Unedited Photos

August 19, 2008 | Filed Under Night, Photography, Places, Portrait | 8 Comments

Okay this one's slightly edited :P

Like Louis Pang always tend to say, when you get the shot right the first time on camera, you got it right. The near perfect shot. I cannot agree more to this.

Last week (or was it two weeks ago), L and myself went to a suburb called Karawara for a minishoot because I once saw a picturesque spot for a shoot. It was a lamp outside the shopping mall that generates the type of light that I personally think is attractive when combined with a subject (or should I say, model). My subject (model) that night was none other than L

It took a while (maybe 5-10 minutes with about 10 shots?) for me to get the right combination of settings on the camera. I was armed with my trusty 18-55mm VR kit lens and 55-200mm VR lens, but I only managed to utilise the kit lens. I am somewhat more confident with the kit lens for reasons unknown. I had my SB600 speedlight with the “fake” Sto-fen diffuser on as well.

Looking up

I could only wish I had a tripod or at least a monopod instead of upping the ISO, but I hadn’t got a choice at that time.

There was a purplish light there, so it's not the camera playing up

I love how L managed to pose for me although at times she could be reluctant. There were quite a lot of people walking past us with some cars and some stares, but we managed to ignore the passers-by and kept the shoot going.

Of course, the night was not without its downs. I just can’t seem to get the white balance right on some shots. Perhaps it was the lighting of the location or perhaps I am just too much of a noob. I tried pre-setting the white balance with my white cardboard (foam), but the results were still unsatisfactory. Then again, other than a few shots of a different lighting, the colours were pretty accurate.

A little overexposed, I know, but the "correctly" exposed shot is not as attractive as this one

I shot in jpg because I had no intention of major editing to begin with, and was not really keen to do any post-processing.

There’s so many good shots that I don’t know which one to put up.

Actually, part of the reason of these unedited photos is because I’m still stuck with my laptop which takes me so long to edit the images.

Take for example the first picture in this entry. I took at least 20 minutes just to edit that single shot. Do the math yourself.

Easily my favourite shot

Another reason that I didn’t edit the photos is because I messed around with the gamma and settings of the laptop LCD two weeks ago, causing my monitor to be inaccurate in colours. My plan is to hire a Spyder monitor calibrator from the local Gerry Gibbs CameraHouse after my desktop is set up. They have a $30 hire fee for 3 days, so I can calibrate both my laptop and desktop monitor as well.

If only this shot wasn't overexposed. We tried again and again to get the same shot but didn't managed to after that.

We both got too cold after the shoot and decided to call it a night after about 30-40 minutes.

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Kenwick Pioneer Cemetary

July 16, 2008 | Filed Under B&W, Night, Photography, Places | 3 Comments

I drove myself aimlessly and ended up at Kenwick Pioneer Cemetary for an impromptu photoshoot tonight. It has been quite a while since the last time I had gone out for a photoshoot, and even though I haven’t been feeling well today, I just could not resist to go out and take some shots around Perth.

The Moon

I was driving along in my 1990 Supra around 8pm, aimlessly, turning around corners and changing my mind twice because the two locations in my mind were a little too far from home (I haven’t got the money for fuel). But I still ended up driving about 15km away from home to this place called Kenwick, a suburb nearby mine.

Pardon the blur, I was driving

I drove past the Kenwick Pioneer Cemetary sign, and decided to make a U-turn since I couldn’t seem to find the right spot for my mini-photoshoot. So I drove into the parking area. It was pitch black. The road was muddy. The carpark was small.

I was terrified. I started off shooting in my car for the first 5 minutes, using my 55-200mm VR tele lens, but the results were unappealing due to the underexposure. Even at ISO of 1600, the shots were still (very) underexposed. So I changed to the wide-angle 18-55mm VR, hoping to use the wide aperture and slower shutter speed, but still to no avail. I decided to bump up my ISO to Hi1, which is equivalent of 3200 in my Nikon D60.

Any photographer will know that by using ISO from 800 onwards means you are compensating the exposure with lower image quality, but that was the only choice I had because I still haven’t managed to get myself a tripod, and I failed using the top of my car as support, too.

Kenwick Pioneer Cemetary 1

Tonight was the first time I had encountered such a tricky lighting situation - there were two spotlights that lights up on the tombs every 30 seconds or so, and both lights would be lit for a mere 10 seconds or so before fading off and repeating the process again. So in every 1 minute, I would have only two chances of getting the right shots.

Kenwick Pioneer Cemetary 2

I didn’t quite get the shots that I had intended to take, but I managed to test out the Hi1 ISO of my D60, which is quite satisfactory for the fact that it is only an entry level camera. The shots can’t speak for its level of spookiness and the darkness of the area, but I would still love to go back and have a proper shoot again with a tripod. Perhaps next time I wouldn’t be scared to walk near the tombs for closer shots.

