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

Here are the details:

When: Thurs 4 Feb 6pm-8pm
Where: Objectifs 56 Arab Sreet Rooftop

I should be there if I can find time away from my work which includes a corporate tour of Lenovo, Google, Nokia Siemens, Rolls Royce, Siemens…all in one crazy week! Seems like everyone wants to have pictures taken just before CNY. Ouch.

More importantly, Tom Ang will be there too so if you want to see what he’s like off-camera, now’s your chance. He’s a great guy.

SCENE CITY DVD is a post from: blog by eulee

For myself, this blog was started as a kind of social experiment and i must say I am hooked on it. I started in May 2009, after many years of deliberation and fears that I will not get pass my first post. I eventually discovered a love for writing. I can’t say I’m very good at it but at last I don’t dread it. So my first post was on packing for an overseas shoot in a reply to curious questions on what I always bring on my shoot. At that point of time I was already overseas and that was the perfect moment to talk about it. From then my blogging went on to discuss techniques, equipment, workshops, current work, book reviews and now with my new iPhone, a bit on apps and its camera. After the first post, ideas start popping up and since then, I’ve logged 140 posts! I try to go for higher value content and not just one-liners so I think I’ve done decently looking at my workload.

Work-wise in 2009. My core business is still wedding photography. I love this business and being a part of someone’s wedding. My corporate/commercial work, comprising events, product and advertising has been consistently providing the variety I look for. I am also moving into family photography in a bigger way as compared to the previous years. While I’ve been shooting families regularly, it’s only in 2009 when this area has picked up.

2009 is also the year my business moved on from a sole-proprietorship to a Limited Liability Partnership. My business partner is my fiancee Lydia and she’s been great in providing emotional support and a listening ear for me to bounce ideas off. 2010 will be the year that she’ll officially become my life-partner .

Lydia and I at Pont Neuf, Paris

I love to share. I am always excited about helping others discover things about photography and their camera. It was with this intention that I started officially my photography workshop in 2009. I fashioned it after my short stint in the tv series on Channel News Asia called Scene City. In it, guest photographers were brought to different places in Singapore to handle different photographic challenges. So to spice things up, my workshops are completely hands-on and located in different areas in Singapore.

So what’s the most popular post so far? Surprisingly, the highest statistic is about me…hmmm….followed by my post on my workshop. And then about my short article on Canon G11, which was posted immediately after the news was released.

So what’s in store for this blog in 2010? I hope my blog will be a useful resource for anyone interested in photography. I know I should not generalize that much and look for a more niche audience but I hope there’s something here for everyone. I’ll try to write more about techniques, tips and reviews in the hope that you can glean more useful information. I will still post current work to inspire and to sharing something new. Of course I can’t post everything due to some confidentiality issues.

Thanks very much for visiting my blog, dropping a note, commenting, and I sincerely hope that you’ve learned something all this while. That said, please feel free to give me ideas on what to write about too.

Have a great 2010 ahead!

A YEAR IN RETROSPECT is a post from: blog by eulee

I was with a group that painted a kindergarten and organized a children’s program for the kids at the village ala Singapore style. The event was impressive, the decoration they put up included colourful bedsheets to cover a gaping hole in the wall. The Balai Desa (Community Hall) was transformed in a matter of minutes. But the transformation back to its original state was even faster, unfortunately. The result of kids and balloons in the same room.

Decorating the venue

Local kids giving full attention

The painting of the kindergarten provided more fun for the guys than anything else in the trip. As someone quipped ‘it looks nice from far but is far from nice’.

Before painting

Work in progress

More images here:

[View with PicLens]

RANDOM IPHONE IMAGES FROM ACEH is a post from: blog by eulee

You can do your part! Calling all photographers, make-up artists, assistants, everyone who think they can be a part of this movement. Join us and be a part of a growing worldwide community.

Help Portrait is all about giving back to the community. Ever encountered a less fortunate person who would like to have his portrait taken but cannot afford a professional photographer? Well, it’s time we give them an opportunity.

Help Portrait is the brainchild of Jeremy Cowart, and you can read more about its mission in the blog. All around the world, people are participating and putting in their time and skills to do something for the less fortunate. Join us and sign up in this link. Look for Singapore and you’ll see us there.

I’m opening this up to anyone who would like to assist me when we start doing this. It’s totally FREE and you’ll have a chance to learn about studio photography. Learn valuable tips on lighting and posing people and also play a part in this movement. You can contact me on this blog:

email: eulee@photographybyeulee.com
hp: 97616405
twitter: twitter.com/tweetbyeulee

Come on guys, let’s do something for the community and bring a smile to someone else this Christmas!

HELP PORTRAIT SINGAPORE is a post from: blog by eulee

After a long discussion on aperture and F-stop readings and also depth of field, we moved on to shutter priority mode and I had some exercise while teaching them how to pan and capture movement, my movement to be more precise. So I did a bit of running, walking at various speeds to have them try out various shutter speeds. Probably useful in capturing kids at play.

With the sun at its brightest, it was time to move indoors and continue with lunch and critique and a session on composition. We moved on to Dome at Dempsey and spent a few hours there, plus shooting around Dempsey area where they practiced composition, using lines, rules of third, framing, etc. The challenge was to try get fresh angles of everyday objects. From the critique, they showed interest in architectural elements and I had the idea of moving on to Upper Seletar reservoir where there was an old tower, maybe from the 70s era and I thought that might be a good subject. Plenty of opportunities to practice composition and portraits of people there. We also did a session on flash photography inside Dome before moving onto Upper Seletar.

I did a bit of shooting there in the midst of mentoring, and got these few images.

[View with PicLens]

And that wrapped up the November workshop. It started heavy with a lot of theory on aperture, shutter speed, ISO, etc but all totally essential to wrest creative control from the camera’s programmed modes. That’s the only way to improve, by knowing what you’re doing. I’ll take a break in December due to my heavy schedule and will commence workshops in January. So stay tuned to my workshop page and register early!

NOVEMBER 7 WORKSHOP is a post from: blog by eulee

PowerShot G11

Dang, I always tell people that Canon will come out with a new camera with swivel LCD…and it’s here! I missed the older G-series swivel LCDs but I didn’t expect it so soon though since G10 is still quite ‘young’. Read more about it here. The specs look great, all pointing to a killer of a camera. I’m not sure how the Quick Shot mode performs but if it’s as good as Canon claims, I think it’ll be a first. They’ve quite a lot of scene modes but what tickles me is the aquarium mode. Are there so many people out there shooting those things? This is so tempting but what do I do with my G9?

CANON G11 is a post from: blog by eulee

If you don’t know what the series is about, it features Tom Ang, a UK-based photographer and writer of photobooks exploring places to shoot in Singapore. He is joined by 2 photographers in each episode ranging from amateurs to professionals. The group will then visit places of different photographic challenges, while trying to debunk the myth that there is nothing to shoot in Singapore. I wrote a bit on the production part here.

Here’s a list of locations featured in each episode:
19th August – Resorts World & School of the Arts
26th August – Singapore Dance Theatre & Timbre
2nd September – Semakau Landfill & Pulau Ubin
9th September – Kim Keat Lane Bakery & Changi Fishery
16th September – PSA & Print Dynamics
23rd September – Pearl Bank Apartments & Margaret Drive
30th September – Southern Ridges & Sungei Buloh
7th October – Star Cruises

SCENE CITY PREMIERS THIS WEEK is a post from: blog by eulee

Playing with lenses

So after a couple of hours going through some basics, we were ready to go out shooting. First stop was Fort Canning. Along the way, we had a chance to practice panning and using shutter speeds to freeze motion, and using different apertures to play with the depth of field. I had a go at exercising at Fort Canning, while the others had a chance to freeze my motion. We also experimented the range of shutter speeds to pan moving vehicles and Dee had a great shot.

Panning shot by Dee

Everyone waiting in anticipation to catch me jumping

A quick lunch ensued and it was lesson time again at a coffee outlet. It was all about composition this time. We went through the basic rules of composition eg, rules of thirds, using leading lines, colour, etc. I was impressed by another shot by Dee of Sharm, using her new 50mm lens. Love the composition and the mood attached to the image. I’m not sure what Sharm was doing but not posing for Dee I’m sure.

Portrait by Dee

With the added knowledge about composition we walked around Club Street and Ann Siang Hill. A lot of opportunity to practice techniques like framing.

Sharm

Chris on left

As with every other day recently, the weather got unbearably hot in the afternoon and the only solution was ice cold beer. It was a stroke of genius to have chosen Club Street, since we had many drinking holes to choose from. And so it was review time. It was not a simple ‘good or bad’ review but more like ‘what were you thinking of??’ when you took that picture. So everyone had a go at revealing their thought process and the others had a go at critiquing and suggesting alternatives. I feel that this is one of the best ways to learn fast. So we had a lot of fun letting it go at one another and then it was time to move to our final destination to try low light photography.

