An Attempt on Food Photography

As a shutterbug, my interests are in landscape and portrait. Food photography is an area I am weak in. To be fair, my gears aren’t so great for this type of shooting – no macro lens, no image stabilization (IS). Anyway, having come across so many mouth-watering food photos on the Web, I decided to give it a try…

The first three pictures below were shot next to the window of a restaurant. Due to the ample sunlight, I managed to take these pictures without firing the flash:

The next picture was shot away from the window, and flash was fired:

How do I rate my own photos? 5 out of 10. I need to try harder, maybe getting a lens with IS.

All shots were taken at Fun Taipei Café （趣台北）in SS2, Petaling Jaya…

Playing with Focus

Teddy & Renee

One oft-used technique in portrait photography is to focus on the subject(s), but make the background out-of-focus. By ‘blurring’ the background, we make sure that the viewers will fix their eyes on the subject(s).

However, in shooting the picture shown above, I purposely did the reverse – focus and the soft toy and make the pretty model out-of-focus. But you probably need to enlarge the picture to see the difference. Ideally, I would like the model to be more blurry, but there were limitations to my gears.

Photography is about creativity. All rules can be broken…

A Lesson on Catchlight

I am still learning photography, and I regularly make mistakes…

Here is a picture I shot during a photo session. The exposure is right, and the model is photogenic. Nonetheless, I am far from satisfied. Why?

Now, let’s zoom in to model’s eyes. There is one major flaw: No catchlight!

Now, let’s look at another picture. In this one, you can see the catchlight in the model’s eyes.

Catchlight makes a subject look livelier. There are several ways we can create catchlight in the eyes. We can, for example, get the subject to face the sun or light, but this is not always possible. Alternatively, we can fire the flash into the eyes; one possible downside of this approach is that it may render the picture with less 3D-feel. Finally, we can use some white surface to reflect sunlight into the eyes of the subject, but this technique is somewhat cumbersome.

In my earlier post, I mentioned that many photographers dislike flash. But you see, flash can create catchlight in the eyes. It’s not so bad after all.

A Lesson on Flash Photography

Many photographers avoid using flash when they shoot portrait. According to them, portraits taken with flash fired “don’t look natural”. But I am surprised that even some snap shooters have learned to distrust camera flash. Perhaps somebody had told them that flashed photos are bad, so they also turn off the flash when taking pictures, without knowing the tricks.

Last August, I attended graduation ceremony after I completed my MBA study. After the ceremony, my classmates and I took some group shots. For once, I wasn’t the photographer, but one of the subjects. A few days later, my classmates e-mailed the photos to me. I was disappointed, as most of the pictures didn’t turn out good…

The following is one bad shot. The picture is blurred due to handshaking problem. A check on the EXIF data reveals that “flash did not fire”. That’s exactly the cause. Had the flash been fired, we should have got a sharp picture. A flashed photo may be unnatural, but it is still better than a blurred one, right?

(click to enlarge)

Now, you may ask me why a flashed photo is sharper than a flash-less one. The explanation is somewhat technical, and is not within the scope of this post. Just remember: flash helps to counter handshaking problem, thereby giving you a sharper picture. (Well, assuming that you don’t suffer from Parkinson syndrome.)

Here is another flash-less shot. This picture was taken with Canon EOS 550D, supposedly more advanced than my own camera. Furthermore, the lens had Image Stabilization, which helped to counter handshaking. Hence, unlike the first shot, this one is sharp. Nonetheless, I am still not satisfied, because the skin tones of the people look yellowish. (Remember that Asian women generally love fair skin?) Again, had the flash been fired, we would have got more accurate, or more appealing, skin tone.

(click to enlarge)

As a conclusion, don’t be misled into thinking that flashed portrait must be bad. If you haven’t learned the basics of photography, I suggest that you switch to auto mode and let the camera decide for you.

