Here’s an update

I haven’t been taking photos lately or doing anything that needs an update. So here’s one since I had a try at taking photos of lightning last night, so here you go Malfrinko I used a black card to allow for longer exposures without getting it overexposed. Still, it’s not very easy to get a well-exposed image with bulb mode because there’s no metering available. It’s really quite like a trial-and-error situation. Gauge your exposure wrongly and your photo could turn out like this:

Underexposed. There’s a vaguely noticeable lightning streak on the right.

Overexposed. Way overexposed. I don’t know why those spots showed up. Maybe rain droplets because this was a very long exposure, but highly unlikely.

A few things to keep in mind when doing this:

• Try it indoors. You probably won’t enjoy it outdoors and there’s a chance the camera will get wet. Yes, I’ve tried it in both situations.
• Use bulb mode, because this normally requires more than 30 seconds.
• A black card works well to cover your camera’s lens to extend the exposure time without overexposing it. Covering your lens with it effectively means not exposing your sensor.
• Tripod, for goodness sake.
• Avoid a very, very long exposure. It’ll only yield a lot of motion blur.
• Because it’s a trial-and-error thing, just keep shooting. You’ll definitely get a few good ones out of rotten apples.
• Keep in mind variables when a lightning strikes. Expose according to the scene when there’s no lightning and it’ll be ruined once it comes. Try an exposure that’s biased towards the lightning strike, because it’s your main subject.
• Custom white balance. Tungsten won’t do good.

One you’ve got it, you’ll get photos similar to these.

The first ‘usable’ photo.

A 140 sec exposure will have motion blur.

My favourite of the bunch.

I used the 400D and 24-105mm f/4 IS. I find that turning the IS off on this lens is necessary if it’s on a tripod. Otherwise, it just keeps working and makes your photo look shaky.

I think I’ll try stargazing and taking photos of galaxies next. It’s really possible, just use a long exposure on a fast lens (something like f/2.8) and high ISO sensitivity.

Canon Photomarathon Asia 2008

That was last Saturday. It started at Berjaya Times Square at 7am, which was before any shops there was even open. The queue to get your t-shirt, cap and towel went from the front of the boulevard all the way back. There were over 900 participants, mind you. Everyone’s required to wear the t-shirts so, well, KL was painted red. Everything lasted 7 hours, plus uploading time, a photography talk, prize giving and all that. I wasn’t there the whole time. I was something like a street photography walkabout. You just have to go to pitstops and follow themes.

The first theme is Indulge Metropolitan. It’s either their English sucks or they just enjoy twisting the words around.

The first pitstop, or starting point, Berjaya Times Square. It’s facade is HUGE it echoes when they announce the rules and themes.

Graffiti work on a building.

Bustling KL in silhouette.

The not-so-high-rise part of KL.

Noodle stall.

Roti canai man at a shack. Alright, enough of that, let’s head over to Pavilion.

Where most participants ended up early it wasn’t even open yet. So we started shooting around the area. The guards attempted to chase us off but failed. All they can do it blow their whistles and point at us and we’ll strike back with a cheeky grin or stare.

Bukit Bintang’s filled with these posh expensive stuff.

Just keep shooting and ignore the guards. Some put on their telephoto zooms so they wouldn’t know what are we shooting.

First pitstop. The general public was wondering what’s going on. Some asked if it was some kind of demonstration and we just laughed it off.

This was my submission for the first theme. The colour wasn’t edited in Photoshop. I only messed with the skies.

Planetside’s Terragen

Terragen is a software for Windows and Mac that renders photorealistic landscapes based purely on the user’s imagination. I find it very easy to use, so don’t worry (: Here’s a quick guide to shoot through. I’m still a relatively new user, so there’s much to explore so this guide is made by someone who doesn’t know how to use it to its limits yet.

Run Terragen first, then choose the colour for your landscape. I’ll take grey as my base colour here.

Before you start sculpting the landscape, choose your camera angle. A focal length-like function can be tweaked later.

Okay, start sculpting the landscape now. Just brush over with your own imagination. THe more strokes you make over the same area, the higher it will be. Right-click and it works opposite.