went for a friend's 21st birthday at Billard Bar @ The Legends and i brought my camera to help her document her 21st birthday. the place was fantastic, cosy, nice ambient lighting and all but from a photographer point of view, it was quite a difficult place to shoot (cosy = cramp spaces, ambient lighting = dark and irregular lighting).
was on my 24-70mm for the whole event and it was pretty much perfect for the event as there were a lot of interaction within the small compound and i had to use flash as usual for the whole event.
no, im not talking about flashing people, but using an external flash on a DSLR, it IS a photoblog anyway.
anyway, i've been taking quite a bit of pictures using flash and being new to using a flash, i hit quite a few road blocks along the way. Examples like shooting at night in open air, trying to bounce off the flash off a very high ceiling, using flash when shooting in close proximity and flashing in odd lightings.
the first obstacles that i hit was when i was doing a photoshoot for my hall's paegant and i didn't really know what to expect from it. first shots were done in the communal hall which had like a inverted "V" ceiling which at the highest point was more than 3 metres high (think a pyramid and im shooting right in the middle).
i tried to bounce my flash off the ceiling but realised that it was too high and the shots came out really bad. tried to bounce it off the sides but the walls were too far away from me and tilting the flash 45 degrees would be a little too harsh on the face and out of desperation, i decided to use one of my cards with a white background as a bounce card and it actually worked. it wasn't the perfect shot, but it came out good enough for me to process it.
the little bounce card trick worked for me when i was shooting at a friend's bbq where it was outdoors. started out pointing the flash 45 degrees but realized that only half the body would catch the light but with the bounce card it pretty much lit up the whole frame.
i think it's rather important when using the flash to have the beam hit upwards to the ceiling and at the same time bounce off some of the light directly (correct me if im wrong) to the subject so that it has a soft feel to it.
now the problem with getting an actual bounce card or diffuser is that it's pretty expensive and when i saw the actual build and quality, i decided that it wasn't worth paying $50 - 60 for a bounce card or diffuser.
did a little search on the web and found a video that actually teach you how to make a bounce card from scratch. it's pretty interesting, im trying it out and i'll post it here if it's successful. estimated cost of the bounce card is like $3.
had my hall's dinner and dance last week and it was a blast! and of course, i wasn't going to let my camera miss this big event especially when i made a photographers' backdrop and arranged the lightings for the event (was doing publicity for the comm, so i could pretty much do whatever i thought was good. sue me. haha).
was kinda crippled during the event because i had to return the flash i was using all along to raynor cos he was there too, so i could only take photos at the red carpet where there's proper lighting. was using my 24-70mm f/2.8 on shutter priority and my ISO was pumped up all the way to 3200. good thing the photos didn't come out too grainy. time to get my own flash when i head to hong kong at the end of Oct!
"The Persistence of Memory" intrigued me the most as i looked through the surrealistic paintings. it gives me the feeling that it's in a distorted time-space continuum and that this is how the world would look like if time was distorted.
in actual fact, as the title suggests, the melted watches represents memories. Memories that get soften over time. it kind of makes sense after reading the explanation, how much and how well can we remember about our lives as we grow older before the memories become a vague image at the back of our heads?
pictures are taken at a NM2208 tutorial. lighting wasn't the best as it was quite dim and the fact that i chose not to use the flash as it would distract the class didn't really help. ended up lowering the shutter speed and turned on the IS (Image Stabilizer) on the 70-200mm F/4L (one of my favourite lens) to compensate the shake and it turned out pretty well i guess.
here are the photos that passed the selection process:
it's good to have IS in a dimly lit area, it allows me to go on a low shutter speed and still avoid shake in the pictures. but if all else fails and i can't an IS lens, there's always the monopod.
did a photoshoot for the pageant contestants of my hall's dinner and dance. first time doing an actual photoshoot for print and i must say that it's a pretty good experience. all photos are taken with 17-55mm IS f/2.8.
Theme for the photoshoot is "glamorous mismatches":
been a long busy week in school and in hall but still managed to take time out for a road trip with the rest of my group members for a photoshoot at the abandoned railway tracks at Sunset Way and Haji Lane for assignment 3:
perspective of the abandoned railway track
close up (macro) shot of a bunch of flowers and a bee
zoom shot of the railway and perspective shot of Haji Lane
symbol of the sun
these are the photos that actually made the cut in my camera, the rest are in the other cameras that were mounted with the other lenses. more updates once i get the rest of the photos
ps: i hope i have more time next week to process more photos. been taking so many photos recently that it's overflowing. hah.
hey people, i've just added "Tag By Lenses" on the navigation sidebar on the right. you can now choose to read the posts with photos taken by various lenses. enjoy! :)
this week's assignment requires us to take photos in different apertures, shutter speeds and ISO sensitivities. the subjects that i've chosen are all everyday objects so that we can all relate to it easily.
below are the photos i've contributed to the group:
Aperture:
100mm Macro, f/2.8
100mm Macro, f/11
as seen in the 2 pictures, f/2.8 had the focus mainly on one line and everything else had a nice bokeh (blur) to it. whereas in the second picture, the focus was on the whole page and the cardholder that was placed there.
Shutter Speed:
70-200mm, 1/3200
70-200mm, 1/25
at shutter speed 1/3200, the flow of the water was frozen in its tracks and you can actually see the shape of the stream of water. in the second picture, shot at 1/25, the stream of water seems silky although it is actually a motion blur due to the slow shutter speed. this is one of the ways that slow shutter speeds can be used to achieve effects.
ISO:
50mm, ISO 100
50mm, ISO 1600
this 2 photos were shot in a relatively dark room as can be seen in the first picture, which was shot in ISO 100. after adjusting the ISO to 1600, the picture got evidently brighter and more visible. the only drawback of adjusting the ISO is that the picture will seem grainy upon closer inspection.
that's my contribution for this week's assignment.
Singapore Open 2008, the annual Ultimate Frisbee tournament in Singapore that attracts around 24 team from the region, happened last weekend at Farrer Park.
managed to get my hands on a 70-200mm f/4 IS for the weekend and i was excited about taking pictures with it even though i was going to play over the weekend. ended up taking limited pictures cos i had to play quite a few games over the 2 days.
here are the pictures anyway. most shots are taken with AI Servo and f/4 so that i could get the bokeh on the background although trying to do this when im on the lens for the first time took me some time to get used to but all was still good:
