Dallas Goh Photography

New Gallery!

2013-04-25T21:06:00.001+08:00

After months and months of searching for the best way to showcase my portfolio, I may have found the best free one so far. I have always wanted to integrate a professional looking gallery into my blog, but they either not classy or requires money. Disappointed, I started looking out for external sites that can host my gallery.

But I have found Wix, a website that allows you to create professional looking websites for free, and it's fully customizable! Have a look and don't forget to leave me a comment on what can be improved!

Presenting the new gallery! There are 4 main catagories: HDR, Food, Nature and Portrait

From there, click on the blog tab to return to this blog!

Optical And Digital Zoom

2013-04-22T00:10:00.001+08:00

More often or not, we'll see one of the main features of compact camera is the ZOOM range. Some compact cameras offer a simple 4x zoom, and some up to 12x zoom or more. Some even go to the extend of having 36x digital zoom. Without going to the showroom or a retail store to check out these cameras, how would you know the performance of them?

There are two types of zoom, Optical, and Digital zoom.

Optical Zoom

Let us focus our attention to Optical zoom. Optical zoom refers to the use of optics (lens) to zoom. The action is much like using a telescope, and there is little effect on the quality of the image when used.

In this example, we will consider this CASIO camera with 12.5x Optical zoom. You can calculate the zoom by looking at some of the text on the lens. Specifically, it states "f = 4.24 - 53mm". 4.24mm is the widest focal length (the wide angle), and 53mm is the farthest zoom (telephoto). Taking the longest reach divided by the shortest reach will yield you the zoom.

So, 53mm divided by 4.24mm, and you get exactly 12.5.

On the lens it also says 24mm WIDE OPTICAL. So what does it mean? It tells you the equivalent focal length when converted into full frame. Because different camera have a different sensor size, the lens will also have to be made differently to fit the camera. The only way to compare different cameras accurately is to convert it to a standard, the full frame (also known as 35mm equivalent).

Here's a pro tip: One piece of information that manufacturers will rarely tell you is the sensor size. This piece of information is one of the most useful in the selection of cameras because sensors is the heart of the camera, and bigger sensor usually means a better image. Fortunately, you can calculate the sensor size from just 2 piece of known information: The focal length of the lens, and the full frame equivalent.

Using the above camera again:

Focal length of lens at shortest: 4.24mm

Focal length of lens at shortest in full frame equivalent: 24mm

Focal length of lens at shortest in full frame equivalent / Focal length of lens at shortest = Sensor size (crop factor)

24mm / 4.24mm = 5.66x

This tells you the sensor of this camera is a crop factor 5.66x compared to a full frame. (The crop factor of a full frame camera will be 1.)

So the lower the crop factor number, the bigger the sensor.

Do DSLRs use the same system as well? Yes! The reason why DSLRs don't include the times of zoom in the spec sheet is because the lens can be changed and the zoom will also be changed.

Let's look at this example of a 18-55mm lens.

The zoom based on the above formula, will be 55mm divided 18mm, equals to approximately 3.06x zoom. (The zoom may pale in comparison to a compact camera, but in return you get excellent image quality!)

Since this lens is used on a 1.6x crop factor camera, the full frame equivalent of the zoom range will be 28.8mm to 88mm.

But you can't relay on the times of zoom to determine how far you can see into the horizon. If you want to see which camera has a better zoom, you must convert the lens' longest reach to full frame equivalent before comparing.

Below is an example to illustrate my point.

This lens is a 55-250mm lens. Based on the calculation above, the zoom will be approximately 4.55x.
(Doesn't seem like much, still lesser than the compact camera?)

The full frame equivalent of the zoom range will be 88mm to 400mm.

In contrast, the compact camera, has a full frame equivalent zoom range of 24mm to 300mm.

Even though the compact camera has a higher zoom times, the DSLR lens still can reach further at 400mm.

Digital Zoom

Digital zoom, on the other hand, is much less complicated compared to optical zoom. Digital zoom merely enlarges the image while maintaining the same aspect ratio, so you're getting a cropped photo enlarged onto
the normal pixel dimension of your camera.

It can be done manually by taking the photo using the maximum optical zoom, and then using photo editing software to edit, but if you're lazy to do it in post, then it might be wise to use the digital zoom function on the camera. Some say doing the manual method will not yield better results using the digital zoom function on the camera, but I don't see much difference in them.

Conclusion

When buying compact cameras, always look out for the optical zoom, not the total zoom, and if it doesn't come with digital zoom, you know it doesn't hurt much =)

Gardens By The Bay

2013-04-09T16:21:00.000+08:00

My company recently organized a trip to Gardens By The Bay. Although I've been to the gardens twice, but this is the first time I'm entering the domes!

I read and heard much about the two domes, the main theme for today'and I understand there isn't much opportunity for HDR, so I'm leaving my tripod and my gears at home and only carrying my camera and a lens that is Macro capable.

There are two domes, being the Flower Dome, and Cloud Forest. The Flower Dome is like a showcase of plants and flowers from all over the world, in their own exhibition area. The center area will feature different flowers and decorations depending on the time of the year, with various festive decorations.

The Cloud Forest on the other hand, is based on the theme of forest above the cloud layer. There are still flowers, but mostly green vegetation. And not to mention, the place is every photographer's nightmare. First of all, you will be greeted by a huge waterfall, which splashes water at your camera relentlessly Next, they release fine water mist into the air, to create the "cloud" effect, and you won't be able to get a shot without having a fog over your images. Nevertheless, it's still fun to visit, purely for the experience.

All the pictures below are taken at the Flower Dome. Enjoy!

This is my personal favorite. It's a sculpture of an eagle from a tree or something, and I thought desaturating the colors and enhancing it's features would make a dramatic effect.

This is a still from a video which explains how fire starts in the Australian plains, and how to trees regenerate.

Have a great time at the gardens and keep your camera dry!

New Blog Design!

2013-04-03T22:06:00.001+08:00

Hi people!

I've updated my blog skin to something more dynamic. It took me a couple of days, but I liked the end results very much, how about you?

Leave your comments and suggestions below!

The Host Movie 2013 Review!

2013-03-28T01:28:00.001+08:00

If you're wondering if this post is related to photography, well, it isn't.

In fact, I've been invited by Golden Village to the movie preview of The Host.

To sum up the story without disclosing too much; our planet earth has been invaded by an alien species with requires the human body as a host to survive, much like a virus. The story revolves around a young girl by the name of Melanie Stryder, who, refuses to be controlled by her alien invader. She and her alien invader then work together to overcome the challenges presented to her and the remaining human survivors before they are all overtaken the the alien species.

I would rate this movie 4/5. Before catching this movie, I was kinda afraid that the movie will be similar to twilight (I'm not a fan, apparantly). Although this movie does have a little "twilight" plot in it, I'm still loving this movie for the original storyline, and action. Remember to go catch this movie!

Canon Announces 700D & 100D

2013-03-22T10:57:00.001+08:00

Canon announced the long awaited EOS 700D to replace EOS 650D, as well as a new EOS series, EOS 100D.

My first at both cameras, they are quite closely priced, but what are the major differences between them?

Amazingly, the cheaper EOS 100D gets a really awesome Live View AF system that covers 80% of the frame, while EOS 700D only gets a miserable 30+%. Now that is PRETTY COOL.

Both cameras uses the same Digic 5 sensor with 18.0 megapixels. There are news about Digic 6 sensor and it could be released in the coming EOS 70D. This is a very big deal.

Both have 9-point AF, similar to previous models of the series, but EOS 700D stands out with 9 all cross type AF compared to EOS 100D's only 1 centre cross-type AF.

Both LCDs are the same, but EOS 700D gets a flippy screen.

EOS 700D has 5 FPS, while EOS 100D 4 FPS. Not much of a difference to me.

Creative filters are about the same.

EOS 100D has a few more Special Scene Mode. Good for beginners who aren't too good at camera settings.

Both cameras are equally good in Movie mode, but EOS 700D, having the flippy LCD screen will enable you to shoot videos with better comfort.

EOS 100D is significantly lighter than EOS 700D. (And smaller too)

Screenshots pulled from Canon Australia youtube video

I can't help but feel the EOS 100D is more targeted to female users. The camera is lighter, and smaller which fits well in the ladies hands. I'm a guy with medium sized hands (about 8 inches), and I find the grip in the EOS 700D series camera to be a little uncomfortable because it's a little small, and the EOS 100D has a even smaller grip. Below is a photo comparing the size of EOS 700D (T4i), EOS 100D (SL1), and Canon's first mirrorless camera, EOS M.

As you can see, the EOS 100D is still significantly bigger than the EOS M. I would gladly take the EOS M anytime for it's small size, but the poor autofocus and lack of native lens choices makes me think twice.

For a more in depth view and full specs of both cameras, please see the links from DPreview below:
DPreview: EOS 700D
DPreview: EOS 100D

And lastly, I am rather disappointed by the EOS 700D because it is no different from the EOS 650D. All I can see are cosmetic and software changes, but absolutely no improvement made on the hardware. If I was buying a new DSLR now, I would gladly have the EOS 650D over EOS 700D, since the EOS 650D is made cheaper after the price drop. But at least it's comforting to know that the release price of the EOS 700D is lower than EOS 650D when it first launched. For the 6 "Major" (cosmetic) difference, you should check out PhotoPlus Mag.

Queenstown Cinema & Bowling Centre

2013-03-20T02:48:00.000+08:00

I've been a frequent visitor to Queenstown, since I began staying in Redhill 20 years ago. Back in the 90's, when I was young, Queenstown is a bustling place to be. There was everything from big restaurants, Cinemas, bowling alley, fastfood, and more! You wouldn't need to travel out of Queenstown to find what you need.

But slowly over the years, many things have changed. Restaurants are gone. Cinemas, bowling alley, fastfood are all gone. Even the hawker centre is gone too! Is this the bustling Queenstown that I have always remembered?

Everything that is a testament of the old Queenstown has already been torn down or rebuilt, with the exception of this: Queenstown Cinema & Bowling Centre.

This place has been vacant for at least a decade, but currently still hasn't been planned for deconstruction or refurbishment. But that won't last for long now, because Queenstown is one of the most expensive prime land for real estate in Singapore and redevelopment will make perfect ($$$) sense.

I wanted to have a look inside, but everything was secured tight with locks, so I can only take some shots outside. I used a combination of Nik software filter (Bleach Bypass @ 25% opacity, and Cross Processing method C01) for a little old school look.

This should be the ticketing counter and main entrance

What's showing? Nothing!

My bicycle takes me everywhere

Undoubtedly Queenstown

Or is it Queensway? Actually it's both.

Used to house a KTV inside, but even the sign is wrecked now..

Another view of the building.

Finally, HDR of Queenstown Cinema & Bowling Centre.

Settings:
Focal Length: 10mm
Exposure: 10, 1.3, 1/6 sec
ISO: 160
F-stop: f/11
Format: RAW

Postprocessing:
- Open all 3 files in Photoshop RAW for denoise and CA correction.
- Merge in Photomatix
- Edited with Nik Software (Details Extractor, Tonal Contrast, Darken / Lighten Center)

Enjoy and don't forget to share and comment!

How To Open RAW Files On Your Computer

2013-03-01T02:04:00.003+08:00

As mention in the previous post RAW vs JPEG, RAW is an excellent file format to use, but it does have it disadvantages, such as when viewing it on the computer.

There are many programs available in the market that can read and manage RAW files. I'll name a few common ones and list out their advantages and disadvantages. (Photoshop is not included because it can only read RAW files, but not manage them)

ACDSee Pro

http://www.acdsee.com/en/products/acdsee-pro-6

$49.99

Advantages

- Easy to manage files - Just like browsing through windows explorer

- Quick view available
- Good photo editing functions included

- Native support for RAW files and many other file formats

Disadvantages

- Costly

Adobe Lightroom

http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop-lightroom.html

$149.00

Advantages
- Powerful photo editing functions included
- Native support for RAW files and many other file formats

Disadvantages
- Requires user to import files into software in order to view or manage files
- Very expensive
- Quick view unavailable

Adobe Bridge
http://www.adobe.com/products/bridge.html
Free with purchase of a creative software, such as Photoshop ($699.00)

Advantages
- Easy to manage files
- Native support for RAW files and many other file formats
- Excellent photo management system

Disadvantages
- No photo editing functions included
- Quick view unavailable
- Requires purchase of expensive software to use this

Windows Live Photo Gallery
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/products/features/photo-gallery
Free

Advantages
- FREE!
- Quick view available
- Ability to generate thumbnails for RAW files on Windows Explorer

Disadvantages
- Mediocre photo editing functions included
- No native support RAW files, requires installation of codec
- Uses library photo settings to import photo for managing

__________________________________________________________________

My preferred choice!

For myself, I would normally go with Windows Live Photo Gallery. First and foremost, it is FREE. Secondly, I like how I can double click for the preview of the file and start flipping through the photos like it is JPEG file. Thirdly, I can generate thumbnails for the RAW files so I can easily pick out the file to edit on Photoshop.

As seen above, having thumbnails is much better than facing a whole bunch of a same icon. However it does not come without disadvantages. I keep my DSLR photos apart from my other photos, and I don't want them to appear in the library photos together with other regular photos. The program hates that, and decides not to mange those photos. Worse still, they will also remove those thumbnails after sometime.

Next, to view RAW files on the program, you will require the RAW codec here:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26829 or search RAW codec on google
Without this codec, you can't view those RAW files.

__________________________________________________________________

Conclusion

Each program has it advantages and disadvantages. The best points of the listed programs are as follows:

ACDSee Pro - Relatively cheap software that manages photos easily, and has a useful quick viewer.
Adobe Lightroom - It's meant to be an editing software, so I can understand it's lack of focus on photo management. But has useful tools to upload on social media.
Adobe Bridge - Very powerful management software that allows filtering photo by selecting parameters, and easy view of metadata.
Windows Live Photo Gallery - Free software that has a useful quick viewer, and generates thumbnails for RAW files.

Which one suits you best? It's your choice!

Nikon Announces D7100

2013-02-23T22:57:00.000+08:00

Nikon released it new mid-range DSLR, replacing D7000, on 20th February 2013. On the other hand, we are still waiting to see how Canon will fare when they release their equivalent model, 70D, replacement for 60D, which rumors says it will be in March this year.

The most notable upgrades in the D7100 compared to the D7000 is the 24.1 MP sensor, 51 AF points, with 15 cross type AF points.

I can't help but notice that Nikon is taking the lead in the Megapixel game. Nikon used to produce lower megapixel cameras in favor of better noise control, while Canon goes for higher megapixels. And right now, the trend seems to have reversed with both brands doing the exact opposite.

I'd like to wait and see the noise performance charts for the D7100 before making the final verdict. But for now, I must say the D7100 looks like a better choice for a mid-range DSLR compared to Canon's 60D. I'm rather disappointed by 60D 9 AF points, and lack of dual card slot. Hopefully 70D will address these issues when it's released.

For now, you can see the comparison between D7100 and D7000.

