Spam old pics? I also wan...

1. Sunset


2. Girl


Both pics taken with my A100.

jonlee : Thanks!

empty-ball : When shooting portraits it's mostly trial and error. It would be easier if you have an idea of what kinda picture you want before clicking the shutter.

If you want a full face shot only then get close and make sure the face fill the frame and the eyes are in the upper one third of the frame (general rules of third). If you want a full body shot then make sure you get everything in.

Things to consider :

1. Background. Choose a decent background for your shot.
2. Eye contact or no eye contact. Sometimes no eye contact also nice.
3. Tilt or no tilt. Up to you but like I said it's mostly trial and error.
4. Lighting. How and where you want the light to hit on your subject.

Hope this helps.

Some portraits with no eye contact

1.


2.



First pic taken with A100. Second pic taken with A850

Melv : Burn you back! Haha!

3.

empty-ball : Just my 2 cents.

1st pic
- lighting issue. You need to get more light onto your subject's face.
- cropping. Like what lwliam said - try not to crop out hands/limbs or legs that look like they were amputated. Her hand is cut off right about the wrist. Makes for a not-so-nice look. You could also move the subject more to the left side of the frame so that her arm on the right side will not be half cropped and her buttocks can be whole again.

2nd pic
- a bit soft. How's your shutter speed? Where did you focus on? Did you recompose?

TT info
Friday - ieR, call me up (012 877 0990), can set time to check calibration. fees: 1 mcD... lol

(Saturday) 12 march 2011, KLCC 7:00pm. should be in the KLCC foodcourt. or was it convention foodcourt?

1. ieR - will bring calibration tool.
2. chiahau
3. william
4. kysham
5. albnok?
6. cjlai (still have the film for lwliam? if got, bring ya)
7. zstan
8. emptyball
9. gjtan + 1 Fren
10. shootkk (maybe cannot make it but put name first)
11.
12.

Sunday:
1. CodyX
2. ieR


It seems that the Gary Friedman session is now an open door session with people who has registered getting confirmed seats. I hope to be able to get a standing space on Friday evening.

8tvt : You really cannot say that Sony is treating their A33/a55 customers as testers or guinea pig. That statement is unfair.

Yes. I understand that some people may be upset to find the A33/A55 will not work properly with some 3rd Party lenses like from Sigma or others. But you cannot say that due to this Sony is treating its customers as testers. Here's why:

Fact no. 1
A33 and A55 works with ALL the lenses offered by Sony. All SAL and SAM lenses work without a hitch.

Fact no. 2
A33 and A55 works with ALL newly released 3rd party manufacturer lenses.

The issue lies only with certain old lenses from third party manufacturers. Those lenses were released BEFORE the A33/A55 even existed. So can you blame Sony for this issue with lenses that are going to be obsolete if they are not already out of production?

If every manufacturer has to make their product backwards compatible with all older accessories currently out in existence then we'll never have the iPhone, nor tablet PCs etc.

ahpingko : You've already made up your mind. Just that you want some other people to agree with you.

You've already eliminated the 28mm so left 30mm and 35mm.

You've already said having macro is nice so the only choice left is the 30mm macro lens lor...

Below is my 2 cents. Just saying it like it is so dun angry wokeh?

Are you using direct flash? Can see harsh shadows in most pics behind the subject. You should really be using bounce flash. This is where I found the need to get the F58AM. Not having enough flash power resulting in a not so good shot is really frustrating.

I noticed that in some pics, the background is dark while the subject is lighted (by the flash, I presume). This makes for an uneven pic in terms of lighting. You should try to up the ISO setting to let your cam capture more ambient light to balance the lighting.

Watch how you crop your shots. In the first pic, you've cut off the end of the pillow (it is a pillow right?). Would be nice to show the whole pillow. In the second pic - it would be better if you have shot landscape orientation so that you won't have to crop the person fixing the bride's hair out in such an unflattering manner.

Pic #7 could use some space around the couple. As it is, it is too tight for my liking.

Having said that, shooting a wedding is really difficult. You have to be on your toes at all times. You have to know the whole event's flow and how it unfolds so that you can position yourself for the best shots.

You also have to be an organizer at times and order the couple or their helpers to round up their family members and/or friends for group shots. Yes, sometimes the couple DO FORGET to take a group shot with their OWN PARENTS after getting group shots of all their friends. If you do not keep track of this, it would be bad when you deliver your pics and there is NO shot of the happy couple with their parents! Or there are pics of the couple with either one parent but none where both parents are present in the shot!

Wedding photography is not just about clicking the shutter. It's much more than that and we will be taken to task when certain 'unmissable' shots are not there - like when the couple forgets to take pics with their parents! It's a learning experience each and every time.

Newbieeeee : What diffuser you using? The white ones that cap onto the flash head? Should really throw it away lar... It makes your shots look like direct flash shots!!

Better to leave the flash as it is and strap a small namecard sized white card to it to throw light in front. Stupid diffuser eats up your flash power and don't work correctly.

Yup. Have you seen the F58AM's bounce card? That size is already enough. Point the flash head upwards when there's a ceiling. No ceiling then where to bounce the light wor...

Diffuser will come in handy when there is no ceiling or other surface to bounce light from but when I am faced with that situation I will use a blank, white A4 paper and fold it into half and strap that to my F42's flash head. Shot one wedding that way.

ahpingko : You wanna know how to DIY A4 paper bounce card? Easy lar... Just follow these steps:

1. Find 1 blank, white coloured A4 paper.
2. Fold the 2 shorter sides of the A4 paper together.
3. Find 1 piece of rubber band.
4. Hold folded A4 paper with short side facing up and wrap A4 paper around the back of your F42AM's flash head. Ensure that about half of the A4 paper extends beyond the flash head.
5. Secure paper in place with rubber band.

Voila!

Cost is zero if you can find A4 paper and rubber band! Hahahahaha! It's an easy DIY cause you can find A4 paper and rubber band almost anywhere.

Everyone's invited to the TT! Don't have to ask permission. Just come! Doesn't even matter if you have Alpha cam or not. Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Olympus and whatever also can come join.

When you see one table filled with cams and lenses - That's the table. Just come and intro yourself and then put your cam on the table so that others can find the group too!

ahpingko : When you are using bounce flash, keep this in mind - it's like bouncing a ball. The aim is to make the ball hit your subject. The ball (light) comes out of your flash and then hits the ceiling. When it hits the ceiling, it bounces. So watch your angle. If your angle is not right, the ball will bounce behind you so you might not get the result you want.

Try putting the flash into TTL mode. Don't bother with the manual flash power setting for now.

When you put everything to manual - you have too many variables to work with and will get easily confused.

Hmm... it's weird that the pic with flash and without flash at 1/30th of a second seem to give the same exposure level. This is definitely not normal. It does somewhat point to the possibility that either the flash or the camera is having some problems. We will need to test out your flash on other camera bodies and other flash units on your camera body to isolate the problem.

yuusuke : Welcome to the Orange Legion! Don't worry about upgrading for now. If you do not specifically know what you need for an upgrade, it means you are not ready for an upgrade yet. Just buying a new piece of gear is not exactly upgrading. It's just buying a new piece of gear. It is only an upgrade if you know exactly why you are buying that new piece of gear for.

Ok, I know that there are open air parking spaces in these places and they charge per entry fees on weekdays. I dunno about weekends coz I dun drive to work (I take LRT). You guy can try your luck at the following:

1. Open air space behind the Public Bank tower.
2. Open air space between Hotel Maya and Wisma Selangor Dredging.
3. Open air space between Angkasa Raya and BSN tower.

There are also a few open air parking places along Jalan Yap Kwan Seng. They are all within sight of KLCC and you should be able to walk to the convention center within 10 minutes.

Per entry rates (for weekdays) are between RM 5 to RM 10

clivengu : Yes, there's TT sessions planned for all 3 days. The guys should be gathered in one of the food courts in KLCC as the members come and go in between the sessions. Just look for us at the food court. I'll only be there on Saturday and Sunday.

Tomorrow's TT may not have many people as most of us are still working. But Saturday and Sunday will see more people.

dirk877 : You need to bring pens/pencils and notepads to take notes if you want. Bring your gears along too for the TT and you can get poisoned by test all the lenses there and get some pointers and tips from the seniors. Above all, meet new friends and have fun!!

This post has been edited by shootkk: Mar 10 2011, 04:53 PM

I will be trying to get a space in Gary Friedman's session today. See you guys after 6pm. Didn't bring any gears today. Tomorrow will bring my gears. My session starts at 10am tomorrow.

zstan : Are you coming on Sunday? Your eneloop still with me. I will bring them on Sunday.

Find someone in KL who can loan you a charger.

Alpha Convention Pic Spam!!

Had a blast with you guys the past 2 days! Too bad I couldn't get my 85mm f2.8 lens when I wanted to buy it. They ran out of stock!!!

Guess now I have to pray that Uncle Chin has it...

Wokeh! Pic spam now!

1.


2.


3.


And the BEST model of all in the Alpha Convention and I bet not many of you got pics of this model!!!!


Nighty night guys!!