Enter The Merlion Night

Many Singaporeans never realize, but actually our iconic Marina Bay is a very beautiful sight. Let's put it straight, if it ain't beautiful, why would almost every tourist take the effort to drop by for sightseeing? However, I spoke to many local Singaporeans and not many people appreciate the beauty of our Singapore landscape. They normally say "Aiya, Merlion never see before meh? Only tourist will go one lor!".

I'm a frequent visitor of Marina Bay, walked round the reservoir many times over, but every time I'm there, I experience something new. It could be a new building, new angle to photograph an old scene, or an event. Local photographers might think the scenes in Marina Bay are already "Over Shot" or put it other words, photographed too many times. True enough, there are some iconic scenes that a landscape photographer should have been to and shot before.

Photographing scenes like this can be particularly stressing for the photographer. Although you clearly know the best angle for the shot, but the resulting photo may still be a far fetch from the real professionals. Even if your photo doesn't match up, but at least you know where you stand, and the difference gives you a good indication of the room for improvement.

Here is my take on one of the scenes that are "Over Shot". The Merlion with the Raffles Place backdrop. I'm happy with how the colors turn out and thus I sent this photo to participate in Samsung's
"Breathe Light Into The Night" Photo Contest.
https://www.facebook.com/SamsungCamerasSingapore?sk=app_165517023564572

My entry

And I won the FIRST PRIZE! I'm really glad that I won because the judges picked my entry and not winning by the number of likes/votes. It means a lot for a photo to be recognized, something that money can't buy.

Well, in conclusion, don't be afraid to shoot a scene that is shot by many before, and try to be creative and do in your style to be uniquely yours!

Dynamic Range

What is Dynamic Range?

Dynamic range in our everyday lives, is the difference between the darkest and the brightest part of our vision that we can see. Dynamic range is working in our everyday lives. For example, have you ever walked into a dark room, and found yourself temporary blinded by the dark for a short time? It's because the darkness of the room exceeds our dynamic range of eyes, and our pupils dilate (open up) to allow more light to pass through into our eyes, enabling us to see darker objects brighter, and brighter objects brighter as well. Comparing our eyes to camera sensors, our eyes have an amazingly wide dynamic range!

Dynamic range in photography is simply the difference between the darkest and brightest part of a photo. It is usually expressed in a graph such as the one below. Dynamic range gives us a clue to whether a photo is properly exposed.

How to read a Dynamic Range graph?

Dynamic Range graph, is more commonly referred to as "Histogram". On the extreme left of the graph, the "0" represents pure black, and on the extreme right of the graph, the "255" represents pure white. Anything that lies in the middle is a shade of grey somewhere between black and white. I'm going to keep this simple and talk about dynamic range on the RGB (Red, Green, Blue) channel only.

The amount of a specific shade of grey in the photo is represented by the height of the "Mountain" in the graph. A higher peak shows more shade of that grey in the picture.

I like to quote this example when explaining dynamic range.

1) Take a photo.
2) Convert that photo to greyscale (black & white).
3) Now each pixel in the photo is of a certain shade of grey (or it could be pure black or white, but mostly grey for sure)
4) Take each pixel and arrange it on the graph from pure black to pure white.
5) There you have it, a dynamic range graph!

How can Dynamic Range help in photography?

In photography, we generally want to have a correctly exposed picture. A correctly exposed picture should have a nice peak in the center.

However, do note that every photo is different and there is no perfect graph for dynamic range. Depending the the scene, the graph could have it's peak more towards the left or right, and still be correctly exposed. Or depending on the photographer's creativity, under or over exposing the photograph deliberately can make the picture look better.

Dynamic range of a very overexposed photo

Dynamic range of a very underexposed photo

Before you call the above dynamic range graphs "trash", they are actually part of a group of photos used to create a HDR (High Dynamic Range) photo.

Using HDR can drastically improve the dynamic range of photographs by combining the useable parts (those closer to the center) of the dynamic range to enhance the dynamic range of a correctly exposed photo.

Understanding Dynamic Range for use in Photoshop

This photo needs a little correction. The reason why the graph is skewed to the right is because of the very overexposed background. The subject is of the right exposure, but is lacking a little contrast, and the background is very overexposed. So how can we correct this problem? Now, here is a extremely simple cure for this problem. Navigate to the Levels menu by going to: "Image > Adjustments > Levels" (or CTRL + L). With the levels menu open, you have 3 options to get the right levels for your picture.

Photo edited using auto settings method.

1) Auto - Auto is a no brainer. Photoshop will decide for you what's best and then automatically determine the black and white point. However, it may not be accurate all the time, nor it can create any creative effects you want on the photo.

Photo edited using the level sliders method.

2) Level Sliders -You can manually adjust the white and black point by moving the sliders. Moving the black slider inwards gradually turns darker colors to pure black, and moving the white slider inwards gradually turns lighter colors to pure white. The grey slider in the center can go both ways and it can make greys darker or lighter depending on the direction it's slide towards.

Photo edited using the sample tool method. Sample tools circled in red

3) Sample tool - Consist of a black, grey, and white point sample tool. For example, using the black point sample tool, you can quickly and easily sample a spot on the picture that you want it to because pure black (0 on the dynamic range graph). Anything darker than the spot sampled will be pure black as well. I normally use this tool sparingly, and use it only if I find a known pure black object doesn't turn out pure black when shot on camera. Similarly, the white point sample tool samples a spot on the picture and turns it pure white.


