liewwk Nature Photography Blog
sometime we really enjoy the view do not mean we need a good camera to capture it .. it is always good to enjoy the moment, view …. and even capture with a Point and shot camera, we will still happy to see it
I always bring my Panasonic Lumix LX5 around … and few of my simply snapshot while I am shootnig with my SLR
and just outside the place I stay
so enjoy the shooting today ….
one of the stop of my previous visit to East Coast for details click here
never been a place so beautiful before, saw a clear Milky way while I reach … and it is like total mirror when the light is out … nothing I want to capture except try to show the beautiful and perfect reflection (someone is walking in the river …so actually not so calm while I shoot this)
even I only spent ~2hours there… I would rate this one of the best Landscape Photography spot for Malaysia .. the calm sea water with perfect reflection with angle toward ~135 degree south toward North west …. can do perfect fisherman life shooting, sunrise, salt water reflection …. I am sure I will be there again very soon ……….
milky through nake eye
– was using black card method/finger to shoot this where share it here
and the beautiful of the reflection
and will share more Kelantan pictures here
Even I trust my 5d very much where I could say the AWB (Auto White Balance) accuracy is much better than what other body I use before … but in certain light condition, filter effect, and to have much perfect WB… I still correct my WB using 2 method below
*** before I start, I only shoot raw so these methods only apply with RAW and Photoshop , lightroom … (other software should be same concept but different interface)
A. look for white point
1at some case, I do not have time to shoot 2 picture (1 with grey card and the other without) .. then I will try my best to look for white spot in the picture
2. click on the WB tool on top
3. simply use the pen point to the white point
the color seem more normal but still need little more work to bring back original e.g. contrast, saturation, ….
sample of coversion
B. Grey card, look for grey
I prefer this method where this can be useful to correct WB and even correct most of the color cast … but this need shoot additional picture with the grey card or sypder cube (come with white, grey and total dark)
2. use the same WB tool as A2 above, but this time point to the Grey card or gray part of the spyder cube
– remember the temperature and tint value to apply on the actual picture
3. the correction
.. again, due to the blue cast…. we need little more work to bring back the other colors .. e.g. contrast, saturation …..
do drop me a message if any part of this not clear ….
*** again the final output still need further tune up due to the bad blue cast …
an outing with Lousy Bird (A.k.a shunfa) and Jason (ming Ming). u can see how dirty were them 😀
While we shoot landscape, to get right exposures for both foreground and background (sky) .. it is just not too simple … as discussed previously , we can either
1. GND filter
3. HDR
4. Exposures blending (where we will discuss here)
e.g. of 2 pictures
– normally we refer same sky but just different exposures but for this example … I got same position but the cloud actually cover the Starry sky
– how I do Exposures Blending
i. normally I will shoot one foreground 1st with right iso, exposure and sometime with light painting
ii. continue shooting the sky or background
iii. use software masking or blending both picture together
***for how I mask the 2 pictures click old link here
another test used Photomatix “Exposures Fusion” option
*** not much editing done on the post blending picture
I actually want to share this “black card” quite some time ago .. but I always forget and not really able to get some good result to share … and while I am doing this , one of my gang actually notice me shaking my finger around the front len .. and she did ask what was I doing … 😀 and here you go ….
what is black card method and when will we use it ?
when we having different exposures, I normally do GND filter, exposures blending, black card, HDR …(we not going to discuss all here but share some sample)
A. GND filter
this is just like GND filter, most of the time we have big dynamic range/different between sky and foreground.. it normally have different from 2-9 stops …. e.g. for standard sunrise/sunset/magic hour environment, we face 2-4 stops different between foreground – sky… to resolve this we normally use GND to single frame picture have the correct exposure among foreground and sky e.g.
1. without GND
2. GND
– the sky is ~4 stops different from the foreground…
– I use GND.9s for above picture and do some PP trick to make the right exposure
B. HDR (seldom do this …but think we still good to know this)
– why I choose HDR … this was shoot use my SIGMA12-24mm which cannot fit any filter
– it was too cold to think which method to choose so I simply shoot 7 exposures back 😀
3. black card
– seldom use this as I am not really experience
– filter much easy
– need a lot of try and error but the good light could be disappear any time
– why I choose black card, the environment was dark, not sure how/where to apply GND
– multiple exposures will take double or even more times for single shot
– the exposure different >3 stops
for me I know the area that make me concern as below
– so what I did was, use my fingers block the over expose area
– allow only ~2-3 seconds exposure over 30 seconds exposure, so I block it until last few seconds and I remove my finger
so I get
most of the time we just need try and error, where some fail sample .. think only expose for ~1s
I will discuss more on other method in future … but let’s try and error on black card 😀
it is always difficult to have what you wish to have in frame (except we make the story to capture ….)
A good example, I was looking at the beautiful reflection on beach
*** above picture is ~1.5minutes after picture below but it look about same before too
and what I have with the “magic minute” moment
with the wave, I have no choice to capture it as leading line instead what I original plan to have the beautiful reflection … so do not change yours position even something change but we make the change into our final output …..
**** it is always difficult but we still try our best to capture the beauty of the nature … enjoy ……
this is not first time I shoot Milky, but this is my very first time see it clearly … it was just above us and we can use our eye to see it … am happy able to make this outing [my East Coast visit | April 20100] and thanks for my friends going with me (Shunfa, Jason, Siah, Seesy, Xiao Yi, Ismail, Norhana & Lio) . We had wonderful trip … and could be most memorable trip for me ….
My very 1st Milky was post before here
and here was picture capture few steps out from the homestay …
5dm2 + SIGMA24F1.8
# Exposure Time (1 / Shutter Speed) = 10/1 second ===> 10 second
# Lens F-Number / F-Stop = 18/10 ===> ƒ/1.8
# ISO Speed Ratings = 1600
how to capture this, simply same how I shoot stars which I share before here… except we need higher ISO to get it clearly ……….
Update later
beside standard tools tripod, release cable, ….I using different filter for different situation and effect … e.g. I use super ND to clear silky effect on sunny day which discuss here.
I also make use of CPL to get better colors contrast, reflection, shot the clearness of the water …. sometime I do use it as ND filters too (2 stops) …
e.g. of the highlight of the coconut tree leaf on sunny day
the usage of the CPL just like Photography, it never have right or wrong … it just what you prefer to see … but above e.g. is to show how we use to reduce the highlight of the reflective part of the coconut tree leaf
another e.g. to show the water reflection and the saturation of the overall picture
both sample above show different effect can be archive by rotating the CPL…..
For me, if you serious in Landscape CPL is a necessary tool that always near you so you can have what effect you would like have which not easy archive by other filters or post processing ….
sample
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good news is the Marumi DHG CPL/DHG Super CPL are in-stock now… and thanks LeePhoto bringing in the such a good filters into market
contact me for price for COD near Kuala Lumpur/PJ/any place I reach …. or by courier service here
since last year July till now, I had travel to Malaysia East coast for 4-5 times but it never slow me down to make another visit but it rather make me feel I should visit there more often as a Landscape photographer .. it is a “heaven”, I would say I only explore <5% location up to Kuala Terengganu from Kuantan…. 31 March – 4 April 2011, me with other 8 friends decided to make a quick trip from Kuantan –> Pantai Kemasik (sunrise) –> Kuala Terengganu (Pantai Pandak & Masjid Tengku Tengah Zaharah) –> Kota Bahru (meeting www.photomalaysia.com event, Sri Tujuh…) –> Dungun (star, sunrise ….)
short 5d4n trip, we traveled ~1500KM, managed to capture beautiful sunrise, sunset, reflection, stars …. and Milky way from 2 places …
it going to be slow to share all pictures .. but let’s start this thread and I will be slowly post up the pictures into Terengganu series.
but let’s me start with 1st capture at Pantai Kemasik …
and another after sunrise shot before we continue our journey …
stay tune for more update pictures from beautiful East Coast, Malaysia
Update 6 April 2011 – everyone seem success capture the Milky way … congraz …