Credits to Nikon Rumors for the table

Model	Nikon D7100	Nikon D7000
Lens Mount	Nikon F bayonet mount	Nikon F bayonet mount
Effective Pixels	24.1million	16.2million
Sensor Size	23.5mmx15.6mm	23.6mmx15.6mm
Buffer	NEF Lossless compressed 12-bit: 7 NEF Lossless compressed 14-bit: 6 JPEG fine: 33	NEF Lossless compressed 12bit: 11 NEF Lossless compressed 14bit: 10 JPEG fine: 31
File Format Still Images	JPEG: JPEG-Baseline Compliant with fine (approx 1:4), Normal (approx 1:8) or Basic (approx 1:16) Compression NEF (RAW) + JPEG: Single Photograph Recorded in both NEF (RAW) and JPEG Formats NEF (RAW): Lossless compressed, compressed 12 or 14 bit	NEF (RAW): Lossless Compressed or Compressed 12 or 14 bit JPEG: JPEG-Baseline-Compliant; can be selected from Size Priority and Optimal Quality
Picture Control	Landscape Monochrome Neutral Portrait Standard User-customizable Settings Vivid	Landscape Monochrome Neutral Nine User-customizable Settings Portrait Standard Vivid
Storage Media	SD SDHC SDXC	SD SDHC SDXC
Card Slot	2 Secure Digital (SD)	2 Secure Digital (SD)
Viewfinder Frame Coverage	100% Horizontal 100% VerticalApprox.	100%Approx.
Viewfinder Magnification	0.94xApprox.	0.95xApprox.
Viewfinder Eyepoint	19.5mm (-1.0m¯¹)	19.5mm
Lens Compatibility at a Glance***	AF-S or AF lenses fully compatible Metering with AI lenses	AF-S or AF lenses fully compatible Metering with AI lenses
Fastest Shutter Speed	1/8000sec.	1/8000sec.
Slowest Shutter Speed	30sec.	30sec.
Top Continuous Shooting Speed at full resolution	6frames per second	6frames per second (CIPA guidelines)
Scene Modes	Autumn Colors Beach / Snow Blossom Candlelight Child Close-up Dusk / Dawn Food Landscape Night Landscape Night Portrait Party / Indoor Pet Portrait Portrait Sports Sunset	Autumn Colors Beach / Snow Blossom Candlelight Child Close-up Dusk / Dawn Food High Key Landscape Low Key Night Landscape Night Portrait Party / Indoor Pet Portrait Portrait Silhouette Sports Sunset
Exposure Compensation	±5 EV in increments of 1/3 or 1/2 EV	±5 EV in increments of 1/3 or 1/2 EV
Exposure Bracketing	2 to 5 frames in steps of 1/3, 1/2, 2/3, 1, 2, or 3 EV	2 to 3 frames in steps of 1/3, 1/2, 2/3, 1 or 2 EV
Mirror Lock Up	Yes	Yes
ISO Sensitivity	ISO100-6400 Hi-1 (ISO 12,800) Hi-2 (ISO 25,600)	ISO100-6400 Hi-1 (ISO 12,800) Hi-2 (ISO 25,600)
Dynamic AF Mode	Number of AF points: 9, 21, 51 and 51 (3D-tracking)	Number of AF points: 9, 21, 39 and 39 (3D-tracking)
Auto-area AF Mode	Yes	Yes
Focus Modes	Auto AF-S/AF-C selection (AF-A) Continuous-servo (AF-C) Face-Priority AF available in Live View only and D-Movie only Full-time Servo (AF-A) available in Live View only Manual (M) with electronic rangefinder Normal area Single-servo AF (AF-S) Wide area	Auto AF-S/AF-C selection (AF-A) Continuous-servo (AF-C) Face-Priority AF Full-time Servo (AF-A) available in Live View only Normal area Single-servo AF (AF-S) Wide area
Maximum Autofocus Areas/Points	51	39
Built-in Flash	Yes	Yes
Flash Bracketing	2 to 3 frames in steps of 1/3, 1/2, 2/3, 1 or 2 EV	2 to 3 frames in steps of 1/3, 1/2, 2/3, 1 or 2 EV
Top FP High Speed Sync	Up to1/8000	Up to1/8000
Flash Sync Modes	Auto Auto FP High-Speed Sync supported Auto with red-eye reduction Auto slow sync Auto slow sync with red-eye reduction Fill-flash Front-curtain sync (normal) Rear-curtain sync Red-Eye reduction Red-Eye reduction with slow sync Slow sync	Front-curtain sync (normal) Rear-curtain sync Red-Eye reduction Red-Eye reduction with slow sync Slow sync
Flash Compensation	-3 to +1 EV in increments of 1/3 or 1/2 EV	-3 to +1 EV in increments of 1/3 or 1/2 EV
Nikon Creative Lighting System (CLS)	Advanced Wireless Lighting supported with SB-910, SB-900, SB-800, or SB-700 as a master flash and SB-600 or SB-R200 as remotes, or SU-800 as commander Built-in flash can serve as master flash in commander mode Auto FP High-Speed Sync and modeling illumination supported with all CLS-compatible flash units except SB-400; Flash Color Information Communication and FV lock supported with all CLS-compatible flash units	Built-in flash Commander Mode CLS Supported
White Balance	Auto Choose color temperature (2500K–10000K) Cloudy Direct Sunlight Flash Fluorescent (7 types) Incandescent Preset Manual Shade	Auto (2 types) Auto (TTL white balance with 2,016-pixel RGB sensor) Cloudy Direct Sunlight Fine Tune by Kelvin color temperature setting (2,500 K to 10,000K) Flash Fluorescent (7 types) Incandescent Preset manual (up to 5 values can be stored) Seven manual modes with fine-tuning Shade
White Balance Bracketing	3 shots in steps of 1	2 or 3 exposures
Live View Shooting	Photography Live View Mode Movie Live View Mode	Yes
Movie	HD 1,920x1,080 / 60i HD 1,920x1,080 / 50i HD 1,920x1,080 / 30 fps HD 1,920x1,080 / 25 fps HD 1,920x1,080 / 24 fps HD 1,280x720 / 60 fps HD 1,280x720 / 50 fps	HD 1,920x1,080 / 24 fps HD 1,280x720 / 30 fps HD 1,280x720 / 24 fps VGA 640x424 / 30 fps Movie with sound
Movie Audio	Built-in microphone, stereo External stereo microphone (optional) Microphone sensitivity can be adjusted	Built-in microphone, monaural Optional external stereo mini-pin jack (3.5mm diameter) Microphone sensitivity can be adjusted
Monitor Size	3.2in. diagonal	3.0in. diagonal
Monitor Resolution	1,228,800Dots	921,000Dots
Monitor Type	Wide Viewing Angle TFT-LCD	Super Density Wide Viewing Angle TFT-LCD
Playback Functions	Auto Image Rotation Full-Frame and Thumbnail (4, 9, or 72 images or calendar) Highlights Histogram Display Image Comment Movie Playback Movie Slideshow Playback with Zoom Slideshow	Auto Image Rotation Calendar Full Frame Highlight Point Display Histogram Display Movie Playback Shooting Data Slideshow Sound Playback Thumbnail (4, 9 or 72 segments) Zoom
In-Camera Image Editing	Color Balance Color Outline Color Sketch D-Lighting Edit Movie Filter Effects Fisheye Image Overlay Miniature Effect Monochrome NEF (RAW) Processing Perspective Control Quick Retouch Red-Eye Correction Resize Selective Color Side-by-Side Comparison Straighten Trim	Color Balance Color Outline D-Lighting Distortion Control Edit Movie Filter Effects Fisheye Image Overlay Miniature Effect Monochrome NEF (RAW) Processing Perspective Control Quick Retouch Red-Eye Correction Resize Side-by-Side Comparison Straighten Trim
GPS	GP-1 GPS unit GP-1A GPS unit	GP-1 GPS unit
Battery / Batteries	EN-EL15 Lithium-ion Battery	EN-EL15 Lithium-ion Battery
Battery Life (shots per charge)	950shots (CIPA)	1,050shots (CIPA)
AC Adapter	EH-5b AC Adapter; requires EP-5B Power Connector (available separately)	EH-5a AC Adapter
Approx. Dimensions	Width:5.3in.(135.5mm) Height:4.2in.(106.5mm) Depth:3.0in.(76mm)	Width:5.2in.(132mm) Height:4.1in.(103mm) Depth:3.0in.(77mm)
Approx. Weight	23.8oz.(675g)camera body only	24.3oz.(690g)camera body only
Price	$1,196.95 (body only)	$896.95 (body only)

RAW vs JPEG

2013-02-10T01:33:00.001+08:00

When it comes to photography, most people would recognize JPEG as the standard photo format. That is quite true, since most photos are shot and uploaded in JPEG.

Everyone is familiar with JPEG, but what is RAW? You've heard some professionals like to shoot in RAW. All DSLRs and some high end compact cameras have the option to shoot in RAW, but what are the advantages and disadvantages of shooting in either formats?

RAW	JPEG
Uncompressed file	Compressed file
Higher dynamic range	Lower dynamic range
Larger file size (3 to 5x of JPEG)	Smaller file size
Ability to set white balance to any value after photo taken	White balance fixed at the point of photo taken
Unprocessed by camera	Processed by camera
Lower contrast, higher noise, not as sharp	Higher contrast, lower noise, sharper image
Non destructive editing	Destructive editing
Requires special software to view or edit	Can be easily view and editing using common tools

So what is the better format to use? Well, it all depends on your application.

Shooting in RAW

RAW files are uncompressed files that are not processed by your camera. Your camera saves all the information you need for editing later on, and doesn't process the pictures at all. However, this comes at a cost; Memory space. The larger RAW files means you can't store as much photos in a card compared to a JPEG, and when shooting in continuous burst mode on your camera, the buffer will overload faster on RAW than on JPEG, so you get lesser continuous burst on RAW.

Because the camera doesn't do the editing for you, it means that you have to do the editing yourself, on the computer. The lack of editing on RAW files makes it look less sharp, have lower contrast, and higher noise. Good news is, that these can be easily edited using specialized softwares, such as Adobe Photoshop. RAW editing gives you much greater control over your image, such as the highlights and shadows, white balance, noise performance, and image sharpness. What's more, the editing is non-destructive, because the settings that you made are saved as a XMP file under the same file as your photo, so no changes are made on the RAW image. (Do note that deleting this XMP file also deletes your editing that you've made on the photo!)

