Extreme low light @ 64 memorial night

I participated at the 64 memorial night almost every year, primary for remembering the national grief happened 21 years ago. It was extreme dark there, as candles are the only light sources in most situation. Thanks to the ISO 6400 of the K20D; together with the large aperture of my Limited lens, I can take photos with easy. I used to choose b/w photos in the past. But with the new Aperture 3, I find the 'Toy Camera' effect suits the mood of the event very nicely, so I use it in this set.

In the first photo, I deliberately cornered the Chinese word "64" by massive black color. This is to echo the Chinese Government's intention to fade out the noises of the 64 issue in Mainland, and all reference to 64 is blocked. Good we still have freedom of speech in Hong Kong.



In this second photo, the words say for itself. It'd a very difficult shot because the hands are waving in front of me. I was using around 1/15s and very large aperture in this shot, and I have more than 10 unsuccessful shots with this. Glad that I was using digital!


This shot is a very standard candle shot. I like the perfect bokeh by the fa77.


This last shot is also obvious: withered flowers by the side of "CHINA RIGHTS FORUM", let me think about the victims in China pressing for human rights.


After a re-visit to my own photos, I found that I included a lot of words in my photos. Perhaps the visual alone cannot say that much, so I use words to enhance my message unconsciously.

SNAP of the Symmetries

Life isn't perfect, so I love to find some perfection with photography. While it may be difficult to get other aspects in perfection, perfect symmetry is easy to achieve, especially with the easy cropping of digital photos.

This one is totally unaltered, not even cropping.

scaffolding and blue sky

With a very cheap digital camera, the image quality is rather low... if you judge from a pure photography point-of-view. However, for screen view, it may have some special mood.

Just tuned a bit of the curve, and add polarization for added surrealism.

Immortality inside the showcase

The intriguing contrast between the immortality inside the showcase; and the man in the reflection who have to suffer the aging as time passes by. Which one you really prefer to be?

Thanks to the convenient curve function in Aperture, I can life-up the shadow conveniently without going to PS.

Pentax launched the new medium format DSLR!!

A good news for Pentaxian!

The spec is not bad, but very pricy!! Luckily I don't use Pentax in the medium format, so no temptation for me to 'upgrade'.

reflection of a closed gate

Another old snap shot with Olympus 4040. The highest sensitivity is only ISO 400, so shooting at such condition is a real challenge. The technicals of this pic is bad: grainy and shake. But I like the mood.

Changed to b/w in Aperture.

Image organization in Aperture

When I was using Aperture 2, I build a 'Project' for each year, and import the folders on HDD into as 'Album' under the 'Project'. However, Aperture 3 doesn't have the option to import folders as "Album' under the 'Project'... it can only import each folder as a separate 'Project', or select images to import into the 'Project' directly.

I feel a need to really understand the concept of image organization of Aperture. And I find this webpage. Great! Since I am old enough to manage slide when I start photography, now I totally understand it.

I decided to:
1) Build a "Folder" under the root for each year
2) When I import images, each folder of the same date (that's how K20D store the files in the first place) will be an individual "Project", under the year folder.
3) I will rename the "Project" if it is of some special occasion, function or job.

Subdued human, majestic mascot

Mascot in showcase looks majestic; while real human humble and subdued before the temple.... how ironic!!

Angel's wings?

Interesting light and reflections are everywhere in the cities. We just have to pay attentions to find it out.

This is an old snap with Olympus C4040, a 4MP ISO 400 DC. The pic is noisy; the cam focus slowly, but I have been snapping around with it for almost 4 years. In snap shots, camera is really not that important. The only thing matter is: you just need to shot more.

"X" / On Zone Focusing

Another non-finder snap by P&S DC. Since I am doing a lot of non-finder street quick snap, the focusing speed of the DC is very important. I was and still using the Fujifilm F10, and the response time is quite good.

For non finder snaps, the old masters will use zone focusing (or pre-focusing), ie. use relative small aperture eg. f/8, and pre-focus the lens to something like 3 or 4 meters, and most common subject will fall into the depth-of-field...... It sounds complicated, but it's actually very simple and basic photographic skill. This technique is getting lesser attentions, and I guess there are a few reasons behinds:
- Modern cameras have very fast and reliable AF system, so there is no need for zone-focusing (sorry for Pentax, the K20D + DA21 combo sometimes let me down in non-finder shots).
- The depth-of-field idea is actually an approximation: ie. the photo will 'looks' sharp for 'reasonable' viewing distance. Reasonable means you are looking at a 4R photo at around 25cm distance. So if you scale-up your photo 100% on screen, it's not sharp at all. Too bad most people do zoom-up on in computer to closely look at the photos, and zone focusing just don't work for this kind of critical scrutinization.
- MOST IMPORTANT REASON: most modern lenses do not have a depth-of-field scale... so there is no way to use the lenses for zone-focusing.

Lovers in a mall

A non-finder street snap with small P&S camera.

B/W in post-processing.

A new camera 'system' design from Ricoh: smart or dumb?

Ricoh announced the new GXR camera 'system', with a whole new concept of interchangable lens... the camera is actually a I/O interface, and the 'lens module' actually includes lens, focusing mechanics, and image sensor.

IMHO, this is a dumb design and this system is doomed. Immediately after I read the news, I came-up with a lot of problems for this idea:
- Cost: every lens module is another digital camera without the I/O. Don't think that will come cheap
- Choices of lens: Only Ricoh is making the lens module. How many choices do you think Ricoh will offer you?
- Reliability of the mount: The mount is slide-in type, with a lot of electronic connections for the LCD viewfinder, memory cards... etc. When dirt gets into the lens mount of a traditional DSLR, you may get a dust mark in your photos. But if dirt gets in the GXR module mount, you may get a card writing error.

Honestly, I can't see any point with this product. I am very happy with my Pentax and DA Limited lenses.

New Digital Camera Raw Compatibility Update 3.1

Released by Apple last week, support for K7 is included. Recommended for Mac x Pentax users.

Silhouette of dead tree

Another tree branches photo against blue sky. With the direct midday sun as the background, I need to carefully avoid flares even with the legendary Pentax SMC, well, that may be impossible with N or C lenses. Of course, you have to remove any filter in-front of your lens.

Strong vignetting is added in post-processing.

A beggar outside the Bank Centre

The original shot was in color mode, and turned to monochrome and add some vignetting.

With the new retouch brush function in Aperture 3, I tried to brush away the saturation of the background, and just retain the color of the subject (the beggar). The result is interesting, but I don't like it. So I just keep with the basic processing.

Branches

Trees are everywhere, and similar picture can be found everywhere. I don't know why I love to take photos of branches. I just do.

Thanks to Apple bringing the curve function to Aperture 3.0. The Aperture 2 has a 4-point Level function, but it's not as good as the Curve command.

Show Window

I like to snap show windows. I always imagine the mascots inside the show windows have their own cognition, they are just not moving. They don't don't feel sad being confined in the crumble space of the showcase, but mocking the human being outside stupid enough to chase materials and fame that don't last....

In this snap, the mascot seems mocking the high-rised office building, and the people inside. The triangle shape of the mascot is also a strong design element in the frame.

Digitally alter to monochrome with orange filter setting (to further isolate the yellow dresses from the greenish background), and added selinium toning effect.

What are you looking for? / On Cross Processing

With the new Aperture 3, there is a lot of different 'presets' of common digital effect, Selinium tone is one, and this one is Cross Processing. Aperture will show a quick thumbnail preview of the effect when you mouse-over on different presets, so you will know how the image will look like before clicking on it. It's real fun!

This Cross Process effect (there are two different cross process presets in Aperture 3) resembles the E-to-C effect in the film age. "E" refers to E6, which is the Kodak process for color reversal slide films; and "C" refers to C41, the Kodak process for color negative films. People actually get this idea by accident: some people mistakenly used the C41 to process color reversal slide, and they find the processed slide to be of high contrasted and mis-colored. Some people like the surreal feeling, and intentionally use E-to-C as a creative tool of photography.

It's the old days. Now we have digital processing, and you don't need to know a lot about technical to try different color effect. Many new programs also have this kind of effect build-in, so all you need to do is one mouse click. HOW GOOD IT THAT!!

An off-finder street snap with wide angle, cropped and leveled. "Cross Process1" effect in Aperture.

"Passed by...." / On Selinium Toner

An old snap with slide (yes, the expensive slide). This shot was shot on ISO100 slide, handheld at approx. 1/4s, scanned with film scanner, and digitally altered to monochrome with Selinium tone.

Speaking of Selinium tone, it is actually more than an artistic style.

In the good old days of black-and-white photography, the photo paper was treated with chemicals. Because of the acidic nature of the 'fixing' process, b/w photos are prone to color fading over time, particular when photos are not washed in running water long enough. For additional stability of the photo-print, an additional step called 'toning' is often used. Most toner will alter the color of the print, e.g. Sepia Toner will add a brown tone to the print. Selinium Toner is the most stable toning chemical, and often used in gallery display.

The Power of Light

The beauty of nature is everywhere. You just have to look for it, and you will find it.

Only minor adjustment in curve.