After we return from our honeymoon, we’ll have a new place to move into. That’s the plan, barring any other surprises. So far things are going well although I do wish for an earlier completion. But hey, don’t rush anyone. Let them do a good job I say. But the eagerness is mounting all the same.

Here are some pictures taken today.

The floor plan and perspective amongst material for ceiling

In the kitchen, existing wiring in front of the sewage pipe

Gas heater and plenty of pipes to be painted

From the service balcony. Power point wiring in kitchen

Ceiling material in living room/studio. The fan needs to go

My office. That's not my workbench

Plumber working on the fittings

WC waiting to be fitted in

WORK IN PROGRESS is a post from: blog by eulee

Taken from Dave Hill's website

I don’t really know how much of it is photography and how much of it is imaging work, but I’m guessing he’s an awesome photographer all the same. Any photographer who can shoot those awesome images in his backyard with an Audi in the background is indeed an awesome photographer! Check out the behind the scenes videos, especially the one of Girl on an Adventure, where he’s shooting underwater in a pool, with strobes firing above the water. That’s pretty cool! I can spend the whole day looking at all his videos.

And I gotta learn how to process my pictures like these!

His portfolio is up at www.davehillphoto.com.

WOW! is a post from: blog by eulee

The url for the campaign is: http://store.apple.com/sg/browse/campaigns/back_to_school.

BACK TO SCHOOL WITH AN APPLE OR TWO is a post from: blog by eulee

The Haven

These images were taken at the shoot in The Haven, a Home for abandoned, abused and neglected kids.

Reviewing images during a shoot is very important so how do I get the images into the notebook as fast as possible and how can people select quickly? I use both tethered shooting and the old fashion downloading via card reader. Why? Because I use 2 cameras. Why do I use 2 cameras? I’m too lazy to change lenses. So for tethered shooting, I use EOS Utility, shooting straight into a designated folder and Expression Media to update from that folder. EM is an amazingly fast software to go through tons of images. The card reader also is connected to the same folder and EM updates the folder automatically. So EM is the core that pulls images from the tethered shooting and card reader.

Quick review of images on LCD

Reviewing images using EM

Everyone looks so serious…

…but seriously?

This is actually quite unposed. Thanks to Liz's quick fingers to catch us clowning around

Kev was kinda like my test model for this shot

Shooting the kids in action.

Shooting kids in action

More reviewing

Child Care Center

Varying the angles can yield interesting results

Shooting at the Child Care

Shooting at the Child Care

We met people whose lives have been changed and testimonies that can move you to tears. Like the teenager who was assaulted and left to die but is now a drummer in the church worship team and is under training to be a hairstylist. Many of them have found God and that made their difficult situation bearable and more than that, have became victorious over their circumstances. Salvation Army provided them that opportunity to cope and some of the recipients return to serve.

Reminds me of the love poem I read this morning from Paul to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 “Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

All these people need is a bit of your love.

BEHIND THE SCENES AT THE SALVATION ARMY SHOOT 2 is a post from: blog by eulee

These were the behind the scenes images taken by Liz and of her as the lighting model as I make adjustments to my settings, together with some commentary and my thoughts on the shoot. Have fun reading!

The Crest

Salvation Army Crest at the lobby of The Changi Corps

And here’s the picture taken by Liz on her iPhone of me trying to get a vertical as possible shot of the crest. We tried to get images unique to each center and I was so taken back by this crest as we entered Peacehaven Nursing Home. I had this thought of blasting a light outside and have a nurse with an elderly walking and casting shadows across this crest. Unfortunately we could not find the time and this image may not fit our portrait series. Well, I’ll shelve the idea for another time.

Image by Liz as I take the picture of the crest

Tchoukball

I thought I know every game ever played in Singapore but Tchoukball completely floored me. Not understanding the game is one thing…knowing how people move and capturing the image is another thing. So Jason and I watched them as they played and got them to try do something that’ll look good on the pics. Not easy! If you see images available now, you’ll realise how difficult it is to shoot this well. You have one person jumping really high to bounce a ball of a net and a few people crouching really low in one corner facing the net trying to catch the ball. And how do you put them all in one frame??

Jason and I trying to figure out how to shoot tchoukball

Here I am trying to tell the player how to make the shot work

Take 1 out of the many takes

The Thrift Store

This is where most people would associate the Salvation Army with. So we wanted to take portraits of the staff and also the variety of items for sale in the store. For the staff shot, Liz took the place of the staff as I tested the lights. The ‘customer’ was also another staff. I used one light with umbrella on camera left and another light with just a reflector on camera right. Both were gelled with 3 stop ND filter to mix the light level with ambient. Seeing the background was important to me to establish context.

At the Thrift Store

Family Service Center

The Salvation Army distributes food packs to needy and deserving families and we wanted to capture this act. I did a similar shoot for the Comm Chest but with a much simpler setup. In this shoot, I had one light with umbrella in the corridor on camera left and another inside the house mimicking daylight. The corridor was really dark and relying just on ambient to light up the house inside would require insanely long shutter speeds.

So test models Liz and Kevin posed for this, with Kev giving away his shoe. Besides being the boss of Yellow Octopus, Kev is a very effective lighting model too. The final lighting setup had the back light toned down a bit and the key light upped a bit to get a better balance.

Test models Liz and Kevin

We headed back to the center for another portrait shoot. What made the center different from others is the food packing facility. It was like a large storeroom so I decided to use the store as the setting. We played with a few angles and light settings. Essentially, one light with umbrella on camera left and the other also on camera left but behind subject, to light the food items.

Setup 1: Strong backlight = I like

Setup 2: Subdued backlight and angle changed

More behind the scenes stuff to come….

BEHIND THE SCENES AT THE SALVATION ARMY SHOOT is a post from: blog by eulee

We all believe it’s a matter of time before an app appears to do it seamlessly. I don’t need wifi shooting for now but maybe a USB to the iPad can do. They have the Photokit available but it’s for downloading and not tethered shooting. What I’d like to see? Shoot tethered with jpgs sent to the iPad and RAW saved onto card. Perfect! I don’t need to have the RAW files in iPad neither do I want to do any editing on it. Just want to use it to view the shots and discuss with art directors while shooting.

Can someone please write an app for this?

iPAD is a post from: blog by eulee

Anyway, she’s unlucky to meet a judge who is more technically superior than her. That’s embarrassing.

Here’s the youtube video of what transpired in the courtroom:

YOU CALL YOURSELF A PHOTOGRAPHER? is a post from: blog by eulee

We have our good friends Oon and Val to help us. It’ll be pretty much be the same setup. Camera on tripod, creative direction by me, the finger by Oon. I think we’ll have a blast! So if you’re gonna be around the ACM, come over to say hi! We’ll be there from 5 onwards.

DIY PART 2 is a post from: blog by eulee

So far, I’m really glad I retired my 1D and got the 5D. Shooting with two 5Ds and not having to decide which lens to put on which camera leaves me more time to shoot. I’ve made mistakes like mounting my 35mm F1.4 on the 1D and 50mm F1.4 on the 5D. And then finding out that both are the same because of the 1.3X FOV of the 1D. Duh! Plus both 5Ds are light and gives me more maneuverability. I’m really enjoying this!

My June 26 Workshop still has space for more. So do sign up quick! Learn to use your camera’s functions well and also learn from critique of other images.

Recently I was asked if there’s any ‘cheat sheet’ for figuring out exposures. Especially if you’re not planning to do any further processing, this may help:

1. If you’re shooting white or bright objects which fill a significant part of the frame, pump up the exposure. If in Av mode, increase the EV by opening the aperture until the meter is on the plus side. If in M mode, adjust either the aperture or shutter speed to get the meter to be in the plus side. Reason being, the camera is not very smart and will try to average a scene. So if you’re shooting snow, it’ll look gray.

2. Vice-versa dark objects. Make sure you underexpose it. The image below was shot at -2EV. Without the exposure compensation, the suit will look gray and the flower completely white.

3. If you’re not comfortable and quick when using the M mode, consider using Av. I’ve met plenty of beginners using M mode and that surprised me. Personally I think the full control is good but if you want to grab quick shots, isn’t it easier to change one variable rather than two? This is just a matter of preference though. I use Av outside the studio.

Just shot a ROM yesterday in which the bride walked in with her two brothers. I felt it was a really sweet moment and thought I’d share this with you. If lighting conditions change rapidly I have to worry about both focusing and exposure reading. Here, I used Av, set at F1.8 and just concentrated on focusing. Focusing was already hard enough with such shallow depth of field. I wanted to blur out the background as much as possible.

More to come…

EXPOSURE CHEAT SHEET is a post from: blog by eulee

In theory it didn’t sound too complicated, just having the cameras’ shutter synced. But if the subject is still life, perhaps syncing is not the main problem. I’m not sure if the flashed were gelled to get the red/green effect or just using photoshop filters to do it. Or Nuke just does that for you. I gotta try this. Anyone interested to join me?

Here’s the link to their project called Stereo Portrait Project.

SHOOTING 3D IMAGES is a post from: blog by eulee

I came across this website with points on a wishlist I fully agree with. Right down to getting rid of the penguin in the manual (point 16). I’d love to know the reason behind the penguin in the first place. I’d also really love a built-in RF trigger so that I can place the ‘slaves’ anywhere I want. I have resorted to bouncing off the infra-red signal off a mirror to fire off a flash in the background before when there was no line of sight. With RF, I can leave the flashed in a softbox, behind the subject, heck in anywhere that makes a good image. And for goodness sake, allow me to trigger my studio strobes! Ok, maybe Canon may not sell that many other speedlites if that happens but photographers would love them for it.

So here’s the wishlist by Syl Arena.

Down with the penguin!

CANON SPEEDLITE is a post from: blog by eulee

1. Shooting a triathlon in Bintan in heavy rain. Mid-way through the race, a thunderstorm developed. What started as a light drizzle turned into a fierce tropical thunderstorm which blew my makeshift shelter, made of black trash bags, away. I was in the middle of nowhere and my 1D had a 70-200mm lens coupled to it. Together they formed a completely weather-sealed system. So here I was in a thunderstorm, with my camera exposed to the elements, still shooting away. Onlookers would’ve been amazed at this sight. I was strangely confident that the rain would not get into the camera and lens and I was right. I wiped them dry in the hotel room and went on shooting the next day.

2. I was shooting for a magazine in Phuket. The story was on canoeing. We were canoeing around the islands when we encountered huge waves and rain. Sea water flooded the canoe and would’ve capsized it if not for good drainage. My camera was constantly showered with both sea water and rain. I kept shooting and when I went back, I literally washed the camera under a running tap to get rid of the salt. Brought it back to Canon when I returned to Singapore to check and got a clean bill of health.

Those were the few extreme weather conditions I encountered. Not to mention dropping the camera a few times. This is a truly remarkable camera and it lives up to whatever marketing stuff Canon says. Extremely sturdy and weather-sealed. I just wished it didn’t weigh so much. Or I have a few extra kilos to make lugging this fella a breeze. Since I use prime lens mostly nowadays, I want both cameras to give me the same stuff. An 8 Mpix camera is too far away from a 21 Mpix camera.

So I’ll be using 2 5D Mark 2s from today. Actually from tomorrow’s shoot onwards. And I’ll be missing my 1D….

PUTTING MY CANON 1D TO REST is a post from: blog by eulee

So what have I found? I’ll be safe for a year if I get one now. Rumours has it that the replacement will probably be due later part of next year. And after the 1Ds 4 is released. A little peace of mind if I proceed with the purchase. Else, it’s butt-kicking time again for me.

Here’s what else I found. There are rumours that the 35 F1.4 will be obsoleted. I find this crazy but this one site I read had sources around the world stating that they’ve been discontinued and have been disappeared from a few sites. This is one of my favourite lenses and it’ll be a shame to see it go. Perhaps a better one is in the pipeline. But what’s more believable is the new 24-70 F2.8L IS. Now that’ll be an interesting buy. Maybe not for me since I shoot with prime lenses most of the time now but a combination of F2.8 and IS will make this a very potent low-light lens.

Well some rumours are more accurate than others, mainly because they make perfect sense for Canon. Others will remain as rumours. But I’ll give the 5D Mk 2 a serious thought now. Anyone else know anything?

RUMOURS, RUMOURS… is a post from: blog by eulee

Let’s start with Knowledge.
At the beginning, we’re born with zero knowledge of photography. At least I am. So we have a new camera, things are set to auto mode (unless you’re like me who started without auto modes). Then you learn about properly exposing your images and wow, you can actually take pictures and then you drool over the pictures in National Geographic and you’re convinced all you need is gear, and more gear. So break your piggy bank, starve a bit, work part time, and then you enter the gear geek stage. You improve on techniques, attend workshops, and then your knowledge just increases from then on.

And then Quality of Photos.
Does having better knowledge means better photos? Well there’s a correlation. Again we start at zero. And then as knowledge increases, the quality of our photos increases naturally. And then wham! New advances in software especially in dealing with HDR means you start from scratch with this new understanding – learning to increase the dynamic range of your images. From here onwards, your pictures will improve in tandem with your knowledge.

So how good do you think you are?
Many of us start off thinking the world of our images. We live in our own world. Everything looks pretty but as we improve, we begin to see cracks in that. We can swing to the extreme and say that the more we learn, the worst we think our pictures can get. But with Photoshop and sharing our pictures on Flickr and Facebook, people start telling us how amazing a photographer we are. And we believe that..until a certain point of realization then we start all over again.

Do I believe in this completely? Maybe not. But what I do believe is we go through ups and downs in photography. I went through an experience when I stayed away from it for many years until I rediscovered it. And improved from then on. So it’s perfectly normal.

STAGES OF A PHOTOGRAPHER’S LIFE is a post from: blog by eulee

According to Adobe, it’ll be launched on 12 April, but available for sale a bit later and guess who’s queuing up then. I always skip versions in PS to save money and since I have CS3, an upgrade is due.

I’m beginning to step into geekdom, buying all this new software and hardware to support all that, but can you blame me when things like this keep appearing?

PHOTOSHOP CS5 is a post from: blog by eulee