Evening Shots

My friends worry that I since I am working in a new place I might not be able to do posting, but I assure you that there are still quite a few idea which I have not covered. i.e. exposure meter, shapes and light, composition, shooting in the rain, closeup .... In the last 1.5 months, I have posted about 30 blogs and reached 1000 hits (of course some are created by myself with intention, haha!).

My blog is timeless (like all piece of A*ts), you can keep referring to previous blogs or occasionally reivew the older post. I hope you may find something new which you have missed when you re-read. Although a picture is better than a thousand words, the words are there to help clarify the ideas I like to put forward.

I am going to tell you one secret on how to take the following picture:

This is not a picture commissioned by IKEA (since this blog is not for commercial purpose, I think IKEA should be fine with me posting a picture of their megamart at tampines.) When I first came to Singapore, I could not pronounce tampines, I always said "temp""pine""s". Is anyone out there able to pronounce this place properly who is not a Singaporean when first encountered this word? I doubt any one can say "temp""pan""niece". (Correct me if I am wrong).

Ok, on how to take this picture. It is all about timing. Set you camera (digital ones) to P, and shoot after sunset but before the moon comes out. If you check the observatory, the timing should be about 7:00pm to 7:20pm, plus or minus). Too early, the sky is too bright, too late the sky is dark. You must first compose the picture in your mind, wait for the right timing, right lighting, the rest is simple, just press the button. Follow this, I can assure you that you can get this kind of picture.

There are pictures which looks easy but technically very difficult to get it right, and there are pictures which looks difficult but quite easy to take. This evening shot belongs to the latter.

( I tried to upload a few more examples, but blogger stopped me from uploading, might have to wait another day)

Camera used - Panasonic G1.

No Word is Needed

Shot this last Sunday.

Place: Marina Bay Sands

Taken with : Contarex 135mm F 4.0 on a modified Canon New F-1 using Fuji 100 film.

Developed: a local 1 hour shop

Scanner: Epson V700

Output : Straight in jpg.

Since I am not going to say much, therefore I recorded the shooting data.

I hope by now you should know how to get from the above to this:

Today I started with a new organization, therefore quite excited and tired.

Hope I can maintain the frequency of posting if I am not travelling.

Malaysian Soil in Singapore (3 - Last)

 The final post on KTM

Railway track is my friend's favourite. Very difficult to photograph a railway track because there is really not much to say. However, the track is not perfectly straight nor perfectly curved, so be prepared for a not so smooth ride. 

I think one of the reason is that the inspection cart is never used. Now early retired and enjoying the company of flower pots.

Still using manual lever to change tracks!!

A sample of light, shape and form.

A Staff resting and chatting with friend in front of Malaysia Tourism board which is suppose to promote tourism inside Malaysian soil.

The gate is almost closed.

AND 

FINALLY

THE REALITY:

You don't see people in the picture because the photographer chooses not to show. The train station sudden rushed with people when a train terminated at the station, for a flash, then it is all quiet again. 

Malaysian Soil in Singapore (2)

Today, I am posting the inside of the train station. everything has this slower pace once inside the train station, without the normal noisiness, crowds, luggages rushing in and out. One of the reason is that not so many people take train to Malaysia nowadays because it is not so frequent and not so cheaper. However, I heard that there is a South Asian Express from Singapore to Thailand which is for those who has a lot of time to spend. One day may be I shall explore this as another photographic trip with my family.

So it is called Eastern and Oriental Expess

Still using the old fashion time table notice board, no LCD screen, no computer to enquire train schedule.

Another time schedule besides the old style mini-store.

Some painting on the high walls showing lives in Malaysia.

Ticketing Office, still no queue, the job is like working every 15 minutes per hour (guessing, may not be true)

Since the station is mostly white, I have to increase exposure most of the time.

(to be continued..)

Malaysian Soil in Singapore (1)

The last piece of Malaysian Soil in Singapore will end soon, last year when we heard about this we went to the Malaysian Railway station and took picture of this piece of History. Since this is about history, actually, nothing has changed for the last 40 years because this is under Malaysian jurisdiction (please correct me if I am wrong), I converted all the pictures into monochrome. This really could bring out the nostalgia feeling and a lost of a piece of history.

