Recent update

Many friends asked me how come I am silenced for so long? Why no post at all? Even less album is published in facebook.
Actually I am still taking photos everywhere. Just that I've met my bottleneck:

How can I improve my shots?
What is my best field in shooting?

I don't know how do others managed it, but I'm stucked in the same situation for a long long time. No improvement in skills, composition, colour managing, and style. Noticable improvement in getting sharp image(due to 50mm F1.8 lens??), focused on target, sometimes getting the correct white balance of the photo. Throughout the shooting in this few months, I've oso noticed that I am weak in landscape photography, and many things which are not moving..

Some photos to share, taken long long time ago(credit to the model, Ziting):
1. Album Cover


2. Close up


3.

4. A photoshop-ed photo of no. 3


5.

6.

7.

8.

9. Last photo



Most, if not all photos were shot using 50mm F1.8 lens. I like the lens very much. It offers me the sharpness I wanted. Ziting, the model did much of the job. She herself posed for the shots and I only commented on a few shots.

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What is the meaning?

Again, long time since last post. Maybe this one shouldn't be a photography blog. It should be a photo-blog instead. I am too new in photo shooting, i cannot call myself a photographer. I am only a "photo-taker". I take photo. Simply taking photos everywhere. And I care too much about composition, angle, exposure, colour balance and object (well, not that I can take of that much things, just as example :-p). At the end, I forgot what a real photo means.

WHY do I take this shoot?
WHAT am I trying to show with this shot?

I don't know. I am just shooting to show the beauty of the object. There's no point of me shooting this photo. I am in deep shit...

It took me at least half an hour and 50+ shots to get this photo. A necklace i bought for my girl friend as her convocation gift. Yes it is nice. However, it is supposed to be warm and sincere.Yet it looks cold and heartless. Don't you think so?




For her convocation, I purposely brought her out one day to take her photo in her robe before she returns it. 128 shots. For me there's no perfect shot of the day. One of the better shots:




Following trips to Sg. Lembing and Cameron Highlands, I took panoramic shots again. Same mistake, same boring.

Sg. Lembing town main street panorama:



I should have included the top of the tree in the middle, and also the horizontal line.


Rainbow waterfall at Sg Lembing:



a nice shot, but not a perfect shot.


Cameron Highlands' Boh Tea Farm:



The white balance of the photo ran again...


What can I do? How can I learn?
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Panorama photo

Hasn't been taking photos lately, other than a few gathering photo. But I am never a gathering-photographer type of person, I usually hand-off the duty to my friends. Haha.. Still, outing to Lookout Point, Cheras did resulted into something, well at least to me. We went for dinner in a restaurant called Panoramic View, and we get to view the panoramic view of KL. Took a few photo, came back and I used Photoshop CS3 to stitched the photos into a panoramic photo.

OK, what is panoramic view?
According to Wikipedia, a panorama is the wide-angle view of anything. It can be in painting, photography, drawing, and movie/video. I first encounter the word in photography. And indeed, I took my first panoramic photo a few years ago during my trip in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. The subject I shot is Mount Kinabalu. It was taken using the family's old Canon Ixus 850IS, and i did'nt stitched the photo until lately. Here's the result from stitching three photos:



How can you take a panoramic photo?
Well, you can always buy a real panoramic camera, or you can do post-production using software like Adobe Photoshop.
For post-production, you will need to take some photo and stitch them together. For some models of Canon DC, there's already a function named 'stitch' when you are using manual mode. If there's no such function, feel no fear as ahguang is here. Tripod is very useful here as u can take multiple shots from the same height and spot, with more steadiness. The trick here is, if you are using a DSLR or prosumer, switch to 'M' mode, set the appropriate shutter and aperture for all shots. This is important to keep the exposure same. Then take a first shot, adjust your camera so that the second shot must overlap about 1/3 of the view covered in first shot, the third shot overlap about 1/3 of the second shot and so on until you covered the whole view.
Next, use your post-production software. I'd only tried Adobe PS3, so I can't comment much on the software, but its quite easy to use. Open your software, click 'File' >> 'Automate' >> 'photomerge', then select your photo, then click 'ok'. Just that easy and the software will do all the dirty work for you.

Here's the KL panoramic photo produced from the outing:



The photo is too long as it's stitched using four photos. Too bad too the most left and right side of the photo is blurred due to shaky camera when taking them. Must take better shots next time..

Stitching photos can also be used in some other creative situations. One of the example is as below, which is partly a failure:



I've seen some perfect portraits, examples here and here (from http://blog-blogsss.blogspot.com/) produced by stitching photos together, but mine above is surely not one of them. The exposure is different from left to right if you have noticed..

Hope you will enjoy stitching photos!

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Event Photography too

Attended another event last wed with my gal gal. It was a concert where the UM students write, compose and sing their own song, in Chinese of course. Didn't plan to take photo initially, but my hands are itchy and can't stand the complex lighting of the stage thus I went and grabbed my gear, my dear EOS1000D.. Hehe..

Just something to add on to the previous post:

1. Prime lenses have their advantage in event shooting too.
2. Be brave and step forward.
3. Be as invicible as possible.

As mentioned in the post of shutter and aperture, bigger aperture(smaller F values) does reduce shutter lag and thus reducing the blurness caused by motion. During the event, I spoke to another female photographer who also took photo of the event last year. She is using the same camera model as mine, and kit lens last year. This year she is using prime lense (50mm F1.8) instead. Her comment is, using prime lens really helps a lot.
(Sorry but this is a tip for DSLR users. DC and prosumer just can't change lens)
(Just for information, prime lenses are a group of lenses where the focal length is fixed, meaning they can't zoom like zoom lens which can zoom. Prime lens normally have a bigger aperture than zoom lens.)
(Looks like I must own a prime lens soon..)

Be brave and step forward.
If you really wanted to shoot event photographys, getting close is very important. When you go closer, there is more light. More light means shorter shutter speed. And you can focus on each expressions of the performers.

Be as invisible as possible.
This is a reminder from my gal gal. She complaints that I moved too much during the event. This caused a disturbance to not only her, but also the audience around us. I was keep on moving to-and-fro from my seats and the stage and this will affect the audience's attention to the event. What she said is correct. I haven't thought of others feeling when I am enjoying my shooting. They have also paid for the event and they have their rights to enjoy the show without being interference. She suggested to me that I can either stay out taking photo for the whole event, or just sit and enjoy the show. If I choose to take photo, don't move too much too as this might catch the attention of audience from the performance. If I come for the show, just enjoy the show and stop thinking about photography.
Respect your companion too, as they accompany you to the show, not the shooting.

Not much to share, just wanna put the photo of a bassist I know.



And a discussion here:
How can I avoid overexposure on the face of the performers if lights are directly shot onto them?

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Event Photography

Sorry guys, its already three weeks since my last entry. Too busy(eating, celebrating and shooting) and too lazy... By the way, its Chinese New Year what, who works that hard during this period? Not me.. Haha..

OK, for the past three weeks I have been to two events taking photo. One of them is a paid Chinese instrument symphony orchestra, while another one is Ang Pau Festival of UM 9th Residential College (just a coincidence that I am free that time and in the college). Learned some really techniques there (as I am still a beginner).

In these events, normally the light will be dim and performers are moving all the while. Some useful tips is:

1. Push up ur ISO to an acceptable level (for me no choice, ISO1600 is the limit of my camera)
2. Use the fastest shutter speed available
3. Check the white balance of the stage
   
4. Ask for the flow of the event to know the performances coming up
5. Attend their rehearsal (if possible)(ask for permissions too)
6. PRACTICE MORE!!!

For details and photo, please click 'Read More'...