Dee stoning away. Sharm downloads her images. Ritchie waits for his turn.

We ended the day at ACM/Fullerton Hotel area. The place was crowded with people hoping to catch the fireworks during the National Day preview. So we experimented with flash settings and got around to shoot portraits of each other with a combination of flash and ambient lighting.

It was a very fruitful day indeed. A lot of information shared and a lot to remember but as I always mention, keep practicing and everything you learn will come back to you one way or another.

Thanks Sharm, Dee, Chris and Ritchie for participating. You guys were awesome!

My next workshop is on 15 August 09. Again the class size is limited to 4 people for maximum attention and for ease of traveling to different areas in Singapore. Please check the Workshop page for more info.

A FRUITFUL SATURDAY is a post from: blog by eulee

So what’s this about resolution? I thought that I’d be able to throw a bit of light on a basic thing that has stumped people. Contrary to popular belief, resolution is NOT expressed in megapixels. Resolution is the ability to distinguish separate visual information such as details, fine patterns, etc. It is traditionally expressed in line pairs per millimeter (lp/mm). Without going into the science of it, we associate resolution with image clarity. But this is not the only factor. You have factors like focusing error, digital noise, aperture, shutter speed, lens quality and movement blur. Therefore one should not just look at number of megapixels to determine the quality of the image. Marketing folks would want you to believe that the higher the megapixels, the better your image is. In reality, this is only one factor.

Ok, we’re photographers, not scientists. So for the purpose of simplicity I will intentionally and wrongly refer to resolution as the number of pixels in an image.

So let’s talk about megapixels. Everything else being equal, an image with a a higher number of pixels will be sharper than that with a lower number of pixels. It will appear closer to whet you see with your eyes. However, it is extremely difficult for anyone to distinguish the difference for any print having more than 240 dots per inch (dpi). Publication standards require a 300 dpi image.

There is a difference the units ppi (pixels per inch) and dpi (dots per inch) although they are used interchangeably. Ppi is what the camera delivers and dpi is the printer’s dot density. So you can print a 300ppi image on a 1200 dpi printer and it’ll be within the printer’s capability.

The unit of Mega = Million. Therefore an 8 Megapixel camera will be able to provide more than 8 million dots. For a 300dpi print, an 8Mpix camera can provide a 11.7″ X 7.8″ print. If this same image is at 240ppi, the physical dimension is changed to 14.6″ X 9.7″. So you see my argument with the art director? Just change the ppi to 300 and he’ll still have enough for a 11.7″ X 7.8″ print.

So why do people want more megapixels? Well, for one, megapixels sells cameras. This is the same argument as megahertz selling computers. You need more Mpix when you:

1. Want to print images larger than A4
2. Crop an image and still have enough for a good A4 print.

See the sample below when I cropped a small part of the image and you’ll see the physical dimension reduces when the resolution is fixed at 300ppi.

Original Image

Cropped Image

Bottom line is, try to avoid cropping your images. Do it in-camera then you won’t run into problems with resolution and print sizes. Or you can upscale by doing a bicubic sampling but you’re basically introducing pixels electronically. Try to avoid doing that too.

So now you know that a good image does not depend on just megapixels. Techincally you don’t need anything more than 8 Mpix if you don’t do the 2 things I mentioned. pay attention to other factors that affect your image, eg, low light noise performance, good lenses (if you use SLRs) and image stabilization, for a start.

DEMYSTIFYING RESOLUTION is a post from: blog by eulee

Gordon wrote a beautiful poem for Shirley when he proposed to her but little did he know then that that was used as the negotiation chip for him to meet Shirley in the morning of 18 July 2009. The ladies insisted he recite the entire poem verbatim without pausing. Every pause meant he and his gang had to suck on sweet, sour, bitter and spicy ice cubes. How the ladies made those cubes was beyond me. What tickled me most that throughout the entire session, the ‘model answer’ was pasted beside the door. With very convincing acting skills, he managed to complete reciting but not before the tough ladies had their way and forced all of them to finish the cubes.

The solemnization and dinner was held at the Pan Pacific Hotel. The intimate christian service was held just before dinner. I love shooting at Pan Pac because of the great lighting both at the reception area and in the ballroom itself. Congrats Gordon and Shirley!

More of such images can be seen in my Wedding Photography webpage or in the Wedding Photography category of this blog.

