The Fly

The common housefly is something we don't often take a close look at, but in this extreme macro image you can really appreciate how colourful it is, with its rust red eyes and black and white stripes. I was surprised to see that the wings even have an iridescent quality to them, kind of like oil on water. Image is the result of a stack of about 6 images -- not perfect, but the best I could at the time. Nikon D600, AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f2/.8 with Kenko extension tubes.

Yellow ladybird

As far as I can tell, this is a spotless yellow ladybird. This is the second test of focus stacking -- this is a stack of four images focussed at slightly different points to produce a final photo that has most of the ladybird in focus. Nikon D600, AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8 with extension tubes.

Behind bars

The thing about photography (especially street photography) is that you always need to have your eyes open for opportunities. Looking at this photo taken in Siem Reap in Cambodia, you'd think that nobody would be able to miss such a prime photo opportunity, but you'd be surprised -- I was hurrying to a bus together with a bunch of journalists when I noticed this kid looking through the bars of an extremely colourful school window, but most of the journalists that were with me didn't notice it at all and walked right by. I only had time to snap about 5 photos but this last one was the best. The thing about a shot like this is that you need to make sure the framing is exactly square on to the windows otherwise it just won't work. AF-S Nikkor 24-85mm VR f/3.5-4.5

Focus stacking

One of the things about Photoshop is that the application is SO feature-packed that on a nearly daily basis, I am learning something new about it.

I've always been interested in macro work, but one of the biggest advantages of shooting digital and using the most recent versions of Photoshop is the ability to do "focus stacking," i.e. shooting many exposures of the same subject, but with each shot, slightly varying the focus.

These photos are then loaded into Photoshop and then with a bit of automated magic, the software will blend the in focus parts of each image into a seamless, sharp photo.

If you have Photoshop CC, doing this is pretty easy -- you just load up all the images into it, then go into Automate-->Photomerge and choose all the images you just loaded (uncheck all the check boxes below this).

Next, select all your stacked layers and then go to Edit-->Auto-blend layers and then check the "Stack images" check box in the dialogue box that opens and then wait for the magic to happen.

Nikon D600, AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8.

Product + Portrait

 

I've been shooting portraits for my work for a while now and I realise I've not posted them online before except for the unedited portrait of Nellie (a couple of posts below). This is one of the better ones I've shot recently. Believe it or not there's very little editing that I did on it -- the work was to remove the background and turn it white. The lighting setup is pretty simple -- two softboxes with two Nikon SB-600 flashguns on either side and that's it. The main thing is to show the product (which is the Samsung Galaxy Gear on the model's wrist) so being able to see the watch clearly with its display is very important. I was just very happy with how the lighting turned out on this one. Nikon D600, AF-S Nikkor 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5 VR.

The Inner Light

Sometimes I get inspired to shoot something in an unusual way. This is actually a 3D printed skull made by a team at Universiti Malaya in Kuala Lumpur for surgical training and research. I was there on assignment and while I shot the regular image of the skull, I thought that I could make it a lot funkier by putting a wireless flash in the skull itself and shooting that. It's not a studio shot by any means -- it was taken right at the table they had set up to display the item and the reason the background is all black is that the exposure from the flash is so bright compared to the ambient light that the background was underexposed and appears black. Nikon D600, AF-S Nikkor 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5.

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Red and green

I'm not really sure if this shot works or not, but I kind of like it. It's a bit of a rainy day project, where I had some lime seedlings I had growing in my kitchen. I put them next to a window with a red plastic bag I had as a backdrop and had a bit of wireless flash coming from the top to help illuminate the seedlings a little bit. Nikon D600, AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8.

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Nellie

It's been awhile since I've posted here. I'd say I've been busy, and it'd be true, but then that's no real excuse not to post here. Anyway a lot of stuff has changed in cameras since I started this photoblog, not least is the rise of the retro camera. I've got a new camera, but it's not one of those -- in fact, I've recently upgraded to an even bigger DSLR-- the Nikon D600 -- and I couldn't be happier with it. The move to a 24MP full-frame is a real big change and believe it or not, it's a lot sharper than I ever thought it'd be. Anyway this photo is an unretouched shot I took for one of my camera reviews. Since the beginning of this year, I've been using a 2 soft box set up which gives a nice even, soft light to studio shots. For lights, I actually use two Nikon SB600 speed lights set to wireless mode. It looks pretty darned good, if I say so myself. Nikon D600, AF-S Nikkor 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5 VR.

 

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Curvature

One more shot with the 8mm fisheye. Another look at Publika in Solaris Dutamas. Nikon D7000, Samyang 8mm f/3.5

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The wheels are turning

Publika at Solaris Dutamas is an interesting, very arty place. For example, in the public square between buildings, there're old cable spools which have been turned into art pieces. The thing about using super wide angles like the Samyang 8mm is that you really have to get close to stuff if you want to show it larger in the frame -- even though it doesn't look like it, I was only about one foot from this giant spool. Nikon D7000, Samyang 8mm f3.5

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The world through a fisheye

Publika

I recently bought a fisheye lens. Usually, fisheye lenses, which have a 180-degree distorted view of the world, cost more than RM2000, but recently Korean company Samyang introduced an 8mm f/3.5 manual focus lens for just RM1200 (with built in aperture and distance microchip for Nikon compatibility). So after reading many positive reviews, I bought it and I have to say I'm really impressed. Wide open at f/3.5 it's a tad soft, but stop down to f/5.6 and everything is as sharp as you could want. The best thing about fisheye lenses is that manual focus is not a problem -- if you set it to minimum focus and set the aperture to between f/5.6 and f/11, everything will be in focus! Nikon D7000, Samyang 8mm f/3.5

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Shooting star

This is an image converted to black and white using the D7000's built in image editor and I have to say it turned out exactly like I wanted it to. When taking this photo, I had in mind one of those many Ikea photos that you can buy for your wall. Nikon D7000, AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8.

Purple trumpet

I've known that 1Utama in Petaling Jaya had a "Secret Garden" on the rooftop, but it was only recently that I had time to visit it. Pretty interesting place and it's surprisingly well maintained for a rooftop garden. Just like the two other photos below, taking macro photos of flowers (and bugs) in the field is practically impossible without the help of flash, so all these shots were taken with me holding my camera in one hand while having a wireless flash pointed downwards with my other hand. This shot is exactly as shot with no editing or cropping. In macro work, careful framing and focus is really important -- I'm always acutely aware of the background, the framing and the focus. Nikon D7000, AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8

Stars and heart

As you've probably noticed by now, I'm a big fan of macro photography. In macro at least this is where a DSLR with a purpose-built macro lens excels over compact cameras. Anyway, this shot is almost a direct conversion to black and white from the original colour image. I shot this with the intention of turning it into a monochrome image. Not much to say about it except that I just liked this composition. Nikon D7000, AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8.

Droplet

 

It's sad that a company that has contributed so much to photography as Kodak has is now in such dire straits. However, technology marches on and we either adapt or die. Here's something which I would not have been able to do in the days of film. Yes it's a regular picture of two droplets of water (the other one just hit the surface of the water) which could have been taken with a film camera. However, in the old days, when I was still using film, I would never have tried such a shot because the trial and error just to get one or two successful shots would have taken many rolls of film which cost a lot of money then. With digital of course, I'm now free to shoot as many as I want AND be able to immediately see whether I got the shot or not. This shot was set up simply on my kitchen table with a flash bounced just off camera. It took maybe 40 or 50 shots before I got maybe three that were properly in focus and was aesthetically pleasing. While this kind of shot has been seen many times before, it's always fun to give a try yourself. Here's the other shot:

 Nikon D7000, AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8

Come into my parlour

My dad's garden is a treasure trove of macro subjects. This pretty little spider was only about 2mm  and actually quite willing to let me sit there and shoot photo after photo. As always, it's nearly impossible to shoot a proper macro in available light, so I had an SB-600 held in one hand above the spider, while my right hand held the camera to shoot. The photo was taken with my 60mm macro lens at the nearest focus, while I rocked back and forth slightly to get the spider in focus. Getting the eyes in focus is the most important thing, and I had to shoot quite a few shots before I was satisfied. The image is slightly cropped to make the composition a little tighter. Nikon D7000, AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8.

Footsteps

I didn't set up this shot. I just noticed that a kid had just left his wet footprints on the sand and snapped a couple of quick shots. I'm not even sure why the footprints only had a wet outline and wasn't wet all the way inside the print as well. I kinda laugh when I look at it because of an old Archie comic that revolved around the phrase, "footsteps in the sands of time." Nikon D7000, AF-S Nikkor 18-105mm f3.5-5.6 VR

Down by the seaside

Yes I'm not sure why but I'm still in a black and white mood. Anyway, I made a trip down to a seaside location to test out my 10-stop Neutral Density filter. What does it do? Well essentially, it's like dark glasses -- it makes things a LOT darker, and in a camera, this means slow shutter speeds, and the effect is that the sea is rendered as a smooth blur like this. The photo was converted from RAW and edited in Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 and slightly cropped. You'd be surprised how little editing there was to get it to look like this-- the major work involved removing many dust spots. The image was shot at f/32 so every little bit of dust that normally doesn't show up on wider aperture shots all made an appearance here, despite cleaning my image sensor before going on the photo shoot. Nikon D7000, AF-S Nikkor 18-105mm VR

Fire in the sky

Not sure if I ever mentioned this, but I'm a great admirer of the work of renowned B+W landscape photographer, Ansel Adams. Adams' mastery and understanding of the relationship between light and dark tones has always left me in awe and has always inspired much of my B+W work. Anyway, this shot was taken in Seattle from the top of the Space Needle. On that day, there was an amazing sunset in progress and I was lucky enough to capture this. Obviously, there has been some contrast and brightness adjustment done here (as Adams did-- his was a mastery of the darkroom as much as the framing) but the sky really was mostly like this. I'm quite happy with how this photo turned out. Nikon D7000, AF-S Nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6 VR

Electric dreams

This shot was a simple grab shot with an Olympus E-PL3 I was testing. The subject is a friend's daughter who was totally engrossed playing Angry Birds on his smartphone. Originally shot in colour, I felt the image was better served in B+W so I converted it and did some minimal contrast adjustment. Olympus E-PL3, 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6