Obviously, the 1st and the 2nd tips is to reduce shutter lag. In dim light situation (low light), the only way to achieve an acceptable shutter speed is to raise your ISO. During my 1st shooting, most of the photo were taken using ISO800 as I afraid that raising the ISO up to 1600 will greatly reduce the photo quality. However at the end of the day, most of the photo are blurred due to the continuous movement of the performers (of course la, they are performing what..). The quality is only acceptable, but the precious moment, timing, where the performers looked best are missed.

Either image quality or 'the moment'?
I will choose 'the moment'...

For the 1st event most of the photos are blurred. So I've only selected a few to crop into one.



During the second event, I've choosen to use ISO1600 and this enabled me to use an average shutter speed of 1/30. Although this is still considered quite slow, but it is far better than the previous event(S.P. of 1/8). Here are some of my more favourable shots during the second event, with some sense of 'the moment'..


Hero saving beauty.. Blurred a bit dy..


Left girl throwing a diabolo to the right girl who already holding one diabolo


Mosquitoes surrounding a peacefully sleeping boy..


Human Pyramid as if they are asking people to take photo of them...

About white balance. I have'nt mentioned this in my previous post, but this is quite important as white balancing will fix the colour bias caused by stage lightings. Most of the stage lights are comprised of several colour like green, yellow and red. When these lights beam onto the performers the original colour of the performers will be changed and become unnatural when viewed. Try comparing the two photos below:


The left was shot without adjusting the WB in the camera, the WB of the right is corrected using 'auto colour' function in Photoshop. Can you see the difference? The left is more reddish while the right is corrected.
WB may seems like a minute thing to take care of, but it is important thing to be noticed in achieving a good image.
A reminder here is, WB can be adjusted from the camera, or post processed using software. But the a better image quality can be obtained if adjustment is done using the camera.

The 4th and the 5th tips are quite similar. If you get to know the flow of the event, you gain an advantage which is, you get to know when is the best time to get an impressing shot of a performance. During the 2nd event I attended, one of the hardest performance to shoot is the diabolo performance. You'll never know when is the best time to press the shutter if you do not know well about the performance. The essence of a diabolo performance is when the performers throw 2-4 diabolos at a time without dropping any; or throwing up a diabolo 2-3 meters above the ground. Miss the moment, then you'll miss the shot, FOREVER. That's why knowing the performance (or best, attending their rehearsal in advance) is the best way to capture a great event photo.


It tooked me some while to take photo of this...

The final tips, well, I think I don't have to elaborate on that. Practice more! Hehehe...

Event photography is a very interesting part in photography. It really requires thinking and observing. Unlike portrait/macro/scenary, capturing the moment is the most important aspect. And another thing is, event photography is also one of the most money-making photography as there are always event out there waiting and employing photographers(especially wedding photographer). Practice well, and it can be an additional income for you too!

Gong Xi Fa Cai to all too!!!

more photo here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2052548&id=1436539115&l=ab02810383
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Pre-event photo..

These are some photo I took during the journey to the Chinese Musical Instrument Performance near Setapak. Just some photos that I've longed in taking it, taking a photo of the view at the back of an LRT. Its nothing much interesting about the photos, just wanna post it on as a memory. You can skip this post by not clicking the "read more" below...


This post is quite related to shutter speed. When I first have a real conscious about photography, I visited a photography forum in chinese.cari.com.my, and fascinated by a photo taken at the back of LRT. Since then I have been longing to take such shot and today I tried so..

Here's a dull photo, did not show any motion.

Shutter speed too fast, freezing every movement.. Some more the level is tilted. The left side is higher than the right side.

Then I tried several other shots. These are some of the interesting ones..

Overexposure(photo too bright), without any details from background. Yet I like de sense of movement inside.


Moving into a tunnel. With a curve, the photo becomes more attracting.


Inside the tunnel. Too bad reflection of view inside the train was taken too on the window.


This one, I like the curve too. And the feel of expansion. But hand-shake blurry is clearly observable.. The train is too shaky.. haih..

Hope you enjoyed de photos!