Shooting in JPEG

JPEG files on the other hand is a compressed file, processed by your camera at the point when the photo is taken. Even though it's compressed, you won't be able to tell the difference even when you zoom right in. Most people choose to shoot in JPEG because of the convenience of viewing on other device. They also trust that the camera has selected the most appropriate settings for the photo. But these are also the people who don't do much editing (or not at all) to their photos. That is perfectly fine. If one doesn't require photo editing, then shooting in RAW is much more of a hassle.

This is one of the major downside of shooting in JPEG. If you get your exposure wrong, you are most likely going to lose some details in order to get it back in the right exposure.

Examples

In the first example, we are going to examine the noise performance of JPEG vs RAW. You may wish to click on the picture to get a larger view so as the better examine the differences.

JPEG, 200% zoom, unedited

RAW, 200% zoom, with full noise reduction

RAW, 200% zoom, without noise reduction

As seen in the pictures above, RAW is noticeably more noisy and less sharp than JPEG when straight out of the camera. However, I think RAW fares better with full noise reduction on Adobe Photoshop.

In the next example, we are going to examine the ability to retain details after a major correction in exposure.

Original exposure

Adjusted to right exposure using JPEG

Adjusted to right exposure using RAW

100% crop of JPEG edit

100% crop of RAW edit

While both photos doesn't look too different as a whole, zooming in, we can see that the JPEG edit suffers from rather serious color distortion, and lacks the details which the RAW edit has retained.

RAW compatibility

If you try to open up RAW without any RAW viewing/editing software, you are most likely to hit an error. And if you just like to browse RAW photos as conveinent as JPEG photos, you may wish to try "Windows Live Photo Gallery" here:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-SG/windows-live/photo-gallery-get-started

of course, you will need the Camera Code Pack for RAW here:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26829

Conclusion

There is no better format, it all depends on the situation and the needs of the photographer. I personally shoot RAW most of the time because I'm very critical on my images and rely on major editing, but if you're just a leisure shooter, then JPEG may be the better way to go!

Playing With Sunset Colors

2013-01-13T23:33:00.002+08:00

In this tutorial, we are about to discuss a topic some would call it as "Manipulating a Photo". I prefer to call it "Playing with Colors". Because I view photography as an art, and an absolute freedom of expression, so there is nothing wrong with beautifying a photo through playing with its colors.

I'll be using one of my recent photos as an example: Sunset @ Kota Kinabalu!

Here is the final photo for your reference:

And here is the original photo, straight out of Photomatix using the same techniques described in "The Basics of HDR":

First step in editing a photo is to conjure the final image in the mind, before working towards it. I identified that I would like to correct the warmth of the photo, add a little contrast and saturation to it, and finally make it a little soft.

Before entering Color Efex Pro 4, I've made some corrections such as Chromatic Aberration, removing trees, and vignette correction, as mentioned in "HDR Post-Processing Tutorial".

Moving in Color Efex Pro 4, I first started with Detail Extractor, with 75% opacity.

Next, I went on to Tonal Contrast with higher highlights and lower shadows, and set the opacity to 25%, as I only wanted a minor boost in color.

Then, I bumped up the Warmth significantly to give it more "sunset" feel to the photo.

Here, I'm using a new filter not mentioned before in my normal HDR workflow, but I believe it gives the stunning effect that I want in my photo. This filter is none other than Duplex! The color in the Duplex filter is very important here as it acts like a color filter over the photo and has a major impact.

Strength will affect the intensity of the selected color.
Diffusion will affect the overall softness of the photo.

Lastly, I do like a little purple/pink in my sunset, not sure why, but it does look quite pretty. So I'm adding the Duplex filter again but this time, I changed the color to purple/pink. I'm trying to add very trace amount of the color, so I'm having 0% strength, and 25% opacity. Lastly, diffusion is 0% because the right amount of softness is already set in the previous Duplex filter.

And there we have it! I completed the final picture by adding a Darken / Lighten Center filter, and some dodge and burns to selected areas.

I hope you had as much fun as me, playing around with the colors of the sunset, and do leave a comment below on your sunset photos, and your application of the Duplex filter! I'll see you soon!

Sunset @ Kota Kinabalu!

2013-01-01T18:14:00.000+08:00

It's been a few month's since I've updated my blog, mainly because I've started working full time, and still finding the balance between work and hobby.

Like every December, I will travel overseas and capture those beautiful moments back to Singapore. This year it's Kota Kinabalu, in Sabah, Malaysia. I usually like scenic places like China because spectacular landscapes like high mountains and huge rivers are what Singapore and Malaysia is lacking most of.

Nevertheless, I still managed to capture one beautiful sunset during this trip, so at least it's not a wasted trip.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dallasgoh/8298868803/

This photo was taken somewhere around the west coast of Sabah, in a protected wetlands.

Settings:
Focal Length: 15mm
Exposure: 1/25, 1/3, 2.5 sec
ISO: 100
F-stop: f/3.5
Format: RAW

The settings were not optimal for shooting landscapes, because the sunset was dying out quickly when I'm setting up my tripod.

Formula 1 Singapore 2012

2012-10-01T19:30:00.000+08:00

Last week was quite a busy week because it's my first time attending the F1 race in Singapore! Tickets are not cheap, and I always failed to get any free tickets for the past few years, but I finally managed this year!

I searched online for tips on good photos for Singapore F1, and other general tips. And together with my experience over 3 days, here are some tips for F1 Singapore!

I got a zone 3 & 4 ticket (green & orange area), so I'll only cover tips on these locations

General tips:

Most people come through gate 3 and 6. During peak hours (i.e. 1 hour before the race), it's better to come through other gates such as 4 or 5.
Don't try to bring food. Or drinks in glass bottles, or even very large bottles of drinks. They will deny entry.

View of the race:

The Photography locations are at Turn 7 (near Suntec City giant screen), Turn 8 (near Esplanade Underpass), Turn 11 (near Cricket Club), and Turn 13 (near One Fullerton)

Turn 7 is one of the hot spots to photograph because of the unobstructed view of the whole turn. The only downside is the very large crowd and the barriers are placed somewhat far from the fence.
Turn 8 is my choice of location for the race finals because few photographers want to come here. The downside is only a limited view of the turn can be seen, and the barriers are very far from the fence.
Turn 11 is also another hot spot because the racing cars come very close to the audience. The barriers are also very close the fence, so there's a good chance that your camera's auto-focus won't hit the fence. The downside is the large crowd of photographers who will chope the best spots long before you do.
Turn 13 is my favourite photography spot. The barrier is very close to the fence, you get a unobstructed view of the whole turn (and it's a 135 degree turn!), and there aren't too many photographers around. The downside is the cars won't come too close to the audience like turn 11, and they closed the viewing spot for the turn on the last day.

For walkaround ticket holders, one of the best spot is Turn 14. The race cars come the closest to you compared to all other locations, and there's a gap in the fence in that turn.
For grandstand ticket holders, one of the best seats is the Connaught grandstand. It's at the junction of Turn 8 and Turn 14, and there is a lot of action going on around this two bends.

Photography tips!

Panning is a very important skill during the race. Here are some tips on how to do a panning shot.

Use Shutter Priority (Tv). Set it to a shutter speed that is slower than the speed required in the rule of thumb for a sharp handheld shot. If you're confident enough, use Manual Mode.
(If you're using 200mm, the rule of thumb for a sharp handheld shot tells you to use 1/200sec)
For me, I use shutter speeds between 1/60sec and 1/100sec at 200mm focal length. Too slow shutter increases the difficulty of the shot, lowering your hit rate for a good panning shot, and too fast shutter doesn't give enough blur to the background for a nice panning shot.
Set your camera to AI SERVO. In this mode, the camera will track a moving subject by adjusting the focus continuously.
While in AI SERVO mode, I find it very particularly good to set a Single focus point, instead of allowing the camera in auto-focus. By doing so, I rarely hit the fence while shooting at those speeding cars.

The track is actually quite bright, so an f/4 lens is quite sufficient. I can get a good shot at 1/60sec at f/4 and ISO 320. So in theory, it's possible to still get a clean shot out of a f/5.6 lens at 1/60sec and ISO 640.
I used Spot Metering over Evaluative Metering because there are many F1 cars that have lots of white paint of them, or are simply shiny. In Evaluative Metering, the camera will compensate for the overall darkness of the picture by turning up the brightness, and thus screwing up the highlights on the cars. Spot Metering does a better of properly exposing the car, but screws up the background. Not that I don't care about the background, but it's not as important. And that comes to my last point.
Shoot in RAW! If that's possible. Shooting in RAW gives you better control of your images, but each RAW file takes up about 3 times the space of a JPEG file, so stock up on those memory cards!

Here are some of the photos that I have taken during the race:

For more photos, please see my facebook or flickr. Also, please share with me your tips for F1 Singapore!

Depth of Field

2012-08-17T23:15:00.000+08:00

Everyone loves the sharp subject and background blur look, and some people love the look so much, they buy a DSLR. Technically, it's called Depth of Field, which measures how much of a subject is in focus. However, not many people know how to get that awesome look. So here are some things that affect the depth of field for a photo:

1) Aperture
2) Focal length
3) Subject distance from background and camera

Aperture

The most straightforward setting to adjust the depth of field. A large aperture such as f/2 creates a shallow depth of field while a smaller aperture such as f/11 creates a deep depth of field. To read more about aperture, see my other post here.

Advantages
- Settings easy to change
- Faster shutter speed when large aperture is used

Disadvantages
- Large aperture lens are relatively more expensive
- Slower shutter speed when small aperture is used

Now for the technical stuff.

The diagram above compares a large aperture and a small aperture effect on the depth of field. The red lines signifies light rays, and where the light rays crosses each other is the camera sensor is, and the point of focus. Light rays does not have to cross exactly to be considered a focus beam. There is a tolerance level for the light rays, and as long as the gap between the light rays is small enough, it is considered in focus.

In the diagram with large aperture, the light rays quickly exceeds the tolerance level for sharp focus, so only a small area is in focus and it creates a narrow (or shallow) depth of field. The diagram right under shows one with small aperture, and the light rays does not exceed the tolerance level for sharp focus as quickly, so it creates a wide (or deep) depth of field.

Focal length

Adjusting the focal length is another way to change the depth of field. A longer focal length such as 85mm on a telephoto lens will create a shallow depth of field, while a shorter focal length such as 15mm on a wide angle lens creates a deeper depth of field. Assuming no there is no change in distance between camera, subject and background, the subject will be magnified at longer focal lengths.

Advantages
- Focal length easy to change
- Cheaper to get a telephoto/zoom lens than one with large aperture.

Disadvantages
- Good telephoto/zoom lens can be expensive
- Longer focal length increases the chance of motion blur
- Subject may be distorted at shorter focal lengths (< 24mm)
- Subject may look "flat" at longer focal lengths (< 200mm)
- Camera may have to be quite a distance away from the subject at longer focal lengths.

Comparing the effect of different focal lengths on the depth of field of the subject. Pictures in all focal lengths except 85mm, have been cropped to match the level of magnification of a 85mm focal length.

15mm, f/5.6

24mm, f/5.6

50mm, f/5.6

80mm, f/5.6

Subject distance from background and camera

If isn't not possible to increase the aperture and the focal length of the lens, but you still want to have a blur background, what do you do?

You can either move the subject further from the background or move your camera nearer to your subject. Do note that moving the background away from the subject makes the background look smaller, and moving your camera nearer to your subject magnifies it, filling a bigger part of the frame.

Advantages

- No cost to move anything

Disadvantages

- Some background cannot be moved

- Not as easily changed as aperture and focal length

Using this photo again as an example, the bottles are placed exactly 30cm away from each other. As you can see, the items in the background gets blurrier as it moves away from the subject.

50mm f/5.6. Effect of distance on background blur.

So which is the best method of all? I would recommend a combination of all would be the best. If you like to be really technical, you can input your settings into this depth of field calculator to give you a rough idea of what to expect: http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html

Once you understand the basics of depth of field, we can move on to the next level, that is creating a bokeh. And it will be in the next tutorial.

Singapore: A Part of My Life

2012-08-13T18:48:00.000+08:00

Recently, I entered my mosaic penguin playground photo for a Straits Times National Day contest "Singapore: A Part of My Life".

In the end, I didn't win, but at least I was in the top 20 of 200+ photos, and it was on newspaper, covering a quarter of a page. Well, better luck and skills next time! Here is the online version. You can see other winners and finalist there too.

Gardens By The Bay

2012-07-27T21:17:00.001+08:00

The latest mega attraction in town is none other than Gardens by the Bay. Although it is still pretty inaccessible by public transport, it attracts lots of people everyday. I went on a weekday afternoon, so it wasn't crowded, but people started to pour in towards the evening. The place is really quite huge, and almost impossible to finish walking in an afternoon, but most of the attractions is located in the bay south, which houses the super trees and flower dome.

For people who don't want to pay a cent like me, there are still many places which you can visit and take awesome pictures of. Although I prefer to shoot HDR in the day, but it is during the night where the park comes alive with all the light show and music. In the afternoon, it's just a little less exciting.

So here are 2 pictures shot on my first visit. The first picture is of this supertree. It is the biggest of all the supertrees and sits in the center of all other trees.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dallasgoh/7557203598/

Settings: Focal Length: 10mm
Exposure: 15, 2, 30 sec
ISO: 160
F-stop: f/11
Format: RAW

Run the 3 images through camera raw to correct camera vignette, CA, and noise, before merging with photomatix and brought back into photoshop to remove ghosting and finally finishing off with nik software.

The next picture is of a limestone rock. I found it interesting because of the clever use of a hole in the concrete to create a frame for the limestone rock.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dallasgoh/7649786918/

Settings:
Focal Length: 10mm
Exposure: 2.5, 1/3, 20 sec
ISO: 160
F-stop: f/11
Format: RAW

Similar editing fashion to the photo above, only easier because there is no sky or ghosting to work with.

Next visit, I'll be there earlier and spend some $$ to enter the Flower Dome! Hopefully, I'll have a whole lot of wonderful pictures to work on after the trip!

Food Photography

2012-07-05T17:34:00.000+08:00

I recently got interested in food photography. The motivating factor is because I'm now writing food reviews on OpenRice.sg, as they offer rather attractive rewards for posting food reviews. I've started to see a pattern on how to make food photos pleasing and maybe I'll do a short tutorial on that next time. Or maybe it could just be my next sideline?

Anyways, I've uploaded the photos on flickr, and you can always check out my flickr album: Dallas Makan. I'll be updating that album regularly, so please check back often and don't forget to leave me a comment!

For now, I've selected some photos to put up on this blog.

Mosaic Playground - Penguin

2012-06-27T12:09:00.000+08:00

Long ago, in the mid 90's, Children had no iPads or electronic games to play with. What did we do then? We'll have a ball of time at the playground downstairs. Back then, there would be a sand playground in every neighborhood, and those with plastic floors are like beyond rare.

The playgrounds are normally dirty and very sandy, with sand all over the slides and structures, but that doesn't stop kids from having a great time there. I remember the playground under my block had only a swing, a slide, but I can spend hours playing there.

But then, slowly the playgrounds around Singapore got upgraded to the newer plastic floors ones. The remaining ones are in danger of getting demolished. I didn't pay much attention until I read an article named "Mosaic Memories" from www.SingaporeMemory.sg.

So today, I visited Vocational Dr, off Dover Road, to see the only remaining mosaic pelican in Singapore. The residents of this neighborhood has already moved and work has began on either upgrading or tearing the buildings down, and the playground is boarded up. However, I managed to sneak in and get some shots.

(I forgot to bring my tripod base plate on this trip, so it's a little hard to shoot a portrait HDR. To compensate for that, I had to up my ISO by 2 stops to make my shutter speed fast enough for handheld shots.)

Settings:
Focal Length: 10mm
Exposure: 1/13, 1/100, 1/800 sec
ISO: 640
F-stop: f/9.1
Format: RAW

Do visit this place if you have the time, before it's too late! You will love it!

HDR Post-Processing Tutorial

2012-05-19T14:18:00.000+08:00

This tutorial will cover how to edit those HDR photos that you have taken as explained in the first tutorial "The Basics of HDR"

Every has their own different ways to process their HDR photos. For me, I edit my photos using Photomatix and then subsequently by Photoshop. I like my HDR effect to have less saturation and more details.

Today we are going to work on this sunset photo. This is a regular un-edited sunset photo taken using regular settings. Sunset? Not too visible.

Our final product. A HDR sunset photo.

