Category — Techniques

Dragon Dance

Taken during a temple night procession, I used rear curtain sync flash. This?allows the photograph?to exhibit fluidity and movements within the 2 dimensions.

How do you get the silky effect you see on waterfall photos?

That usually requires a shutter speed of 1/4 sec or longer. Of course this will depends on the water flow rate so do experiment with different shutter speeds.

1)Set up your tripod. This is almost a must unless you can find a good support to subsitute for the tripod.
2)Get the proper exposure setting The idea is to get a shutter speed of 1/4 sec or longer. So I usually set the ISO to the lowest (ISO 200 for my Nikon D70) and I close the aperture down to f/16 or smaller. I also use an circular polariser. It serves to reduce the light by 2 stops and it also cut down a lot of light flare commonly found in reflective water surfaces.

Despite all these settings,  the shutter speed might still be too fast especially if the day is still bright.  In that case,  you may need to add on Neutral density (ND)  filters to further cut down the light.

3) Shoot and review If you are using a digital camera, shoot and review the shoots. Make changes to your shutter and aperture settings if necessary. Do bracketing if using film.

Have fun! 

In the age of digital photography where special effects can be achieved through Photoshop, filters are not so much in use. However the following filters are good to have when doing landscape photography.

1. polariser - improves color saturation, cut off reflection, make sky to be more blue. Cut off the light by 2 stops so watch out for the shutter speed in case it get too low.
2. Grey Graduated - Mine are from the affordable Cokin P121 series. It helps to balance the big difference in the exposure required for the bright sky and the foreground. It will change the color of the sky due to the color cast but treat it as special effect.
3. Orange - for the black and white photographer to add contrast between the blue sky and white cloud.

What mode do you usually shoot in?  A, S or P? ( Aperture priority, shutter priority or Program rather than Amateur, Semi-Pro and Pro)

Although there is no right or wrong mode to use, I use Aperture priority 90% of the time. In this way I get to control the camera.  In A mode, you get to control the Aperture which also controls the Depth of Field (DOF). You also control the shutter speed indirectly by choosing a bigger aperture (eg f2.8) or a smaller one (f22).  So which aperture do you choose? Some beginners tends to study the fstop and shutter speeds of every photo they saw in photography books. To me that is not really neccessary. Once you shoot enough, all these settings will come naturally to you.

Other people may use  P mode mode throughout a shoot. Nothing wrong but basically you are handling the controls to the camera and your only job is to press the shutter.

So try the A mode and see how it goes!

When night falls and when you are bored, it is time to do some light painting. Basically it is no difference from any long exposure shots but you need to paint the picture with light.

The above photo was taken when I was at Pangkor Island. Since I am alone, I had  to be both the photographer and subject. I mounted the camera on tripod and manually focused somewhere near the rocks. I estimated I need 5-8 seconds to complete my taiji circle and I set the aperture accordingly to acheive that.  Alternatively you can use Bulb mode.  Then i positioned myself at the rocks and use a remote control to trigger the exposure.

I used a torch light to draw the taiji circle completely within the exposure time.  You may have to think what you want to paint.

Once done, check results. Reshoot if neccessary

Due to long exposure, battery power will be consumed fast so make sure you have a fully charged battery and extra batteries if you are in the remote areas.

Steps for those.

1. Tripod mounted camera with cable release or remote control. usually a wide angle lens is used
2. Set to ISO 200 or less , f 8-f11 , BULB mode,  Manually focused to infinity.
3. it will be hard to composed due to dim light but exclude any artifical lights in yr frame.
4. Trigger the shutter and leave it on for 1/2hrs or more.

I like the song ”Watching Sunrise with you” by  Joi Chua. Instead of just watching, how about taking some photos of sunset/sunrise? Here are some tips or common sense observations on better sunrise/sunset photo taking.

1. Be there. Obviously you need to wake up early enough for sunrise and stay late enough for sunset. This is a non-negotiable condition.
          
2. Use a tripod. Unless you enjoyed taking purposely blurred or out of focus photos, this is also non negotiable. With exposure time of more than a few seconds, any lens or camera with IS (image stabilizing) does not help. We also do not want to increase ISO or open up aperture to reduce the exposure time because that wont give you the saturated colors you see during sunset.
          
3. Check out the location. Check out the location before it get too dark. Pick one or 2 locations.
          
4. Foreground and Background. A sunset photo that has just the sky, sun and sea doesn’t tell you a lot. Have some rocks, buildings or humans in the foreground or background. Usually they will be just silhouette so compose wisely or else they will be merge into an area of black. 
5. Use of filters. Gradual filters are used to balance the exposure timing between the foreground and the background. Cokin filters P121 series are good enough for me. Photoshop maybe not help if your photo are overexposed or underexposed to no details (all white, all black).        
6. Go more than once. Nature forces are beyond our control. Go back to the same place at another time.
          
7. Staying longer than you should. Do not pack up too early especially for sunset. Sometimes the color and cloud formations changed beautifully after the sun has set.
          
8. Look behind you. When the sun is rising or setting , it casts a beautiful warm tone light on all objects. Shadows will be long too. So look around too.

Make any sense to you? Let me know.

8 ways to improve your photography

One computer guru once said “Experts are once idiots.” and he related this true tale : 

One not-so-guru technical person, Mr B  spent 3 days trying to solve a problem on a hard drive. The problem was driving him nuts and he had no choice but to seek advice from a REAL GURU. The real guru shook the drive and heard the noise it made. He advised MR B to change 2 screws on the drive. Mr B did so and true enough the hard drive works!Mr B was really impressed and said the real guru ” How did you do it? I spend 3 days trying all ways and means but couldn’t solve the problem. You just shook it and knew where was the fault”