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Motion blur, camera shaking and out of focus

Sorry for this late post about photography knowledge. Been busy lately… Just FYI, I will be going to an event shooting this Sunday at Setapak. It’s about a musical festival, but the details I am not very sure for now. Feeling exciting about it as it’s my 1st paid shooting… Hehe…

Ok, lesson for today is blurriness in photo.

I know I know, most of u know how to take photo and u know about blurriness, if the photo is blurred, then it means something wrong and then u re-take de photo again. Then it blurred again. Then u shoot again until u get something u satisfy when u check in the little LCD screen of your camera. But then when u view it in your computer, the photo is blurred!

Why is this happening? Well, because u didn’t trouble shoot correctly. Do u know what’s wrong in the photo? And how can u improve the quality of the photo?

Other than during outing, most of the people take photos during low light situation, for example, in door party. When u’re shooting using digital compact (or even higher level camera), there r some limitation of the camera, your technique, or a combination of both. Blurriness in photo can be due to three main reasons, which is object’s motion blur, camera shaking and out of focusing.


Obviously, motion blur are referring to the motion of the object causing the blurriness in the photo. This may be due to fast movement of the object or long shutter time. In long shutter time, even the slightest movement of the object can cause an obvious blurriness in the photo. Camera shaking will also cause blurriness in a photo. It is common than human’s hand would shakes and normally when the shutter speed is longer than 1/30 we tends to shake when we r holding the camera. It also happens when we r pressing the shutter too hard.

How do we differentiate motion blur and camera shaking? Look at the photo below:



A drummer is hitting his drum rapidly and both photos were taken under low light condition. In the left photo, the drum and other stagnant objects are clearly seen, sharp, without any blurriness but the drummer is blurred. U can’t even c his face clearly. As for the right photo, the whole photo is blurred and u can notice that the blurriness of all objects has a same direction.
Well I think u might have guessed it now, the blurriness in the left photo is motion blur, while the right is due to camera shaking.

Now we knew what caused the blurriness, how can we reduce such blurriness?

For motion blur, use a higher ISO/shorter shutter speed or simply ask the object to stop moving (if situation allows… T.T)
For camera shaking, use a higher ISO/shorter shutter speed/switch on the image stabilizer or similar function on your lens if u r using Prosumer or DSLR/hold the camera the correct way/use a tripod/lean against a stable support if without tripod/ask someone with a steady hand!
One more common tip, USE YOUR FLASH!!! Although I normally don't like the effect of using flash. It spoils de mood and ambience of the photo.

For more details, u can refer to previous entries about ISO and shutter speed.

Let’s compare the next two photos and c if u can notice which kind of blurriness it is.



The left photo is blurred due to out of focus. Although almost all cameras have a function known as auto-focus, but in situations where the contrast between the object and background is not big (due to low light situation/complex colour/object is not outstanding compare to background) the function might not be working properly. Some users also never check the focus point of the shots or do not even let the camera having the time to focus.

For DC/Prosumer users, most models now will focus when u half press the shutter. Normally u would hear a beep/deed sound when the camera locks its focus and a box showing the focus point will appear on the screen. Check if the camera had got what u want to focus on. Release the shutter and half-press again to focus again until the focusing is correct then only fully press the shutter.
As for Prosumer/DSLR, when the camera is in auto-focus mode, the focus point focused will blink in your view finder. U can switch the focusing to the nearest focus point to guide the camera. If u are using live-preview mode, some additional controls might be required for auto-focusing and it is best to read the camera’s manual for guidance. During manual focus, a tip to achieve better focusing is the zoom to the object and adjusts the focusing. With more practice, manual focusing can be far better and faster than auto-focusing.

It is advised that u check the shot straight after u’ve taken your shots. Magnify a few times onto the object of interest and check whether the image is sharp or not. If not, re-take the shot.

Thank you for your time. I hope u learn something today and take better shots next time!

P/s: would like u all to take some time to leave comments so that I can improve my blog. Critics and suggestions are welcomed. And it would be a pleasure if u can help to answer the survey on the sidebar..





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