Photography Blog Talk » Headline

Strobist Stuff – An Introduction

Cheng — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 15:06:11 +0000

Well, strobist or off camera lighting is not a new concept. It means to take the camera from the camera hotshoe and place it in a different position. Sometimes it means using more than one source of light. Digital cameras has made it easier for us to gauge our exposure immediately after taking a shot.

So what are the gear that we need , mainly

A Flash. Personally I prefer a Nikon Speedlights for its portability. The good thing about operating the flash in manual mode means we could still use some of the older Nikon Speedlights models like SB-22, SB-28 etc. However if you have other brand of flash, they are still usable.

Triggers – There must be a way to trigger off the flash. There are the cheap ways (not so reliable) or the expensive way (very reliable). The ones I used are from ebay which are cheap and pretty reliable .

Want to learn more? Enroll for our Off camera Flash Photography Course here

Pro Bono Assignment – Zhoujia QingMing event

Cheng — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 13:51:26 +0000

I do selective Pro Bono photography jobs. One of them is the Qingming Festival praying event organised by the Zhoujiaquan lion dance troupes. Most of these troupes operated on a non commerical basis. Their main source of income is to go around performing “picking the greens” during Chinese New Year periods. Since I am always interested in lion dance, I have been shooting this Qingming event for a few years.

This year the event was on 11 Apr 10. The weather was great but it got really hot towards noon. Of course the light also got harsher. I shoot mainly with prime lenses, 16mm, 50mm and 90mm with the manual 16mm fisheye lens was my main workhorse that day.
Here are some photos to share.

Beautiful Light

Bowing before going up the clubhouse

Lion Head having a suntan on the lorry

Zhoujia senior conducting the basic routine

Which DSLR should I buy?

Cheng — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 09:27:49 +0000

I have been conducting basic photography training for the one year and this is one of the common questions that I get- Which DSLR should I buy? This is the kind of question where you will get 10 different answers if you ask 10 different persons.

Initially I was reluctant to recommend any specific brand or model as I believe most of the DSLRs on the market currently should serve the needs of beginners. I was right to a certain extend. Different cameras capture the color sdifferently. Some of them have good auto white balance (AWB) while some are awful. Some have good decent kit lens while other have kit lens that produce soft images.

Buy from Amazon now

Currently my personnel recommendation is the Nikon D90 with its 18-105 VR Zoom lens. This is slightly more expensive than the entry level DSLRs but has good functions and produces good quality images. The images shoot from the camera using out of the box settings are good in color saturation and sharpness.

I may be biased from the years of using the Nikon D70 which is the pre-pre- predecessor (D70-D70s-D80) of the D90 . However looking at the many camera and kit lens combination from the various brands, I’m pretty convinced that the D90 + the 18-105 lens combination is one of the best at this moment.

Check it out at the stores now

Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3 Review

Cheng — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 03:17:18 +0000

PaintShop Photo Pro X3

I am always on the lookout for graphic editing software that is not too heavy on the pocket ($). Paintshop has been around for a long time and now it is worth to take a second look at it.

Here are a few of the key features that I found it to be useful for photographers :

Organiser

With the new Organizer we are able to import, manage, search and quickly touchup image files directly into PaintShop Photo Pro X3. Photos can be tagged and rated, making them easier to find and group. The Organizer also displays advanced information, such as EXIF and IPTC data.

Multi-photo editing:
The basic editing I performed on my photos are Levels and Curve and follow by Unsharp Mask. Now, we can save time by copying the editing steps we performed on one image to a batch of photos.

RAW Conversion:

I seldom shoot in RAW but if i do , I want an effective way to convert the RAW files. . The Camera RAW Lab launches whenever a RAW image is opened. Once opened, we could adjust the white balance, exposure, brightness, and saturation before processing. Adjustments made to a RAW image can be copied and applied to other files in the Organizer.

HD video: These days, a lot of cameras including the Panasonic LX3 allows you to record HD video. PaintShop Photo Pro X3 allows us to use the HD videos in slide shows along with photos.

HDR Photo Merge: The HDR (High Dynamic Range) Photo Merge feature lets a few photos to be merged together to create a HDR photo where the details in both the shadow and hightlight areas are retained. When used in conjunction with Local Tone Mapping, truly artistic images can be created.

So if you are looking for a fully featured photoediting software that wont’t set you back by a few thousand dollars, check out Corel Paintshop Pro

Microstock

Cheng — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 07:29:11 +0000

Stock Photography

It used to be very expensive buying a photo from a traditional stock agency before the days of the Internet. Sock agencies had to publish thick catalogs showing the photographs in their library. The fees to license the use of a stock photo is not cheap too.

With the internet and subsequently microstock websites, all these has changed. You are able to license a photo for use for your website, brochure, annual reports etc for a few dollars. For photographers, you will get paid by a certain percentage of the selling price. That means usually in the region of 20 cents or more for every download by a microstock buyer.

As a photographer, this opens another stream of revenue for you. You need to submit your photographs to the various microstock agencies. The most popular microstock agencies are :

The sign up process is usually similar among the agencies :

Filled up the registration forms
Submit an initial set of photos (usually 10) and the agencies will review them. Once approved you can start to upload the rest of your works.
Wait for buyers to download your photos.
Collect your earnings once it hit a certain sum.

So add microstock photography as another revenue stream for you in the Year of the Tiger!

Harper’s BAZAAR & ION Photography Awards

Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3 and VideoStudio Pro X3

Cheng — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:40:17 +0000

VideoStudio Pro X3 and PaintShop Photo Pro X3.

Corel has recently announced 2 new products PaintShop Photo Pro X3 and VideoStudio Pro X3. I also been looking for “lighter” photo editing software and will check out both products soon once I get whole of them.

They have setup a minisite here with some interesting videos. The light painting one is pretty cool. I teach light painting and writing in my Foundation Photography Course but this vido shows how I can create an animated video of the light painting photos. Hope to create one of such video soon

Harper’s BAZAAR & ION Photography Awards

Cheng — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 14:30:36 +0000

Love photography, fashion and shopping ? Then this competition might interest you?

Harper’s BAZAAR will be hosting their first photography awards. Themed along fashion, art or architecture, this project creates an opportunity for new and emerging photographers to showcase their works on an international platform.

You may submit 3-5 digital images and you must shoot on location at ION Orchard (inside or outside). Closing date is 5 April 2010. So start working on your images.

For more information, click on the banner below

Harper's BAZAAR & Ion Photo Award

Photoscape – Basic Photo Editor

Cheng — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 08:42:50 +0000

For those who are not into the heavy and costly Photoshop application can try Photoscape, a handy and simple photoeditor. Moreover it is free although donation is always welcome. I think it is perfect for those who captured photos and want to post small size photos on the web such as blogs or social networking sites.

Photoscape

Some of Photoscape functions :

Viewer: View photos in your folder, create a slideshow
Editor: resizing, brightness and color adjustment, white balance, backlight correction, frames, balloons, mosaic mode, adding text, drawing pictures, cropping, filters, red eye removal, blooming
Batch editor: Batch edit multiple photos
Page: Merge multiple photos on the page frame to create one final photo
Combine: Attach multiple photos vertically or horizontally to create one final photo
Animated GIF: Use multiple photos to create a final animated photo
Print: Print portrait shots, carte de visites(CDV), passport photos
Splitter: Slice a photo into several pieces
Screen Capture: Capture your screenshot and save it
Color Picker: Zoom in on images, search and pick a color
Rename: Change photo file names in batch mode
Raw Converter: Convert RAW to JPG
Paper Print: Print lined, graph, music and calendar paper
Face Search: Find similar faces on the Internet

Review : Amazon Kindle 2

Cheng — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:53:15 +0000

I know the Amazon Kindle 2 ebook reader is not a photographic equipment but I thought readers of this blog might be interested in other electronic gadgets. I always been an avid reader and usually borrow books from the libraries in Singapore. I would be quite willing to buy books that are not available in the libraries or books that I would like to keep eg photography books. Therefore I was quite interested to know more about the Kindle. The other ebook reader I had tried was a small PDA. It was hard to read using that and I got giddy after a while.

As of now, Amazon does not allow the Kindle to be shipped to Singapore even for the Kindle 2 International version. However you can work around the problem by shipping to Vpost.

You may like to refer to this nice post by Jeff Yen on the workaround. He also works out the cost of the Kindle 2 including the leather cover , the shipping & GST charges which is about S$471. This is not a cheap device if you are not into books. However for an avid reader, having a mobile bookstore is well worth the money.

A quick test show that the Whispernet works on the Kindle 2 International version here in Singapore. However there is a catch, you need to pay US$1.99 delivery charge in additional to the price of the book. The cool thing is you could surf the web using the simple web browser. It is good for text only site like gmail.com.

Kindle

I like it for these reasons :

Monochrome screen, long battery life - Simplicity. Remember those monochrome screen handphones? I missed them for their long battery life per charge. I never purchase a iPhone or other smartphone before their battery life cannot match their capabilities.
Non glare & Non Reflective screen - No glossy screen here. Just a screen that almost look like a page off a book. You can read it under the sun unlike the normal LCD screen.
Simple operations – To go to the next page, you press one of the bigger than thumb size ”Next Page” button. To go to the previous page, press the ”Previous Page” button. This 2 buttons would do 90% of what I need the Kindle to do.
Personal Library on a smaller footprint – I have more reasons to buy more books for my Kindle as I no longer have to worry about the space the books will take up. There are also free ebooks that you can get off Amazon store.

Any cons to this device? Of course. Here they are :

Power switch – Quite awkward to use it as it is small and I need to slide and release to set it to sleep mode or to wake it up from sleep mode. To power it off, I need to slide and hold for 4 seconds. So usually I just wait for it to go sleep mode by itself after 10 mins of idle time.
White only - I would prefer a black or darker tone for the Kindle 2 body. I would imagine the body especially the buttons to get dirty soon from my greasy fingers.
The transitions of pages – Not the prettiest of all transitions. I would describe it as “scattering of ink”. How about a page flipping kind of transition?

Ok, I am off to read my book, Lost Symbol by Dan Brown on my Kindle of course.

Experience of a Lifetime – Myanmar – Part 3

Cheng — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 15:35:20 +0000

Mandalay

MandalayHil

From Kalaw I would move on to Mandalay, where I have the most interesting encounter with a trishaw driver, Mr Win Tin. Mr Win Tin offered to drive me around Mandalay. I told him I would get him to give me a ride down to U Bein Bridge in the afternoon if he was still around when I came back after a walk around the town. I walked away thinking that he would not be waiting at the same spot after a span of a few hours since he could ferry other tourists around. Guess what! Mr Win Tin was still there when I walked back in the afternoon. He had no customer from morning to almost 3 pm in the afternoon. Life certainly is not easy in Myanmar! Anyway I struck adeal with him to bring me to U Bein Bridge to watch the sunset for 3,000 Kyats.

Along the way, I found out that Mr Win Tin was in his forties and rented a trishaw everyday. He could speak English well and was knowledgeable. He appreciated independent travellers as they would contribute directly to the locals’ earnings as compared to tourists who signed up with the government tour agencies. The best sunset that I saw during the trip was at U Bein Bridge and I really thanked Mr Win Tin for bringing me there.

Final Destination
My final leg in Myanmar was to Bagan where I stayed in Nyaung U. I rented a one-speed China made, Hero brand bicycle from the hotel for 500 Kyats. One would immediately start to feel the spirit of Old Bagan .
There are simply too many great pagodas in Bagan. A few magnificent ones are Thanibyinnyu Pahto, Gawdawpalin Pahto and Ananda Paht. It was a pity that the staircases leading up to the second and third levels terraces of these pagodas were barricaded. After two hours of walking and cycling I felt tired and took a rest at a local restaurant. I spent some time sitting and chatting with the restaurant owners. One of their family friends (named Zaw Zaw) was an artist and started to join in the chat. With evening approaching, I left the restaurant to find a good spot to capture the sunset.

With my map I navigated to some unknown pagoda where I did get my shots. Then came the challenging part- cycling in the dark. It was different cycling in the dark. You could feel some insects bumping into your face while you were cycling on the dirt track. The main road was better but there were no lamp posts to light the path. I was cycling slowly and at times vehicles behind shone the path for me with their head lights.

Temple at Old Bagan

The next day I decided to venture further by going to New Bagan which was several kilometres away from Old Bagan. In 1990, the residents in Old Bagan were given one week notice to move from Old Bagan to New Bagan. New Bagan was just plots of peanut fields then. New Bagan was quieter, though there were some guesthouses there. I did more pagoda visiting and in a twist of fate, I saw Zaw Zaw, the artist I met the day before at the restaurant. He was selling his art pieces there and warmly invited me for a cup of tea afterwards.

Something interesting happened that night. There was a stage show going on which was similar to our lunar seventh month Ge-tai show. They have drama, songs and dance. The only difference was that the show can last from 9 pm to 6 am in the morning. In between they just blasted music from the loudspeakers. Obviously I did not sleep a wink that night as I could hear the music from my room loud and clear. Lesson learnt-Bring ear plugs!

When it was time to leave Myanmar, I realised that the beauty of this country is in the people and its beautiful scenery. Never mind the political situation, I would recommend you to visit Myanmar and experience it yourself.