Posts Tagged ‘Bokeh’

Photographic Expedition | Belum – Temengggor

October 28, 2009

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

Photo above taken during Belum – Temenggor Photographic Exspedition on 23rd to 25th October 2009 organize by Emkay and Institute Perak Darul Ridzuan. Thanks a lot to Azrul Affandi from Beritah Harian through Photoskool for inviting me to this event, I really have so much fun there.

Candid Moment

October 20, 2009
© 2009 Wazari Wazir

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

This picture is not in our photo shoot agenda or in our plan, actually we were just finish our shooting and take a break, having a cup of tea or coffee, so while we are having our drink, I notice that the lighting was perfect and the mode was there, so I captured it, I mean the model, shooting continuously with my camera until the model doesn’t bother anymore, so I get this shot, a quite moment in a very crowded situation, there were seven photographers and two  models at the table, so you can imagine the situation, it is quite noisy actually. This is among my favorite shot from the outing even though it is not in our original plan…

In The Name of Love

October 11, 2009
© 2009 Wazari Wazir

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

HaiQal | Backlighting

September 28, 2009
© 2009 Wazari Wazir

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

When I start as a PRESS photographers among few things that bother photographers is “Backlighting”, whether it came from artificial light source or from natural light, sometimes PRESS photographers will shout or ask politely to their subject to move here and there to block the “backlighting”. Backlighting can cause “flare” that make our subject unclear especially on their face. Sometimes photographers will use flash and most of the times they do use flash to put back light onto their subject face so it does not appear to be dark and it is true that metering is tricky for backlighting.

To cut the story short, I love backlighting but that depend on my subject, as for example on my son pictures above, backlighting really add interest to my son hair, make it glow with rim light, in fact I did position my wife and my son so both of them catch the sunlight. Some of my friends ask me whether I use flash or reflector to fill in the light on my subject face. No I don’t, I don’t use flash and I don’t use reflector, I’m not a fashion photographer and I don’t want my shooting look like a commercial shot.

I took the metering on my subject face, if you are using PROGRAM Mode on your camera without any customization, your subject may appear dark because your camera will try to get some balance between the bright area and dark area of your subject, your camera exposure meter doesn’t know which one is important and which one is not. I rarely use PROGRAM Mode, most of my shooting are on MANUAL, so I took a reading on my subject face and forget the rest. Yes the background will be blown out, sometimes there is no details but in this case, like the picture above, the background is not my focus, so I don’t bother about getting the right exposure for that. There you go very simple and my editing is simple also and you can see I like to get my pictures especially portraiture have warm feeling or tone, during editing I bump up the temperature until my eyes satisfied.

Actually there is a lot of things going on about that picture above, I plan my shots even before I get out of the house, I’m very particular about my subject cloth,  when I see my wife or my son wearing something that I didn’t like, I’ll ask them to change the cloth or there is no photo shooting. For me a great shooting comes from great planning, most peoples doesn’t know what’s get on behind the scene, some people doesn’t bother to look deeply inside a picture and ask themselves why this particular picture work, why this picture grab our attention, why this picture stop us to look at it a little bit longer. that’s is how I view my favorite pictures on the Web, I stop and look and ask my self, why this pictures work and why some others not. That’s how I learn, I learn by looking at a picture, not just looking, but look deeper, thinking and then absorb the knowledge that can be found on each of a great pictures if we care to look at it more intensely rather than just browsing.

HaiQal | Untitled Expression

September 23, 2009
© 2009 Wazari Wazir

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

I just bought a new lens actually, Nikkor 50mm f1.4 D lens, It’s not an easy decision to make between 50mm G Lens and D lens and after much thought I think 50mm D lens gives me more value for my money, after all good picture is more than just about camera equipment. I’ve been shooting with Nikkor f1.8 for two years already which I bought on August 23rd 2007 and now I need extra speed to capture the light since I like to shoot with natural light and like to shoot under low light photography. This shot was taken at wide open aperture at f1.4 and all I can say is, it was sharp and good enough for me and I’m happy with lens.

To make a decision between 50mm and 85mm wasn’t easy either but after. 85mm was good for portrait if we are shooting outdoor, in the open field for an example but when we are shooting indoor like in the small house, mosque, museum, church where the space is constrain< I think 50mm is more versatile and furthermore I use DX format which gives me approximately 75mm coverage on 50mm lens.

Both 85mm and 50mm have it’s place but for me personally 50mm is more versatile and I’m happy with my decision. If I’ve extra money definitely I will get an 85mm, compared to 70-200mm, it is much lighter and considering I like to travel and planned to, 85mm is on my list… 🙂

Eid-ulFitri | Selamat Hari Raya

September 20, 2009
© 2009 Wazari Wazir

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

Salam Aidilfitri | Salam Silaturrahim

September 18, 2009
© 2009 Wazari Wazir

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

Di kesempatan yang ada ini saya ingin mengambil kesempatan mengucapkan Selamat Menyambut hari raya Aidilfitri but teman-teman blogger serta rakan-rakan fotografi dan sesiapa juga yang singgah ke blog saya yang tak seberapa ini. Di sini saya juga ingin mengambil kesempatan untuk memohon ribuan maaf andaikata ada diantara penulisan yang yang mungkin agak kasar ataupun menimbulkan rasa ketidaksenagan hati di kalagan saudara dan saudari, sebagai insan yang lemah saya mengakui kelemahan diri dan dengan ini sepuluh jari disusun memohon maaf di bulan yang mulia ini.