Supra Camwhore

Oh, I was only there for about 30 minutes because I had a sudden urge to go to the toilet, but didn’t want to smear the soil of the cemetary with ammonia, so I sped home after that few shots.

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Time Travelling with D60

July 5, 2008 | Filed Under Night, Photography, Wordless | Leave a Comment

Taken with slow shutter speed on my 1990 Supra while waiting for L.

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Old Commonwealth Bank Building in Perth

June 12, 2008 | Filed Under Night, Photography, Places | Leave a Comment

I had forgotten to include this shot from Perth City at Night photoshoot. It’s an old building of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, right in the heart of the city. Have a great day.

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Perth City at Night 2 (Part 2/2)

June 6, 2008 | Filed Under B&W, Night, Photography, Places | Leave a Comment

Here’s part 2/2 of Perth City at Night 2. Previous photoshoots:

Perth City at Night
Perth City at Night 2 (Part 1/2)

Enjoy the shots and feel free to leave a comment below:

$McDonald\'s Perth City Night$

Do You Want to Eat at this McDonald’s?
Took this in the heart of the city, it’s actually the back of a McDonald’s store. Thought it’s interesting.

Queue into the Bus B&W
This doesn’t quite happen very often in Malaysia.

Crossing the Road to the Train Station
Took this while walking across the road, thought the shadow was good and wished I had composed the image better before-hand.

Traffic Light in Perth
Is the traffic light in your country any different?

Man with Bicycle
Just a random man pushing his bicycle in Perth.

Buildings in Perth
Buildings in Perth taken at night.

I have come to the conclusion that it is POSSIBLE to shoot at night-time without a tripod with my 18-55mm VR and still produce decent results, although a little noisy. However, I would still love to get myself a tripod and get some really decent shots with slower shutter speed and smaller aperture. That will have to wait.

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

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Perth City at Night 2 (Part 1/2)

June 5, 2008 | Filed Under Night, Photography, Places, Portrait | 7 Comments

These are some of the shots that I personally like from the date cum photoshoot two nights ago (thank you L for being so patient with me!). I can honestly say that I had not done a thorough editing work, but more like a little bit of each shots’ brightness, contrast, noise, exposure and white balance.

The shots were mostly taken with RAW and a few JPG. No tripod, still waiting for my job to settle down. I only used my 18-55m VR (VR was kept on) and my Nikon D60 all night long. No flash on all except the last one with built-in flash (too lazy and cold to set up my SB-400). ISO were mostly Auto up to 1600, except for a few. If you need the EXIF, just leave a comment below and I’ll provide it.

Alright, on to the pictures. Enjoy:

NOTE: Click on pictures to enlarge =)

Which Suit for You?
Easily my favourite shot from the lot (I learned to apply spot metering in my night photography).

Do You Know what You are Carrying?
An ongoing campaign in Australia targeting the youths on STD.

The Couple in London Court
I converted this into B&W using my camera from RAW, but I wanted to show the colour here.

The Violin Guy
The Violin guy who plays extremely soothing tune. I know the shot isn’t the best, but I.. like it.

The Guitar Guy
The Guitar guy plays great great tune from his guitar with some effects, joyful music. *built-in flash used*

Part 2/2 coming up next!

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Unexpected Date & Photoshoot

June 4, 2008 | Filed Under Good Times, Night, Photography, Places | 3 Comments

I was supposed to update yesterday, but I received a last minute call from L to have dinner in the city =) So I tugged my Nikon D60 along as well with my 18-55mm VR and 50mm 1.8D. There isn’t any extra room for the 55-200mm, but I soon realised that I only needed the 18-55mm. I had been wanting to go out for a photoshoot and I must say this was a golden opportunity for me to get my lazy ass up and start taking some photos. Of course, my main priority is still to go out with L =)

I had taken about 60 shots tonight, all handheld (no tripod yet, any sponsors?) with high ISO, slow shutter speed, widest aperture possible with the 18-55mm, with VR on. Before dinner, we went to Borders to read some books. I grabbed myself a photography book and managed to learn a thing or two about metering modes in about an hour. I think I had successfully learned how to apply Matrix, Center Weighting and Spot metering modes. I started going euphoric when I managed to shoot a shot with Spot metering mode which I found impossible with Matrix metering, which I had been using almost all the time. I think L was probably annoyed by the kiddy me throughout the night. But I know she was happy for me too =)

Anyway, I had just finished with my editing, but I must honestly say that post-production part was done nonchalantly tonight. I fell asleep after 30 minutes because my laptop is far too slow for Lightroom 1.4 (only 512MB RAM in my laptop, which explains why I haven’t really taken up Photoshop). Imagine the waiting time I have to endure. I hope you guys are not sick of my Perth City at Night shots, because the next entry will be titled Perth City at Night 2.

Here’s a peek of one of the shots tonight: