1. I will learn how to use my camera.
I still don’t know how to use the metering to the fullest! Learn how to strobe and lighting techniques.

2. I will not be hindered by the gear I do not have.
I’ve what I need and for what I don’t have, I’ll compensate with creativity and ingenuity.

3. I will shoot in RAW
Screw JPEG. It was a mistake to turn back to JPEG.

4. I will learn how to process my shots
I’ll learn to make full use of Lightroom & learn how to use Photoshop for additional processing.

5. I will accept critiques of my work.
And I won’t accept ‘pretty/nice/lovely’ and every other one word responses. If I do, I’ll look else where for constructive comments.

6. I will set goals and be proactive about my photography career
a) I’ll master all the basics of photography.
b) I’ll learn and improve on my Photoshop skills.
c) I’ll complete a photography related book every 2 weeks.

7. I will connect with other photographers
Follow & connect with regional and international photographers. Learn & observe their techniques and style.

8. Establish my style.

If only Malaysia has these

By latartinegourmande

Before

After

I know it’s a group picture and there’s not much editing as you might think, but a first timer, I guess I did pretty good. LOL. I’m on Photoshop CS4. I like how accessible are adjustments layers now compared to before – which I was totally lost.

This is what I did:

In Lightroom: adjusted white balance, exposure for faces, further editing in Photoshop

In Photoshop: desaturated, added curves, added warming filter, crop, border.

What do you think? Any constructive comments? C & C away!

Friday, I spent the entire day in Subang running errands, getting ffk-ed, being interviewed and getting a contractual photography job, getting paid from a previous job and had luncheons and dinner-eons with client and friends.

*update: I was interviewed by David Teo‘s wife. I just realised how significant that person was after a round of Googling.*

Saturday was pretty much work only, with the exception that the work at night was much more fun than the one in the day. Been trying to improve Project Manhattan but hitting a snag or two on each step. It’s gradually growing, but at a very slow pace. I’ve already missed the deadline for releasing the site, but what can I do.. I’m just a one man show.

I think I’ve bitten more than I can chew.

One of my portable harddisk crashed bringing along 2-3 months worth of RAW photos, mostly untouched and NOT backup-ed. Sigh. Going to give it another try tomorrow hopefully it works. Maybe it’s time to try the fridge technique again.

At night, was Foon Yee’s hen night in KL. Very nice girl, who’s getting married soon. Shooting my 2nd hen night was quite exciting *not because I was already expecting strippers* but this time was a parade around Changkat Bukit Bintang. The previous one has a stripper in it. For this one, it was selling kisses and the bride to be came home with a sore puckered lips.

Not forgetting to mention, someone was there. But…

Sunday, the new job’s first day. I was recruited into a production house as a photographer for stills and portraits for their drama and film productions. Was okay, got to play with a Kino lighting system. Something new to use and isn’t cheap as well. Even the production house rented it for their own purposes. Lots of things to learn from film that I can apply into my photography skill sets. Pay isn’t too bad either, and at least it’s consistent – for now.

Tomorrow is another day of photoshooting on location.

Things to complain about.. Desktop PC is crappy and buggy, and it needs an upgrade – though it’s perfectly capable to handle all my workload.. 24″ monitor is coming in either today or tomorrow! It’s for the desktop anyways, so again, need to upgrade the damn thing before I can actually use it. I’m hoping to upgrade with less than RM1000, but it seems that Phenom X4 would be using a DDR3 RAM system, meaning I need to upgrade on RAM as well.. *Sigh* CPU + RAM + Mobo = RM900-1000, which excludes the two 1TB harddisks I’d like to buy for photos (RAID 1).

Got to play with Chung Lern‘s CPL filter, and I must say, a CPL filter is a must for any wide angle lenses! Now I shoot through glass and water *and clothes? *. Though I did noticed that portraits didn’t look as natural as I’d like it to be. Will try again tomorrow during the photoshoot.

Need to spend on a UV filter for the new lens, else might scratch or drop it.. Also hoping to get the ThinkTank Skin belt system from Singapore before the wedding shoot in two weeks time.. HK, please please do get it for me.

GOSH so much cash going out this month!

AND workload is going UP UP UP.

Who want’s to be my PA? I can’t pay much though.

• Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM + HOYA UV Filter. Just came back from cleaning at Canon Malaysia.

SELLING: [LENS] Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM [PRICE]RM1200 [CONDITION]Excellent,just after service from Canon Malaysia with receipt. Comes with HOYA UV Filter. Doesn’t come with hood or box. Excellent Kit lens for serious enthusiats.

• Sigma 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 DC OS + HOYA UV Filter + original hood + box.

SELLING (reserved): [LENS] Sigma 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 DC OS [PRICE]RM1200 [CONDITION]Excellent, but slightly worn. Comes with HOYA UV Filter. Comes With box & hood. Good walk-around/traveling lens.

Interested? Please leave a comment with your email (and I’ll reply by email) or call/sms 0129242856.

Here’s some photos of the lenses I took last night:

Images of the Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM

Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM

Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM

Images of the Sigma 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 DC OS

Sigma 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 DC OS

Sigma 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 DC OS

Sigma 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 DC OS

All photos were taken with the Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM. Yes I finally bought it. No pictures of that lens yet though.

Test shots from the Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 IS USM. You heard it right, I finally bought that lens. =) Which costs more than my camera body..

I have a few more shots in the camera yet to be processed.  Check out the rest of the test shots. =)

So far, I love using this lens, and it has been on the body since I bought it (though occasionally I swap it with the 18-200 for the wide angle, else it’s the 70-200)

Firstly, was the oversaturated colours I get after importing. An example would be like a concert stage is being lit up with a light purple spotlight (seen on the naked eye, it was a very light purple). Upon importing, the light purple became solid purple, making the whole photo unusable unless you desaturate that particular colour, which in the end I made it b/w.

Someone at Shootfest suggested that the RAW file details were stripped off upon import and thus losing the some photo data. Markleo also suggested to use Canon’s RAW editor (Canon Digital Photo Professional) to edit before hand, so raw details could be preserved. I tried it out and I could see a difference between LR and DPP. Following are some comparison of LR and DPP:

As you can see, LR saturates the photo making the colours even more darker. (all photos were not edited) *SOME* became over over over saturated till no matter how I try to desaturate them, it’s still unrecoverable.

Also another problem (may be related) is that upon LR export, *SOME* photos turn out to be desaturated when compared to the same photo in LR. If it’s related, then it makes some sense, but it gives me another problem. I cannot judge the right saturation for all my photos in LR.

So how now?

I found a suggestion on a Flickr regarding the use of Adobe DNG to preserve the RAW details (somewhere in the comments). I’ve yet to try this out, but would like to know whether there are any photographers out there that have tried DNG before.+

Update:

Here’s a sample photo generated from DPP v3.5, LR v2.2 and ACDSee v2.5 as well as a jpg extracted from the RAW file. All the images generated were not edited. Notice the difference of the purple spotlight.

It’s a week before June and I’m proud to say, I can afford a Canon EF 70-200mm f2.8L!

But should I find more cash and get a Canon EF 70-200mm f2.8L IS or spend it on a monopod to support the Canon EF 70-200mm f2.8L without IS?

UPDATE: After asking a few pros and responses to this post, I’ve decided to go for the Canon EF 70-200mm F4 IS. Unfortunately there isn’t one on the 2nd hand market at the moment. *sigh* So, I’ll have to wait till one pops up, or try to get one from China or buy a new one which costs RM4685 from Shashinki.

No one sells a good lens, except if it’s been damaged or they are crossing over. Hopefully by end of June I don’t have to buy a new one.

I’ve been shooting a lot lately, pretty much for everything. Some are paid, some aren’t. Usually the paid ones get processed fast while the non paid are … kept indefinately.

-_-

God knows when I’ll actually finish up all the photos I took which are not financially attached. Haha.

Anyways, I’ve been complaining about my gear for a while now. So much so I’m getting fed up with it and decided I better set a goal for upgrades. Lets hope things goes well and money comes in.

By June,

Canon EF 70-200mm f2.8L

Either:

• without IS –  RM 3.5k
• with IS – RM 5.6k (most likely I’ll miss this one.. )

And, maybe sell off existing Sigma 18-200mm f3.5-6.3. I’ll use my existing Canon EF-S 17-85mm f4-5.6 to replace the ‘lost’ focal range.

By August
Super wide angle lens.

Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 (AT-X 116 PRO DX)

Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM

Either:

• Canon EF-S 10-22mm f3.5-4.5 USM – RM2k
• Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 – RM2k

By November
New primary body and primary flash (body price varies from month to month)

• Canon 40D + Battery grip + Speedlite 580 EX (RM2.5k + RM500 + RM1.2k)
• Canon 50D + Battery grip + Speedlite 580 EX (RM3.5k + RM500 + RM1.2k)

All prices stated are 2nd hand prices. Hopefully will drop a little more when it’s time. Come support by hiring me (and my team!) OR donate some moolah to me. I accept Paypal/M2U for donations.

Hmm.. I have a feeling 70-200 will come soon. *crosses fingers*

Update: after some calculations.. I need to earn about 2k a month from photography to achieve all the goals.. That’s a goal that I’ve yet to achieve. Yet.

Just for the sake of it, next year:

• Canon EF-S 17-55mm f2.8 IS USM – RM3.6k
• Sell off existing Canon EF-S 17-85mm f4-5.6

The settings solved the problems I had in the Photography Fact #1 post I posted in February.

Mode: Shutter/Time Value
Shutter Speed: 1/4 – 1/2 sec
ISO: 800
Flash: External Flash, set to TTL (or iTTL)
Flash direction: Up/Direct
Exposure Compensation: +- 0 (for direct use -1/3 stop)
Lens maximum aperture: f3.5

Success rate really depends on your timing. If possible shoot when it’s dark, and there’s no flickering lights, etc. You can still capture the environment/surrounding lights if there were any present.

The built-in flash may be able to achieve similar results as well, but I’m not too sure. You gotta try it out yourself! =)

It worked for me, hope it works for you.

EDIT:

Few more notes to add:

1. My photos were shot in RAW.
2. If photos are slightly too dark, increase exposure in Lightroom/Photoshop then it should be okay.
3. And finally, get your timing right! =)

Here are some photos that used this settings: