Letters to You

What do you see?

noreply@blogger.com (RFKW) — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 11:25:00 +0000

What do you see?

Except for the noise, I would think that this image is rather acceptable.
Guess what? This was taken today using my Sony Ericsson K550i handphone. It's an old 2 MP camera phone with the lens all fogged up and scratched.

They say that the best camera is the camera that is with you.

© RFKW 2011
http://rfkw.blogspot.com

i-City

noreply@blogger.com (RFKW) — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 12:20:00 +0000

The other day I saw an article posted by a reader in The Star newspaper. It goes on to say that his/her visit to i-City was ruined due to the long queue of cars lining up to enter and there was just too many people there.

What I can say is, it's all just a matter of time planning.

© RFKW 2011
http://rfkw.blogspot.com

Chinese New Year

noreply@blogger.com (RFKW) — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 11:51:00 +0000

It's a wet wet Chinese New Year in Malaysia this year.

Wishing every one a Happy Chinese New Year. Remember to visit your family members, relatives and friends!

© RFKW 2011
http://rfkw.blogspot.com

Baby 101

noreply@blogger.com (RFKW) — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 16:27:00 +0000

Experimenting with some cross, cold tone.

© RFKW 2011
http://rfkw.blogspot.com

Littering

noreply@blogger.com (RFKW) — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 14:48:00 +0000

Apparently, the fine of RM100000 lasts till 2020 and involves all races in Malaysia.

© RFKW 2011
http://rfkw.blogspot.com

Cameras?

noreply@blogger.com (RFKW) — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 14:10:00 +0000

I happen to stumble upon this image online. Sometimes I just wonder whether a big camera is actually necessary.

How about you?

© RFKW 2011
http://rfkw.blogspot.com

Sleepy

noreply@blogger.com (RFKW) — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 17:25:00 +0000

What do you do when you're sleepy?

You sleep.

© RFKW 2011
http://rfkw.blogspot.com

Sunset

noreply@blogger.com (RFKW) — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 15:39:00 +0000

This time we'll take a look at how to transform this

into something better.

Click Read More for the final pics

What I did was, photoshop to crop a bit on the sides, then I replaced back a bit of the skies, layered it and did some HDR, and then did a bit of adjustments on the colour effects.

A lot of people think that when you have grand scenery, such as you have in Yosemite, that photography must be easy.
Galen Rowell

© RFKW 2010
http://rfkw.blogspot.com
http://basics-of-photography.blogspot.com

Guttation

noreply@blogger.com (RFKW) — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 09:51:00 +0000

A plant's ability to grow, increase and sustain itself became of secondary and almost minimal interest.
-Bill Munson

In Biology...they call this guttation through the hydathodes due to root pressure.

© RFKW 2010
http://rfkw.blogspot.com
http://basics-of-photography.blogspot.com

Porsch

noreply@blogger.com (RFKW) — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 17:04:00 +0000

But my passion is racing cars. It's what I like to do in my off time.

I couldn't find the sports car of my dreams, so I built it myself.
Ferdinand Porsche

© RFKW 2010
http://rfkw.blogspot.com
http://basics-of-photography.blogspot.com

Sweet Flowers

noreply@blogger.com (RFKW) — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 17:18:00 +0000

Flowers are the sweetest things God ever made, and forgot to put a soul into. ~Henry Beecher

[Click on the pics for bigger view]

Can we conceive what humanity would be if it did not know the flowers? ~Maurice Maeterlinck

© RFKW 2010
http://rfkw.blogspot.com
http://basics-of-photography.blogspot.com

Sony NEX

noreply@blogger.com (RFKW) — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 12:02:00 +0000

Checking out the new Sony NEX

Click on the photo for bigger view.

© RFKW 2010
http://rfkw.blogspot.com
http://basics-of-photography.blogspot.com

Sunset

noreply@blogger.com (RFKW) — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 15:38:00 +0000

It's been ages since I last updated here!

Here's a "bob your head out of the car window" shot for you guys.

Before

And after.

Post-processed using Lightroom, Photomatix and Photoshop.

Here's a quote for u guys to ponder on
"Without light, we can’t photograph. It’s how we choose to utilize,
maximize and create light, combined with our vision that makes us
photographers."

Till next time.

© RFKW 2010
http://rfkw.blogspot.com
http://basics-of-photography.blogspot.com

Watch World Cup Live for FREE

noreply@blogger.com (RFKW) — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 15:35:00 +0000

The 2010 World Cup starts on June 11th, and one of the best ways to keep up on the soccer will be to watch it streaming live.
For those of you who don't own a TV or do not have access to one, here's a chance for you to catch the game LIVE streaming! FIFA World Cup 2010 Live. This streaming is FREE.

Click Read more for the player.

Choose your source by clicking on TV1, TV2 and etc.

Your Browser Do not Support Iframe

Share This with your friends too!

© RFKW 2009
http://rfkw.blogspot.com
http://basics-of-photography.blogspot.com

Sri KL Secondary 22nd Annual Sports

noreply@blogger.com (RFKW) — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 15:48:00 +0000

Full compilation of Sri Kuala Lumpur Secondary School's 22nd Annual Sports Meet.

This year's sports was held on the 24th of April 2010 at the usual Kompleks Sukan Negara. Overall the event was quite a successful one. And since this is my last year in Sri KL, I decided to stay for the whole event and take loads of pictures. For this event, I used a Canon 50D+18-200mm and also a Nikon D90+18-105mm courtesy of Johnson Ng and Lee Ve Shen. Although a bit of rain the night before, the sky was still filled with clouds. Good weather, I must say.

I shall not dive into all the wierd technical details, so let's just enjoy the pictures. :D

I've included all the public links of the albums which are hosted on Facebook here. This post might also be useful to those who do not have an account in Facebook or have not added me as a friend yet.

Check the links.....after the break.

Sports Rehersal (Thursday)

Sports Day Cheerleading

Sports Day (Saturday)

I've also uploaded 2 panoramas on Gigapan which is a gigapixel image hosting site that allows you to zoom and move around a super large picture. See and play around with it below. The first one shows all the marchpass members waiting to take their oath. Not forgetting the awesome weather on saturday that was just shiny and bright enough although a bit humid and hot. That's about all and dont forget to Share THIS! with your friends, parents, teachers, relatives, uncles, aunties and everyone! Feel free to leave your comment below! © RFKW 2009 http://rfkw.blogspot.com http://basics-of-photography.blogspot.com

Adobe Photoshop CS5 Content Aware Sample Pictures

noreply@blogger.com (RFKW) — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 11:28:00 +0000

Let's have a brief look at what Adobe Photoshop's latest feature can do.

Content-Aware Fill
Remove any image detail or object and watch as Content-Aware Fill magically fills in the space left behind. This breakthrough technology matches lighting, tone, and noise so it looks as if the removed content never existed.

I think this is an incredible feature which allows editors to magically remove, move or add things to the picture during post-process. Really the craziest thing ever in any photo editing software!

For example, look at the picture below. I can move the ostrich's next by using puppet warp and it looks as good as real!

Image retouching is synonymous with Photoshop, but it's always been a manual job that requires not only skill but also countless man hours. In a work of engineering wizardry, Adobe has solved this problem for experienced and casual image editors alike.

Bryan O'Neil Hughes, Adobe Photoshop product manager, presents a sneak peak of the new tool in a YouTube video (shown below) that's taken the Internet by storm. It almost looks too good to be true.

"One of the biggest requests we get of Photoshop is to make adding, removing, moving or repairing items faster and more seamless," Hughes explains. "From retouching to completely reimagining an image, here's an early glimpse of what could happen in the future when you press the delete key."

Deleting trees to replace them with background scenery, and substituting an entire road with bordering desert shrubbery, the latest addition to Photoshop transforms the traditionally time-consuming into the realms of the novice.

The technology works by analysing multiple textures from an object's surroundings and then stitches these together once the aggravating entity has been removed. There's clearly a very complex algorithm badgering away in the background, but its secrets will remain in the giant heads of Adobe's engineers. Shadows, lens flare and (dare we say) watermarks can be erased with ease. Fast-forward to 2:50 for the real jaw-erasing moment.

Click Read more for more samples!

Click on the pictures for bigger view!

Notice how well photoshop replaces back the clouds?

See how well it renders back the sky. Just totally awesome!

PS. some of you might check the exif data and see that the 3rd & 4th photo was edited with Photoshop CS4. Actually I just used CS4 for entering the names. The editing was done with CS5.

SHARE THIS! :D

Comments are welcome.

© RFKW 2009
http://rfkw.blogspot.com
http://basics-of-photography.blogspot.com

Depth-of-Field

noreply@blogger.com (RFKW) — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 18:07:00 +0000

After a long break, this time I'll be posting something on Depth-of-Field or more commonly known in the short form, "DOF".

According to some definitions online, DOF is the portion of a scene that appears acceptably sharp in the image. Although a lens can precisely focus at only one distance, the decrease in sharpness is gradual on each side of the focused distance, so that within the DOF, the unsharpness is imperceptible under normal viewing conditions.

Sounds complex? Well, I'll just be explaining in simple layman's terms about this so called DOF, how it affects your photograph and how to control it.

Click Read More for more info with pictures.

The part of picture that you want to be in focus or the whole picture to be in focus is rather subjective. It all depends on the photographer. The photographer will have to decide on this based on his aim, subject and motive that he/she wants to achieve. When only little part of the picture is in focus, we say that it has a shallow depth-of-field and when most or almost the whole picture is in focus, we say it has a deep depth-of-field.

Take a look at the 2 pictures below.

1.

2.

You can see that in picture 1, only the the stamen (the top part of the flower) is in focus. In other words, only that part is sharp while other parts are blurred. On the other hand, in picture 2 you can see that the bottom part together with the petals are clear while the stamen is blurred.

This is because for the first picture, I focused on the stamen while I focused on the base of the flower for the 2nd picture. So what can all this focusing on various placing do?

We can see that by just maintaining part of the picture in focus while the rest of it is blurred out, more focus is put in the subject. Viewers will be attracted more towards the subject of that photo. One good example of this use is for portrait photography. You might wonder what if you want the whole picture to be sharp and clear? That's possible too. This is common in landscape photography where you would want to keep everything nice and sharp but of course, rules are meant to be broken. There are times when you can just go creative and be different.

So what are the factors that affect how much of the picture will be in focus?

1. Aperture
2. Lens focal length
3. Shooting distance

Aperture - Aperture is equivalent to the pupil in your eyes which controls how much light enters and hit the sensor. The smaller the aperture, the deeper the depth of field. For example, if the lens focal length and the shooting distance stay the same, the depth of field is much deeper at f/16 than at f/1.4. In simple terms, f/16 would keep everything nice and sharp while f/3.5 allows you to get the shallow depth-of-field bokeh effect. Bear in mind that at the smaller aperture (bigger number), less light will be coming in through the lens and this means a higher ISO or shutter speed will be required.

Lens focal length - The shorter the lens focal length, the deeper the depth of field. For example, comparing a 28mm lens with a 50mm lens at the same aperture and shooting distance, depth of field is deeper with the 28mm lens. This means that at a telephoto range such as 200mm, the subject can be very much isolated from the background while at 28mm, more of the image can be kept in focus.

Shooting distance - The greater the shooting distance, the deeper the depth of field. For example, if the subject is photographed from three and then from seven meters away, the zone of sharpness in the foreground and background is greater at seven meters. In other words, get closer to the subject to get a real shallow depth-of-field.

That should be all you need to know for now about depth-of-field. There are other more complicated things like calculating the depth-of-field and another thing called hyperfocal distance where it allows you to be real close to your subject with a wide open aperture and still achieve a deep depth-of-field keeping everything nice and sharp.

Till next time, thanks

Comments are welcome below.

© RFKW 2009
http://rfkw.blogspot.com
http://basics-of-photography.blogspot.com

TORTURA2

noreply@blogger.com (RFKW) — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 13:21:00 +0000

Located in Malacca for a limited time only, Tortura 2 is a place where medieval instruments of punishment are diplayed.

Click Read More for more info

TORTURA2 is one of a kind exhibition that brings to life methods of torture and punishment employed in the medieval era; and era so different from ours when people were punished for their opinions, race, religion, language, social status and gender in gruesome ways. In some ways, it even brings to light how fortunate we are to live in this day and age of freedom to exercise our speech, religion, language, social status and gender. It is a journey into the Dark Ages to witness the exploitation of mankind during the inquisition in medieval Europe.

TORTURA2 features pictures, diagrams and actual instruments of torture and punishment taken from different parts of Europe. It is devastating and inhuman, in its effect. It certainly cannot be called a punishment, but is merely and exercise in brutality and savagery, akin to crime often only allegedly committed by the offender.

Where has TORTURA2 been?

TORTURA2 has so far been shown in many historical and prestigious venues all over Europe, in Tokyo, in Argentina and Mexico. It made its debut in Malaysia in 2003 and is back for a second time. The exhibit has always raised the interest of millions of visitors and the press, not only for its great visual impact, but also for its clear message against the violation of human rights

Head down to the TORTURA 2 Exhibition at Bastion House (next to A'Famosa Fort), Jalan Kota, Melaka from 10am till 6pm on weekdays and 10am till 7pm on weekends and public holidays.