The main entrance is as beautiful as it is colonial.

The building itself is heavily engineered, gives a solid feeling.

We are not alone, there is this couple, after the guy took many shots, the girl also tried her hand on the camera.

So beautifully crafted entrance arch.

There are so many pictures to display on this train station, there will be a few days of blogging on the same subject. I hope you will not be bored. 

Bokeh

A subject only the photo-geek and the Japanese may understand. Here we are not talking about the sharpness of the subject, but the blurring of the background. How highlight under the out of focus situation is maintained, whether it is soft circle, or uglily rendered irregular pattern. A len is said to have good Bokeh can command a much higher price.

What is the theory of how Bokeh is rendered. It is of three main elements: the shape of the aperture. Is the aperture shape like a pentagon, hexagon, xx-gon etc; of course, the more perfectly the aperture resembles a circle, the better chance. Second is the correction of the the len design, the better the correction, the better the Bokeh. Lastly is the material of glass used. It is less likely plastic lens can render good bokeh. Good bokeh is always a result of a combination of three, however, there is no rigid formula, therefore sometimes we have to trust others' comment on certain len.

If we use a larger aperture i.e. F 2.0, the background will be more blur, if we use a smaller aperture, the background will be clearer.

Ok, no more theory.

A picture taken at Cameron Highland, Malaysia. Yes, it is very colonial and the mood is there. This is the backyard of the hotel, nicely layout table, with background of the hotel. I actually took two pictures, first one with a 35mm @ f2.0, however, I did not like the result because the background was too blur, therefore I stopped down to F 5.6, therefore achieved the result I want. The subject matter is sharp, but the background was not so blur that is beyond recognition.

similarly, we can use the blur background to tell a story, you can see the hood of Santa Claus, but can you also see the lighting of the christmas tree.

When we take picture, please do not only focus on the subject, pay some attention to the background, use the background to tell a better story.

The picture was taken deliberately to show Bokeh. I hope by now you know what Bokeh means. The colour is very weak, so I converted it into monochrome. It is slightly more interesting.

So for those who are curious which cameras were used, here are some information to feed your thirst. First picture, Leica M9, with 35mm Summicron Second picture, Sony NEX3, with Leica 50mm summicron (effective focal length 75mm). Last picture Leica CL with Voigtlander 40mm at F 1.4.

Use you camera properly, everyone can get good result.

Old picture

My passion for photography started when I was 15, I had no clue what photography was about, I just knew that my uncle is a keen photo-taker. I use photo-taker because he was not seeing photography as an expression of his view of the world but as a mean to play around with the mechanics of the camera. I saw him taking pictures of my aunt, shooting a street which was next to his camera shop just to test out his cameras. I have never seen his photo album, only occasionally some pictures he took of me.

I have always been curious how this plastic film inserted into a camera could get an image on paper. When I was 15, I went to one of the oldest HK used camera shop and paid HKD 500.- for a Nikkomat FT2 camera (I hope there are friends out there who know which camera) and a 50mm F 1.8 lens. Such a good piece of equipment.

I used the camera to take pictures of my girl friend who ended my became my wife. Of course in between I also took pictures of other girls, but kindly remember to destroy all records of pictures who are not of your wife after you got married, otherwise this will haunt you as long as you live.

If you ask me about the quality of the picture, I can only say that it is as good as I can after all, the picture is 30+ years old, luckily I did not try to save money and sent this to a proper lab. I am happy that I start photo-taking when I was young and this is to share with you a precious memory of me.

Walking Around My Home Town

Walking inside Hong Kong Museum of Arts gave me two great discoveries. One is not photographic related - an exhibit of Chinese calligraphy of 20 different panels each of different style from the same artist Xia Hou Kang. (of course he died 30 years ago.) Each panel on its own is already a great piece of art, but putting all 20 together, I know for this the greatness of his art. He not only could perform well in one style, his excellence is in every aspects of calligraphy. If you are in HK, please take a look at HK Art Museum . (Entrance fee is only HKD 10.-, a great steal, Singapore is charging 4 times +).

