The Basics of Photography

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

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 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.

Comments are welcome.

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

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

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

Xigmatek Red Scorpion S1283

noreply@blogger.com (RFKW) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 15:00:00 +0000

Recently bought a new CPU cooler from Xigmatek.

Read the full article + explanation HERE!!

Click Read More for the pics.

Click on the pics for bigger view!

The tools

The box

The contact surface of the heatsink

Mounting bracket

The fan

Old stock Intel cooler

It's almost touching my motherboard northbridge/southbridge cooler.

Had to take out my whole motherboard to mount it nicely. It's real HUGE!

The mounting bracket as seen from beneath the motherboard

It's that tall until now I cant close my CPU case already

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

Leo SriKL Photoblog

noreply@blogger.com (RFKW) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 16:46:00 +0000

Update : The results are out and my first entry have won the first prize with a CASH prize of RMXX. Thanks for your support.

This is my submission for Sri Kuala Lumpur Secondary School Leo Club Photoblog competition.

Click on the pics for bigger view!!

Entry 1

This pictures shows us how beautiful the sky of our dear Mother Earth can be during sunrise. Therefore we should not be polluting the air with acts such as open burning.

Entry 2

This picture here shows that we are very small compared to our planet. If you really look into the picture, u can see few human beings standing on the right side of the picture. This comparison shows that our planet Earth, though it might seem small and silent when we are polluting it, it can fight back with all its might anytime.

[All pictures taken using Panasonic DMC-LZ2 at Cameron Highlands and also along the North-South Highway]

Comments are welcome.

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

Panorama + HDR of Cameron Highlands

noreply@blogger.com (RFKW) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 10:53:00 +0000

These are the HDR (High Dynamic Range) and Panorama shots from my recent trip to Cameron Highlands with my family.
It was hard trying to take all the panorama and HDR pics handheld and as such peak seasons, there is a huge crowd wanting to take pictures at the exact same spot. Make things tough especially doing panorama and HDR as you need to be standing in the same constant spot.

Anyway, these are the shots which i manage to get and turned out quite spectacular.
This time, I've used gigapan to host my panorama shots. This lets u pan and zoom across the pictures in fullscreen too. However, I had to upscale the pictures to 50 Megapixels before Gigapan allows it.

Click Read More for the pics!

Click on the pics for bigger view!

HDR Pictures.
All HDR pictures edited using Photomatic Pro 3.0.

1. Equitorial Hotel and Resort

2. Lata Iskandar Waterfall 1

3. Lata Iskandar Waterfall 2 (Hand-held shot at 1/4s without any support!!)

Panorama shots. Stitched together using AutoPano Pro 1.4

Also, when taking the shots, I've included some humans there so that you'll be able to have an idea by comparison how massively huge is the plantation.

4. Equitorial Hotel

Now here comes the fun part. Enjoy the pictures in all its full glory with Gigapan Viewer!

5. Panoramic shot of the Boh Tea Plantation on the way up to the newly built platform. This shot was taken handheld without any tripod or support whatsoever.

View in Fullscreen!

6. Panoramic shot of the Boh Tea Plantation on the way up to the newly built platform.

View in Fullscreen!

7.Panoramic shot of the Boh Tea Plantation from the newly built platform. No tripod and it was crowded like mad.
This is how crowded it is at the cafeteria.

Look at the teeny tiny humans at 3/4 right side!! O.O

View in Fullscreen!

8. Panoramic shot of the Boh Tea Plantation on the way down from the newly built platform.

View in Fullscreen!

9.Panoramic shot of the Boh Tea Plantation from the parking lot.

View in Fullscreen!

10.Olden days road signs. Taken from the inside of "Time Tunnel - The Local Museum"

11.Some pics inside there.

That's all for this time.

Don't forget to check back soon! More awesome Cameron Highlands shots will be posted very very soon!
Comments are welcome below.

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

Merdeka Trip to Ipoh

noreply@blogger.com (RFKW) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 17:21:00 +0000

On the recent public holiday due to Malaysia Independence Day, I made a trip down to Ipoh with my family and I manage to capture some interesting shots.

Click Read More for the rest of the pics!

Click on the pics for bigger view!

This few sunrise shots were taken on the new flyover in front of Sri Kuala Lumpur Secondary School and Subang Jaya Medical Centre (SJMC) which is now renamed as Sime Darby Medical Centre.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

This old Honda Accord was loaned to use because our Kia Carnival broke down halfway on our journey due to the timing belt breaking halfway. The problem was already too serious by the time we reached the mechanic's workshop as the valves are already rendered useless. Thus, the car had to be left there for a few days. And so, we continued to embark on our journey with this old faithful Honda Accord. I must say that I was amazed by the amount of technological advances that can be found even in a car so old. Things like, indicators to show when to change tyres and oil and warning signs if the bonnet or door wasnt closed properly. There was even an indicator to show if the brake light was functioning or not. air-conditioning was superb too!
The car was a 5 speed manual, has "awesome" suspensions, noise proofing, cushions and others.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.This last shot was taken from a wide-angle mirror which was on one of the side mirrors. Edited to give the LOMO feel.