Event Duration : Fri, 13 Nov 2009 - Sun, 28 Feb 2010, 10am till 7pm
Location : Bastion House (next to A'Famosa Fort), Jalan Kota, Melaka
Event Description: TORTURA 2 is an exhibition that brings to life medieval methods of punishment prevalent during the European Inquisition, set in the historical city of Melaka.
Ticket Cost : Adult at RM10
Children ( 12 years and below) at RM5
Family (2 adults and 2 children) at RM28 (Parental guidance is advised for children)

Parental guidance is adviced for children.

For a glimpse with some cool pictures, check out - HERE

© RFKW 2009
http://rfkw.blogspot.com
http://basics-of-photography.blogspot.com

TORTURA2 Pictures

noreply@blogger.com (RFKW) — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 13:45:00 +0000

TORTURA2 is one of a kind exhibition that brings to life methods of torture and punishment employed in the medieval era; and era so different from ours when people were punished for their opinions, race, religion, language, social status and gender in gruesome ways. In some ways, it even brings to light how fortunate we are to live in this day and age of freedom to exercise our speech, religion, language, social status and gender. It is a journey into the Dark Ages to witness the exploitation of mankind during the inquisition in medieval Europe.

TORTURA2 features pictures, diagrams and actual instruments of torture and punishment taken from different parts of Europe. It is devastating and inhuman, in its effect. It certainly cannot be called a punishment, but is merely and exercise in brutality and savagery, akin to crime often only allegedly committed by the offender.

Where has TORTURA2 been?

TORTURA2 has so far been shown in many historical and prestigious venues all over Europe, in Tokyo, in Argentina and Mexico. It made its debut in Malaysia in 2003 and is back for a second time. The exhibit has always raised the interest of millions of visitors and the press, not only for its great visual impact, but also for its clear message against the violation of human rights

Head down to the TORTURA 2 Exhibition at Bastion House (next to A'Famosa Fort), Jalan Kota, Melaka from 10am till 6pm on weekdays and 10am till 7pm on weekends and public holidays.

Parental guidance is adviced for children

Click Read More for the pictures

ps. This post is specially dedicated to Emily Chan

As usual, click on the pictures to enlarge. You can see more details from the enlarged version.

Wheel of spikes

Chopping of head

Whipping

Whip with spikes

Chastity Belt

Chopping of fingers

Grilled or BBQ

Barrel with spikes

Stretching

Disembowelement aka removing of intestines

Removing of breasts

Hammering your head off

Room of execution

Comes with a basket

Interrogation chair with spikes

Picture explains everything including the weights

Is your chair comfortable now?

Nipples remover

Human saw

The victim is placed inside the bull and then is heated from below. The screams will make a moo moo sound.

Head crusher

Knee splitter

Heretic's Fork. Used to keep you looking upwards by placing it between your chin and chest.

Nail remover

Like to drink water?

All those above are just some of the amazing exhibits you can find there. I would seriously recommend you to make a trip there as there are just a lot and I mean really plenty of eye-opening things to see there.

For more info, check out their official website here.

Comments are welcome below.

© RFKW 2009
http://rfkw.blogspot.com
http://basics-of-photography.blogspot.com

Travelogue of 2009

noreply@blogger.com (RFKW) — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 12:21:00 +0000

This is my entry for Revven photoblog competition.

Equipment used - Panasonic DMC-LZ2

[click on the pics to enlarge]

How did my 2009 go? Well, lots of things happened, lots of ups and down, lots of work and lots of pictures.
Starting in January, my family and I made a trip to Ipoh.

Neither did we know the car died on the way due to a leak somewhere.

We also visited Malacca somewhere in the middle of the year to try out the new “Menara Taming Sari”

Finally the sign of the year coming to an end, which is Christmas.

Merry Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (RFKW) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 18:39:00 +0000

MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR to all my dear readers!

Enjoy some Christmas decoration pictures from Grand Dorsett. (formerly known as Sheraton Hotel Subang)

Click Read More for more!

[Click on the pics for bigger view]

Comments are welcome below!

