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…

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…

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… 🙂

Eid-ulFitri | Selamat Hari Raya

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

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.

My Universe

© 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.

Portraiture Workshops | Kota Kinabalu

Portraiture Workshops | Kota Kinabalu

Portraiture Workshops

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

PORTRAITURE EDITING WORKSHOPS | 1st August 209 | The Schedule

• Ada Dua Sesi | Photo Shooting besama model ( Poster Atas Sekali ) | Shooting sebelah pagi | 3-4 jam.
• Sesi Kedua Editing | Selepas makan tengahari sehingga malam | Bukan Tengah Malam 🙂

Mengenai Editing :

• Semua peserta dikehendaki mempunyai asas penggunaan Photoshop, sekurang-kurangnya pernah menggunakan perisian photoshop, sebulan, setahun atau mungkin lebih tapi merasakan masih lagi belum mahir dengan penggunaannya ataupun kurang berpuas hati dengan pengetahuan sedia ada.
• Untuk makluman semua, saya tidak akan mengajar cara penggunaan Preset, Actions ataupun Plug in, semua editing saya adalah from “Scratch”. Hasil kerja saya yang saudara serta saudari boleh lihat di sini atau di Flickr saya adalah sepenuhnya menggunakan Photoshop sahaja tanpa menggunakan Preset, Action ataupun Plug In, tetapi saya mencadangkan kepada rakan-rakan yang melakukan photography secara commercial untuk menggunakan Actions ataupun Plug In, kerana ianya memudahkan serta mempercepatkan kerja.
• Saya tidak akan mengajar Asas Photoshop, jadi saya tidak akan menghabiskan masa untuk menerangkan satu-satu mengenai “Tools” yang ada di Photoshop serta kegunaannya.
• Apa yang akan dipelajari nanti adalah lebih kepada “Menaik Tarafkan” hasil gambar kita ataupun Image Enhancement serta diberi sentuhan Artistik.
• Antara lain kita akan mempelajari bagaimana untuk menggunakan cahaya semula jadi untuk Portrait serta pemilihan lokasi yang baik untuk model shooting, saudara dan saudari tidak memerlukan Flash untuk sesi Portraiture saya kerana kita hanya akan menggunakan Natural Light.
• Berkenaan dengan editing pula, sila bawa Laptop masing-masing kerana komputer tidak akan disediakan. Lokasi Editing adalah di Spy Lens Studio milik Roslee Karim.
• Portraiture Editing | Kita akan mempelajari workflow saya, dari Basic Enhancement sehingga Artistic Enhancement.
• Kita akan belajar mengenai Penggunaan Layer Mask, penekanan akan diberikan kepada Layer Mask kerana pelajaran seterusnya amat berkaitan dengan pemahaman yang kuat mengenai Layer Mask.
• Eyes Enhancement | Bagaimana untuk mendapatkan ataupun menaiktarafkan “Catch Light” pada mata.
• Black and White | Bagaimana untuk menghasilkan Black and White yang mempunyai tone menarik.
• Tone Color | Bagaimana untuk bermain dengan Tone Warna untuk memberikan gambar kita lebih impak serta menambahkan mood pada gambar, Vintage or Retro feeling into it.
• TEXTURE | Kita akan belajar mengenai penggunaan Texture pada gambar secara berkesan, saya akan berikan Texture yang biasa saya gunakan kepada semua para peserta secara percuma.
• Nota | Semua peserta akan diberikan Nota PDF, namun demikian bukan semua yang dipelajari ada di dalam nota tersebut, semua peserta harus membawa buku nota masing-masing untuk mencatat maklumat serta tips-tips yang penting.
• Secara kesimpulannya, I will teach you how to achieve what you see at my flickr and with a little bit adjustment here and there, hopefully you will find your own way or your own style.

Pendaftaran | Pertanyaan | Booking :

• Hubungi Roslee Karim di Nombor 016 8317174 | Email : rosleekarim@gmail.com
• Workshops Fee : RM400.00
• Boleh bayar kepada : Spylens Photography – Public Bank : Account No : – 3 9 8 6 1 3 6 5 2 4 | Emailkan slip bayaran kepada rosleekarim@gmail.com
• Deposit RM100 atau lebih boleh bayar kepada Roslee dan baki selebihnya pada hari Workshops.
• Sekiranya masih mempunyai sebarang pertanyaan boleh hubungi Roslee di Facebook Roslee Karim atau boleh juga gunakan ruangan comment di sini.

Photoshops | Mini Workshops

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

© 2009 Wazari Wazir

Happy Mothers Day

© 2009 Wazari Wazir