Yeah.. Mavik.. i get what it means when it comes to product shooting. The message of the picture have to be, "Nah! this is our product! have a look." Therefore, the whole product have to be super sharp and not a single bokeh on the product. At that time.. i was too bored, so i tried to put in some creativity to use macro style on the product. Hehe.. din know it turned out this bad.. Haha.. really gotta learn how to control bokeh on photos..

Alrite.. got it!!!

There was one day, i accompany my dad and mum to shopping malls, so i decided to bring my camera along to shoot if there are events going on. Unfortunately, there were no events.. After that we went to chill out at coffee bean.. Besides, dad and mum, i had someone else followed me too.. So here the photography session begins.
SO C&C on anything pls...!! THANKS SO MUCH!

If u wonder why 2 pics only? coz others are pictures of my parents. haha.. if u want me to introduce them too, please let me know! LoL... But first introduce yours to me first, by posting ur parent's pic here too.. =p

Introducing.... Ma Soulmate!

This pic was taken using fill in flash technique.



This was taken without flash.




AND here's a bunch of my study companion's pic. MY HAMSTER! CINNO!! Taking a picture of him was hard.. He's running everywhere he can.. had a hard time taking pictures of him... too fast... When i shoot, i move my camera faster than trying pan a moving car... >< need tips and advices on panning thou. Anyone knows? Anyway, C&C too pls... thanks a lot..

Meet Cinno.



Crawling In The Dark.



What y'all looking at?



Anything down there? (He was actually running towards that side)



Some Action going on.



Please do not hesitate to comment, i'll accept both negative and positive. =) Your comments doesnt poke, they help me improve. THANKS.

This post has been edited by derek87: Oct 3 2007, 01:55 PM

I dont sure whether to say this but i felt nothing special on the portrait pics. Even a normal P&S or camera phone can do that. Maybe just i not an animal lover.

Me too.... the pics look like just another casual pics....nothing too special.

Except for the 3rd hamster pic, that might tell something....but still lacking of something.

U mean potrait pics of the hamster or my gf?

yeah i agree with you too.. i feel there's something lacking.. I just dunno what it is..
Im not good at taking pictures which needs fast brainstorming camera knowledge.. like deciding the right aperture and shutter speed in 1 or 2 secs ... There are a lot of moments of the hamster which is great to shoot and will turn out to be a great picture, but once i point and tries to compose the pic, the moment is gone... he ran to somewhere.. im talking about in terms of 1 sec ~ 2 sec reaction of u shooting it. He just doesnt stand still, not like a dog or a rabbit or something else..

Anyway, any advice or tips on how to improve?

This post has been edited by derek87: Oct 3 2007, 01:54 PM

try to apply the rules of third for your composition, and also depth of field. also experiment with different angles and framing

This post has been edited by soulfly: Oct 3 2007, 03:12 PM

rules of third? u are trying to mean that 4 boxes in a frame? DOF? my gf's pic use kitlens, minor DOF can be put in.

Hey, im a bit confused here la... which picture is bad in composition... be specific... i really want to improve...

for me i think my gf's pic 2 is bad, because i did not control the BG's light well, her cap has over exposure and i psed to save it a lil , or.. at that situation i really need to use fill in flash to get a good picture ? i was shooting two same pics using different techniques to see the difference. So which one turn out better?

as for the hamster, pic 3 is bad because i feel there's lack of something. pic 4 is bad because of wrong shutter speed, and i did not want to use flash to freeze the object, i was wanting a to see movement in the picture.. that was what im trying to do...

all pics tells a story,

Pic 1 - Introduction la... let u guys see the real face of my hamster mah...

Pic 2 - Hamsters are similar to rats, mice. So they do... crawl in the dark.. Just like a stalker, did u notice the right hand lifted by the hamster? Dont u think he's like stalking silently to steal food or whatever... perhaps the background and place i chose to shoot makes the picture look rather normal.

Sometimes you really need to look at a picture long enough to tell what's the story behind and understand the situation when taking that particular picture, whether it's a planned situation ( means u still have time to do trials and errors,for eg studio photography ) or it's a happening situation ( means u only have one shot which takes it all, if u missed it, it's gone forever).

apply rules of third, dof, try diff angles.... i always see the same comment in other threads but very little constructive advices. If u have asked me who gives the best advices and tips, i would say compmac, snowmei, goldfries, shinchan, ac98 , mavik and there are somemore i couldnt remember their names. Looking on the surface only, they look like casual forumers which post forums and chit chat about their pictures and other ppl's pictures. But when u really go in to depth asking them serious questions, they will try their very best to answer your question and to make u clear about things u do not know. Especially compmac, most of the time i see him posting constructive advices on how to understand photography. Come on ppl this is a forum, the reason of posting pictures here is to share... share ur ideas... share ur techniques, share ur knowledge.... share everything u've got in mind. Help others, dont just leave them with their unsolved confusion..

So i think this is what i wanna spit out... Thanks.

Hmm unfortunatelly not everyone is free to spend their time to judge. Dont forget some of the photographer spend their "snake time" or lunch time to see the pics and post the comments if necessery. I consider myself not that good in commenting pics as i am still new but i do really try my best on giving comments. Constructive or not, in life, not everyone is kind enough to give you good/constructive advise. You yrself have to work hard to think what went wrong and how to improve it.

On ur portrait of ur gf, i just wanted to say that such pic can be taken using a normal p&s camera or even a cam phone, so i dont see a value of what sort of a "difference" can a DSLR will make on that pic. But most importantly, that is just a casual pic. I dont see the value of u putting that pic to allow other ppl to make comment of it (ppl might take it as a wrong reason, provided ur gf is rose chin/hannah tan ). You dont need a DSLR or good photography skills to take such pics.

Unless if u dare enough to take her into a park/beach/old buildings/scenery and take pics of her blending with the environment, then i can only see how you use ur photography skills.

I will not make any comment on the hamster pics, although i believe u can do better.

Here comes some of my constructive comments.

GF pic #1
Framing is OK. DOF also good enough but you seem to have focused on her cap and the coffee bean logo instead of her face. From what I see, you should be using the internal flash and has caused a harsh shadows especially due to her left hand. It also darkens the background too much and caused overall underexposure. An external bounced flash shot would be a better solution. Since you have buffer from the shutter speed, you can reduce the ISO to get a cleaner picture.

GF pic #2
The picture suffered from blown out background and blurriness due to slow shutter speed. I guess you have already notice that. Always remember the 1/focal length shutter speed rule if you don't have IS lens. Some people with steady hands can go up to 1 stop below that rule and still take sharp pictures.

Hamster pics
Nice of you to post your hamster pictures. I used to keep a few myself about 10 years ago. Sure brought back memories.
The best of the crop is the third one. It would be better to rotate the picture 90 degree clockwise. It would also help if you have taken the picture at an angle more to your right so that you can face the hamster front on. Nice control of ISO and shutter speed. I don't have comments on the rest as they are not that good IMO.

Hope I'm not too long winded with my 2 sen.

comment on hamster
no.1 err... actually no point shooting like that.
no.2 for me is ok.. i also shoot my hamster something similar to you but not using flash.... but shoot with flash will get like "YOU GET SPOTTED!!" feel...
no.3,4,5 use rule of thirds..

no.4 actually you should try another way... as the hamster don`t potray anything intresting down there... she/he just wanna get down only or fall down....

Yes of course in life. But im sure everyone who post their pictures here is to hope for ideas and advices from others to improve right? Yeah, and i understand in real life there's no more spoon feeding like what we were in kids' age. You really have to make the step urself to improve what u are doing. That's why im typing such a long reply to share my thoughts of what to think before giving out a comment. Comments means a lot to begginners. Learning is never ending, So is photography, you will never finish shooting. I could even do something like shooting the same thing again and again, with hundreds of different ways to get the best out of it.

SO and again, u got it all wrong, the purpose of posting my gf's pic is to let u guys determine which technique is the best to use in a situation like that. Im sure you will also use ur camera to shoot ur family which are not celebs, ur camera is not only for shooting models right?

So when it comes to times like that, what's the point of having a CAMERA not mentioning dslr, when u cant capture the best picture of ur family on casual outings while u can only capture great pictures of model posing for you to shoot while u can do a lot of trials and errors because they are posing for you to shoot, bear in mind. Anyway, im still in a learning stage, this is why i post normal human being's picture to learn more and to be more mature in photography before i go on a special photography planned session with a model. Either a female or a male model, i do not want them to be dissappointed of my photography skills after posing for a day.

And yes, im planning to take her into parks, beaches, scenery to take pictures, and it's because i want to learn to utilize with whatever photogear u have in different situation/environment.

Anyway, travis, u were my first inspiration in photography, because ur gallery was the first gallery i browsed taking pictures with dslr. Not only u inspired me, others too.. i dun need to mention their name. You guys know who. And thanks for taking your time venturing in my gallery, trying ur best to give both negative and positive comments which sometimes helped me.

Yeah compmac, if u didnt mentioned it, i wont realize the cap, the logo, and the iso. I remember i focused on the eye then compose the pic. but why did it turned out to be cap and logo focused. Thanks anyway, i will try again next time.

About the GFpic2, when it comes to situation like that, while the cap covering light entering the face area, and having a bright BG, making it hard to control the light. Is it a must to use fill in flash? I think it's impossible to keep the BG from blowing out and yet to correctly expose the face right?

Thanks, i learn something new today. 1/focallength for shutter speed if i dun have steady hands. i didnt know that.

Glad that my hamster pics brought u memory flashbacks.

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Added on October 3, 2007, 5:31 pmYeah you are right. no.4, he only wants to escape from me taking pictures of him.. Haish.. and i can only use one hand to snap while holding the camera, coz i have to keep catching him, place him back then shoot again. He is friggin fast..

This post has been edited by derek87: Oct 3 2007, 05:31 PM

Do have steady hands when you recompose a picture. You will easily shift focus when you do it with shallow DOF. Try not to breath when recomposing and when pressing the shutter.

For bright background pictures, meter the background to properly expose it. Then use fill flash to brighten up the darken areas. I still haven't master this technique with my camera even when using an external flash.

Good to know that I have helped you out. Happy shooting!

Good spirit. I like it!

Ops my mistake. Perhaps if u mentioned pls comment in terms of lighting, then i might get a picture. You may want to consider a speedlight and try bounce flash. The flash will not looked hash on the face. Get the diffuser so the skin will look more smooth.

Good luck mate. Hope to see some quality pics from u. Learnt frm shinchan, ah leong n ac98 on that. They will give u really good examples.

Wow i am surprised and touched! Just to let u know on my page my pics on the earlier pages were pretty bad, i admitted it. But thanks to all the feedbacks i got here and i learnt from these guys, at least i manage some improvement although i still have a long way to go. You will never know u can do better than me or the some of them here!

This post has been edited by travis_ckf: Oct 3 2007, 05:42 PM

Alrighties! got it, that's what im doing for the first pic. Fill in flash is the way to go. Thanks!

Just drop a tip to u: Photography is not only taking beautiful moments from ur eyes, but most importantly photography must be fun!

travis poisoning ah!!! BTW i always wanted to have a flashgun, but i boh lui leh... still a student here.
ATM, i just funded enough for a telelens, which im still considering which one to buy. After that, then i'll start funding for a flashgun. :grumbling:
Here is the discussion thread.
http://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopic=530407

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Added on October 3, 2007, 5:51 pm LOL having beautiful moments in great quality pictures are fun!

This post has been edited by derek87: Oct 3 2007, 05:51 PM

Depending on the type of photography that you are interested, do consider between the external flash and a low-cost telephoto lens. IMO, the external flash is more important than a low-cost telephoto lens. You can look at compatible flashguns if the original ones are too expensive for you.

OK.. i went to PD.. so i have made up my mind... i really need an external flash... damn... it was hard filling in flash with the pop up flash...

here are some pictures.. comments and critics are most welcomed. just spit out anything u guys want to la..

A funny pic to share.



Learning to snap something which requires reaction and timing = sports, mind the body language of the player, comments & critics are most welcomed.

Derek, while most of ur pics in pd are mainly snapshots, my credit goes to these pics here. Is ur last 2 pics is HDR or did u use any special filters? Anyway brilliant pic, even more brilliant if post processing is not used!

This post has been edited by travis_ckf: Oct 29 2007, 01:05 PM