Self Expression

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

“I think your picture is not sharp”, “I think your picture is a little bit dark”, I think your highlight is blown out”, ” I think you picture has too much noise”. For me this is all “funny comments” not from photographers but I would call them a “Technicgraphers” why? Simply because these kind of people who like to comments about technical aspect of photography fail to realize what photography is all about, a picture is not like an engine or a building where you can measure or judge their performance by technical aspect. Great photography or great picture will work even if they break all the rules, a blurry picture and totally blown out highlight picture will still stand a chance to win a World Press Photo Awards if the picture is GREAT regardless of their lack of technical aspect.

For me it is very simple, a GREAT picture is a GREAT picture and a BAD picture is a BAD picture even though all the technical aspect is perfect in term of composition, lighting, exposure  and etc and etc…

What Life is All About

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

While We Try to Teach Our Children All About Life, Our Children Teach Us What Life is All About | ( Angela Schwindt )

I think we can learn so much from our children, they really enjoy their present, I mean their time that they have in their hand and I think we should also enjoy our present, while we can plan for our future endeavor, we should never forget to really enjoy our times at hand, the future is not in our hand for sure. If you think there is something that can be done in the present just do it, don’t wait and don’t ever procrastinate, I’ve learn that all, I’m a victim of procrastination.

It is very heartwarming feeling watching my son playing with the leaf and with the puddle of water, everything look so interesting to him, every little-little things simply fascinate him, I wish I’ve a picture like that, a picture of me playing happily but I don’t, all I’ve is a blurry vision about my past, I grew up here in Kuala Lumpur in the late 1970, it is still “kampung” or village by today standard then, we don’t have electricity and we spent less time in front of the television, my television back then use a battery car to power it up and yes it is a black and white television and it is boring to watch. Nowadays children spent so much times in front of the idiot box and rarely have extra physical activity outdoors. To cut the story short, enjoy the present and plan for your future but do really enjoy the present first because the future is not in our hand…

Photographic Expedition | Belum – Temengggor

© 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.

My Photoshop | The Tone | eBook

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

© 2009 Wazari Wazir | The Tone

Please READ This before buying my e-Book…

1. This e-Book is all about TONING, color tone, how to tone those image to get warm kind of feeling. A colors that can add mood to your image, something like Old School or Retro looking colors, vintage, classic.
2. You must have some basic Photoshop editing skills, this is not for total beginner, but I cannot stop beginners from buying it, I’m just afraid that a new person with limited photoshop skills will find it a bit difficult to understand.
3. About the editing on my e-Book, first you all must do your own basic editing like adjusting some brightness and contrast before proceed with the editing or toning. I will not show you how to do the basic editing.
4. This e-Book will not teach you about Texture, I mean this e-Book won’t show you how to do texturing editing. This is all about toning. This e-book will not teach you about Eye Sharpening or “Catchlight Enhancement”, that will be on my next e-book, insyaAllah.
5. About the figure that was given on my e-Book, it is just as a starting point to guide you through. Different camera manufacture or different picture file size will have an effect on your figure, so with the starting point figure that I  give to you, feel free to adjust it accordingly to your liking.
6. There are four ways that I will share with you in my e-book about getting your pictures tone, you are free to mix and match like I always do. I mean with mix and match is this, you can do one style of editing and finish with it or you can continue editing with your edited photos with a different style. That’s how you get different tone, mix and match, be creative, I can’t teach you to be creative, I can only show you the way.
7. My style of editing will not bring a good result for every kind of a picture, some pictures will look great and some pictures will not. So try to experiment yourself, what I can share with you is this, this kind of editing will produce good result with natural light, especially pictures taken during early morning or late afternoon where the lighting is a bit warm. It will also work great for a portraiture on an overcast day. The colors on your subject, like for an example a cloth will also effect the output of your tone.
8. This editing is only for an enhancement, so please get your pictures right on the camera, I mean you must start with a good picture to  begin with.
9. My e-Book is written in Plain ENGLISH.
10. This e-Book is 27 pages only in PDF format.
11. My e-Book file size will be 8.7 MB, so it will take times to upload and download.
12. If you need more information just Flickr Mail me or eMail me at wwalchemist@yahoo.com

My e-Book will be priced at Ringgit Malaysia RM50.00 or USD20 only. It will be in PDF format.

PAYMENT :

1. At the moment I will only accept payment through Maybank, you can bank in to my Wife Maybank Account Rujiah Binti Muhin.
2. Maybank Account :  1 6 4 0 1 7 0 9 4 7 6 4 Rujiah Binti Muhin ( My Wife ).
3. You can also pay with PAYPAL.
4. After you have made the payment please alert me with SMS through my Hp No: – +(6) 012  2 8 1 2 7 5 3
5. Please also email me with your detail transaction about your payment. My email wazariwazir@yahoo.com or you can Flickr Mail me.
6. Since I’m not available all the time online, I will try my very best to send you the files in PDF format within 24 hours of payment.
7. If you have any doubt, feel free to ask, here on my Blog…

In The Name of Love

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

HaiQal | Backlighting

© 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

© 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… 🙂

Salam Aidilfitri | Salam Silaturrahim

© 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

© 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.

Expression | The UnTitled

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

I’ve been very busy lately, I’m sorry to keep my Blog idle, just came back from Kota Kinabalu, actually I just have two days in Kuala Lumpur after return from My Photoshop Workshops in Kota Kinabalu on Monday 3rd of August before flying back to Kota Kinabalu again on Thursday  6th for another Photoshop Course organize by my department, it was a compulsory course for the staff in order to expand their knowledge about image editing. About the photo about, it got nothing to do with my new knowledge that I get from “The Government Compulsory Basic Photoshop Course”. I do the editing as usual, with my own style.

What they teach us during the “Photoshop Course” is how to make animation “bouncing ball” with Photoshop, how to make 3D with “Illustrator”, how to make your picture look like a sketch and how to make your “Type” look like a water drops. I don’t need that for my editing, I’m a photographer, all I need is to enhance my picture, to make good picture become great. Animation is not for me, just wasting my time and tax payers money, it was free course for me, that’s why.

My point is this, I hope my department will “Listen Extra Carefully”. Next time if you guys want us to join your “Compulsory Course”, please discuss with us, I’m talking about Photographers here. Only we the Photographers know what we want to learn, what we really need to know in order for us to perform better in doing our jobs, do we the photographers need to spent the whole days learning 3D when we rarely used it. 3D and Animation is not for Photojournalist Photographer, it is only for Animator. What’s is the point of learning the extra knowledge when we barely use it, I guess most of the participant will forget about the 3D by the time we step outside the class returning to our home.

Another thing is about using “Filters” in Photoshop, for me personally it’s a child play, go to filter menu and choose what kind of effect do you want, as simple as that. I’m not blaming the presenter, they have done their job according to what the “Secretariat” want the presenter to teach us and not what we really need to learn. Frankly speaking, the course is really a waste of “tax payers” money. Maybe some people will get benefit from it but I don’t think the course reach their objective.

One last word from me, to teach Photoshop for Photographers, one need a solid background in Photography or better if they are the passionate photographers themselves. If they just know photoshop, what photoshop can do, are very expert in Photoshop but have nothing in mind about the very basic needs of Photographers for Photoshop, then, we are just wasting our time. We are The Photographers in first place, we are not animator, we are not graphic designer, our needs is different. Extra knowledge without any practicality for our job is a waste.