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

Second attempt for Fireworks shooting

There are many events in Singapore have fireworks, such as Chinese New Year, National day, New Year, Chingay etc etc. My very first experience in shooting  fireworks is during the Chinese New Year 2011. I've tried several shoots with my 18-55mm kit lens, but all the photos are over exposed or composed wrongly.

This time, I had a second chance for fireworks shooting which is the National day of Singapore. Actually, there are fireworks before the actual National Day. They will have fireworks rehearsal  every weekend for the pass few weeks. I don't know why I choose the actual day to shoot for the fireworks. It is so crowded and I can hardly find a spot to shoot. Luckily I came along with some friends, and they had pre-booked a slot opposite MBS.

We reached there around 4:30pm, hanging around for a few hours just for the fireworks which start at 8:15pm. Gosh, it is very tired to stand in a crowd for few hours but it is worth waiting for it. The fireworks are very nice, but to get a good photo of it, it all depends on your skills and experience.

With my current knowledge and equipment I have, it is still not good enough to produce a good fireworks photo. Here are some of my photos I took just now.

Camera: D90
Lens: Vivitar 24mm f2.8 (after 1.5 crop, around 36mm, I use this lens because I'm still in my own 35mm training. Getting myself to see things in 35mm)
Shutter Speed: 6 seconds & 4 seconds
Aperture: f11
ISO: 100

There are a lot of ideas like "how to shoot a fireworks" or many people will "TEACH" you how to shoot fireworks. Learning it theoretically is very different from producing a good result yourself. This is the second time I shoot for fireworks, with all the knowledge I've read online and applying advise from many people. I'm  not getting what I want and still not satisfying with the photos. I guess the best way to capture a good photo, is to get yourself hands on, experience it and learn from it.

Basically this is what I learn/hear from other people:

1) Get a good spot where you can frame the fireworks and some interesting foreground or background.
2) Set to f8-11, ISO 100, shutter speed at 10 secs (luckily I shoot at 6 seconds, people teach me to use bulb and shoot more than 10secs. I wonder how they do it.)
3) Cover your lens with a black/white card while the fireworks is shooting up and remove the card while the fireworks burst. (I don't have a black/white card, I used my cushion/divider of my camera bag)
4) Then repeat the steps until the fireworks end.

It sounds simple, but when I look at the results. I know I still got a long way to go. And there are much much more details that you have to take care of it during the shoot.
With this camera set up in such a crowded condition, it is very hard to compose what you want. The fireworks just blast out everywhere, the area it cover is so huge, that I'm definitely unable to capture everything in one frame with my lens. After today's experience, there are a few things that I must improve for the next fireworks shooting.

1) Go early, get a good spot for composition.
2) Get a wider lens (Gonna spend money again, aiks) or get a better spot where it suits your lens.
3) Shoot in a shorter shutter, perhaps 2 seconds or
4) Shoot in the 6-8 seconds but really make use of the black card. Some sort of capture first two seconds, then cover for 2 seconds, then open for another 2 seconds.
5) Get some food and drinks along. It is not a good feeling standing there for a few hours with not food/drinks.

If you have any suggestion or ideas, feel free to voice it out loud. I still need to learn from all of you.

Cheers,

Lu Ting Jieh

Ice-Cream Photography?

In my mind, I always wanted to make some photographs of Ice-creams. By just dreaming it, it is useless, action must take part in it ! If I do not take the first attempt, I will never learn how to shoot an Ice-cream. In this post, I will share some photos that I took during the weekend.

As a novice photographer, I need more time on styling and composing. If I use real Ice-cream, I will be wasting tons of money Ice-cream as it will melt very fast. I do not have confident to style it and shoot it in time.  In order reduce the cost, I replace with the "ice-cream" that will never melts: MESHED POTATOES! I learn this from reading books and articles online. 

It seems to be a almost perfect replacement. It will never melts, I can style it as a long as I want. although it is placed under the hot sun, it just wont melts. I can slowly compose and recompose anytime I want. There is only one thing to care about. The color will change after it exposed to the air for some time, but that is after an hour or more. 

Behind the scene, mixing up the meshed potatoes with color. We used 3 potatoes to make four scopes of "ice-creams". Total three colors, orange, yellow and green. One color each for the first three scoop, and a mixture of all three colors for the last scoop. TADA!! LIME, ORANGE & CORN flavor ice-cream!!!



Here comes the "ice-creams"!!! This is a test shot with only the camera and "ice-cream". To make it looks more real, chocolate topping were added.

All the photos were shoot outdoor. (Not a problem at all, as it wont melts)

Camera : D40x (I miss my very first DSLR~)
Lens:  Nikon kit lens, 18-105mm f3.5-5.6.
Others: Again, my favorite equipment, A4 papers as background and a piece of aluminium as a reflector. Last and not least, a very cute bowl for the "ice-creams".

Here are the final results of the "Ice-creams".

It does't look perfect but I'm quite happy with it as a first attempt. The progress if this experiment is very fun, and I've learn that, it is actually very good to shoot outdoor. Using the natural light, controlling it with reflector. In the future, I will add in diffuser for my shoot.

The largest problem I'm facing is how to style the "ice-cream" to make it more real. My crafting skills on the "ice-cream" is just not good enough. Second, the potatoes is just look too hard. Looks like I need to figure out how to make the potatoes melts in order to fake the faked ice-cream to look more real. Haihz.. complicated. I replaced the ice-cream with potatoes because it doesn't melts, in the same time, I want it to melt a little to looks real. Looks like, the best way is still shoot with a real ice-cream.

Before ending, I want to say thanks to my dear who is helping me all the way long and giving creative composition for the shots. Well actually some of the photos was taken by her!

Anyway, do leave a comments or suggestion. C & C are all welcome.

Thanks for reading.

Cheers,

Ting Jieh