Scarlet's photoblog

An aesthetic evening at Punggol beach

2010-06-19T08:45:00.000-07:00

Picture Info:

I haven't taken a landscape photo for quite some time already. So, here I go once again to the punggol beach with some of my friends. It was my second time visiting there... ^^. It was also a beautiful evening, although the weather's a bit cloudy.

All these times, I've been only taking normal landscape shots. So, for a change this time, I decided to try making a complete HDR. The acronym HDR comes from the words High Dynamic Range. In a photo, dynamic range means the difference between the lightest and the darkest color value. In other words, dynamic range means the contrast of a photo. HDR photo is basically a photo which has larger dynamic range than an ordinary photo. You can find more about making HDR here. HDR has always been of interest to me ever since I started shooting photographs. Yet, it requires your editing skills for it to become a mind-blowing Tour de Force. Below is my first stepping stone to HDR photography :D. The picture is not of a good standard but this is what I've tried, and I'm posting this to share with my readers and my fellow photographers.

Please click on the picture to enlarge! ^^

Settings Used:

No of shots taken: 3 [-2EV,0EV,+2EV]

Picture Format: RAW

Aperture: f/9

Focal Length: 18mm

ISO: 100

Place: Punggol Beach, Singapore

Postprocessing:

- The three shots were merged using Photomatix Pro and the resulting picture tonemapped.

- Adjusted temperature, tint, and clarity in Adobe Lightroom 2.

- Stacked back with the overexposed picture [+2EV] to get some details of the rock

- Stacked back with the normally exposed picture [0EV] to recover the blown-out parts of the sky.

- Added an unsharped mask by a small amount to sharpen the image.

Comments and Criticisms are warmly welcomed and appreciated! ^^

The Helix

2010-06-14T00:37:00.000-07:00

Picture Info:

I've posted some helix shots in the past. This is one of the many shots taken on the same day... I tried playing with the curve function in Photoshop CS5 for this one. I'm still not satisfied with the results obtained but have no idea how to improve it lol.. I guess I need to practice more on this from now on :D... Please click on the picture to enlarge! ^^

Settings Used:

Exposure: 5.0

Aperture: f/3.5

Focal Length: 18mm

ISO: 100

Place: The Helix, Singapore

Comments and criticisms are welcome! ^^

Floral Indulgence..

2010-06-08T09:57:00.000-07:00

Aite... it's been such a very very long time since I've posted my previous post, part of the reasons being that I couldn't get to go for photo shoot as frequent as before, and partly due to lack of time for editing. I've just started using photoshop for postprocessing so editing a single photo can take me 3 to 4 hours these days... ^.^

Picture Info:

I had a second visit to the botanic garden this week and got the chance to get into the national orchid garden for free.. The following are some of the pics I've taken inside...

Please click on the pictures to enlarge! ^^

Settings Used:

Exposure: 1/80

Aperture: f/5.6

Focal Length: 47mm

ISO: 200

Place: Botanic Garden, Singapore

Settings Used:

Exposure: 1/200

Aperture: f/5.6

Focal Length: 47mm

ISO: 200

Place: Botanic Garden, Singapore

Settings Used:

Exposure: 1/40

Aperture: f/5.6

Focal Length: 55mm

ISO: 200

Place: Botanic Garden, Singapore

Settings Used:

Exposure: 1/80

Aperture: f/5.6

Focal Length: 55mm

ISO: 200

Place: Botanic Garden, Singapore

Comments and Criticisms are welcome! ^^

Pregraduation Photoshoot Part 2 (Portraits)

2010-05-17T07:01:00.000-07:00

Aite... I'll be graduating officially in less than 24 hours... :D

Here are some more shots taken during the photoshooting at Fort Canning Park. More photos are yet to come tmrw too.. I apologize for posting this one-day photoshooting batch by batch as I don't have enough time to process my photos these days.. :). Please click on the picture to enlarge! ^^

Settings Used:

Exposure: 1/1600
Aperture: f/1.8
Focal Length: 50mm
ISO: 100
Place: Fort Canning Park, Singapore

Settings Used:

Exposure: 1/4000
Aperture: f/1.8
Focal Length: 50mm
ISO: 100
Place: Fort Canning Park, Singapore

Settings Used:

Exposure: 1/640
Aperture: f/1.8
Focal Length: 50mm
ISO: 100
Place: Fort Canning Park, Singapore

Settings Used:

Exposure: 1/640
Aperture: f/1.8
Focal Length: 50mm
ISO: 100
Place: Fort Canning Park, Singapore

Settings Used:

Exposure: 1/800
Aperture: f/1.8
Focal Length: 50mm
ISO: 100
Place: Fort Canning Park, Singapore

Settings Used:

Exposure: 1/640
Aperture: f/1.8
Focal Length: 50mm
ISO: 100
Place: Fort Canning Park, Singapore

Settings Used:

Exposure: 1/800
Aperture: f/1.8
Focal Length: 50mm
ISO: 100
Place: Fort Canning Park, Singapore

Comments and Criticisms are welcome! ^^

Pregraduation Photoshoot (Portraits)

2010-05-16T09:26:00.000-07:00

Phew.. finally an outing for portrait shooting came! And what's even better? It's for finally graduating from Singapore Polytechnic after 3 longly-awaited years. Today's is gonna be a long post with more pics than as usual. [^^]...

An outing at Fort Canning Park on a sunny day is really an ordeal. The Sun was scorchingly bright at its best.. I'd say this was the sweatiest outing I've ever been.. =.=". However, I had quite much fun back there :D.. And I thank my dear friends.. for giving me this chance to try out portraits..

All the pics below were taken with 50mm f2.8 since I thought it would be a good time to utilize it..

Settings Used:

Exposure: 1/640

Aperture: f/1.8

Focal Length: 50mm

ISO: 100

Place: Fort Canning Park, Singapore

Settings Used:

Exposure: 1/800

Aperture: f/1.8

Focal Length: 50mm

ISO: 100

Place: Fort Canning Park, Singapore

Settings Used:

Exposure: 1/800

Aperture: f/1.8

Focal Length: 50mm

ISO: 100

Place: Fort Canning Park, Singapore

Settings Used:

Exposure: 1/2500

Aperture: f/1.8

Focal Length: 50mm

ISO: 100

Place: Fort Canning Park, Singapore

Settings Used:

Exposure: 1/800

Aperture: f/1.8

Focal Length: 50mm

ISO: 100

Place: Fort Canning Park, Singapore

Settings Used:

Exposure: 1/640

Aperture: f/1.8

Focal Length: 50mm

ISO: 100

Place: Fort Canning Park, Singapore

Settings Used:

Exposure: 1/2000

Aperture: f/1.8

Focal Length: 50mm

ISO: 100

Place: Fort Canning Park, Singapore

Settings Used:

Exposure: 1/2500

Aperture: f/1.8

Focal Length: 50mm

ISO: 100

Place: Fort Canning Park, Singapore

Settings Used:

Exposure: 1/250

Aperture: f/1.8

Focal Length: 50mm

ISO: 100

Place: Fort Canning Park, Singapore

Comments and Criticisms are welcome! ^^

Close-up shots

2010-05-14T10:47:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since I've last updated my blog, the reason being that I've been busy hunting for jobs..and there's hardly time for a photoshoot outing with friends since they're busy with their stuff as well..

I've been dying to go out for snapping, dying to try out my new 50mm lens (really a cheap one yet so useful ^__^). I hope I can go out for a photoshoot at least in a two weeks' time from now.

Right now I really have a feeling whether I could continue pursuing photography as a hobby. I haven't even started work and I'm losing my consistency... Nonetheless, I'll still be trying my best to keep the passion alive.. (^^)..

Picture Info:

Below are the few close-up shots I've taken in the long past.. They've just been touched today...due to my busyness and my laziness as well :P.. Please click on the picture to enlarge! ^^

Settings Used:

Exposure: 1/2500

Aperture: f/3.5

Focal Length: 18mm

ISO: 400

Place: Chinese Garden, Singapore

Settings Used:

Exposure: 1/500

Aperture: f/5.6

Focal Length: 24mm

ISO: 400

Place: Lorong Buangkok, Singapore

Settings Used:

Exposure: 1/640

Aperture: f/6.3

Focal Length: 47mm

ISO: 800

Place: Unknown, Myanmar

Comments and criticisms are welcome! ^^

Time for a shooting day out!

2010-05-07T23:29:00.000-07:00

It's been quite a while already since I went out for shootings.. T__T.. and I'm honestly out of photos to post here.. lolx.. This is the one of the last best pieces I found.. :)

Picture Info:

This was taken together with one of my previous post And then she left me...

Settings Used:

Exposure: 4.0

Aperture: f/5.6

Focal Length: 55mm

ISO: 100

Place: Home, Myanmar

Postprocessing:

- Up the vibrance to get a brighter colour

- Up the clarity to get more details

- Crop

- Increase the contrast

- Increase the orange color saturation

- Do some black clipping a bit

Comments and criticisms are welcome! ^^

Paradasaic Moment...

