New Home!!!

Hey to Y'all who might be recieving this. Incase you havent noticed the blog has moved to a new home!!! Its still at the same URL but now instead of using blogspot I've shifted over to wordpress (yay!) for a more robust and interactive viewing experience. However because of this the RSS delivery page has changed slightly, so you all might want to update your feeds. Its simple to do, I've setup an RSS button on the sidebar on the blog url, or just type in www.blog.sbalaniphotography.com into your RSS reader and it should detect the new address! Happy Readings!

DPS Weekend Challenge

So, I've decided I'm going to try to do the Digital Photography School weekend challenges, since obviously doing a 365 project is just too taxing atm :(. Which is a pity because I'd really love to be able to. I was inspired by stormtrooper 365 to do something with toys daily but I just dont have the time, so I'm sticking to weekends now. That and Photochallenge.org's monthly- week by week challenges are all I can do now on a day to day basis I think.

Anywais Enjoy the final image of the weekend challegne: Shadows!

The Idea was to have shadows involved in the image. Of course something easy, everything makes shadows. But the trick was to make them an important or creative part of the image. I really like how the clone trooper is backlit, but there is enough light seeping in so you can tell what it is (i hope). I'm looking to buy more toys so hopefully those should lead to some interesting pics :D. In the meantime Enjoy!



This image was processed entirely in lightroom. I didnt have time to bring it into photoshop, but I think I will try to do so from now onwards, at least for my fave pics, I've noticed I'm still not particularly happy with lightroom sharpening over unsharp mask...or maybe I just dont know how to use it, but I find photoshop holds back grain much better....anyone concur?

More Hong Kong

So here is a continuation of my series of Images from Hong Kong. I do apologise for last weeks dissapearance due to technical dificulties (aka rats arsed internet connection), so without further ado...

Thus my time in HK approached a quick and unwitted end, and much to my dissapointment my camera had spent far too little time sitting around unused. I was determined not to leave the city without getting a few pictures! So on the morning of my departure I strapped myself to the roof of a moving vehicle (actually  I just popped my head over the sunroof, and shot like a madman. Of course I made some stops too, as fortunately y flight wasnt till later that evening. And so here are my results after a frantic run-around HK.

A lot of the pictures are some I wanted to do at night, but due to time restraints I was unable too....but Deff somehting I plan to fix on my previous trip.

I also realised I've been getting VERY sloppy lately with my post-processing, resulting in minimal if not nil  image adjustment resulting in my images not being all they could be. So although it will slow down my uploads, I have decided to take a step back and get back to properly post processing my images. Well thats enough rambling from me! Enjoy!












As you can see a lot of these were taken up high, where my aunt and uncle live giving me awesome views of the city. My next trip over these will be night shots as the city really lights up at night!

Talk about an 18th!

A few weeks ago was my little baby bro's 18th birthday. And boy did he get a birthday, trip to HK, friends party, and family party. And of course like any birthday, cake was involved! And boy what a cake! I think I'll let the Images speak for themselves. And of course being the strobist afficionado that I am, I lit the bajeebers our of everything :D. I think my family are still recovering from spotty eyes. I'll let you all know how that goes :D.

Desert Before the Cake

Lit my cousin from his front, I was very pleased with how the lighting came out! I'm reminded of some old Adidas ads. Anyhow, as usual the flickr version appears to loose brightness when going from Lightroom to Flickr. And as always I forget to crank it up...DOH!

The Cake

My brother's amusement

what was left of the cake after............

Shab-zilla got to it O.O

The out-take AHEM!

Hang Kang!

Firstly I'd like to thank you all for your numerous comments on my Ipad post (ahem ahem!). The input was overwhelming, I simply could not keep up with everything you all had to say! -.-. However I must press on, for those of you suscribed to my flickr you will have enjoyed a healthy dose of these images already. For those that havent here we go!

I was fortunate enough to go to Hong Kong a few weeks back ( I think about 2-3 to date), a city which I absolutely love (although few will trump  the adoration I have for my one true love, London :D). It was a fantabulistic experience! I cherished the oportunity to reconect with old friends, and of course photograph what I could of such a vibrant and busy city. Unfortunately since I was there for other reasons my camera didnt make it out as often as I'd like I did manage to get a series of descent chance shots, so here are some for you all to enjoy! And as you'll notice the flavour's a little different from the last set of Images I took on my previous visit to this city. Oh yes and have I mentioned, I absolutely LOVE shooting with the D300. Its noise reduction capacity for a camera of this level is just mind boggling, I'm no longer afraid to push the envelope to 800 or even over a thousand ISO. I love it! Makes shooting with sub 2.8 lenses that less painful :D






More after the jump! (means click the more link if you're on the home page to see the rest of the post :P)

Apple, good, bad or draconian?

So I read a post on Scott Kelby's blog recently about the Ipad and photographers, and how it affects us. He brought up some very interesting points which I thought to address further over here. I've been told by several many people, and I'm sure that I'll continue to be told that I dont "need" an Ipad. Now I wont go into that discussion here, but as far as I'm concerned I do also WANT one (However I still to think I also need it, but thats a discussion for another time). Some people love it, some hate it. Some say it will never survive, with all the other tablets that are comming out, that theres no flash, etc. This is all true, but wasnt much the same said about the Iphone? And look where it is today. At the very least the Ipad will take the creative industry by storm. With the exception of flash the Ipad is the perfect creative tool. Its fast, snappy, gorgeous, easy to carry, and although simplistic you never have to worry about bogging it down with too much junk. When going to a meeting, presenting photos, etc, the most embarrasing thing one can have is a slow computer. next....next next shit nothings happening only to have it after a minute skip to the end of the slide-show or presentation. Not good. Although the I-series devices are very restrictive you can be sure you wont suffer a problem like this, so it has its pro's and cons.

Now as photographers I know for a fact many are starting to stress about the lack flash support. I've been told that Flash is the WORST format in which to design a website IF you're interested in SEO. Most photographers are not. They just want a pretty page to show off their potfolio. In fact thats what we have our blogs for. We count on the blog making the hits in the search engine, and thru the blog have the portfolio found. its quite a symbiotic well worked relationship. But with the coming of the Ipad, with web surfing on it a prevalent factor (I know my bedside, poolside, dinner-table side, and couch side surfing whilst watching a movie will all be done on my up-comming Ipad :D), Flash using photographers and designers are left with less options on how to present their portfolios :D.

Fortunately HTML 5 Comes to the rescue! Despite not being the standard yet most new iterations of the big browsers (Opera, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, IE(?!?!?!) ) come well equiped enough to handle anything HTML 5 can throw at them (I think). With things like javascript, jquery and microsofts own silverlight (I beleive its supported on the I-stuff) there are a few other options in rebuilding interactive, moving pretty portfolios. What will you do? Lightroom already offers a few basic Jquery options but are they enough? is it too "cookie-cutter" so to speak? I for one am planning to integrate a portfolio of sorts into the blog by having a moving header with Jquery. What will you do though? Will those of you who have static portfolios make a jump? what about flash users? let me know!

Saturday Tid-Bits

Hey guys!

Lots of news to get thru this week, its been quite eventful as I'm sure many of you know! Lots of new toys coming for us all to play with! The Ipad, Ipod 4.0, CS5, Wooh! I'm sure if you're any kind of tech reader you know this by now! Are you excited? Dissapointed? Stoked? I for one am pants on head excited! (term coined from Yahtzee over at the escapist magazine). 2010 is turning out to be one heck of a year! This coupled with with those constant game releases (Almost done with AC 2, bout halfway thru on Bioshock 2, and dont get me started on Dragon: AofOrigins. Still got Mass Effect 2 on my list and Just Cause 2 to pickup and probably the best Splinter Cell Game I've ever played (at least on the demo) Comming Up. AHHHH not enough time! To top that off we got Glee next week, and A brand new season of RedVsBlue. I'm in geek heaven. In between all this I need to squeeze in two jobs aswell as photography and design time. Not to mention I'm also learning to program for the Iphone (why do I feel that these Items should be prioritised differently o:)) God knows where I'm going to find the time....oh did I mention I'm also back into comics? And feverently learning japanese more so than ever? Yes I'm nuts. Anywho I'll stop on rambling. I've got another post comming up just for that :D, in the meantime enjoy these pics of Manila I've taken here there and around!








OH P.S. You will all be happy to know, after being the advocate of Worpress for the longest time, and recieving several complaints to make the jump the new website design has been finalised! :D. Now comes the fun part.....coding.....ugh, I'll keep you all appraised on how that goes! But if all goes well the move should be done in a few weeks! Enjoy!

Inspiration!

As part of my daily reading I came accross this on Abduzeebo http://abduzeedo.com/awesome-multiplicity-photography

I think I'm going to play around with this concept! :D Its got some potential for some mighty zany portraits! (and simply some of the individual characters gave me some ideas too, stay tuned folks!

HDR Software Review: Hydra

So I recently got the oportunity to play with & review  an interesting piece of software (review also featured at http://www.sevenbyfive.net/), Hydra from the company Creaceed. Its an interesting piece of HDR Processing software, with lots of potential but unfortuantely brought down by a few minor faults. 

Enjoy the review below :) :

Firstly, What is HDR?

The term has recently entered the jargon dictionary of most photographers out there is HDR. You hear it mentioned regularly by the guys at Photoshop user, and intensively featured again and again in various magazines at different levels of photography. Almost to the point where it needs no introduction. However everyday the art that is photography sees more and more users pick up an SLR or semi-SLR camera, often overwhelmed by what is available in the market. Brands, Lenses, Techniques, Photoshop etc. For those who have only recently began to dip their feet in high end digital photography, or decided to expand their horizons and try out this "HDR" thats been so raved about one must first delve into what HDR stands for. High Dynamic Range. If you're still as confused about what this all means as you were a moment ago, not to worry. Dynamic range is the range that a light sensory device can attain when capturing and interpreting detail within the light. What this means is that whatever the dynamic range of a device is, defines the amount of detail that can be captured within a specific range of light from zero darkness, to so bright its all white. This is why often in cameras when shooting directly into the sunlight either our family is well lit, and the background is completely white, or our backgrounds are relatively well lit with detail, and our subjects are often obscured in darkness. This is because modern camera's simply cannot process the entire light spectrum from absolute darkness to fully white in the same image, unlike our eyes which perform much better because humans have a much wider dynamic range. In the past to combat this often a sacrifice was needed between light and dark, or in more recent times, using flash to light your subject out of the darker bottom of your camera's dynamic range allowed one to successfully balance backgrounds and foreground. However lighting a subject may not always be the desired solution to a lighting situation. Often in landscape situations there isn’t a subject to light that isn’t the building or landscape. So what do you do, if you're shooting in a cathedral, with light oozing in thru the rafters creating this beautiful scene? Only to realize your camera will only let you expose so that those beam of lights are surrounded by darkness loosing the gorgeous detail that is the cathedral except for what’s lit? Or do you keep the cathedral and blow out those shafts of light. Curse my camera's dynamic range you think! (Or not). You're on location and certainly not equipped to expose for the shafts of light and flash the bajeebers out of that cathedral. So what do you do? Well you do expose for both! Thankfully modern Image processing has come up with a technique (HDR) which allows us to artificially expand our camera's Dynamic range by shooting the same scene at various ranges, and essentially piling the various exposures on top of each other to recreate the scene our eyes gloriously basked in which was being, "under-appreciated" so to speak by our camera. And the best part is, all you need is your camera, and one of many available HDR software available out there. Making it a quick, easy and professional solution to capturing those scenes just as our eyes saw them. Ladies & Gentlemen the magic of HDR

The Software

The HDR Scene has been predominantly dominated by Photomatix with their Lightroom Plug-in, or standalone version. Made easier as such by Lightroom's ability to quickly "merge to HDR" in Photoshop, creating a merged Image in Photoshop which could quickly have the photomatix plug-in filter applied to it, to bring out more customized sections of the dynamic range. Enter "Hydra" another contendant in producing those lovely HDR Images we all love. Available only for Macs in Aperture and Stand-alone flavors (coupled with a lightroom plug-in). Presenting itself in a lovely and what appears to be, simple UI, the software appears to be very promising indeed. Unfortunately this is not the case as its simple interface is essentially its downfall. Like most users who consider themselves computer literate, I quickly delved into the software not interested in going thru guides, or documentation. However I quickly discovered that this would unfortunately be inevitable. With various unexplained modes, buttons, tabs and jargon, I was at a loss of where to begin or what did what.

Being a heavyweight lightroom user my first priority was to install the advertised lightroom plug-in. This was unfortunately not explained and took me about 30 minutes of scouring their website and Google before figuring out there was an install option located inside hydra’s file menu. Having accomplished such, I went into Lightroom, and selected six of the images from my recent trip (a landscape) to convert to HDR. As opposed to using the “merge to HDR in Photoshop” function, Hydra requires you to use the export panel to make use of its plug-in. So I dutifully exported the Images, using the originals to maintain maximum dynamic range and under Hydra options I set it to Tiff8 Simply because my computer is old and rickety.

Once Inside Hydra I was greeted by an artful UI, Displaying the Images I had chosen on the left with a “result” large central Image.

Not knowing what was obviously available I clicked Render, assuming it would bring up some dialog boxes of some kind. I quickly discovered it was the render button, producing a grayed out jpeg, similar to the initial image you get when “exporting to HDR” in Photoshop. However considering the framework of the software I don't think that's what was supposed to come out.

Upon my second trial and doing some reading on the website I discovered that the little dialog box to the right (the transparent one) is the software’s control panel and where all the fun happens. If you see there are four options along the top, Import, Align Merge (or fusion) and Pro.

For the purposes of the review I tried out the Align option and found it to be a nice addition in being able to fine-tune the software’s align feature, however I eventually left it on automatic as I found it did a pretty good job of aligning the Images.

The Merge button is essentially the most important one in the software, transforming the tool dialog into the sliders that give your image that HDR look. And of course leading to the confusion.

Initially this is what you will get

This left me quite stumped, as it appeared a little too simple. And Upon investigating the three methods in the dropdown box to and finding them to be independent of each other, I was confused as to how to get the results I wanted. That's what the final pro button is for.

Opening up options more closely tuned to those available in photomatix.

The rest is simply a matter of playing with the modes (HDR & 8Bit) and shifting the sliders to get a desired result. Something, which is also not clearly outlined (I.e. what do I play with for a specific outcome)

Image Critique

Below are the 7 Images I used to produce the final HDR Image (3 Stops Below, Above plus the “correctly” metered Image)

And this is the final Image I outputted from Hydra

As you can see the colors are considerably more punchy, and I have managed to retain most if not all of the detail from the previous Images.

The software manages to produce Images in a variety of output options form TIFFS to PSD’s to simple Jpeg’s making it easy to incorporate into any workflow. The quality of the Images are of a high enough caliber to compete with Photomatix, although it may not be as visible thru these Images due to the compression for web, but Noise Levels are low, and detail and sharpness is well maintained, as well as colors.

Conclusion

Overall Hydra is a sturdy and well-rounded piece of software with lots of potential in producing incredible HDR Images. Its biggest flaw would be its UI and its inability to properly explain itself. Some work in explaining what each slider does In Software (even a first time “what does this do” dialog box which opens the first time (and every progressive time unless the checkbox do not open anymore) with some explanations would go a long way in making this more user friendly than it already is. Everything is laid out in front of the user, in an easy to view format, it just needs some clarifications and tooltips. Overall a descent piece of software

Recap

As usual, consistent blogging comes to me about as easily as a good Idea does to George Bush. However this time I do have a justification if not a reason for not excusing myself in advance. Febuary ended for me with a rather pleasant surprise resulting in me taking an extended 3 week trip. Unfortunately at present I am not able to divulge the details of said trip, however let me tell you the revelations I will make upon the declassification of said trip, will leave a few of you with eyebrows raised! Fortunately this gives me time to process the Images to a T.

However just because any images I might have taken in said trip might be delayed in making themselves online, doesnt mean I dont have material for the present.

Presenting the last of my 2009 Images (finally!) some pictures from a family dinner we had, during X-mas. Now I hadnt originally planned to upload these, however being the strobist nut that I am, I felt they had some value to my fellow strobist's out there, particularly as one set involved the mixing of ambient lighting and flash photography. Something I have been eagerly working on as of late.





Unfortunately the Images arent as great as they could have been. I was still at the time getting accuainted with my new nikon gear. The goal was to shoot the candle holders with the light of the candle oozing thru the gaps, whislt lighting them externally with the flash. Something I did manage to do, however at present I fail to understand the blurry nature of the Images. I can only assume I miscalculated my shutter speed making it too slow in an attempt to fill in some ambient lighting where the flash did not whilst still attempting to achieve some detail in the candles, whilst lighting the candles with an off camera SB900 with a warming gel to give it some ambience. Whilst the Images came out nicely, I find the fact that I used a high ISO and the blurry touch to detract from what I was aiming for. Just goes to show how much I've learned since then, as I'm quite sure I could presently retake the images with considerably better results. Hopefully I'll soon get the oportunity to play with a similar scenario and see if thats true.

My Images dont often get to tell a story. This is one of the reasons I've taken a liking for flash photography, as one is able to create results such as these.



I love how the light adds a touch of drama to the scene. What began as an experiment with my new toy ended with a lovely little scene depicting a heartfelt family discussion. The light capturing my great aunts expression. I love it and I couldnt help but share it.



As for these second batch of Images, my little cousin was clumsy enough to drop a glass of water on this heavily textured foot matt outside. Before letting them clean it up, I couldnt help notice how they captured the sunlight, glistening away. I couldnt help but rush off and grab my macro lens and get some shots before they dried up.

An old book Finally Published!!!

Hey guys!

Sorry for having missed last couple of weeks' posts its been a little crazy for me hehe. But that means I only have more to write about now. Some of you might remember I mentioned about a year ago that my 2008 book was complete and that I would have it available for sale, but never did. Well it turns out I Put the book together using Iphoto, assuming I could export a PDF and upload it to Mpix or wherever I wished it to be printed. Turns out it wasnt so easy, so after having recreated it using my publishers photobook software I'm pleased to say its now available for sale here!  Although I've been asked why am I still inclined on promoting the 2008 book when its 2010! People will want the 2009 book. As any photography enthusiast will tell you that its not nescesarilly a relevant point. I publish these books as a sort of memoir into my photography, not only so that other photographers and artists might want to see the progress and mental intricacies of a learning photographer such as myself, but also as an awesome photobook or coffee table book, which I strongly believe is very well presented in the book. Despite being over a year old, some of the Images still amaze and remind me of what kind of quality Images I can create. Thus making it a book I can continue to reccomend.

I hope you guys will purchase a few copies and aid me in my photographic Journey, and if you are of those who still prefer the 2009 book, worry not, It will be out, hopefully by the end of the weekend. Also on its way a 2010 Calendar! Its still not too late to get one of these too! Enjoy!

Hong Kong Stop Over

Hong Kong! One of the cities of Wonder, and Financial Centers (South East Asia's to be exact!) of the world! A place I think I could quite thoroughly enjoy would I have the oportunity to visit it more often (A luxury my little brother seems to attain regularly, along with regular visits to New York....Prick lol (No offense little bro ;)  ). Anyhow this time around on my way to India I was fortunate enough to stop over with enough time to spend some time in the City! And although it was nowhere near as long as I would have liked it was still an enjoyable experience none the less. I was able to meet a dear old friend whom I hadnt seen in the longest time (with the exception of the Bangkok trip where we did catch up a little), so it was quite enjoyable to hang out with him and get the extremely extremely extremely abreviated tour of the city...which involved me rushing to a tech mall to get a new camera bag (with my recent shoulder injury a right shoulder sling backback continues to cause me pain and dispair! However I was able to pickup a bag that could transform both into a dual shouldered backpack, aswell as a left or right shoulder sling! Perfect!) and a quick trip up to the mountains on the tram for some low angle photo ops!.

Unfortunately it was quite foggy, reducing visibility, and I would have liked to have had my tripod and some filters(which I was this close to purchasing, stopping myself only because i hope to upgrade my present gear in the very near future to higher quality lenses) to add some ambiance to the Images but I suppose these will have to do for now.  Hopefully on my next trip I can get a model up there and get some amazing backdrops!

India 2009

Following up my Beas post I thought I might as well finish up the India pics with my short trip to Delhi. Although these pictures were taken before I went to Beas they required a little more processing. My stay in Delhi this year was a little more short lived than usual, spending no more than possibly 24 hours on the way in and 72 on the way out. Now one would think that I would have shot more on the way out, however due to safety reasons I had my camera packed away in my suitcase providing me little access to it :(. However on the way out I was more than happy to string it along on my neck. Most of the shots were in fact from the car as we drove from my uncles estate to the airport. Whilst I'm not a big fan of shooting from a moving vehicle some of these pictures were irresistible and had to be attempted. The remaining few were taken the night before leaving, with my cousins playing ping pong, so I thought to have some fun with my SB 900, blinding them in the process, and the morning before leaving when I encountered some rose bushes. Enjoy


the scariest cow I have ever seen


Kingfisher Airlines...did you know apparently its illegal to shoot pictures in airplanes in india...Whoopsie!o:)



A family friend of mine shot this image, and although its blurry I love it! I dont usually photograph well and it dismays me in its lack of sharpness :(. However as a tiny display pic it isn't very noticeable :D


quick self portrait of me and my new nikon


this temple is absolutely gorgeous! whilst I could only shoot it from the car this time, it will deff be a stop on my next trip to Delhi


I don't get to do very much flower photography and having a zoom macro lens with me I couldn't resist the opportunity


blinding my cousins at ping pong