This was not taken on the spot (there are so many museum staff inside the HK Art Museum), but from the pamphlet which shows the exhibits. Probably not a good picture, but here the content is important while technique is secondary.

I was stunned and stood infront of the exhibits for a whole 5 minutes, with goose bumps standing too. When one sees a beautiful thing a day, the day is well lived!


Outside the exhibition hall, the sight of Victoria Harbour was a scene so many tourists have taken. I was a tourist too in my home town:

The window panels created a mosaic, turning an over shot subject into something a bit more interesting. I was sitting there quietly, enjoying the sight.

How about see two beautiful things a day, that day is well -- over lived.

A Way to Train Seeing

I have been advising my friends that if we want to improve on our vision (mind you, I cannot claim that I am good, I am still learning) one way is to take out your digital camera, find a very common subject at home and shoot for 36 shots. Use different angle, close up, different lighting, different everything from everyshot. Doing so for a few times, you will not come and say that there is nothing to shoot.

There is one saying, photography is not to take a normal picture of a great subject , e.g. a lovely model, but to take a common subject to make it great. Give it some thoughts.

Frontal shot

Partial shot

side shot

inside shot

back shot

back floating shot

Book spine shot

Imagine the full name

Graphic shot

Book Title shot

Just the black part of the book spine

The publisher

You see a cross ?

The writer

Macro shot of the character

only partial shot.

I can go on forever, forcing me to think how to take this simple book.

Try to beat me with more shot of a book, you are welcomed.

Not Sharp, How Blur?

From my last post of extremely sharp picture of the book, I am going to bring this to another extreme, a picture which is absolutely out of focus. Is this a good picture, I don't know, you can tell me.

Can you tell a story from this picture? Yes, a woman (of course my wife) just finished shopping, walking towards the taxi some where. It is a feeling of home coming, someone is waiting at home, too tired to go home.

Here with such lack of definition, we must make sure the colour now plays the most important role. Blue, red, yellow.

I have been talking too much on technical recently , even I think that has been a bit overwhelming. However, it is worthwhile to go back and revisit the subject in a month or two month's time and try to understand what is in my message, I hope this can help all in your daily photo taking, whatever camera you use.

Will be away this weekend, so I rest, and so can you.

PIcture need not be sharp...

A lot of camera reviews on the web mentioned the rating of the equipment by its sharpness. They go out to shoot newspapers and are really happy when they see the printed words.

I shall not say too much but show to all a really sharp picture.

I was strolling along Pasir Ris park on a sunday after, there are people lying on the sand, enjoying the book, the original intention is to take a picture of the lazy sunday afternoon. The camera is a micro 4/3 with an adapter attaching a 135mm 50 years' old len.

Is this a good picture? I think it is because it re-created the mood and feeling of that moment.

Only when I reached home and try to poke around a bit, I realised that the characters of the book is almost recognizable.

Yes, I am not too keen about sharpness, but sometimes, if the image is that sharp it is added bonus.

This was taken with another camera, a totally different combination, yet the result is still quite acceptable (this is of course to my untrained eye).

Just repeat the theme of this blog : "CxxxxxNxxIxxxxxxxx".

Adjustment is necessary as a tool

I quoted Ansel Adams quite a few times, here I have to quote him again. Negative is the original ingredient, the material to make a nice meal for the eye. We do not eat raw meat, raw vegetable because these are tasteless even though it is natural, or put it negatively RAW.

Save for the future is the RAW format of digital photography, this is the ingredient for a photograph, it is not and should not be the end result for various reasons. The RAW converter in software is only readiable by the software written for that special purpose of reading the RAW file, however, if in 20 years, the camera company no longer exists, there is no software to read the RAW files, we who save the files in RAW format will have our entire photo library rendered useless unless we can find someone who knows how to write such a program. This happened before in some computer games, e.g. Atari, who can guarantee that such will not happen again!

