatever is the best way to tell that story.

Seeing Light

Light is photography, and being able to see light is paramount. Light can both showcase a scene, but equally important are the parts in shadow, where light hides. Weather and location influence light heavily. Baber often thinks of images in terms of foreground, midground, and background. All these elements work in unison when composing a landscape image.

I believe [seeing] comes naturally. Light guides me. If you see gorgeous light coming in from a corridor, you gravitate towards it. You think: ‘there has to be a way to frame this. There has to be a way to compose the shot’.

Despite this deep understanding of light, Baber enjoys the retouching aspect of photography the most. He reveals that he spends about 20% of his time capturing images and about 80% on retouching images he’s captured.

Porsche

Baber reveals that the opportunity to work with Porsche was very much a chance encounter. They had seen and admired his work and were interested in hiring him to create an atypical car image. They wanted something extraordinary. Having never photographed automobiles before, it was fascinating to be able to incorporate shooting a car into his typical oeuvre of landscape imagery.

They gave me complete creative freedom. They gave me a blank canvas to start with.

Baber had the opportunity to pitch several concepts and sketches, but ultimately Porsche gravitated towards the Reuben Wu-inspired near other-worldly light-painted landscape car images. The pitch cemented the framework for the shoot, as it included the concept as well as the overall look and feel of the photographs.

Baber confesses that as much as he enjoys the “lone landscape photographer” way of working, he also thoroughly enjoyed working on a large scale and managing a huge team. He’d love to do similar shoots in the future. The team really helps to facilitate the shoot, including things that might not even be considered by someone who hasn’t worked on such a large scale. For example, the team helped with the position of the car, providing input on framing the shot, and most importantly, helping to keep everyone on schedule. The shoot lasted 10 hours, and eight setups needed to be executed over two locations. All 40+ members of the crew contributed something meaningful to the shoot.

There is no doubt about the pressure of working on a large set where the crew size exceeds about 40 individuals. The pressure really amounts when you see so many people. Focusing on the task at hand and having a thorough game plan really helped. Additionally, Baber worked closely with his immediate team (which was significantly smaller) to work out kinks during test shoots prior to the actual night of the shooting. Having practiced the technique via a test shoot helped instill confidence in executing the images on the night of the shoot. When working on such a large-scale shoot, it’s important to have thorough pre-production. His core team had test-shot the concept prior and worked out techniques to create straight lights. Despite this, the final images are composites of multiple frames, choosing the best lines from each image.

Hurdles

Despite the focus on pre-production and test shoots, being flexible is still very important. Things can still go wrong, and being able to adapt helps immensely towards a smooth shoot night.

As the images covered a large area, the core team, which included Baber as well as his drone operator and lighting assistant, needed to be spread out to best execute the images. Working at night meant that the drone’s in-built anti-crash sensors weren’t as effective, so the drones needed to be kept in line of sight. Communication was thus handled over walkie-talkies.

The shoot took place over the weekend. Between the two locations, one had more traffic than anticipated. This meant thinking quickly on his feet and shooting the other location first, before coming back to what was meant to be the first location. This sounds easier said than done, as when there is a crew of over 40 people, it isn’t the easiest call to make.

The tethering cable was also not transferring images to Capture One. This ate over half an hour into the time, but ultimately, having backup gear and falling back onto additional camera bodies and cables was the solution rather than wasting time troubleshooting the problem at hand. Thankfully, this solution worked. On a large-scale shoot, it’s important for the client to be able to view images as they are being shot.

Follow Opportunity

Baber Afzal's images are a testament to following your passion. Create images that excite you. He has steadily created images he wanted to create, but when an opportunity has come along, he’s been flexible and adapted to meet new challenges head-on.

I’m excited to see what he creates next.

Images by Baber Afzal, used with permission.
Client: Porsche Middle East
Agency: Keko Dubai
Production: Stoked Films
Drone Op: Bachir Moukarzel
Drone Assist: Abdaeli Manager
PA: Firoz Ram