It takes me roughly about an hour to get to this. If this is your first time working with HDR, be prepared to spend many hours working on a HDR photo. Also don't be discouraged if your HDR photo doesn't turn out good. It takes practice to perfect the skill. I too, is practicing daily. Let's begin!

Editing in Photomatix

First, bring up your Photomatix application and click on the "Load Bracketed Photos". As mentioned in my basic HDR photography tutorial, you should have taken at least 3 shots of varying exposure. Browse for the photos and click ok.

A preprocessing option dialog box will appear. The defaults is fine, but we want to reduce the noise on the underexposed image as it's a sunset and the lack of light will generate more noise in the image. we don't select reduce chromatic aberrations because photomatix doesn't do a good job removing it, and we'll address the issue later in Photoshop using a fast and easy method.

Because by the selective deghosting is selected by default, we will reach a screen like the one below. Normally, when shooting scenes like this example, there isn't any moving objects fast enough to register a change in the 3 photos you have taken, so we'll skip this.

selective deghosting does not repair motion blur due to long exposure. It just fix differences between the 3 photos

A HDR photo is generated! Sure it looks like sh*t now, but that's ok.

Now, SAVE this photo by clicking on the save button before doing anything to this photo. This is an important step because we would have to use this later.

Click on the "Tone Mapping / Fusion" button and we'll arrive at this page with a number of sliders. If the default is not the first preset "Enchancer - Default", then manually click on that preset as shown by the red arrow. Actually the default enhancer is already pretty good, but the default does not fit every scene and preference, so we're going to do a little adjustment here.

We won't use most of the sliders, but the sliders that we are using are shown in the red box. If you want to know what each slider does and my recommended settings, please see my previous post: The Basics of HDR. Tweak it however you want, but do keep in mind that this is just a base to work on, so it is 100% alright for your photo to have low contrast, and low saturation. Once you're happy with it, click on the process button and let it chew through your photo.

Do not over saturate the photo by using too much color saturation. It only destroys the picture.

Once you're done, save your photo, and we'll call it tonemapped photo. Next, open the first ugly HDR photo that I asked you to save earlier on.

This window will appear. Click on the "Tone Mapping" button.

Now, we're going to create a black and white high contrast image of your original photo. The idea of creating a photo like this is to use as an overlay over the original photo. This increases the edge contrast for the photo without affecting the tone of the colors in the photo. To do this, retain all the previous settings and reduce the color saturation to 0, change the Lighting Adjustments to medium or surreal, bring the white point and black point all the way to 5%. Click process when we're done.

Save the black and white photo under another name, and we'll call this the shadow. And that's all we need to do in photomatix! The rest is now in Photoshop.

Editing in Photoshop

Open your tonemapped and shadow photos in Photoshop. Make sure the both files are sitting in the same document. If it's not, duplicate the shadow onto the tonemapped photo.

With the shadow layer selected, Change the blending mode to soft light. Soft light is the softest blend of the overlay group as it retains the most colors. If you like a harsher shadow, choose overlay, or even harsher shadows, hard light. In this example, I find soft light a little too harsh for my liking, so I turned down the opacity of the shadow photo to 75%. Hold down CTRL + ALT + SHIFT + E, and it will create a layer copy of the visible layers.

Next step, we are going to fix those chromatic aberrations (CA). Generally, when there is chromatic aberration, there will be two colors appearing on either side of an object. It's usually purple and green, or a similar shade of color. Click on Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation, or CTRL + U, to bring up the Hue/Saturation dialog box. Click on the tiny hand icon as show with the red arrow, and a Eyedropper tool will appear. Using that tool, click on a purple CA area that best represents the average shade of purple in the picture (as shown in red circle).

If there are any purple CA that is not selected by dropper, you can use the dropper+ tool (middle tool of small red box), to select those purple. Vice versa, the dropper- tool removes colors you do not want to be included from the selection.

Using the Saturation and Lightness sliders, adjust until the purple CA cannot be seen (or significantly less visible). We've adjusted the saturation and lightness sliders to -75 for both. Our goal is to desaturate and blend the purple CA into the photo.

Zooming out, we can check if by desaturating the purple CA, we have affect the purple in the photo which you do not want to affect. In this case, the floor tiles and the roof (marked in red circles) are of a similar shade of purple. That is the downside of using this tool; it targets CA very well, but it affects similar colors in the whole photo. But go ahead and click OK, and we can fix that later.

Click on the "Add layer mask" as pointed out by the red arrow to create a layer mask. A layer mask shows or hides a certain part of the photo as required. A white layer mask shows, and a black layer mask hides. Now press CTRL + I, to inverse the color of the layer mask to black. Now the picture is completely hidden like nothing has been done yet. Making sure we have selected the black layer mask, and our brush foreground color is white (as shown in red boxes), select the brush tool (or keyboard shortcut "b") and paint over the parts that we want to have the purple CA removed. And there we have it. We removed the purple CA without affecting other parts of the photo.

Create a layer copy of the visible layers (or 2 just for backup), and repeat the steps for removing CA for the green CA. For the green CA, it will be slightly trickier because there are a lot of greenery around the photo and we don't want to desaturate the grass and trees. In this case, once we have selected the green that we want to remove, we can pull the two tiny triangles closer together in the pair of rainbow colored stripes in the Hue/Saturation dialog box. Zoom out and ensure the grass and tress are not affected by the desaturation. We might have to keep trying to find a shade of green that only affects the green CA. But once we're done, click OK.

Now, I'm going to introduce a Photoshop plug-in that is extremely useful to any photographers, amateurs or professionals. That has to be Nik Software. The first piece of Nik Software that I'll be using is the Nik Software Dfine 2.0. This is a tool to remove excessive noise from the photo so it doesn't look too grainy. Do not over use this tool because denoising an image will cause it to lose sharpness. Another thing to remember is to always perform denoising before sharpening (if you need to). In this case, I used the manual method because I want a little more control over the denoising, but automatic works great as well.

While we're at it, I find that the tree by the left of the picture seems a little distracting, so using content-aware, we removed the tree. Simply use the lasso tool to encompass the tree, right click over the lasso area, and click "Fill" option. Ensure Content-Aware is selected and press OK. This step can be anytime, but it is always recommended to remove any large objects from the picture early in post processing as it can be harder for content-aware to generate the image when details are pulled from the picture in the later steps.

Next, we'll be using another Nik Software plug-in, Color Efex Pro 4.0. This is by far the most useful tool I ever used and I always use this for my HDR photos, and frequently for other photos. Firstly, we want to pull more details from picture, so we use the "Detail Extraction" filter. The defaults are usually fine for me, so we go on by clicking the "Add Filter" button. We can always come back later and tweak the settings if you're not happy with it.

Next we add the filter "Tonal Contrast". This filter adds contrast to the picture without ruining the colors. The effects are a little too strong for my liking, so we turn the opacity down to 60%. To pull a little more detail from the image, I set the contrast type to "Fine". The rest of the sliders are on default.

What is a sunset without warmth? Our picture doesn't too much of a sunset feel because it's lacking warmth, so using the "Brilliance / Warmth" filter, we add 75% warmth and 10% saturation to the photo.

The last filter we will use is "Darken / Lighten Center". As the name suggest, this filter lightens the center and darkens the borders. It's similar to vignetting but we have the option to lighten the center to draw the viewers' attention. In this case, we will set the center luminosity to 0% (no change in brightness), and reduce the border luminosity to -25% to give it a little vignetting effect. Press OK when we're done and let the plug-in chew through the photo while we take a minute break.

Because extracting details from the photo amplify those small details and those undesirable noise, we will have to do another denoise. For this case, we're cool with the noise level in the ground area, but not the sky, so we select the sky using the Quick Selection Tool (or keyboard shortcut W). Then we use Dfine 2.0 again to remove excessive noise.

Next, we use another Nik Software plug-in, Sharpener Pro 3.0, to give it a little sharpening before publishing the image. Do not over sharpen the image or it will show visible noise and degrade the overall aesthetics of the image.

One last thing that I have done is to bring the photo over to the latest Photoshop CS6 and used the Adaptive Wide Angle filter to correct the distortion present in this image. As you can see, the lamp post is now standing straight, instead of slanting before applying the filter.

There we have it, the final HDR photo!

If like this tutorial, please share it on facebook, twitter, or whatever. And if you're inspired, please create a HDR photo and comment on this post, with your photo. Enjoy and don't forget to have fun!

ROM of Nachu & Meiyappan

2012-05-18T00:46:00.001+08:00

I was recently asked to shoot for an ROM of Nachu & Meiyappan. I've done wedding shots before but this is my first time shooting for an ROM. What's more, the couple are Indians, so I have a lack of understanding of their culture and procedure during the ROM. If you ask me, sure it's a challenge, but I'm prepared for it.

A few days before this ROM, I attended a seminar from Clubsnap about wedding photography. What I learnt was that I need a 33k hasselblad camera, a huge light & umbrella, and of course, assistants to do anything but shooting. Sure, I have none of the 3, and nowhere near, so most of things don't apply. But what I took away from the seminar is the way the photographer interacts with the model, and some typical wedding poses (and it helps alot!).

Enjoy the photos!

Buying Body or Lens?

2012-05-02T23:42:00.000+08:00

Whether or not, you own a DSLR or considering buying one, this is one of the things you must consider. Good body with a lousy lens or lousy body with a good lens? Let me take you through and help you make the decision.

Image Quality

If you're looking for image quality, then a good lens must be in your shopping list. Light itself is rather difficult to manage. Lenses often suffer from various forms of optical degradation, such as vignetting, barrel distortion, Chromatic Aberration, flare. You see, even the best and most expensive lens may not fully resolve these issues, but merely reduce the effects.

Let's bring out an example. I used 2 different lens on the same camera body to shoot the same subject. On the left is shot with a EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 lens, selling for about $900 online. On the right is shot with a EF-S17-85mm lens, selling for about $660 online. Both pictures are shot with Canon EOS 7D.

My first impression is that the 15-85mm lens has a better contrast than the 17-85mm. Zooming in, you can clearly see the difference in sharpness. If you own a 18-55mm kit lens, the results are worse than the 17-85mm lens.

Comparing 15-85mm vs 17-85mm (click to enlarge)

So you see a better lens does give an additional advantage in image quality. But does it mean that more expensive lens have better image quality? In fact, no.

Generally, prime (fixed focal length) lens have a higher image quality over a zoom lens at the same price range. The reason is because zoom lenses have more moving parts, and as mentioned above, light is difficult to control and manage, and with moving glass inside the lens, it becomes much harder to align everything to give a equal optical quality like a prime lens. It takes much more engineering or better glass to construction a lens of similar optical quality compared to a prime lens, and to maintain the low price, some things have to give.

For example, the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 lens offer a much better image quality than the EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 kit lens. Both are in the same price range of $100 to $150, yet one performs much better than the other. That's because the 50mm lens is a prime lens. The same is true other lenses in different price ranges.

Functionality

A camera body plays a big part when it comes to taking the picture. After all, it houses the sensor which is used to take the photo. Advances in technology made cameras have bigger and sharper LCD screens, video capabilities, higher megapixels, better sensors, just to name a few. However, if you already own a DSLR or planning to get one, it may not be the best to get the latest model.

Take for example, the EOS 600D and 550D. Both cameras have 18 megapixels and run on DIGIC 4 sensor. The few difference is an improved video recording system and a flip out screen. The rest of the changes are minor.

My suggestion would be to own a decent DSLR and stick to it. I still use my EOS 500D, and I know of friends who still use their EOS 450D even though it's a rather old camera. If you're planning an upgrade, try not to upgrade to a similar series, but a higher series if you have the budget. Because even an old higher series camera would normally have much better functions than a basic model (but not too old please).

For lenses, an upgrade would normally bring about better control of those optical degradation as mentioned above, a new or better image stabilization, or better auto focusing. Because lenses don't get upgraded often, they don't have to be replaced for a long time.

Cost

When it comes to buying a camera or lens, you are spending big bucks on it, and you won't want to change every few years, don't you? Yes, good lenses can really cost a lot, and they only operate within a limited focal length, but they are well worth the money. Camera bodies don't cost as much and they can be used in all kinds of shots, so are they really worth putting all the money into?

Let's first bring our attention to the basic DSLR series, the Canon EOS rebel series. Almost every year, Canon releases a new rebel camera (latest is 600D, but due for a upgrade at time of writing), introducing more and more technological advances into that same sized body.

For example, in 2004, Canon releases the EOS 350D camera. It has 8 megapixels and DIGIC II processor. Now in 2012, the EOS 600D has 18 megapixels and DIGIC 4 processor. On the other hand, Canon released the EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 lens also in 2004, and now in 2012, the same EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5mm lens is still in use.

You may not have upgraded your camera body since 2004, but you are now using some old technology 8 years old. However, if you are still using the EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5mm lens, you would still be using the "latest" technology.

Lenses do receive updates like camera bodies, however, not so frequently. maybe once in many years. So if you're looking for a cost effective equipment, investing your money in the right lens is the way to go!

Depreciation

All equipment depreciates. Camera equipments are one of the few things that depreciates very slowly. If you're looking to upgrade your equipment from time to time and not want to lose too much money, then this is for you.

Firstly, all equipments depreciates faster when there is a upgrade to it. This goes the same for both camera bodies and lenses. But considering camera bodies get a more frequent update, you would have guessed that camera bodies depreciate faster than lenses.

For this example, we see how a lens upgrade will cause it's resale value to drop. The EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 is an upgrade for the older EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6. The price for the 17-85mm used to be selling in the $900 range, and now, it goes for about $300. Comparing the lens to EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5, both lens are sold from 2004, within the same price range, but the 10-22mm still goes for $700. Now for lenses such as the 10-22mm, it depreciates very slowly, and probably you can get back over half of what you paid for after many years.

For the next example, we will see how camera bodies depreciates. Because all camera bodies made in 2004 have gotten at least an upgrade, so we won't be comparing the depreciation after an upgrade. The EOS 350D used to retail for about $1000 back in 2004, but now, you would be glad if someone decides to pay $200 for that camera.

So if you owned an EOS 350D and a 10-22mm from it's inception till now, you would have lost much more on that camera body than the lens.

Conclusion

In conclusion, if you have the cash and you're looking for an upgrade or buying a new camera, always remember to get a better lens!

My Qing Ming Festival (清明节)

2012-04-23T22:52:00.000+08:00

There are a couple of festivals in Singapore that we never fail to celebrate even though they aren't public holidays. Qing Ming Festival(清明节) is one of the few. Once a year around April, people flock to the cemeteries and temples to pay their respects to their deceased loved ones. Way in the past, other than paying respects to the dead, family members will also rid tombstones of weed and clean up the tombstones. In some cases, they may also repaint the inscriptions on the tombstones with red ink, if the tombstone requires it. People offer fruits and food (from vegetarian to roast meat!), and burn simple offerings to the dead.

Fast forward 20 years, where land in Singapore is becoming ever more scarce, people settle their deceased loved ones in temples or columbariums. People now still offer fruits and food, but more westernized food like cup cakes and chicken chop?! No longer are burning simple offerings enough. Now they come up with all sorts of stuff, from iPhones, iPads, and all sorts of gadgets to be burned for the dead.

To be honest, I never liked the idea of Qing Ming Festival since I was a child. What I don't like is the incense smoke coming all over me and leaving me breathless (I have a sensitive nose, so it drives me crazy). But regardless of how much I hate going to the temples and columbariums, paying respects to ancestors is a basic courtesy. I never actually seen my grandfather before, but I still pay respects to him.

So here I am, on an awesome sunday, at Guang Ming Shan Temple (光明山). So here is a typical sequence of events that will follow:

1) Pray to the heavens
2) Offer the food and pray to ancestors
3) Burn offerings to ancestors
4) Ask if ancestors have eaten their fill.
5) If no, repeat step 4. If yes, go to step 6.
6) Pack up and go home!

The photos below were shot at Guang Ming Shan Temple and Zi Du An Temple.

Let's start by first praying sincerely. Palms together and bow.

As expected, jobs like these are also done by foreign workers. The Singaporeans are there too, but they just sit around to supervise. Offerings comes in boxes or paper bags and have the deceased person's name and birth date written on the offerings before being sent into the fire pit.

I like the feel of this photo. I already knew how I wanted this photo to look when I was shooting it. Black & White is the way to go.

Temporary shelters and tables are set up during the yearly Qing Ming festival for the families to pray and offer food. Inside the building where the urns are kept, it's a strict no offerings and incense, so families pray outside the building.

The food that most people choose to offer. Since this is a Buddhist temple, no meat is allowed, so you won't see chicken chop lying around. So most people offer a popular local dish "Vegetarian Beehoon" (斋米粉). After the prayers, some people will not bring back the food and leave it lying around, waiting for someone to clear..