GORDON AND SHIRLEY’S WEDDING is a post from: blog by eulee

When do I shoot for free? I don’t shoot everyday and I have my downtimes. And so this is the time when I’m looking to experiment something new or maybe I got fired up reading about a new concept and I’m itching to try it out and grow my portfolio. Afterall, what’s a portfolio if you keep shooting the same things? I probably would not do this if I already have this in my portfolio. The good thing about shooting for free is I have the full creative control, I get to do what I want, how I want and maybe when I want. No creative director to tell me what to do. It’s kind of ‘take my images or leave it.’ And this is great!

Would it affect my reputation? No, because the big difference is I work for free because I choose to. I am seeking a collaboration. People don’t tell me what to do.

Don’t do it because you’ve spent a lot of money on the latest and the greatest equipment and have nothing better to do on your weekends. Do it with a goal in mind and limit these free shoots. For me, many times it’s for personal work and many times, for more advertising. Both work towards the same goal. Getting better jobs with a better portfolio.

WORKING FOR FREE? is a post from: blog by eulee

After the first shoot of the cups, an additional shoot was required for both the cups and the coffee sachet to be more in focus. Sometimes shooting the same thing twice gives an opportunity to try and explore a new approach. The layout of props was similar to the previous one so changes were made to the lighting setup. I still used the ST-E2, Speedlite 580EX and an umbrella. This time I used a styrofoam board as a reflector.

The time of shoot was in the evening, and there were long shadows and the colour of light was yellowish so I needed to introduce artificial light to get the blue-ish white of a morning light. I could also shoot RAW and change the colour temperature too during processing. Previously I used a shoot-through mode with the umbrella but this time I tried the reflective mode. The umbrella was useful to block the harsh evening light and to introduce soft light. Bringing the whole setup into the studio defeats the purpose of using ambient light to produce the right ambience. The flash was dialed up to +3EV to flood the scene with daylight. To throw a bit of light to the branding, a white styrofoam reflector was used. I chose not to use the silver reflector because I wanted a subtle fill light. The whole idea was to make the picture look as natural as possible. The sachet was highly reflective so I positioned it in front of the cup so that the light from behind was blocked.

The setup looked like this:

Shooting products with a lifestyle twist: Reloaded is a post from: blog by eulee

Light Modifiers: Beauty Dish is a post from: blog by eulee

The year was 1935, the place, the USA. The Farm Security Administration was created during the Depression to fight American poverty. In the course of 10 years, FSA became famous for its highly influential photography programme that captured rural poverty. Out of it came images from Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange and a few other iconic photographers. Step into any bookshop now and you’ll see a host of books on these photographers and the FSA.

That was my inspiration. To take images that documents a disadvantaged society and then use that to combat systemic poverty. Sure, I can’t change the world, but perhaps a small village. In May 2005, the opportunity came when I went with someone else, hooked up with various NGOs operating in post-tsunami Aceh and were introduced to a village, 2 hours south of Banda Aceh. Layeun Village was a small fishing village which bore the brunt of the 2004 tsunami. Besides the loss of lives and property, the tsunami impoverished an entire community. I started taking pictures of life there and in Banda Aceh, of the people, of the desolate place. I walked a lot and talked to people there, to find out their experiences and took portraits of them. Losing an entire family was common. The images from Layeun were then used to raise funds for these villagers. The biggest break was when Singapore Red Cross took an interest and provided funds to build fishing rigs, called palong. This changed the entire community. It gave them jobs, economic development and more importantly, hope.

I documented the typical fishing activity here and the maiden voyage of the Singapore Red Cross sponsored fishing rig a few years later here. The images have found itself to other websites, have been published in two magazines and exhibited in a private exhibition.

I am still frequenting Layeun now, having made very close friends with the villagers there. Other projects in the pipeline include education and livelihood improvement. They have come a long way, and there is finally some sense of normalcy in their lives.

Of course I count myself lucky to have this experience, to meet the right people and have the contacts. For you, photography may mean taking pictures of your kids…and that’s so important to document their growth. It may be taking pictures of product you want to sell online….good images sell products better. From my business point of view, I started my wedding photography business on providing impactful visual documentation of a wedding. Not just pretty pictures but pictures that are linked to memories. Not just pictures of people standing around, but humourous or emotional pictures. When you have a purpose, you can then fuel your passion. Striving for the best becomes the norm.

So what do you want to do with your photography?

What do you want to do with your photography? is a post from: blog by eulee