Or if you wish, you can use a combination of 2 or more of the methods, such as using auto before manually adjusting the level sliders. Any method that makes a good photo is a good method. If you noticed little difference in the photos, that is normal. Changes like this are subtle, but after a series of other post-processing, the difference will show and people will be sure to notice it.

There are some other functions on photoshop that uses the dynamic range, but they are generally similar to the levels function. If you know levels, you shouldn't have any problems when you encounter a tool that has something that looks like a dynamic range graph on it. Good luck and have fun shooting!

The Basics of HDR!

So why HDR?

A HDR photo offers a much higher dynamic range as compared to a regular photo. Take for example, a EOS 7D has a dynamic range of 11.7EV. HDR effectively increases this to 17.7EV, a 51% increase! But HDR doesn't come as easy as a flick of a button. Firstly, the settings have to be right, and then comes the post processing on the computer. With more people opting to do a HDR photo, new higher-end Canon camera bodies such as Canon EOS-1D X and 5D MkIII have HDR feature built right into it. I haven't been able to get my hands on a HDR compatible model, but reviews suggest that they are promising.

There are other reasons to why people do a HDR, but increased dynamic range is why most people do it. For me, I do it for the increased dynamic range, and the colors I can create on a HDR.

So why not HDR?

If HDR sounds so good, why not use it all the time? HDR is useful for still scenes such as landscape because if the subject or background moves, it does not align during post processing and cause ghosting (covered later). HDR pictures may not qualify in some photo contest because it may be considered as manipulated pictures under some T&C's.

How to create a HDR?

There are 2 parts to HDR: In-camera settings & Post processing.

In Camera

In camera, go to menu and look for Expo.comp./ AEB or anything other thing that look like this:

Click into AEB and turn the dial on the camera clockwise until 3 lighted strips can be seen below:

(Do not worry if your camera cannot reach +/- 3. Some cameras can only reach +/- 2.)

And you are good to go! I highly recommend a stable tripod when shooting HDR, and using the timer function on your camera to reduce all possibilities of camera shake. I also recommend shooting in RAW file format if possible, and turn off image stabilizer if your camera lens has one. (Some professionals claim that image stabilizer will degrade image quality when shooting on a tripod. Well, the thing is, you don't need image stabilizer if you're on a stable tripod anyway. For me, my landscape lens does not have image stabilizer anyway.)

Take a test image and check that there should be one underexposed photo (-3.0 EV), one correctly exposed photo (0 EV), and one overexposed photo (+3.0 EV). Once you see them, you're on the right track!


Post processing

In post processing, there are several software that can help you combine and process your HDR files. I use Photomatix to combine the pictures together before sending it over to Adobe Photoshop for more post editing. Photoshop allows you to combine HDR files as well, but I felt like it doesn't serve my needs as well, so I'll still go with Photomatix.

I shall not post too much screenshots on basic Photomatix functions because they can be found in the tutorial within the application.

1) Open photomatix
2) Click "Load Bracketed Photos" and load the 3 images shot at -3.0 EV, 0 EV, and +3.0 EV.
3) Accept the default settings and press OK.
(There is 1 checkbox to reduce noise and 1 to reduce chromatic aberrations left unchecked by default. I don't find these feature useful because it don't see a difference in it's noise reduction feature, and I prefer to correct chromatic aberrations later in Photoshop later for more accurate results.)
4) Skip the "Selective Deghosting" step by clicking OK.
(Ghosting occurs when subjects or objects in the photos differ between the images used to build HDR. It is rather tricky to deal with ghosting, because Photomatix does not resolve ghosting well.)
5) You are now presented with a horrible HDR picture. Don't worry. Things will change for the better. Save this image by going to "File -> Save image".
6) Click on the button "Tone Mapping / Fusion" and instantly, your photo looks much better now.

You can accept the default settings or choose one of the presets available, but they don't work well for good photos.

Now for the most important part of this tutorial! Playing with the sliders. We are not going to use all of the sliders. About 6 to 7 at most.

- Strength: You can adjust the slider keeping in mind not to destroy any colors that you would want to work on later. For example, pushing the slider to 100 will turn most of the sky to dark blue, almost grey, which is something we don't want to edit on. Be sure not to push the slider too low, or some parts of the photo will overexpose. I usually keep this slider between 60 to 80.

- Saturation: A little saturation may make the photo look great, but I don't like the saturation colors on Photomatix. So I will normally keep it default, or push it up a little to get the color to work on Photoshop later. I usually keep this slider below 60.

- Detail Contrast: I skipped Luminosity to be edited later. Although I like my photos nice and detailed, this slider creates too much noise in the image for the small amount of extra details it can bring out. The effect quite similar to using unsharp mask on Photoshop. I won't recommend, so use this sparingly.

- Lighting Adjustments: This slider increase the brightness of the light areas and decrease the brightness of the dark areas when pulled to the right, and vice versa. I usually keep this value low, between 0 to 3.

- Luminosity: If your photo turns out a little dark after Detail Contrast and Lighting Adjustments, you can adjust this slider to bring it back up to the correct brightness.

- Micro-smoothing: This slider smoothes out small details and reduce noise, but too much of it makes the photo look like it has less depth. I normally keep this low, between 0 to 4, as I can tackle the noise later in Photoshop.


I normally do not touch the rest of the sliders for a basic HDR.

When you're done, hit the "Process" button! Save the photo and you can bring it over to Photoshop for more editing! If your photo looks rather similar to the default, don't worry, because subtle differences goes a long way in photo editing.

There you have it! You have a HDR image! If you like this tutorial, don't forget to like and share it! In the next part of this tutorial, I will talk about editing the HDR photo on Photoshop, and how to make them "POP"!