Walking Tall - My new shoe!

As time passes by, things get older and older. This is the same theory applied to my formal shoes, after serving me for more than 3 years, it time has come. I still like that shoe, but I got no choice. I have to buy a new pair of shoe, else I'll be wearing a spoiled shoes to work.

In the same time, Andrew Chow, a friend of mine introduces me this brand, Walking Tall. Not just a normal leather shoes, but a "high-heal" leather shoes for men!! Without any doubt, I told myself:"I must try this one!"

So I went to their shop at Raffles Place, you can find their details in their FACEBOOK page.

I bought a black one with the shoe lace, and of course it comes along with an additional 1.5 inches height for me! Fantastic, now I'm taller with my new shoes!

Before I wear it to work, I spend a weekend to shoot my new shoe. Here are the photos I got for them. Enjoy!

A side view of my new shoe. Three exposures in this shoe, can you see it?

45 Degree 

A close-up front view. Looks tall, doesn't it?

Mixing up, and bokeh-ing the back one.

Another close up from front, but this time, I shoot both shoes. I love the shoe lace!

One more close up, bokeh-ing the shoe tips, and focused on the shoe lace. Hmm.. Looks like I like to place the object on the right....have to avoid this next time.

And finally, my favorite photo among all above. I just love this photo! On the other hand, although this is a "High-heal" for men, I still feel it is comfortable to wear.

Now, I'm taller and more confidence than before.

Special thanks to Andrew Chow and Walking Tall.

Cheers,
Lu Ting Jieh

Gatsby - Style as you like~

Rain, rain, rain, come again and again, non-stop raining during this weekend. Ended up I hide myself in my room and take a couple of products shooting.

This post I would like to share a few photos that I took with my roommate's Gastby. XD

Actually I spent two days to shoot these two photos. On the Saturday, I shot the Gatsby's Super Hard Styling Foam (silver colour) and I shoot the Gatsby's Long Keep Wax Spray (black colour) on Sunday.

Gatsby - Super Hard Styling Foam

Gatsby - Long Keep Wax Spray

Regarding to the Super Hard Styling Foam, it is in silver colour, cylindrical shape and very reflective. Not an easy task for me. I used two light sources, left and right each. In between, I used a white cardboard reflector to cover the darker spot on each side. 

Regarding to the Wax Spray, although it is darker in colour, but it is also very reflective. For this object, I change the direction of the source light; I use only single light on top of the object, and three white cardboard reflector. Two reflectors on the left and one on the right.

Spent two days for two photos, that is kinda lame. I got no choice, I'm still in the learning progress. In the same time, I tried to do some editing on the photo. Nothing much, just adding some font on it. Hope you guys like it.

Shot all these photos with my D90 and 50mm f1.8. Attached with an CPL filter. Mounted on tripod, settings around ISO 100, F11 at shutter speed 1/10.

Feel free to give any comments or critics.

Cheers,
Lu Ting Jieh

Vodka Series

Is been some time I didn't touch my blog, busy for a Convocation Photoshoot, my current job and of course my long wait Mini Studio! RAWR!!! Now I'm back with my mini studio!!

Although it is not fully equip yet, but is good enough to start some small product shooting. Slowly I'll add in more things in future. Here is a photo of all the things that I used to make my own lamp. Yeap, that it is! A light bulb with a aluminium

In this post, I will show you my shots for a bottle of Vodka. Basically this is my setup as shown below. Object in the middle, and two lights at the side. As you can see, the light is diffused with the cotton made oil filter. I kinda like this diffuser, it perform his job by diffusing light, it can hold high temperature and of course it is cheap, $1.50 for a pack, it comes with two pieces in it.

Here, you can see the white backdrop. It is actually a wooden stick on two "stand" that is normally used to hang clothes. Instead of hanging cloths on the stick, I clipped my mahjong paper on it. I used 3 pieces to make sure it looks solid enough. Else you will be able to see through it when the lights are on.

I have my camera mounted on a tripod and a 50mm f1.8 on it. I shoot at ISO 100, Aperture at f11 and shutter speed around 1/30. To make sure the lights does not affect the shoot, I took a pre-shot without any lighting except the natural lights. If the picture is absolutely black in colour, I assume it as the natural light does not affect my photo. Regarding to the white balance, it is pre-adjust before the shoot, with the lights on.

In between the shooting progress, I used two different colour of card board, which is black and white as reflector. Black reflector for white background and white reflector for black background. Here are the results.

For this photo, the black background is not dark enough, that is why it turns a bit brownish. In the future, I will need a 100% black backdrop and a 100% dark room to make a black background shoot.

White background and white object, give a very clean and simple feeling. I feel that it has a classier look than other colour combination. There is a mistake I did in this photo, too dark on the bottle cap and the old man logo. And the reflection is not that nice. I need a better reflective card in the future. The wordings, I just copy from the web. Woops....