© RFKW 2009
http://rfkw.blogspot.com
http://basics-of-photography.blogspot.com

HDR

noreply@blogger.com (RFKW) — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 09:02:00 +0000

Brief update with some HDR shots. High dynamic range imaging (HDRI or just HDR) is a set of techniques that allow a greater dynamic range of luminances between the lightest and darkest areas of an image than standard digital imaging techniques or photographic methods. This wider dynamic range allows HDR images to more accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes, ranging from direct sunlight to faint starlight. High dynamic range (HDR) images enable photographers to record a greater range of tonal detail than a given camera could capture in a single photo.

This opens up a whole new set of lighting possibilities which one might have previously avoided—for purely technical reasons. The two main sources of HDR imagery are computer renderings and merging of multiple photographs, which in turn are known as low dynamic range (LDR) or standard dynamic range (SDR) images. Tone mapping techniques, which reduce overall contrast to facilitate display of HDR images on devices with lower dynamic range, can be applied to produce images with preserved or exaggerated local contrast for artistic effect. For this batch of photos, I merged 3 shots together in order to get a higher dynamic range in the photos.

Click Read more for the pics!

[Click on the pics for bigger view]

Lamp post with the electric cables are quite a distraction!

The new 80 metres high Menara Taming Sari in Malacca (Melaka). You are allowed to sit in the cabin which will then bring you up to a height of 80 metres while rotating along its axis. For the duration of 7 minutes, you get to enjoy the spectacular view of Malacca.

Superb!

Comments are welcome below.
--

© RFKW 2009
http://rfkw.blogspot.com
http://basics-of-photography.blogspot.com

Grace USJ VBS 2009

noreply@blogger.com (RFKW) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 11:02:00 +0000

Thumbs up to another round of successful VBS in 2009. This year's vbs only lasted for 3 days and we brought the children out for a fun yet educational trip to Petrosains which is located in KLCC.

Much thanks to Janet Choo and Rose who organized everything and make sure everything ran smoothly. Credits to Jan Leow also for helping in photos, videos and also his videocam. Not forgetting all the crew leaders, station leaders, helpers, worship team and everyone else who helped make this event a success. Without much further ado, some photos and videos are now available after the jump.

Pls take note that these are not all the pictures. These are only the selected few and are of low quality. The original quality which is more suitable for print are available to be downloaded from the church PC.

Day 2 Pictures - HERE

Day 3 (Petrosains) Pictures - HERE

Videos are all in this playlist. Dont forget, if you would like a higher quality at an expense of speed, you can always click the HQ or HD button at the bottom right corner of the video.

If you wanna view it bigger, go HERE!

© RFKW 2009
http://rfkw.blogspot.com
http://basics-of-photography.blogspot.com

Leo Photoblog Results

noreply@blogger.com (RFKW) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:00:00 +0000

Leo club of Sri Kuala Lumpur photoblog competition results are finally out. After a gruesome wait of close to 2 months, I finally got the results. The theme of the competition is environmental awareness.

The results are :-

First prize goes to me and you can see the winning entry here.

Second prize goes to Chiew Hui Xin of 4 Theta. Winning entry here.

Last but not least, third prize goes to Chua Yung Ju of 2 Alpha. Winning entry here.

Pls have a look and thanks for your support! :D

© RFKW 2009
http://rfkw.blogspot.com
http://basics-of-photography.blogspot.com

Macro Monopoly

noreply@blogger.com (RFKW) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:20:00 +0000

It's time again for another round of photography basics. School has finally ended today after an awesome report card day. As the final exams ended about 2 weeks before school ended, the last week of exam was really boring. Our school did not let us play playing cards either. Thus we were left with nothing else to do other than to play board games. I also brought my camera as Sri KL's annual swimming gala was also held on that same day. I also learned a few basic photography skills required to take some nice shots.

The following are the pictures taken as my friends were playing monopoly in class.

Technical details :-
Panasonic DMC-LZ2
Lumix DC Vario Mega-OIS 37-222mm (35mm eq) f/ 2.8-4.5
ISO 200
Manual WB
-2/3 EV
Handheld
ACDSee Pro 2.5
Adobe Lightroom 2.5
Adobe Photoshop CS4

Click Read more for more!

[Click on the pics for bigger view]

Black and white with high contrast.

Sailing boat.

Good old times.

Warm contrast

Sepia desaturate

Blue and green colours only. Others desaturated.

Racecar

RM500!!

Rizki's cash.

Green tint

Classic!

Value pack!

Central market.

Rizki's phone.

Totally worned out.

Motion blur

Motion blur again

LOMO!

Cold frozen ice

That's all for this time.
Feel free to comment below.

© RFKW 2009
http://rfkw.blogspot.com
http://basics-of-photography.blogspot.com