Akhir kata dari saya sambutlah Aidilfitri ini seadanya, jangan membazir dan berlebih lebih, Aidilfitri sememangnya hanya datang sekali dalam setahun namun bukanlah menjadi lesen kepada kita untuk membazir, sama juga dengan fotografi, sekiranya ada dikalangan rakan-rakan yang ingin membeli peralatan kamera yang baru atau pun membeli kamera yang baru, tanya dulu kepada diri denga seikhlasnya akan keperluan barangan tersebut, apakah ianya termasuk dalam kategori keperluan mendesak atau pun hanyalah sebagai peralatan tambahan untuk memuaskan hobi saudara dan saudari tetapi seandainya saudara atau saudari punya wang yang lebih terpulang, bukannya duit saya pun.

Cuma satu jer yang saya sarankan agar jangan berhenti dari menaiktarafkan skill serta ilmu fotografi saudara dan saudari sekalian, dengan bertambahnya ilmu di dada, insyaAllah dengan kelengkapan yang sedia ada saudara dan saudari mampu menghasilkan seni fotografi yang lebih baik dari sebelumnya tanpa membazirkan wang untuk membeli peralatan baru.

Dah macam Khutbah Fotografi pulak, akhir kata, Selamat Berhari Raya bersama keluarga, jangan lupa rakamlah gambar sebanyak mungkin untuk kenangan sepanjang masa…

HaiQal | Happy Birthday My Son

August 22, 2009
© 2009 Wazari Wazir

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

Syukur Alhamdulillah My Son HaiQal is two years old today August 22nd 2009 and not to forget, today is also first Ramadhan for all Muslim here in Malaysia and some other part in the world, the fasting month for Muslim. To all Muslim friends out there, happy Ramadhan. About the picture above, it was a recent picture of HaiQal taken on his Birthday. We plan to take him out but it was raining few minutes after the picture was taken and few minutes later my son fall asleep.

My Universe

August 17, 2009
© 2009 Wazari Wazir

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

Sometimes we need to think outside of the box in order to be creative. This things is pretty simple to do, all it takes is a little bit of imagination and just few Photoshop tricks here and there, no I’m not doing the hard work with the Globe, with the help of a “Website” I manage to do this and the key words here is TAGGING, at the meantime, I’ll let you wondering and thinking how I did this because I believe if you can read this that’s mean you have access to the internet and you can get the answer pretty easily. All I did is to add the stars and the lighting effect, the rest is made by the “Mechanism”.

Everybody need a quick answer nowadays, use plug in here, plug in there and use preset and action and later on called it “ART”. It is up to you if you consider whether some work is Art or not, about my picture about, it is not art, just pure playing with my pictures but the “Art” comes into play when we think outside of the box and put outside elements to make this things a little bit more interesting. I got the “Stars” from Google Earth. A lot of younger generation nowadays are too lazy to read after they graduate thinking that they have known everything in the university, how wrong they are. I’m saying this as my personal experience and just my personal thought. You may have your own, I mean by not reading is, not reading education material, not something like love novel that most people read, I mean a lot of younger generation nowadays read less education material, just few of them do.

How many people buy and read photography books other than magazine, maybe some of you say that photography books is expensive, how about your camera? I think your DSLR is so much expensive isn’t it. Buying expensive camera equipment without the knowledge of handling them and use them the way it should be is a waste of money, just remember, people can steal your equipment but not your skills and knowledge. My point is spent some extra money on education, buy some books about photography or anything that might interest you. Learn from other experience photographer. We cannot meet all the great photographers out there face to face but we can “Listen” to their story and experience through their books.

In photography we need to practice and practice in order for us to improve our skills but if we keep on pressing our shutter blindlessly without any clear vision, we are not making any photograph but just taking picture. If the photographers who have some knowledge in his head, he will be able to focus more clearly, see the vision ahead of him even before he lift the camera to his eyes. I’ve met many great local photojournalist who have a clear picture about a picture that they need to shoot even before they get out of the office, by the time they get their assignment from their Boss, they have a “Clear Vision” about how they are going to Photograph The Assignment.

HaiQal | The Untitled

August 12, 2009
© 2009 Wazari Wazir

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

Enough rant about my experience while attending “Compulsory Adobe Photoshop Course” organize by my department, that’s what you get when you attend a course for free, you are not given a choice, just live with it, but I’m sad because it is tax payers money, the course suppose to make our job easier, faster and more efficient with the knowledge that we gain but if we can’t use the knowledge on our day to day duty, what’s the point of the course?

Back to the picture of my son HaiQal above, in case you were to ask, how do I get the colors. As usual I develop my picture in ACR Adobe Camera RAW simply because I shoot in RAW, I boost the temperature somewhere between 7000 to 8000K, I know it is high temperature but later on I decrease the Vibrance and just push a little bit saturation, all done in ACR. After finishing some basic editing in ACR, later on I do my final adjustment in photoshop, this time I play around with Channel, I just give you some hints only, how to play with Channel, go and figure it out, that’s the only way to learn, you may make some mistake or get some unwanted result but  you will learn along the way. Don’t be afraid to make some mistake and don’t be afraid to try something new.

I like to keep on experimenting, I don’t use any plug-ins, preset or any photoshop action, I did everything from scratch but I do suggest to any of you out there who make bulk editing like wedding for example to use plug-ins, it will increase your productivity and will save you great times, but to get creative and if you have more times to play around and nobody waiting for your art work then you can get creative with photoshop, trust me the excitement of doing the things on your own rather than using plug-ins is different because you know what you are doing rather than let the “Software” do the thinking. Taking a picture yourself is not the same as giving order to other photographers to get the picture. Same like if you pay someone to get a picture on the other part of the world, yes you get the picture but you don’t get the experience of being there. But sometimes we need to work smart rather than work hard, you be your own judge and you draw your own line…