A Lesson on Canon Picture Styles

Blogger Witch recently posted photos of her trip – with hubby Saucer – to Australia. In one instance, she posted two nearly identical shots of Lake Mulwawa – one taken with her Lumix LX3 pocket camera, and the other one taken with Saucer’s Canon DSLR 500D. Witch asked, “Which is nicer?” Apparently she was hinting that the Lumix shot was better, which I agree.

But this is not to say that the Canon 500D is inherently inferior to the cheaper Lumix. Canon DSLR, by default settings, tend to have lower color saturation. This is great for portrait, not so great for landscape. (Nikon DSLR, on the other hand, usually have higher color saturation.) There are workarounds, such as editing the pictures with Photoshop. There is a simpler way though, that is, by applying appropriate Picture Styles.

Newer Canon DSLR has a couple of built-in Picture Styles, such as Standard, Portrait and Landscape. There are additional Picture Styles which can be downloaded from Canon’s official site or third-party sites. Here, I will demonstrate the use of Picture Styles to alter a picture.

This is a picture taken in Bukit Tinggi (Berjaya Hills). Picture Style is set to Standard:

Standard Picture Style

Next, I change the Picture Style to Landscape. Landscape Picture Style increases the saturation of blue and green. Note how the color of the sky has changed:

Landscape Picture Style

Next, I change the Picture Style to RDP III. This is a Picture Style which tries to mimic the film of the same name. It was created by an unknown photographer, who generously shares it:

RDP III Picture Style

Now back to the picture taken by Witch (or Saucer) using the Canon 500D. I believe Landscape or RDP III Picture Style should yield better results…

Note: Nikon has something similar called Picture Control.

Photography – Men vs. Women

攝影 – 男vs.女

香港U Magazine訪問了女攝影師，fillens.net的Jenny。Jenny在訪談中提到男生和女生玩攝影之大不同。以下是摘要：

如果你有留意，男生攝影，會把作品放上Forum，請大家評價、評分。女生較少這樣做，通常只會放上Facebook或者Blog。女生們要的不是技術上的意見或器材情報，而是一個分享的空間。。。

[男人]只會荼毒奶買好貴好貴的器材，傾向用某幾種牌子同着重技術。女生玩攝影，不一定需要這些，較着重感覺甚至留意一些微小無如相機帶、袋等。。。

（fillens.net之Jenny）

Jenny也認為女性所喜愛的題材包括了寵物、BB（嬰孩）、食物，花和自己的影子。

你贊同Jenny的看法嗎？

= = =

Hong Kong’s U Magazine interviewed Jenny, lady photographer of fillens.net. Jenny mentioned about differences between male and female shutterbugs. Here is the excerpt of the interview:

If you pay attention, you will notice that male photographers often upload their works to forum, and invite friends to comment and rate. Female photographers hardly do that. Instead, they prefer to upload their photos to Facebook or blogs. Females do not want opinions regarding techniques or news of gears. What they want is a space for sharing…

Men like to persuade you into buying gears which are very, very expensive. They are inclined to use several brands of gears, and emphasize techniques. Females do not necessarily need these. Instead, they are more into feelings, even pay attention to such little things like camera straps and bags…

(Jenny of fillens.net)

Jenny also believed that themes favored by ladies include pets, baby, food, flower and their own shadow.

Do you agree with Jenny?

What Makes a Good Picture?

Blogger Mei Teng asked this question in her post:

What makes a great picture?

At first I wanted to drop comment. Then I decided to give my opinion in a separate post. But I will re-phrase the question to:

What makes a good picture?

It really depend what types of pictures we are referring to, and which level.

On basic level, landscape and portrait photography is about exposure and composition.

Documentary-type pictures, such as those you see in National Geographic, must be able to convey message. Exposure and composition, though still important, take back seat.

For portrait photography, at a higher level, aesthetic becomes important. How the subjects pose, how they dress – all these will make a break a picture.

Theme is another factor to consider. Here, there are portrait shooting events held from time to time whereby we invite beautiful models to pose for us. Some photographers will sign up if they like – read: are attracted to – the models. But for me, more important than the models is the theme.

Take, for example, the event I joined in April. The theme was: The Violinist. No doubt, the model is pretty, but my shots would be more boring without that piece of music instrument. (Click here to see more photos.)

Of course, these are my views as a lousy photographer. As my skills improve, I may have different ideas.

2-in-1 Beauty

2合1美人

source

I would like to call you attention to the websites of a beautiful Chinese lady. Her name is Jolie Luo （罗曉韻）. And here are the URL of her sites:

http://www.jolie.cn

http://jolie1118.yupoo.com

To quote a word I learned from the Web, Jolie likes to ‘camwhore’. On her webpages, you would see lots of pictures of this pretty woman. Given her good look and good expression, she makes a great model.

However, Jolie is different from other online exhibitionists in one important way: She took all the portraits herself. In other words, she is the model cum photographer.

Jolie lives in Chongqing, China. She picked up photography from her father since she was young. How does she take her own portraits? Sometimes she uses self-timer and/or remote control of the camera. Sometimes she asks her friends to press the shutter button. When she travels, she may ask strangers for help.

Jolie has also published a book. It is well-written. I recommend it all every woman who wants to do self-portrait – provided that you read Chinese.

Jolie’s book:

美女攝影師愛自拍

Panasonic Lumix FH3

Prologue:

East Malaysians must be heavy meat eaters…

I ordered a bowl of wantan noodle （云吞面/馄饨面）in Kota Kinabalu recently. It came with eight pieces of meaty wantan, and no veggie. I swallowed six pieces of the wantan, then gave up.

This picture shown above was taken with my new Panasonic Lumix FH3 camera. I was on a business trip to Kota Kinabalu, and had my notebook computer with me. Bringing along my DSLR was not an option. Hence, I decided to purchase a pocket cam two days before my departure.

Highlights of the Lumix FH3 include, among others, 14 megapixels, 5x optical zoom, 28mm wide, Mega O.I.S. (optical image stabilizer), Intelligent Auto Mode, and 2.7” LCD. This is not the best from Panasonic, but at a price of RM699, I have no complaint. After all, the DSLR will still be my main camera.

Having used to DSLR, I find the image quality of the Lumix leaves something to be desired. The so-called Intelligent Auto Mode is also not as intelligent as I wish. But mediocre photo is still better than no photo, right?

Canon’s Misstep?

Canon has appointed Jackie Chan as it’s spokesperson for China. It even released EOS 550D Jackie Chan Eye of Dragon special edition…

Somehow, the movie star is hugely unpopular in his native Hong Kong ever since he made the Chinese-should-be-controlled remark. Photographers of Hong Kong have created a group on Facebook, asking Canon to remove Jackie Chan as its spokesperson…

Facebook group to remove Jackie Chan as the spokesperson for Canon

And they expressed their disgust over the new camera in a forum…

(link)

Translation:

I will consider if it’s Chow Yun Fat edition… Jackie Chan edition… [laugh]

xxxx!!! [angry] Project a bad image for Canon

Make us vomit [vomit]

For a moment I had the intention to jump ship [vomit vomit]

It looks like Canon’s move has backfired, at least in Hong Kong.

I am not anti-Jackie Chan, but the special edition is definitely not my cup of tea. Even if one is given to me as a free gift, I will cover the Chinese character with a sticker, and replace the strap

Japanese Movie – Heavenly Forest

I was watching Japanese movie – Heavenly Forest (ただ、君を愛してる) over the weekend. This is a story which revolves around photography. Probably because I was a shutterbug, I immediately found the theme interesting.

Plot:

University student Makoto liked to take pictures. His classmate Shizuru learned photography from him. Shizuru loved Makoto, but the guy was attracted to another girl.

One day, Shizuru told Makoto that she wanted to participate in a photo contest. The picture she wanted to shoot for the contest would center around the theme ‘kiss’. The following day, Shizuru set up her tripod by a lake, and connected a remote control cable to her camera. The two young people kissed passionately. At that moment Makoto realized that he loved Shizuru.

But Shizuru soon disappeared…

Heavenly Forest is actually a remake of Collage of Our Life (恋愛寫眞). Now I am searching for the DVD of the latter.

It is worth noting that Heavenly Forest was released in 2006, but the lead characters in the movie used film cameras. I gather that developing film in dark room is more romantic than tweaking pictures with Photoshop.

PC Fair, Booth Babes & Others

Sex sells. In conjunction to the PC Fair held in Kuala Lumpur on April 16-18, many exhibitors hired young girls to promote their products. Call them expo girls, booth babes or whatever, these pretty promoters had made the PC Fair more than just about technology.

Sony showing 3D technology in the PC Fair

Three promoters for Kaspersky Lab

A rechargeable battery dealer had gone one step further in exploiting the sexual appeal of young promoters. Not only it had hired three pretty girls to attract customers, but it also organized a photo contest. Anyone who purchased any item from its booth was entitled to photograph the girls and participate in the contest. The dealer has listed down the rules of the contest as follow:

1. To enroll for the Grand Prize – buy any item from our booth

2. Take photos of our models posing with our E8GE products!

3. Log on to facebook.com/e8gefb

4. Upload your best photo of our models by 11:59pm 30 April 2010

5. Get your friends to “like” your photo until 11:59pm 9 May 2010

6. The top 62 photos with the highest number of “likes” win!

Now, if a photographer asks his friends to ‘like’ his photo, he is indirectly doing a marketing job for the products. (I’m assuming all participants are males.) What a brilliant idea! Unfortunately, I had less than 50 friends on Facebook. There was no way I could win the grand prize (a total of 2, with the remaining consolations).

One of the models for this contest was Rhea Lim, whom I photographed last year. I was surprised that she still recognized me. I bought four rechargeable batteries and a charger from the booth, but was nonetheless not interested in joining the contest.

This photo contest reminds me of another online contest held several years ago – The New Seven Wonders of the World. Even when the competition was going on, I already could predict the final results. China had the largest number of Internet users in the world, and they were fiercely patriotic. They were called to support their own national treasure, and anyone who failed to do that would be condemned as traitor. As expected, the Great Wall got the most votes in this meaningless competition.

From Telephoto to Wide-Angle

A couple of years ago, I bought my first DSLR. (It’s still my only one.) In the next two years, I added two lenses – EF 50mm and EF 85mm.

On my camera, 50mm and 85mm fall into the range of short telephoto, or long lens. One advantage of telephoto lenses is that they can ‘blur the background’ more easily. This can be useful when we shoot portraiture in a not-so-great setting.

Here is one picture shot at 85mm. By blurring the background, I make the viewers focus on the model rather than the pool or trees behind her…

85mm

Until third quarter of 2009, I photograph models using these two lenses exclusively. However, I eventually found my pictures to be rather boring. Hence, I decided to give wide-angle shots a try.

I bought a new lens in September 2009 – EF 17-40L. The following month, I took part in another model shooting event with my new gear. Here are two pictures taken then:

23mm

40mm

Models not withstanding, I prefer the picture shot at 23mm, as it covers more of the building in the background.

I started out as a telephoto lens lover. But over the years, I have learned to appreciate wide-angle lens. Of course, there are occasions when normal or telephoto lens is preferred. But with right settings, wide-angle shots can often bring out the best.

Two more examples:

40mm

17mm

Can’t Stop Buying

Amateur photographer Mei Teng made two major ‘investments’ recently – a tripod and an external flash unit. She wrote in her blog: No more buying of stuff.

I giggled when I read her statement. I told myself the same thing when I bought a Canon flash (580EX II) last year, but now I am feeling itchy again. Here are a few gears in my wish list:

Canon EF 35mm F2

35mm prime lens

A 35mm prime lens will be great for indoor portrait – without the need to fire the flash. While my existing lens can take decent indoor pictures with flash on, sometimes I just wish to turn off the flash to create certain effects.

I am eying a Canon EF 35mm F2, if I can get a used unit at reduced price.

Wide-angle lens

Wide-angle lens exaggerates perspective, and is best for shooting landscape and architecture. Canon’s EF-S 10-22mm is one of the best options for crop camera, but it is also quite pricey. More likely I will consider third-party lenses, such as those from Tokina.

But there is another possibility. Get a Canon 5D mark II camera, and my standard zoom lens will suddenly become wide-angle! There is no need to buy a separate lens for wide-angle shots. (OK, I know your heads are spinning now, baffled by all those photographic jargons.)

Carbon fiber tripod

Light weight tripod

Tripod is essential for taking night photos. I plan to get a light weight tripod before I go to Hong Kong. The one I am using now is too heavy for travel.

Fortunately, my next travel destination is likely to be Java. I am in no hurry to get a new tripod.

Pocket Camera

I hardly bring my DSLR and lenses when I leave home. They are too heavy. A pocket camera would be useful for day-to-day snapshot.

OK, so many things in my mind. But ‘wants’ are not ‘needs’. I must control my desire…

What are in your travel bags?

In my last trip to Thailand, I brought two bags – a big backpack and a smaller one. After checking into guesthouse, I left the big bag inside my room, and went out with the smaller bag.

What were in my small bag? Water bottle, travel guide books, and photo gears which included the DSLR plus lens and an external flash. Sometimes I also brought a jacket in it. In the next couple of days, I was weighed down by the things I carried…

Last year, my external flash, Canon 420EX started to act up. I purchase another flash – 580 EX II. The new flash is stronger, but also bigger and heavier. When I carried my gears to Jonker Street, Melaka, last January, my shoulders ached…

How should I reduce my load when I travel in future? Perhaps I can leave the 580EX II in hotel/guesthouse during the day, and instead rely on the camera’s built-in flash. Of course external flash is still preferred at night.

My bag, the Crumpler Sinking Barge, has think padding to protect the camera. Unfortunately, such padding adds to the weight, and the capacity of the bag is somewhat smaller than one might expect.

In the last few years, more and more people have owned DSLR. But seriously, if you are not concerned with image quality, and don’t bother to learn ISO, aperture, shutter speed, you probably should stick to pocket camera. It’s no fun walking around with gears weighing 1 kg.

So, what are in your travel bags?

My travel bag

Some Photography Books

I bought three photography books in December alone. (Burning cash again ) All the books were bought in Kinokuniya Bookstore in KLCC. And all three were written by Taiwanese photographers – in Chinese of course.

Why Chinese books? Aren’t there plenty of books written in English?

Price is the major factor. (Now that’s the sad part.) All the three books I bought cost around RM50 each. A similar book written by a Western photographer easily doubles the price. As I strive to cut spending, my options are limited.

Anyway, all three books are well-written. And, as far as portraiture is concerned, I still prefer Asian style to Western one. Western photographers often draw their inspiration from Renaissance paintings. They may, for example, photograph a subject with half her face dark and the other half bright. Such portraiture tends to be very artistic. Another example is photographing a nude model – but only showing her backside. You can’t see her face. This is no pornography, but artistic nude! WTH, I studied science as a high school student. I haven’t learned to appreciate art.

By comparison, Asian style portraiture tends to be more casual, or pretend to be casual. (Don’t get it?) The kawaii poses, pioneered by the Japanese and copied by Taiwanese, are more pleasing than the Mona Lisa pose.

Hey, our London-based blogger and world-trotter Kikey Loo loves kawaii pose too

The three books I bought were:

曝光X構圖：拍出自我風格

(Exposure control & framing: Shoot with your own style)

Author: 若揚其

如何擺出好pose：美少女外拍動作圖解

(How to strike a nice pose: Pictorial guide to posing for pretty girls)

Author: 黑麵

一機一鏡走天下：DSLR出國這樣拍就對了

(Traveling with one camera and one lens)

Author: Stan Chang

My Boring Landscape Photos

In the last one year, I joined a number of ‘model photography’ class. I have posted many pictures of the beautiful models to my blog. Some of the female readers must be cursing me already. So I decided to try something else – landscape and cityscape.

I have, for example, photograph KLCC night view and a few deserted towns. I have also taken this picture in an oil palm plantation (the trees had been cut down)…

Somehow, my landscape / cityscape photos are never as exciting as my model photos. They are also no match to those taken by French/Canadian blogger Zhu. I think there are a few reasons which explain why my landscape and cityscape pictures are so dull.

First and foremost, I am inexperienced in this kind of photography. I am pretty busy and hardly travel to scenic places. By comparison, shooting pretty models can be done in half a day over the weekend.

Secondly, there aren’t many interesting places around here. Plus, there are no four seasons in this country, so I can’t photograph autumn foliage or winter snow. In essence, lack of interesting themes also explains why I seldom shoot landscape photos.

And finally, my gears could be a limiting factor. Landscape photos are often best taken with ultra-wide angle lens, which I do not yet own. The picture of oil palm plantation shown above was shot at 17mm. I wish I had shot it at 15mm – that would qualify as ultra-wide. Alas, 2mm makes a lot of difference.

I can’t afford an ultra wide angle lens for at least another year, as I am saving money to replace my 5-year old laptop and to buy a GPS device. For now, I think I will go back to shoot models.

KLCC in the Evening

KLCC, the premier shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur, and Petronas Twin Towers, the tallest building in the country, are two popular subjects of photographers. Every time I go to there, I see many shutterbugs.

Recently, I learned of a technique, from book, for taking ‘night view’ photos, and decided to put it into practice. Hence, I headed to KLCC. Here are a few of my photos…

At 6.50pm…

At 7.00pm…

At 7.06pm…

Strictly speaking, I am not very satisfied with these images. I had not brought along my tripod, and was handicapped by that. Perhaps I will have another try in the near future.

Photography Tips:

‘Night view’ photos are best taken when the sky is still bluish, preferably with twilight. Do not wait until it is completely dark. Timing is critical.

It is advisable to stabilize the camera using a tripod.

An Encounter with a Thai Model

As a shutterbug, I like to photograph sunset and beautiful models. Recently, a photographer organized a model shooting event by a beach. The theme was ‘Sunset Bikini’. Since the theme involved two of my favorite subjects, I happily signed up. According to the organizer, the model was Kat. I thought, “Kat must be short for Katherine.”

The photography session was scheduled to start at 5.00pm, but the organizer and the model failed to turn up on time. I was a bit impatient, as we didn’t have much time left before it got dark. At 5.30pm the organizer finally arrived with the model. But there was another lady who appeared to be the model’s mother. I was intrigued.

It turned out that Kat was actually Katoy, and she was a Thai. She had just flown in from Bangkok. It is said that Thai girls are very attached to their families, so it was no surprised that Katoy asked her mother to come along. According to the organizer, Katoy was stuck at the immigration. Apparently the officers suspected that she was a sex worker! It wasn’t until she proved her return flight that the officers let her go.

Wasting no time, five shutterbugs – myself included – took pictures of this sexy model from the Land of Smile. Sadly, I didn’t quite manage to capture the sunset. Anyway, I got a few OK shots. Here are two:

More photos on my Flickr set.

Link:
Katoy’s homepage

My Flickr Statistics

I uploaded some of my photos to Flickr. The Flickr ‘photostream’ shows the thumbnails of the pictures. Each picture has a counter, which is incremented when someone clicks on the thumbnail.

Here is a picture of a pretty model. I uploaded it to Flickr on Oct 19, 2009. As of Oct 22, this picture had 10 ‘views’ – meaning that its thumbnail had been clicked 10 times.

This is a picture of Malacca which I took during the last Mid-Autumn Festival. I uploaded it on Oct 9. As of Oct 22, it had been viewed just once.

Below is a picture of another model. It was uploaded on Oct 4. As of Oct 22, it got 28 views.

And here is a picture I took from inside a plane. It was uploaded way back on Aug 31. It got only 4 views as of Oct 22.

What can the statistics tell us? Perhaps we can conclude that visitors to my Flickr page are more interested in the pictures of pretty women. What say you?

Link: My Flickr page