That's all for this round of photography basics where all the basics of photography are taught and learned at the same time.

Thanks. Pls comment below.

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

Carpenter Ants

noreply@blogger.com (RFKW) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 12:53:00 +0000

Yesterday, as I was doing something in the kitchen, I came across a bigger than usual ant. A quick search on google revealed that its known as the "Carpenter Ants"

Carpenter ants are large (�–1 in) ants indigenous to many parts of the world. They prefer dead, damp wood in which to build nests. Sometimes carpenter ants will hollow out sections of trees. The most likely species to be infesting a house in the United States is the Black carpenter ant, Camponotus pennsylvanicus. However, there are over a thousand other species in the genus Camponotus. Carpenter ants are found in homes. They are much bigger (1/4"-5/8"), darker in color, nests in the walls, floors and ceiling and can cause significant structural damage. People's first reaction often is "what are these BIG black ants in my home?" These are the carpenter ants. As these large, powerful ants expand their nest they can destroy the materials (structural wood, insulation, sheathing) that surround it. Thousands of dollars in damage can be caused by a single carpenter ant nest as it grows.

I then ran and grab my camera, and quickly switch to macro mode. The results I got contain many revealing details. Many things which are too small for the human eye to see normally can be seen.

The photography basics needed to achieve this kinda shots in layman's language would be to use your camera's Macro mode. Also, I used my own DIYed flash diffuser to prevent the flash from blowing out the details.

Click Read more for the pics.

Click on the pics for bigger view!!

Note: I have numbered my pictures so if you guys wanna comment on certain pictres, it is easier.

1. I actually found it between this wooden tray.

2. Here you can see that he's running quite fast. At 1/60th of a second, you still can see a bit of motion blur.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9. If you look really closely, you can see the fine hairs on its back

10.

11.

12.

13. The depth-of-field or bokeh as some might call it is so shallow that when its head is in focus, its back is out of focus!

14.

15.

16. You can even see cloth fibers on the floor. My house is in a desperate need to be cleaned....

17. This one you can see more dust.

18.

19. After some time snapping and blinding it with my flash, I saw a little small fry. Probably his little brother?

20. After spending so long shooting it, it suddenly ran into this dark place. The brown furry thing u see on the floor is actually dust and rust.

Of course in the duration of snapping, there were times where my camera failed me.

21. For example, this. The ant was running around and by the time my AF (autofocus) manage to lock on it, it has already ran to somewhere else. Another good reason to get a dslr + a good lens.

22. Same thing with this. I was trying to take a picture of it running towards my lens. But my camera it just physically unable to do it.

23. Another one. Focused on the wrong area.

That's all for this round of photography basics where all the basics of photography are taught and learned at the same time.

Thanks. Pls comment below.

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

The Young One

noreply@blogger.com (RFKW) — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 17:06:00 +0000

Today I'll be talking on how image editing or post-processing can give your pictures more punch or ooomph!

Click Read more for more!! [click on the pics for bigger view]

The image you see above is actually the edited image which was edited in Adobe Lightroom. The original one is below.

This picture was shot when I visited Malacca sometime back in 2007 when my camera was still functioning well. I set the ISO to the lowest setting available for my camera which is ISO-80. This gives better colours, more contrast and lesser digital noise and grain. It was in daylight, therefore the available light was enough to give a decent exposure with an average shutter speed of around 1/125th of a second.
The other setting I used was macro mode. I just set it to macro mode, put my camera about 5cm away, frame the shot, and then made sure that it is able to focus correctly.

As you can see, although the original picture straight out of the camera can be considered satisfactory, the depth-of-field of the original image is rather shallow for a digital compact camera, it is still rather distracting because of the small tiny sensor and of course the slower lens of a compact camera which makes it physically impossible to achieve a nice bokeh. So after reviewing the picture in the computer, I decided to give it a makeover.
Moving to the develop tab in Lightroom, I first reduced the noise level by a bit. Being at ISO-80, i didn't have to be very intrusive at this. I then used the adjustment brush, set the exposure to -2.40 and just painted around the image. Then i created a new adjustment brush with exposure increase by 0.10 and painted around the bud of the flower.

After that, I just added some simple saturation, contrast and clarity boost using the adjustment brush around the bud also.
Then under the HSL (Hue, Saturation, Luminance) menu, I adjusted the sliders there to achieve the kinda dark green effect that sets the mood right.
Lastly, I also added some vignetting to darken the corners a little bit.

