Monthly Archives: February 2009 - Page 3

Ismaliana

Posted by on February 3, 2009 5 comments

This will be a quick one because it’s 4am!

This afternoon I had the pleasure of shooting two of my friends for their personal (and my) personal portfolio. The lighting set-up is very simple. 1 SB-600 through an umbrella amd one SB-800 behind the model as hair-light. I will go into more details about it later but here’s one of the shots.

Ismaliana1

Please check this post back again as I will include more pictures and commentaries with regards to the shoot.

The whole idea of shooting Isma is not something new. If you’ve seen my earliest work (which I doubt it), you would recognize her as one of the models during my first fashion-inspired shoot. Believe or not, that was back in 2006; Three years down the road, we are now working at the same corporation…which technically means I see her at least five days in a week. Nonetheless, the opportunity only came about on Monday when she so happen to be hanging out at the location of my photo shoot with Ewan (Let’s just say its suppose to be a photoshoot for Ewan, but it became a photoshoot for Ewan and Isma – separately – not both – don’t get any ideas please :P

Lighting setup, as mentioned above is pretty simple, I had a SB-600 mounted on the brolly (white umbrella) and a SB-800 placed behind the model for hair-light. Due to my excitement, it slipped my mind to take a behind-the-scenes photo to share it with you guys. :S

Isma 2

In this first photo I had Isma sitting on the table. We were trying the Hunchback of Notre Dame pose but we didn’t quite nail the pose. I have a feeling such pose is only achievable with a very thin or lanky model on a standing position – definitely not while sitting down!

Isma 3

Now this second photo is really one of those accidental shot. Recall that I had placed the SB-800 behind the model for the hair-light. When she stood to pose next to the blinds, I had forgotten to move ihe flash accordingly. Thus when I hit the shutter, this is what I get – flare-o-mania. The lighting on the face of the unedited shot was kind of dark, as the umbrella was more towards the right side of the frame. To solve this, I bumped up the exposure and dodge her face in Photoshop.

Typical of most of my portraits, the pictures will go through the certain level of beauty editing. And almost always, I will change the final color tone of the picture. To illustrate this, here’s a before and after of the first shot above.

Isma - Before & After

Hope that gives a mini insider view of a portraiture shoot. Feel free to drop a comment, suggestion or query if you have any!

25 Random Things

Posted by on February 2, 2009 8 comments

Originally tagged by Jay in facebook. Decided to do it but with a twist;  10 random things about me with regards to photography and another 15 really random things about me which you may not know.

  1. I have only one lens in my gear; a 50mm F1.8 (though I just upgraded it to a F1.4 last week).
  2. My first camera, as a photo enthusiast is the Fujifilm S5600 (Oct 2005). It was later followed by a Nikon D70s (Aug 06) and Nikon D300 (Aug 08).
  3. I was shooting solely on RAW till I switched to the D300.
  4. I picked up most of my Photoshop skills by going through tutorials which I found in Google.
  5. I have a bad habit of purchasing photography/photoshop books only to “read” them by glancing through the photos. That being said, there are still a whole lot of books that I want to purchase. Hehe.
  6. As a student, my idol has always been Jay. Never knew or met him till I came back to KL. Funny, we’re good friends now.
  7. On my wedding day I want either Syahrin Aziz and/or Anna Rina as my photographer. Err, no hard feelings to anyone ok? For all you know my preference might change in the future. :)
  8. I edit my photos across 2 operating system, according to where I am at the point of editing. If I’m at home, I’ll be using my still-great-6-year-old PC. If I’m at the cafe having coffee, I’ll be using my almost-nak-mati Powerbook.
  9. I have a few film cameras which are collecting dust: A Polaroid One600, Olympus XA2, Lomo LCA, Holga 120 CFN and a faulty Lomo Supersampler.
  10. The first photo I sold is this picture for usd 450:

Guitar Hero - Kat

Now moving on to the non-photography related stuff…

  1. I’m a blackberry spokesperson. Not. I wish I was though. What I mean is; I can’t live without my blackberry. I answer almost all my e-mails through it and communicate with most of my friends through Yahoo Messenger (big save on phone bills. Seriously!).
  2. I bought a PS2 in 2006 only because I wanted to play DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) with it. I later ‘expanded’ my games collection to include Guitar Hero and a Nintendo DS console (lol).
  3. I was a librarian in high school.
  4. I don’t have a favorite color.
  5. My favorite flowers are daisies. Once in a blue moon, I do buy myself a bouquet for a little mini pick-me-up.
  6. I do wear glasses. However it is (almost always) replaced by contact lens these days. My power is 250 on both eyes.
  7. I bring a sandwich to work everyday. It will either be a chicken sandwhich, tuna sandwich, egg sandwich or peanut butter.
  8. I began using the nick name Ena when I joined an internet chat room on Geocities back in 1997. Growing up, I was always known as Eleena to my friends. It was not until I came back from the States in 2007 did friends address me as Ena. On the other hand, with my college friends, I am known as Elle. Many times, I do find myself confused in introducing myself – especially when its not on photography-related circumstances.
  9. My favorite chocolate bar is Cadbury Flakes (which I can’t find it in KL or in the States!).
  10. I am terrified of cockroaches.
  11. My hair is actually curly. Stubborn curly. I now have it rebonded once every 4-months.
  12. I hate shopping. Most of the time I will only do my shopping when I really need something new for an event or celebration (i.e. Eid) and many times I will purchase the first thing that I like.
  13. I grew up in Sri Hartamas; my primary school was SK Bukit Damansara and my high school was SMK Seri Hartamas. I only moved to Ampang after completing my SPM.
  14. In the span of my 12 years in Sri Hartamas, I moved 3 times (around the Sri Hartamas neighbourhood). Since moving to Ampang in 2002, I have moved 4 times (on the same road!).
  15. I’ve only been in love once – I’ve been single since March 2003. I’m still searching ;)