2010-05-05T07:49:00.000-07:00

Picture Info:

I was walking casually with a friend of mine to the Labrador Park after a movie show..when I saw these two people fishing.. The view of them together with the big bright sun staying amidst the clouds caught my eyes...Lucky that day I brought my camera for some casually shootings.. Please click on the picture to enlarge! ^^

Settings Used:

Exposure: 1/2000

Aperture: f/4.5

Focal Length: 33mm

ISO: 100

Place: Labrador Park, Singapore

Postprocessing:

- Crop

- Increase the contrast

- Increase the yellow color saturation

- Do some black clipping a bit

- Up the vibrance

Comments and criticisms are welcome! ^^

Endless stream....

2010-05-03T08:06:00.000-07:00

Picture info:

Before I started learning photography, I thought the effect could only be achieved by some postprocessing softwares like photoshop... But I was wrong! x).. It's just a picture taken using long exposure. For example, I used an exposure of 5 seconds for this shot with an ND-8 filter attached. Since the water was flowing during the interim the shutter was open, the stream of flowing was blurred.

Settings Used:

Exposure: 5.0

Aperture: f/29

Focal Length: 34mm

ISO: 100

Place: Pyin Oo Lwin, Myanmar

Postprocessing:

- Crop

- Decrease temperature a bit to get the yellow feel

- Fill some light

- Up the contrast, vibrance a bit.

- Add a bit of vignetting

Comments and criticisms are welcome! ^^

Yet another sunset shot (@ Labrador Park)

2010-05-01T09:09:00.000-07:00

Picture Info:

This is one of sunset shots I took at Labrador Park. It is not up to my expectation [well, my skills haven't always lived to up my expectations like always =( ]. I wanted to have a big round sun. Sadly, I couldn't... It was quite cloudy that day. Maybe I'll get one if I go back on a nice sunny day. I have a few more to post related to the labrador park shooting.. ;)

Click on the picture to enlarge!

Settings Used:

Exposure: 1.3

Aperture: f/25

Focal Length: 27mm

ISO: 100

Place: Labrador Park, Singapore

Postprocessing:

- Nil

Comments and criticisms are welcome! ^^

Flower @ Lorong Buangkok

2010-04-29T07:10:00.000-07:00

Picture Info:

Dallas and I went to Lorong Buangkok for photoshooting last week. We didn't take much partly because there was nothing much to take and partly because of the very very very hot weather that day (That's the usual problem that we have usually on photo-shooting occasions).. The following is a macro shot of a flower there. It was just a normal flower which we usually see like almost everywhere.. I just wanted to try a macro shot on that. :). Please feel free to comment or criticize on my photos.. because I feel I really need everyone's suggestions and criticisms to improve my skills.. Click on the picture to enlarge! ^^

Settings Used:

Exposure: 1/250

Aperture: f/5.6

Focal Length: 22mm

ISO: 100

Place: Lorong Buangkok, Singapore

Postprocessing:

- Crop

- Increase temperature a bit to get the yellow feel

- Fill some light

- Up the contrast, vibrance a bit.

Comments and criticisms are welcome! ^^

Shots @ The Helix a.k.a D.N.A. (8-star version)

2010-04-28T07:26:00.000-07:00

Picture Info:

As mentioned in my previous post, here's the another version of the helix taken yesterday with the star filter-8 attached.. ^^. I shall not be posting the camera settings and the detailed postprocessing as they are around the same as the previous post.

Picture Info:

This is a crazy shot of mine hehe.. Played around with the zoom while the camera shutter was open for long exposure.

Comments and criticims are welcome! ^^

Shots @ The Helix a.k.a D.N.A.

2010-04-27T09:05:00.000-07:00

Picture Info:

Finally I'm able to touch my camera again after so many days being busy with job-hunting... ^^.. The following pic was taken yesterday night at the recently opened The Helix (or should i say a DNA-look-alike). The moment I arrived there, I was quite worried if I can get a scenic picture of the bridge or not as there were many people visiting (and so many pro photographers too)... Luckily, there was a chance. :).. The visit was quite fun..and the Helix looked elegant at its best!.. The only bad part was that the bridge is very shaky.. :S.. and there were people trying to jump up and down purposely..lolx..

Oh..as I've mentioned in my previous post, I haven't used my star-8 filter for quite a long time.. a thought came now could be the best to use!...I'll be posting the one with star-8 in the next post as I now have to prepare for the job interview tmrw ;)... Click on the picture to enlarge! ^^

Settings Used:

Exposure: 5.0

Aperture: f/3.5

Focal Length: 18mm

ISO: 100

Place: The Helix, Singapore

Postprocessing:

- Tint the picture a bit to get the purple color

- Increase the purple saturation

- Up the brightness and contrast

- Fill light and do some black clipping

- Clarity and vibrance are increased.

Comments and criticisms are welcome! ^^

Starry Night

2010-04-26T21:25:00.000-07:00

Picture Info:

I was planning to post this yesterday night when my internet connection suddenly went down.. =.=" This is actually quite an old pic of mine taken on the top floor of Orchard Central using my star-8 filter for the first time...

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A little info about star filters:

Star filters create points of light, like "stars," streaking outward from a central light source. This can make lighting within the scene take on a more glittering, glamorous appearance. This effect is produced by a series of thin lines etched into the flat optical surface of a clear filter. These lines act as cylindrical lenses, diffracting light points into long thin lines of light running perpendicular to the etched lines. Lines on the filter positioned horizontally produce vertically oriented star lines.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It's true that star filters are awesome. Changing point-sources of light into stars are undeniably beautiful. Yet, since I've been taking pictures mainly in daylight, they haven't been into use for quite a while already. I guess I might be trying for some night shots in the near future :D.. Please click on the picture to enlarge! ^^

Settings Used:

Exposure: 5.0

Aperture: f/3.5

Focal Length: 21mm

ISO: 100

Place: Orchard Central, Singapore

Postprocessing:

- Increase the purple saturation to make the sky look more purple.

- Up the brightness and contrast

- Fill light and do some black clipping

- Clarity and vibrance are increased.

Comments and criticisms are welcome! ^^

DragonFly..

2010-04-25T04:12:00.000-07:00

Picture Info:

The portrait shooting for yesterday was cancelled due to bad weather. So, my friend Dallas and I go for some nature shooting. I was looking for some nature shots at Bukit Batok nature reserve near my house when I saw this little creature. Well, the first thought that came to my mind was nature can wait! It's been a long time I took an insect close up and so far they all suck! hehe.. So, I took a deep breath, walked slowly towards that little slacker, aimed my camera carefully and kept bursting non-stop :D until it flew away. Much to my relish, one more slacker came into my sight again. hahax.. I felt quite impressed that i can get quite a lot of pics [in the end found out that these are the best pics tho :(( ]. Please click on the pictures to enlarge! ^^

Settings used:

Exposure: 1/125

Aperture: f/5.6

Focal Length: 55mm

ISO: 100

Place: Bukit Batok Nature Reserve, Singapore

Postprocessing:

- Crop the picture

- Decrease the temperature

- Fll light a bit

- Increase the contrast

- Decrease the clarity and vibrance

Settings used:

Exposure: 1/500

Aperture: f/5.6

Focal Length: 55mm

ISO: 100

Place: Bukit Batok Nature Reserve, Singapore

Postprocessing:

- Crop the picture

- Increase clarity by some proportion

- Dodge and burn

- Sharpen the picture a bit.

Comments and criticisms are welcome! ^^

So-called Abstract.

2010-04-23T17:24:00.000-07:00

Picture Info:

As the name goes!, so-called abstract... Anyone'd like to guess what this is? :D... I've never taken any abstract shots before. So, this is going to be my very first one...

Settings used:

Exposure: 1/15

Aperture: f/5.6

Focal Length: 24mm

ISO: 100

Place: ???

Postprocessing:

- Increase the temperature

- Up the contrast and brightness a bit.

- Fill light and do some black clipping

- Decrease the clarity and vibrance

- Increase the yellow color saturation

- Dodge and burn

- Add a bit of vignetting

Comments and criticisms are welcome! ^^

And then she left me...

2010-04-23T08:24:00.000-07:00

Picture Info:

It was taken back in my house in Myanmar when I felt there's nothing much better to do than robbing away my younger sis's collectibles and taking some crazy shots.. :D..

Settings used:

Exposure: 4.0

Aperture: f/5.6

Focal Length: 55mm

ISO: 100

Place: Home sweet home, Myanmar

Postprocessing:

- Put some clarity and vibrance

- Fill light and do some black clipping

- Reduce saturation a bit

- Increase orange saturation

- Add vignetting (i think i put too much :P)

Comments and criticisms are welcome! ^^

Empty...