Here's the before and after picture in Lightroom.

Comments are welcome below.
Thanks.

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

Leo 9th Annual Joint Installation

noreply@blogger.com (RFKW) — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 15:27:00 +0000

Leo 9th Annual Joint Installation pics.

I only manage to take pictures from the beginning until refreshments time. I had to go after that due to foreseen circumstances.

Anyway, this time the pictures are not very good. If you look at the basic photography rules, it was really dark in there. Also coupled with the fact that we cannot go right in front of the stage when the performances were going on. So i had to zoom right to the max. This causes the aperture to become small. The widest my camera can open at the tele range is f/4.5. Real small for a compact camera. Also, when it is real dark, there is no choice but to use high ISO. If not, it will result if slow shutter speeds which can lead to camera shake being visible in the images. As such, any photography basic book will tell you that taking pictures in high sensitivity will cause a lot of noise in the pictures. This problem is also aggravated by my camera which is already very old. The sensor has been working a lot and now its sensitivity to light is decreasing. Its quality has already degraded a lot with fungus also growing on the lens.

Problems aside, I got a chance to witness Canon's spanking new 5D Mark 2 in real life. It is a full frame camera which costs RM12,000 now. Real awesome but i didnt manage to shake his hand as he left early.

[Click Read More for the pics]

[Click on the pics for bigger view!!]

Ahh.....yes...before we begin, if anyone of you noticed, there's this signboard at the traffic light intersection near Summit USJ which uses a heavily edited pic of Sri KL's gym.

More of these panorama/super wide-angle shots right at the bottom!!!

Leo pledge

Sri KL ppl

Emcees

Name lists

YB Hannah Yeoh

Doing the Roll Call

Smokinnn

Outgoing president

And this. The proof that i saw a Canon 5D M2

Treasurers aka $$ ppl

Secretaries

Vice Presidents

Presidents

This guy has 10001 badges. I wonder how heavy is it.

Cheering for their presidents

Doing the wave

Group pic was a complete failure. (no offense but some "ppl" dunno how to use cameras)

Francis shocked by the food

Some decided to spend for alternative drinks

And these are all the wide angle shots i took.(Remember, click on the pics so u can see it BIG!)

And this last one, if you look carefully, there are 2 of the same person. Looks kinda wierd but I didnt have the time to edit it properly. So that's why you get 2 of a person.

Comments are welcome below.
Thanks

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

Dismantling a Camera

noreply@blogger.com (RFKW) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:57:00 +0000

I'm sure many of u own a camera. Whether it is a film-SLR, digital-SLR, digital compact camera, semi-pro camera, camera phone, spy-cam. Whatever it is, have u ever take a look inside your camera. Ever wondered how it works? Wondered what is inside? Wondered how all the photography basics can take place? Inside means really inside la, not just open the battery cover and peep inside.
Now i'm gonna show the process of me opening up my camera and also I'll be explaining various parts of my camera. For this, I'll be dismantling a CANON Snappy V. It is also known as Canon PRIMA JUNIOR HI 28mm camera in the Europe.

Semi-High quality pics are also included at 1280x960. Click on the pics for big n clear view.

and as usual, click read more if you want to read more la.

ok...lets start.

Ladies n gentleman......presenting to you......Canon Prima Junior High. This is the camera that I'll be using. This is the first camera that I used. A 28mm film camera.

The back view of the camera. Just incase u wanna see how it looks like from the outside.

Here u can see the various inside parts of the camera.
Red : Lens cover mechanism and also the contact points that will switch on the camera.
Orange : The PCB [printed circuit board]
Yellow : Common sense la....the lens
Green : Viewfinder
Blue : Xenon Flash

Hear u can see the shutter button, the self timer button, and also the film counter which shows how many shots have been taken in that particular roll of film.
Red: Shutter button
Green: Timer
Yellow: Film counter

The front naked part of the camera.

Close us view of the lens.

An electromagnet gadget to move the shutter. I'll talk more about the shutter later on.

This is the light sensor. More commonly known as LDR [Light Dependant Resistor]. Only can be found in certain older cameras.

This is the back part of the shutter.

Back part of it again. U see the 2 thin strands of wire? That connects to the main circuit board which supplies it with current. And also the spring? The spring is to bring the shutter back to its original position.

Another view of the shutter mechanisms. All screw have been removed. The screw that holds the shutter compartment together is tight like maddd!!!

Ahhh yess....finally open.

Here u can see the shutter leaf closed. See that hole there? There is a piece of plastic which pokes through the hole. This plastic will control the movement of the shutter leaf.

Now with the shutter open.

U can see here how thin is the shutter leaf. Very very thin.

