HDR at National Orchid Garden

It's been a real busy month in May! But that doesn't mean I'm slacking on snapping around Singapore.

A couple of weeks before, I finally managed to get my hands on my 580EX II flashlight. It's then I realised flash photography isn't as easy as it seems. I'll need lots of practice. LOTS.

Whenever I'm not working, I'll be playing with my flashlight, learning a little more everyday. I ended up with lots of weird pictures, of under and over exposed photos, and "test" shots. Well, it's part of the learning curve right?

Next step, my first L lens! I tried 17-40mm F/4L before in the past and I'm not impressed by the image quality and almost all aspects of the lens, even though it is an L lens. Or maybe my expectation is just too high.



HDR at National Orchid Garden

I've arranged an outing to National Orchid Garden with my buddy Myo last sunday. Luckily, there's good weather then, and the photos turned out well.

Even better, there is a promotional offer now (I believe it last between the school holidays) and it is FREE ENTRY for students!

Super worth the time and effort to get there. Flowers are pretty and you'll have no short of pictures to take.

Note that this place is in the Singapore Botanic Gardens, and it is a 10-15 mins walk from the main entrance.

Photo taken near the entrance of National Orchid Garden.


Camera settings:
Focal length: 18mm
F-stop: f/5
Exposure time: 1/250 second
ISO speed: 100
Exposure Bias: (HDR image)

Tripod mounted

Editing:
-Merge to HDR

- Edited sky and land seperately in Lightroom

- Combined in Photoshop with layers

- Other minor editings

Enjoy!

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Cute Pink Flowers!

I'm dying to get some sun. Seriously, an office job isn't the best for me. Stuck in the office, no sun, no sweat, no photos. I wished I could work as a photographer, an apprentice for a master photographer, anything to polish my skills.

Enough of day dreaming. Today, I had a crazy idea to trying out my zoom lens, 55-250mm f/4.0-5.6, on some of my favourite flowers at Hort Park. Reason being, the depth of field at 250mm is shallow, and it should make a very nice background blur. However, the sunlight wasn't strong enough and caused my shutter speed to slow, and tada! Lots of blur pictures. By the way, the rule of thumb for taking a clear picture is 1/(focal length at 35mm equivalent). Cut the story short, it means I need about 1/350 second to get a nice clear shot. So I ended up using my favourite O' 18-55 kit lens.

Now to the photo. I bet you've seen its red buddies all around singapore, along the road, in parks, everywhere! But when do you see pink ones? Enjoy this picture taken by my trusty noob kit lens!



Camera settings
Focal length: 55mm
F-stop: f/5.6
Exposure time: 1/30 second
ISO: 100
Exposure bias: -0.7 step
Handheld

Editing:
High pass
Dodge and burns
clone stamp tool
tone curve changes
Clarity
colour saturation changes
Noise reduction (x2)

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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.

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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

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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！

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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...

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