2010-04-22T04:30:00.000-07:00

Picture Info:

All these time, I'm trying to make a tone of sadness in my photos. Still couldn't get one :((.This is one of the best I can get so far.. xD. It is not a good picture but I'm posting this just for my record.. hehex.. I really hope anyone could tell me how to improve it. Suggestions are very much appreciated! Please click on the picture to enlarge! ^^

Settings Used:

Exposure: 1/125

Aperture: f/4.5

Focal Length: 18mm

ISO: 100

Place: Botanic Garden, Singapore

Postprocessing:

- Fill light and do some black clipping

- Reduce vibrance and saturation

- Increase the shadow tone

- Add tiny bit of vignetting

Comments and criticisms are welcome! ^^

Postscript:

Much to my relish, there might be a portrait shooting this weekend!.. I can't wait for the day to come... looking forward to it and hoping to do my best!.. ^^

The Silhouette

2010-04-21T00:13:00.000-07:00

Picture Info:

This picture is again one of the few pics I took back in Myanmar. It is the silhouette of a pagoda against the bright sunlight. :).. Please click on the picture to enlarge!

Settings Used:

Exposure: 1/640

Aperture: f/5.6

Focal Length: 55mm

ISO: 100

Place: Pyin Oo Lwin, Myanmar

Postprocessing:

- Increase the temperature by a small proportion.

- Decrease exposure to make clear of the "silhouette" effect

- Increase the vibrance and saturation settings.

- Add vignetting.

Comments and criticisms are welcome! ^^

Left Abandoned

2010-04-20T00:52:00.000-07:00

Picture info:

This pic was taken quite a while ago.. I just touched it today.. :D (been too lazy to do postprocessing). It was taken at Botanic Garden on a sweaty photoshooting occasion with my friend Dallas... It was quite a nice place for shooting sceneries (just that it was super hot in the day time =.="). Please click on the picture to enlarge it! ^^

Settings Used:

Exposure: 1/125

Aperture: f/4.5

Focal Length: 34mm

ISO: 100

Place: Botanic Garden, Singapore

Postprocessing:

- Decrease the clarity, vibrance and saturation a bit to make some dark and moody environment.

- Dodge and burn around the seat and the top part of the big tree

- Decrease the yellow color saturation a bit

- Straighten a bit and added some vignetting (suggested by a friend :D)...

Comments and Criticisms are welcome! ^^

I need to be saved

2010-04-18T11:29:00.000-07:00

Picture info:

The following picture was taken on a railway track near Bukit Merah. I've never taken any shots on the tracks before. It was all thanks to my friend Dallas that I could have the experience back then. Please click on the picture to enlarge it! ^^

Settings Used:

Exposure: 1/125

Aperture: f/4.5

Focal Length: 18mm

ISO: 100

Place: Bukit Merah, Singapore

Postprocessing:

- Increased the clarity in lightroom a bit so that the picture looks sharper

- Decreased the vibrance and saturation a bit to make the picture looks emo

- Added a bit of vignetting

Comments and criticisms are welcome.. ^^

The Sun itself sees not until heaven clears...

2010-04-17T23:09:00.000-07:00

Picture Info:

The following sunset pictures were taken from the Kent Ridge Park, Singapore. The day was remarkably pleasant and the sunsets were just perfect. Please click on the picture to enlarge it! ^^

Settings Used:

Exposure: 1/200

Aperture: f/4.5

Focal Length: 35mm

ISO: 100

Place: Kent Ridge Park, Singapore

Postprocessing:

- Removed flare

Settings Used:

Exposure: 1/60

Aperture: f/5.6

Focal Length: 55mm

ISO: 100

Place: Kent Ridge, Singapore

Postprocessing:

- Removed some flare

- Increased shadow, and black clipping to make the pic look a bit darker...

- Increased clarity

Comments and criticisms are welcome! ^^

Photobloggin for the first time :D

2010-04-17T10:25:00.000-07:00

Finally, I decided to keep a photoblog of my own after much deep thoughts. At first, I was reluctant to do so. Part of the reasons is that I'm not the type that does things consistently...

==============A little intro of myself [;)]===============

Name:

Myo (Scarlet)

My Equipment:

Canon 450D

18-55mm f/3.5-5.6

Accessories:

Manfrotto 7301YB

Colored filters

ND filters

===============================================

Serenity

Picture Info:

This picture was taken when I went back to Myanmar for some leisure family trip. It could have been a better picture were it not for my lousy skill. Yet, I still love the overall outcome of this pic. Please click on the picture to enlarge it! ^^

Settings Used:

Exposure: 1/100

Aperture: f/5.6

Focal Length: 55mm

ISO: 100

Place: Sakaing, Myanmar

Postprocessing:

- Dodge and burn...

- Increased the temp, and black clipping a bit to make the pic look darker...

- Clarity, vibrance and saturation were reduced...

- Added a bit of vignetting...

Comments and criticisms are welcome! ^^