Lotus Love

In one of my previous post, I mention about a photo contest that I've participated. I wasn't planning to put my contest photos on the blog, but since I'm not done editing my other photos, due to usage of a new and unfamiliar technique, I'm deciding to post this picture.

I love this picture, and it's one of my favourite, and I hope you love it as much as I do. Please comment! =)



Camera settings:
Focal length: 55mm
Exposure time: 1/50 second
F-stop: f/8
ISO: 100
Exposure bias: -0.3 step
handheld

I'm thinking of making some simple photoshop tutorials as well, but not so soon, since I'm really busy everyday.

Panorama Sunset at Kent Ridge Park!

Another type of photography I recently picked up is Panorama effect. It's basically just a super wide angle shot that is really long.

It's actually really easy to make with photoshop, and some controlled shots using a tripod. To date, I only have 4 edited panorama photos and I'll be posting one today.

This shot was taken at Kent Ridge park, one of my favorite places, cause after shooting, can head downhill and enjoy some famous duck rice! The sunset on that particular day was the best of the 4 times I've been there, and so I decided to take a panorama shot to better show the beautiful clouds.



Camera settings:
Focal length: 18mm
F-stop: f/6.3
Exposure time: 1/4 second . 1/2 second
ISO: 100
Exposure bias: 0 step
Mounted on tripod
Panorama stitched together using 2 photos

Lots of editing has been done, so much I also can't remember what I did...
Editing this is tough as the exposure time for the 2 photos are different, so it's hard to match the photos (but i tried my best).

EDIT: I re-edited the files again to see if I can do it better with my current Photoshop tools and skills, and turns out to be less contrasty and more pleasing maybe?

Joy of children - part 2

This is another shot from the Marina Barrage shooting session. This is scheduled to be out yesterday, but I was too excited with my Helix shot, and decided to put this to today. I'll be posting the other helix shots after editing, which won't come soon.

New equipment coming! Finally all plans are in place and hopefully I'll be able to get my Canon 580EX II next week. Hopefully by then, I'll be able to take better portrait shots.

Now for the picture:



Camera settings:
Focal length: 50mm
F-stop: f/1.8
Exposure: 1/2000 second
ISO: 100
Exposure bias: -0.3 step
Handheld

Don't forget to leave a comment, cheers!

Crazy shots of The Helix Bridge at Marina Bay IR

What a fruitful day! Today is the opening for Marina Bay Integrated Resort, and being shutter bug, I'm there to snap some pictures for the record.

The highlight would have to be the Helix Bridge. Shaped like DNA and amazing colourful, it's an attraction by itself!

This shot was taken today, and because of the people walking on the bridge, the merged HDR is very noisy. I'll probably have to re-shoot this or upgrade my editing skills.

So the title says crazy shots right? Unfortunately, I only have time to edit one picture tonight, since each photo takes me over an hour to edit. So enjoy this crazy shot for the time being!



Camera settings:
Focal length: 18mm
f-stop: f/3.5
Exposure time: 1/2 second . 1/8 second . 2 seconds
ISO: 100
Mounted on tripod
Added Star 4 filter

Processing:
Merge to HDR
HDR balacing
Crop
High pass sharping
Levels
Edited colours
Edited curves
Adjusted Chromatic Aberration
Noise reduction (3 pass)
Contrast and brightness editing
Fill lights and blacks editing
Blur tool

Tiny white flowers

In the last post, I mention about sharing more photos taken with the 50mm f/1.8 lens.

Today picture isn't a great shot (but it does make a cute thumbnail), but it demonstrates the narrow depth of field that an aperture f/1.8 can produce. However, this lens does not feature a good magnification, so it's not good for macro shots like this (there is a dedicated 50mm Macro lens by the way)

This flower is about the size of a fingernail, so it's a little hard to aim at. And the winds make it even tougher.



Camera settings:
Focal length: 50mm
F-stop: f/1.8
Exposure time: 1/2000 second
ISO: 100
Exposure bias: -0.3 step
Handheld

Processing:
High pass sharpening
White balance
adjusted individual colours
Vignetting

Joy of children

Thanks to everyone who dropped by and nang me in Nuffnang, it has been a great help to promote Dallas Eye to the masses.

Today's picture that I'm sharing is taken with a 50mm F/1.8 lens at Marina Barrage. Yesterday's photo, today's, and maybe the photos for the next few days will be taken with this lens.

More about the 50mm F/1.8
I bought this lens about 3 months ago, but I hardly use it. Although I like the sharpness overall image quality of this lens, but the 50mm fixed focal length can be quite a challenge to use when walking around. This lens is amazing for portrait, to get the perfect background blur you need. Below is a photo taken with this lens:



Camera settings:
Focal length: 50mm
F-stop: f/1.8
Exposure time: 1/800 second
ISO speed: 100
Handheld

Kids, always brings joy to the people around.

Abstract photography can be anything

Finally, I went to the Marina Barrage today! It's the second time actually, but my first time snapping around there.

So my photobuddy, Myo, uploaded an abstract photo yesterday, and I haven't posted any of this style, so I wanna give this field a try.

Photo taken at the Marina Barrage. It shouldn't be hard to guess what this actually is.



Camera settings:
Focal Length: 50mm
f-stop: f/1.8
Exposure time: 1/4000 second
ISO speed: 200
Exposure bias: 0 step
Handheld

Only editing to the photo was to make it black & white.

Flowers make me happy!

Yes, its flowers again. And there will be even more photos of flowers coming up, after the result release of a nature photography competition that I've participated.

This is one of my favourite pictures taken at Hort Park. In my opinion, its the best place ever, if you love flowers and nature. The variaty of flowers is just amazing, and new species come in every now and then.



Camera Settings:
Focal Length: 55mm
F-stop: f/5.6
Exposure time: 1/80 second
ISO: 100
Exposure bias: 0 step
Handheld

Leave me a comment! Cheers!

EDIT: I forgot to mention, this photo was not enhanced in anyway. 自然就是美！

Photography lessons, anyone?

It is quite important to attend photography lessons. I remember the time, when I'm in poly where I taken an extra module called: Revealing eye in digital photography.

I didn't have any camera that time. My only Canon IXUS was lost, and I only had my phone. Nevertheless, I still took that module, and it kinda spark my interest in photography. Oh, did I mention I only got a C grade in that module? haha! I still remember the basic techniques the lecturer taught.
This includes: Rule of thirds, Frame within a frame, and leading lines, etc etc...

Of course, there are other ways to learn, such as looking at other's pictures!

And presenting a picture with the one of the basic techniques: Frame within a frame



The orignal picture will scare you, so better not see, ok?

How Photoshop can save your life!

Today, it's a slightly different post. Instead of posting the end product of a picture, I'll be posting the original, so you see how Photoshop changes a picture.

Before:


After:


Camera Settings:
Focal length: 42mm
F-stop: f/5
Exposure time: 1/320 second
ISO: 100
Exposure bias: 0 step
Handheld

5 mins to photoshop this picture. I have done: Straighten picture, high-pass filter, white balance, dodge and burns, colour correction.

Flying in the air!

Sharing this picture taken from a plane from an unknown location in the sky.



Camera settings:
focal length: 18mm
F-stop: f/3.5
Exposure time: 1/2500 second
ISO: 100
Exposure Bias: 0 step
Handheld shot

White balance to bring out colours and high pass filter for sharpening. Actually, the original photo looked pretty much like this already.

Meet my PhotoBuddy - Myo

Meet my PhotoBuddy, Myo!



He's the one that goes around shooting around the island with me all these while. After 1337 years, he has finially decided to make a photography blog, so please visit his blog at: http://itcouldonlybe.blogspot.com/ and show some love!

HDR at Lorong Buangkok

Welcome to my new readers from Contest Junkie! I hope you can bear with me while I slowly upload more of my pictures. And thanks to the other readers for revisiting!

Today, I finally travelled to Lorong Buangkok, the last kampong in Singapore. The experience was pretty good, although I'm a little disappointed. The good part was the nice vegetation, old houses and big pretty flowers that is rare in Singapore. The bad part was the heat, mosquitoes and "modern" houses between old houses.

So here is one of the pictures of the kampong. I used high-pass filter and HDR (high dynamic range), which I rarely use, for this picture.

Camera settings:
Focal length: 10mm
f-stop: f/3.5
Exposure time: 1/2000 second
ISO: 100
Exposure Bias: -3 step, -1 step, +1 step
Mounted on un-extended tripod

Photomatix to generate HDR image, then photoshop for high-pass filter, finally lightroom to tweet almost everything.

Enjoy!

Emo Kid at Botanic Gardens?

Photo taken at Botanic gardens. In my opinion, the photo is not nice enough. Also don't know why, just a feeling...



Camera settings:

Focal Length: 30mm
f-stop: f/4
Exposure time: 1/800 second
ISO: 100
Exposure bias: -0.3 step

Photoshop to straighten and crop, and un-sharp mask. Lightroom mainly to tweet temperature and up contrast for yellow and green.

I'm dying to try high-pass filter, but it does nothing for me except more noise. I really need more practice with photoshop....

Old Supreme Court Night Photography

Sharing with you guys this photo that I taken from City Hall.


Camera Settings:

Focal Length: 27mm
F-stop: f/20
Exposure time: 15 seconds
ISO: 100
Exposure Bias: -0.3 step
Mounted on tripod

Edited with photoshop for dodge, burns and un-sharp mask, then lightroom for temperature, noise reduction and Vignettes.

The weather these days is really not good for shooting; very unpredictable weather. Rain, rain, rain in the day, then hot like crazy at night...

Lastly, hope can make it Lorong Buang kok and Marina Barrage this weekend before starting work on Monday. =)

Night Photography at VivoCity!

When I shoot, I always shoot. When I don't, I always don't.





Picture taken at VivoCity level 3. It wasn't that colourful up there, not with the help of Brightly Bold preset.

I love pictures like these, I just need to spend more time snapping at night, rather than in the evening.

A simple red flower

I love nature photography. Some day, I'll buy a macro lens to feed my hunger for close up photography, but that will be at least 2 years down the road, consider a decent lens sets me back at over $1000.


Taken at Botanic gardens. I don't have many shots of the Botanic gardens worth posting. Its either too hot that day, or that place is simply too boring. Or maybe both. I just spend over half my time in a tent, escaping for the heat.

On other note, I recently attended Nuffnang's first blogger's symposium. I was there, signed up under leonny from http://www.oureverydaythings.com. Always wondered why one recommends photoshop when clearly lightroom will be a more useful tool? I'll talk about that next time...

Freezing and flowing water

Bored again, as always, when I'm not outside shooting.

A crude attempt to combine 2 pictures of Freezing and flowing water together.

Photo taken at the Botanic Gardens, both handheld, regret not setting up tripod for this shot.

My first post!

First, a little about myself.



Name: Dallas Goh
Age: 19
Gender: Male
Passion: Photography, Music, Games, Rubik's
Camera Model: 500D
Lenses: EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS, EF-S 55-250mm f/4.0-5.6 IS, EF 50mm f/1.8
Accessories: Battery Grip, Circular Polarizing Filter, Coloured / Natural Density Square Filters






First post! Let's start off with some recent photos that I have taken.

Feeling random at 5pm, so I quickly wrote out the post-it notes, and took the picture right before the sun went down at 7.

Taken at labrador park at 7pm. Added ND64 filter to achieve deep orange effect.

At the same position at 7:40. Also used ND64 filter to bring out the purple.