Adjust to a much cooler temperature white balance gives a very icy feeling. I spray some water on it. So it looks icy cold. As it just came out from the fridge.

Placing the object in the center of the frame, create a stronger impact towards the object. It leads the viewer's sight directly to the object then only to the text around it. Meanwhile, there are actually two exposures in this shot. One is the bottle, and the other one is the bottle cap. Then I merge them in post processing.

Thinking out of the box, I copy five bottles of Vodka into one single frame instead of only one bottle of Vodka. Then I fill in different colour for each of them. This give you a total different feelings than the previous photos. I feel a bit old school in this photo. You can go to my flickr for a larger view.

I hope you guys like these photos. If you have any suggestion or comments, feel free to post it here. C & C are all welcome. Your feedback is most welcome.

Cheers,
Lu Ting Jieh

Chili oh chili~

Last week, I bought myself some Mee Goreng for dinner in the Ramadan Night Market. One thing I felt weird for that, they gave me four raw green chili to eat along with the Mee Goreng. Hmm... I'm not sure how am I going to eat that, and I don't really like to eat chili. So I keep it for my next photography practice.

This post, I will be sharing the photos I took with the free chili that I got them from Ramadan. I shoot these photos around 12-1pm on the weekend. Strong sunlight shining down directly from the sky. Without any question, I used my Mahjong paper as a diffuser, making the sunlight softer before it hits on my object.

Grabbing my D90 with my 50mm f1.8 lens on it. I took a shoot directly above my set. No reflector, flash and tripod involved for all the shoots. After a couple of test shot, I decided to add some props and a cut on of the chili with a knife, splitting it into half. Then I have the smallest size chili cut into small pieces. This makes the photo more interesting than before.

With my 50mm f1.8, I can't do much with it. So I added in my macro extension tube, trying to get some close up photos of the chili. With the macro extension tube, things became more fun. I took a few shoots hand held and that is it. End of today shooting. The weather is so hot, that I can't stand to make any more shoots.

One thing I realized through this shooting, actually this macro extension tube is not that bad. It may not be as sharp as the macro lens. But it still allows you to get pretty close to the object. With proper lighting control, I believe it can get some sharp photo as well. I will try to shoot with the macro extension tube along with artificial lighting setup. Hope fully I can get some good macro photos.

Although the chili looks a little bit OLD, this is because I didn't keep it in the fridge. But do leave a comment on the photos if you feel so. C and C are all welcome.

Cheers,
Lu Ting Jieh

When Potatoes Meet a Cloudy Day~

Last Saturday, I woke up and saw the potatoes that I bought a week ago. I am supposed to use it for my second fake ice-cream shoot. Somehow I ate some of those and left only four mini size potatoes. This is not enough for me to make a few scoop of "Ice-cream". So I came out with an idea, why not I just shoot these potatoes?

With joy and excitement, I quickly setup my equipment. I have my old formal shirt, a spoon and a plate as the probs. A mahjong paper as a diffuser. With no doubt, the hero will be the potatoes. It is a hot and sunny day, I'm sweating like mad after I setup along with a couple of test shoot. But that is not going to stop me, I continue working on the potatoes in the kitchen.

When I'm half way done, the sky became cloudy suddenly. I felt so disappointed but I can't do anything with it. I have to remove the mahjong paper as it is too thick to be a diffuser under such condition and I do not have a good reflector to reflect the lights. So I shoot this series without any diffuser or reflector. I used only my D90 and my 50mm f1.8.

These are the photos I manage to capture for this series.

As you can see from this photo, I have my tweezers along to style a little bit of the meshed potatoes. And I had a small tiny piece of cheese on it. Just to make it looks better.

I play around with the depth of field. As you can see, I'm trying to bokeh away the foreground and let my hero become outstanding in this photo. Below is a photo that I shoot it with f8. The depth of field increased, everything on the "table" is sharp and only the background is being bokeh-ed. This give a different kind of feeling, more like tea time feeling.

Anyway, I still prefer the shoot with a lower depth of field. Here is another shot with a low depth of field.

After playing around with different angles and different way of placing the hero and probs. This is the photo that I love the most.

The rain started to rain around half an hour later. I packed my things, and get myself some rest.

After shooting everything, then only I realize the colour combination is not that good. The piece of cheese does not enhance much. I should have add some green around the hero. Perhaps some herbs.

Cloudy day give a natural softlight, sometimes you don't need a diffuser in a cloudy day. But you may need a huge reflector in order to clear the shadows. For my case, I need to DIY myself a larger reflector soon, A4 and A3 papers are not enough.

If you guys have any ideas to take good shots in a cloudy day, do share it out. C & C are all welcome.

Cheers,

Lu Ting Jieh