To be safe, better cook the ingredients and save it is a very very common format i.e. jpg, because this format is so common, there will still be some software able to open it. It happened to me before when I bought a Leica D-Lux 4 point and shoot camera, the RAW format was not recognized until 6 months later, this gave me the cold shower to using this camera for anything serious.

Now as expected, today to have to show you the RAW and cooked picture.

Guess what, this is original out of the camera picture of my friend (thanks!) who was brave enough to go to Tokyo after the March earth quake. A simple picture of a deserted train station with no body. My friend was not very happy about the picture, but does not know why.

I identified the adjustments needed to cook the picture, and the end result:

Now you can see better highlight without damaging the shadow details, there is more contrast. This is what I have done:

- increase the contrast a bit, that will recreate the tonality which was lacking in the original picture, human eyes can differentiate a much wider exposure latitude vs camera, so it is always (not 100%, but more like 90%) better to increase the contrast slightly.

- reduce the exposure by about 1 stop. The original exposure is overexposed because the foreground is mostly dark in colour, the camera meter only treated it as medium grey, therefore the picture was overexposure. See how the ground was grey in the first picture vs the darker grey in the second picture.

- As a result of overexposure, the far sky is washed out (I mentioned this before, try to get as much detail of the sky as possible), I use the software to clip the highlight and extracted details.

- Now I hope you can agree with me that the "cooked" picture is better tasting than the RAW picture.

- As a final touch, the red light which was not so apparent in the original picture is now noticeable, recreating the mood of Japan is not going any where and brought the whole picture to have a bit of meaning.

Everything is there in the ingredient, go "cook" it.

Let there be light

What is photography?

Photography is a conversion of a 3D subject into 2D, to do so, we shall require light to expose silver or colour film through an optic to record the compressed image on a 2D paper.  We can change the subject film to photo sensor, photographic paper to LCD screen, the whole process has not changed. This leads the discussion to the most difficult subject of photography - Light.

Learning about photo taking has become more and more complicated. Earlier I covered the colour wheel, now, you have light. You may be surprised that photographer can see many different kinds of light.

- direct vs indirect - sunny vs cloudy, noon sun vs evening sun
- diffused vs harsh - hard shadow or soft shadow.

Then there are colour temperature of the light, or if you are too overwhelmed, you might just convert everything into black and white; but wait a moment.. black and white is about...? Shapes and brightness. When will this ever end!? Never, because there are innumerable combinations which make photo taking very involving as you know there are always a better way to do it.

Ansel Adam made a similar picture in black and white with such great tonality that I almost could imagine the colour of the subject. I am no way to even come close to the ability to convert 3D subject into 2D like Ansel Adam. He is the sun in heaven, I am still a grain of sand on the surface of earth.

Apart from being inspired by Ansel Adam, the timing of the sun is about mid morning, the sun is up and the shadow is strong. The small tree was illuminated from the side, gave the 3D feeling of the small tree trunk. The illuminated tree is in front of the totally dark background, therefore the subject is very well separated from the rest, the illumination of the sun enhanced this separation further. The camera is ... not so important, if you can see the image, you can get it.

Now about this photo in depth:

- Simplicity - there is only one colour
- Brightness Contrast - bright vs dark subject
- Colour Contrast - light illuminated green vs darker green colour
- Composition - the subject is off centre, there are other trees to maintain balance. If you squint your eyes, you can also see three major bands of colour across the whole picture , these three bands segregate the picture into almost three equal parts horizontally.

Voila!

Photo is a collection of memory

Hi friends, have been away on business, I was not able to post anything because blogspot is not available in China.

One of my friend once said, photo is a collection of memory. How true is this!

When taking such group photo, a wide angle is a must, use no flash or use fill-in flash if possible so that we do not get harsh lighting. Make sure we get attention of everybody and  encourage everybody to show some energy. This one can is consider a nice group photo telling a story. I am sure after many years, once we see this picture, the memory will come back vividly. This picture is a peg to this moment in life. 

Here, any camera is better than no camera, without the picture, the moment will be difficult to recall even though it is there.