Lomography | effects

Lomography is one of my interests. Digital Lomo camera is very popular in Asia and I don’t think you can find one in United States (Somehow I got mine). “Minimo” is the first digital camera that is in the Asia market now. I am not advertising the camera or talks cheese about it. As I mention earlier, Minimo is quite a breakthrough in lomography because of its digitalized the whole concept of film-like-look output. However, I do not think lomography should goes beyond the film base because of missing the taste of rolling film and excitement of film processing. The picture below is my first trial for Minimo and I think that’s all. Because it does not seem right to me, at least me.

I was playing with the Holga120CFN past 4 months and it excited me more than I expected. This camera is made of plastic and there is a book called “The World Through A Plastic Lens” is included as a package.

The only things you need to think when you shooting Lomo-Holga are don’t think and shoot even with or without focusing. But there is a trick for newly user of Holga, keep in mind that light is very important for any kind of photographing. Whenever you are shooting in a dim room, use the built-in flash or external flash (where you can get anywhere) for better result or result. What so important about it? Imagine that when there is limited light going through your lens while the shutter is closing where the film is not properly expose to artificial sun-light. Besides, flash can create a whole lot of fun such as double exposure with limited lighting.

One of my interests is shooting black and white. Shoot B&W in Holga can be very deadly. My favorite B&W film is ILFORD DELTA 100 where you can get total sharpness and low speed film (ISO100). I develop B&W in Purdue’s darkroom, so I could adjust the contrast of the pictures. Here are some of the B&W I have scanned.

Next, Lomo-splitter that made by myself, this trick is very entertaining but a little usage of brain while shooting.

The trick is “just think, then shoot and screwed”. The most important trick is that when you turn the node, remember to place the number “at the back of the film” in the center of the window. This will eliminate the blank and black strap in the middle of the pictures.

Supper Natural | Alfred Koh

Super Natural | Night Vision

Not much to say, it is hard to shoot a night time photo, at least for me. Especially the weather here, it was so cold outside and freezes my brain out and that’s the fun part. My hands got freeze after an hour shooting Purdue University’s photos. Anyway, I satisfied my work.

So here’s the tips, wear glove whenever you are outside, bring along “StarBucks’s” Mocha with ya and remember to say wassup to the one who walking by.

Shooting at night is nothing but stabilization. I don’t think there is a man can stop shaking his hand even a bit, at least I could not. It’s a good practice here, to reduce the blurriness in your picture try not to shake too much obviously and the importance of holding your breath. This is a good practice for a photographer to shoot a good picture in a room that without a bounce flash. As you read until here, you shall notice I have not reach the point yet. Yes holding breath is not everything and I shall tell you that Tripod is the boss here. A good tripod really did his job for night shooting. I myself using a lower grade tripod and it seem to me that there is still some tiny vibration in the photo. Wind would be one of the problems because the tripod of mine is light enough to blow off. Next, try not to touch your tripod when you are shooting if there is no wind.

I usually use slower shutter speed when playing around with the pictures. You probably want to let more light goes into your Camera, so a slower shutter would work fine here unless you saved the tripod’s bill. When you are shooting let say a building where the number of lights is limited and even the light are dim, there would not be a problem but if there is a bright lamp-post next to the building, it will definitely hurts the picture. Let say if 20 percents of light from the building goes into the Cam, the bright lamp-post may already delivered twice as much as the light from the building which is 40 percent approximately. By then, the main character in your picture would be a lamp-post instead of the building because the lamp-post will be very bright and your building is like a background. So if you’re looking to shoot a lamp-post, you would not put a sport-light shooting toward the Cam. It’s all depends on the brightness of your main target.

Aperture, I don’t really care when I shoot at night unless you want Bokeh effect. Bokeh effect could be very unique because you can shoot stars all around you. Since I have not get a good F1.4 prime lens, I do not want to talk much here.

Super natural | egg-york challange

This is my 1^st time to shoot sunset pictures. Best thing here is to do some trials. First thing to mention, DT 55-200mm F4-5.6 (SAL55200) was used and Sony Alpha 350 body.

Strategic Spot

Shooting a good picture is not difficult but the thing is to choose spot. Experience plays an important role here because experience tells you where to stand and which angle you should take to get a better result.

For my first attempt, the ground-on-sand angle was chosen since there are no rocks or ladder. In my pictures, I could not get a sea and “egg-York” together because I couldn’t get to the other side so instead of sea, I chose the sand and some people there to bring out romantic’s feel.

Controlling

Since there is a lot sun-light going through the lens, so I don’t find any problem adjusting aperture. However if you concerning the bokeh effect:

- Bokeh is derived from Japanese words ぼけ which means blurred. You can get a nice picture by mastering Bokeh effects because the main focus is more concentrated when its background gets blurred. F1.4 to F2.8 would be something good for Bokeh.

Then maybe you want to concern choosing a low aperture. Since I am doing sand, people and “egg York” all together without blurriness, a higher aperture should do a fine job. By adjusting the shutter speed would do everything in my case because my concern is only brightness and dimness.

portrait’s shooting + dslr

I have shot tons of pictures, but not much has its own character. Whether how to bring out the character, it’s photographic. At least for me, it is hard to determine a main character for every picture I have took. So every time I take a picture, I will think twice before shooting.

A good movie may have good main actor or actress, but a better movie should have both main and sub actor. Same as photographic, delighting the main character in your picture, suitable sub-focus could makes the image shaper than you can imagine. So angle makes the different. * it is not necessary to consider my opinion*

object shooting would be one of my favorite, because of the Focus-on object that makes the picture has his own story in it.  When shooting an object, the item would be close-up and focus on. Without using any flash could makes the different because a natural picture is always better then add-on flash. Lower down the aperture is something you need to adjust before shooting. This is because you need to expose the picture so it can takes reflected light. Then try not to focus on multi objects because sometime it will affects the main character you shooting. Thus, leave the sub-focus object further with your main focus if the lens aperture is not low enough. The further between main focus from sub-object, more blurriness you can get from the sub. A lens with aperture 3.5 is enough for portrait shooting, but considering a better portrait shooting aperture 1.4 with 50-mm lens would deliver more advantage from it.  Sometime the main-object would not be necessary on the center of the picture because sub-object sometime is more important then the main-object. Let something blur in the center may give a better result, sometime mysterious pictures could occur.

Every pictures have its own characteristic, that is how a photographer to define it.

First Attempt-lomography

Lomo or Leningradskoye Optiko-Mechanichesckoye Obyedinenie (from Wiki). Lomography is a different world of picture shoting. Lomo is a fashion instead of clearness and sharpness. That’s what make Lomo so attractive to people and that is why I am starting a blog with Lomo. There is a book so called “We Love Lomo” from taiwan which is a very beginner’s book to have before adding cams on your cart.

Recently bought a lomographic camera at lomographyasia.com on 17th July. It’s a pretty cool site. Obviously that is for asia, there is also a site called lomography.com which is also good for international. They provided me a good service because a day after I paid the bill, the package arrived. Why not take a look if you are interested.

So I bought a cheaper cam comparing to the famous lomo LC-A+, which is Fisheye No.2. Nothing is so special about fisheye lens, but a very wide (170 degree) angle and hemispherical image.

First attempt, 36 pcs 35mm film was shoted with the fisheye no.2. Fortunately 17 pcs out of 36 pcs are fine and the rest are blank shot which there is some people get 0 pcs from the 36 pcs. However 11 pcs out of 17 pcs are fine focus pictures and others are totally screwed.

Orange’s User- DSLR-Sony α350

Sony Alpha 350 is my second DSLR camera I choose before was my Sony Alpha 100. Upgraded on the 18th July 2008 by selling Alpha 100 with extra 1850 Ringgit Malaysia.

Why I chose Sony?
Before this, I was convinced to buy Nikon-D80 or Canon but why I choose Sony? Let’s make it simple, the thing that I may concern is cost and free gift.

First let us look at the price, Nikon-D80 hasn’t provide consumer a satisfy price comparing to Canon or Sony. A Nikon-D80 cost 3000+ Malaysia Ringgit but a Sony Alpha350 only cost me 2850 Ringgit Malaysia. However, there is a trade of between Nikon or Sony because Nikon’s DSLR have various types of lenses you can find in the market but with a slidely higher price.

Secondly, the sound when shutter is so different between Sony and Nikon. Nikon have a more smooth and solid shutter sound which is beautiful. Sony lost on this because Sony’s DSLR does not have beautiful sound. As a Orange’s user, I am not satisfy the shutter’s sound. It has a very loud-noise shutter sound which is so distracting when shooting picture. However, there is something Sony has impress me, the Live View mode. With the Live View mode, shooting picture at above high or bottom low is not hard anymore,

Lastly but not least, Sony provided me a very good package compare to Nikon. I got Sony Alpha-350, Twins Lenses, tripod, 2 Filter, a Sony’s bag and a 2G compact Flash with only 2850 Malaysia Ringgit. How about Nikon, a tripod, 2G CF and a bag.

Although Nikon is famous known as DSLR specialist, but Sony have improved so much at the first Alpha-100 with impressive beginner DSLR and now the improved α300, α350, α700(old) and α900(have not release).

However, I do not think Sony is not a good choice for professional photographer because there are limited lenses in the market at the moment.