Now here, u can see the small capacitors which will aid in powering the flash.

And this is the main capacitor which will keep the charge before the flash fires.

Closer view of the capacitor. This capasitor gives out 330V/150U at full power.

Here is the main circuit board. As u can see, it uses a "Goko" main chip. And on the right, u can see the pins that will detect what kind of film are u using, such as film speed.

This is the only motor in the camera which unwind and winds the film. As u can see, the motor is very slim to save space, although nowadays u can find thinner ones.

These gears at the bottom of the camera are interconnecting gears that connects from the right side of the camera to the left side of the camera to wind the film. This avoids the use of 2 motors which saves a lot of space and weight.

This is the back of the camera. This is where the film goes la, incase some moderm ppl have never seen a film camera in their whole life.

The wire and boards got all messed up and now i cant fix the camera back.

And also not forgetting the millions of tiny screws and parts.

That's about all. CANON PRIMA......sounds like the digital canon pixma right?

And also the case which came with the camera. Stuffs last time are good stuffs and dont spoil easily. Nowadays, they use cheap ingredients. That explains why things nowadays need to be replaced so frequently.

--rfkw--

Candles

noreply@blogger.com (RFKW) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:52:00 +0000

This time, I'll post some candle pictures. These pictures were taken sometime in September last year [2008] during some mooncake celebration.

[click on the pics for bigger view]

Click read more to see how i took these pictures.

To know how to take these kinda pictures, you'll have to know at least a bit of some basic photography settings of your camera. One of the photography basics that you need to know to achieve this kind of shots is the Macro mode on your camera. The flower symbol is commonly used to symbolize Macro mode. Do not be confused with the M mode as this signifies the manual mode which we'll talk about some other time.

So, all the basic photography skills you need to know is, how to set the camera to the appropriate mode and the rest would be to practise. Most cameras can focus at a range of around 5-10cm. Some higher end models are capable of focusing up to 1cm near. So go out and do some practise. Switch to Macro mode and move close up to your subject, but not to close, just close enough to ensure a sharp image and then snap.
Remember, practice makes perfect.

As for the two pictures above, I overrided the automatic settings. I set the ISO manually to 200 which is optimal for this particular lighting condition. Too high of an ISO will result in faster shutter speed as less light is required to achieve a decent exposure. But, it will cause a lot of noise or grain in the picture especially when using film. On the other hand, low ISO will give a cleaner picture with good contrast but will need more light to achieve the same exposure. This will result in longer shutter time which can cause motion blur especially in sports photography. So its generally up to the photographer based on his/her experience to decide on the basic photography settings.

Back to the picture, I also set the camera's exposure compensation to -1 EV. This tells the camera to choose a shutter speed a stop faster than the automatic setting. This results in a darker picture but as you can see here, it is not that dark. Leaving it in Auto would have certainly resulted in an over-exposed picture. Therefore we must always know about our camera settings.

I then prefocused on the subject, reframe my image and then i finally took the picture.

And there you have it, a lesson to be learnt from this edition of basic photography lessons. I hope you have learnt a bit of photography basics technique to help you take better pictures.

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

Malacca Sunset

noreply@blogger.com (RFKW) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 18:05:00 +0000

This pictures was taken when I was in Malacca. There were a few children playing kites during sunset. Real nice sunset but unfortunately a bit blocked by some buildings and trees.

[click on the pic for bigger view]

This pic makes it look like the sun has been dented by a cloud.

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

Stray Cats

noreply@blogger.com (RFKW) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 16:52:00 +0000

The back-lane behind my house has like maybe 10 stray cats. Recently, like few weeks ago, the mother just gave birth to 4 kittens. So, one night at 1.45am, i went to take pictures of the little kittens. It was a tough and troublesome affair as it was super dark...making my camera's AF go hunting like mad. [time for me to get a dslr la]

[As usual, click on the pics for bigger view]

Comments are welcome.

Anyway....for rest of the pics, click on the "Read More" link below.

He was trying to raid my rubbish.

This pic somehow reminds me of Puss in Boots from Garfield movie.

It then try to run away from my camera because all the flashing is hurting its eyes.

Sudden change to reverse gear when it saw me.

Peekaboo!

Then it went to hide under some tables.

Still trying to look for an escape route.

And this is what ticks me off! At the most crucial moment when its right in front of my lens. So near, looking right into it! and out of all the times, my camera's AF decide to not focus fast enough! Total waste!!!

This one also, by the time it focused, the cat already moved away. [Notice its body still in focus but not its head]

Pitch dark. Total AF failure. but the blue glow looks nice!

Outside, this cat got stuck between some plants.

That's about all for this time. I'll try to get somemore interesting shots posted up as soon as possible as time allows.
Comments are welcomed!

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