Yes! And somebody is here to clear it. It's our Bangladesh friend. He dumps the cooked food, and keeps all the fruits. And the amount of fruits he can collect a day is amazing! I bet he and his friends can't finish them all.

What's prayers without incense?

This is Zi Du An Temple. It's much more rundown compared to Guang Ming Shan Temple. I've only been inside the building once, and it really freaks me out. The urns look exactly like those in Chinese horror movies, and not to mention the creepy atmosphere...

They too have tables, but no shelters. Those coming to pray must stay in the sun...

More food offerings. The bottom right hand corner is the vegetarian BeeHoon that most of us often eat and are familiar with.

People normally don't clear up after their prayers, so they all end up in the bin, and it takes a huge bin to load them all.

Other offerings that are used to burn. Waiting to enter the fire pit.

Will the new generation continue this tradition? Or will they choose to offer their prayers via an iPhone app next time? Only time will tell.

(This series of photo has been processed with the cross processing effect to bring out the nostalgic feel.)

Marina Bay ArtScience Museum!

2012-04-09T23:24:00.000+08:00

iLight Marina Bay is a lot of fun, seriously! My favorite light installation would be the Merlion, as you can color the virtual Merlion on a computer screen, and it shows up on the actual Merlion in real time!

limitless color combinations!

There were other awesome and creative light installations around the whole Marina Bay, and like a kid, I had a great time photographing and playing with them. One of the"big" light installations is at the Marina Bay ArtScience Museum. I haven't been inside, nor have a clue of what this building will house, but the name of the building does suggest a big clue.

I've been here before, photographed, edited it, but I felt something lacking. Perhaps it was the featureless white exterior walls of the building. It was good, but a little dull and flat.

When I first heard about the iLight Marina Bay festival, I saw a photo of the ArtScience Museum and I clearly knew this is the moment that I've been waiting for! Something to be projected on the white walls and fill up the empty spaces!

Presenting the Marina Bay ArtScience Museum!

It's a HDR photo. This photo was a little challenging as I had to deal with unusually large amount of noise. Chroma was rather strong as well, especially purple, which is hard to separate from the purple that I want on the picture. A total of 21 layers used on this picture, and about 3 hours to edit.

On a side note: I read about native ISO on cameras such as 7D or 5D. The theory states that camera's noise performance is much better at a set of ISO numbers, such as "160, 320, 640". I'll try to talk about that in the future if possible. But I've tried running simple test between ISO 100 and 160, and I don't see a significant different like the article mention. Difference? Yes, maybe just 5%, but it could be a test variable. More on that soon!

Enter The Merlion Night

2012-03-20T21:46:00.000+08:00

Many Singaporeans never realize, but actually our iconic Marina Bay is a very beautiful sight. Let's put it straight, if it ain't beautiful, why would almost every tourist take the effort to drop by for sightseeing? However, I spoke to many local Singaporeans and not many people appreciate the beauty of our Singapore landscape. They normally say "Aiya, Merlion never see before meh? Only tourist will go one lor!".

I'm a frequent visitor of Marina Bay, walked round the reservoir many times over, but every time I'm there, I experience something new. It could be a new building, new angle to photograph an old scene, or an event. Local photographers might think the scenes in Marina Bay are already "Over Shot" or put it other words, photographed too many times. True enough, there are some iconic scenes that a landscape photographer should have been to and shot before.

Photographing scenes like this can be particularly stressing for the photographer. Although you clearly know the best angle for the shot, but the resulting photo may still be a far fetch from the real professionals. Even if your photo doesn't match up, but at least you know where you stand, and the difference gives you a good indication of the room for improvement.

Here is my take on one of the scenes that are "Over Shot". The Merlion with the Raffles Place backdrop. I'm happy with how the colors turn out and thus I sent this photo to participate in Samsung's
"Breathe Light Into The Night" Photo Contest.
https://www.facebook.com/SamsungCamerasSingapore?sk=app_165517023564572

My entry

And I won the FIRST PRIZE! I'm really glad that I won because the judges picked my entry and not winning by the number of likes/votes. It means a lot for a photo to be recognized, something that money can't buy.

Well, in conclusion, don't be afraid to shoot a scene that is shot by many before, and try to be creative and do in your style to be uniquely yours!

Dynamic Range

2012-03-17T00:57:00.000+08:00

What is Dynamic Range?

Dynamic range in our everyday lives, is the difference between the darkest and the brightest part of our vision that we can see. Dynamic range is working in our everyday lives. For example, have you ever walked into a dark room, and found yourself temporary blinded by the dark for a short time? It's because the darkness of the room exceeds our dynamic range of eyes, and our pupils dilate (open up) to allow more light to pass through into our eyes, enabling us to see darker objects brighter, and brighter objects brighter as well. Comparing our eyes to camera sensors, our eyes have an amazingly wide dynamic range!

Dynamic range in photography is simply the difference between the darkest and brightest part of a photo. It is usually expressed in a graph such as the one below. Dynamic range gives us a clue to whether a photo is properly exposed.

How to read a Dynamic Range graph?

Dynamic Range graph, is more commonly referred to as "Histogram". On the extreme left of the graph, the "0" represents pure black, and on the extreme right of the graph, the "255" represents pure white. Anything that lies in the middle is a shade of grey somewhere between black and white. I'm going to keep this simple and talk about dynamic range on the RGB (Red, Green, Blue) channel only.

The amount of a specific shade of grey in the photo is represented by the height of the "Mountain" in the graph. A higher peak shows more shade of that grey in the picture.

I like to quote this example when explaining dynamic range.

1) Take a photo.
2) Convert that photo to greyscale (black & white).
3) Now each pixel in the photo is of a certain shade of grey (or it could be pure black or white, but mostly grey for sure)
4) Take each pixel and arrange it on the graph from pure black to pure white.
5) There you have it, a dynamic range graph!

How can Dynamic Range help in photography?

In photography, we generally want to have a correctly exposed picture. A correctly exposed picture should have a nice peak in the center.

However, do note that every photo is different and there is no perfect graph for dynamic range. Depending the the scene, the graph could have it's peak more towards the left or right, and still be correctly exposed. Or depending on the photographer's creativity, under or over exposing the photograph deliberately can make the picture look better.

Dynamic range of a very overexposed photo

Dynamic range of a very underexposed photo

Before you call the above dynamic range graphs "trash", they are actually part of a group of photos used to create a HDR (High Dynamic Range) photo.

Using HDR can drastically improve the dynamic range of photographs by combining the useable parts (those closer to the center) of the dynamic range to enhance the dynamic range of a correctly exposed photo.

Understanding Dynamic Range for use in Photoshop

This photo needs a little correction. The reason why the graph is skewed to the right is because of the very overexposed background. The subject is of the right exposure, but is lacking a little contrast, and the background is very overexposed. So how can we correct this problem? Now, here is a extremely simple cure for this problem. Navigate to the Levels menu by going to: "Image > Adjustments > Levels" (or CTRL + L). With the levels menu open, you have 3 options to get the right levels for your picture.

Photo edited using auto settings method.

1) Auto - Auto is a no brainer. Photoshop will decide for you what's best and then automatically determine the black and white point. However, it may not be accurate all the time, nor it can create any creative effects you want on the photo.

Photo edited using the level sliders method.

2) Level Sliders -You can manually adjust the white and black point by moving the sliders. Moving the black slider inwards gradually turns darker colors to pure black, and moving the white slider inwards gradually turns lighter colors to pure white. The grey slider in the center can go both ways and it can make greys darker or lighter depending on the direction it's slide towards.

Photo edited using the sample tool method. Sample tools circled in red

3) Sample tool - Consist of a black, grey, and white point sample tool. For example, using the black point sample tool, you can quickly and easily sample a spot on the picture that you want it to because pure black (0 on the dynamic range graph). Anything darker than the spot sampled will be pure black as well. I normally use this tool sparingly, and use it only if I find a known pure black object doesn't turn out pure black when shot on camera. Similarly, the white point sample tool samples a spot on the picture and turns it pure white.

Or if you wish, you can use a combination of 2 or more of the methods, such as using auto before manually adjusting the level sliders. Any method that makes a good photo is a good method. If you noticed little difference in the photos, that is normal. Changes like this are subtle, but after a series of other post-processing, the difference will show and people will be sure to notice it.

There are some other functions on photoshop that uses the dynamic range, but they are generally similar to the levels function. If you know levels, you shouldn't have any problems when you encounter a tool that has something that looks like a dynamic range graph on it. Good luck and have fun shooting!