NIKON WORKSHOP

The Truth Shall Set You Free

2009-09-18T13:03:00.006+08:00

For the past week I have been watching TB Joshua on Emmanuel TV on my pc. God has anointed him strongly and imbued him with miraculous powers as a wonderful testament that Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever !

For non-believers, tune in to Emmanuel TV daily and watch and observe the truth about God for yourself. And the Truth shall set you free !

For believers, tune in to Emmanuel TV for it is God's demonstration of His Love and Grace for this generation, and a reward for your faith in Jesus Christ all these years. More importantly, beyond the miraculous healings, prophecies, and preaching, ask yourself : what is the implication of what God is doing? Is this the fulfilment of biblical prophecies concerning the end times?

Those who want to find the truth may download the free version of Superinternet TV from the tucows.com site. Once you have installed the program, choose and click Emmanuel TV from the stations listed under the religious category and watch! Your life will never be the same again !

To God be the Glory !

ADDENDUM:

Some people want to know why I interrupted my regular blog entries with this unrelated content?

Well, the short answer is - it is important everyone has a chance to see and verify for himself the reality of God and truth of Jesus Christ.

I have never seen anyone with such extraordinary powers as TB Joshua ! When interviewed - he was featured on Times magazine - he said he is like any man and declared he does not heal - only Jesus Christ does. That however does not stop his followers from calling him a prophet.

You would too if you are delivered and healed from ailments such as HIV, cancer, blindness, broken bones, demon-possession, etc. Moreover, he goes on air with spoken prophecies during his Sunday worship service that is broadcast internationally. Subsequently - as the prophesied events occur and news break these are reported on the station.

The amazing thing is - for the first time in history - you can watch all the miracles on TV - and decide for yourself who is TB Joshua. For the first time you can watch and listen to those who had been healed giving their testimonies and confessions on public TV !

I know two persons living in Singapore who witnessed the miracles TB Joshua did. One testified that TB Joshua was in Singapore for a healing crusade and he was astounded to see 3 of his inmates who were confined to wheelchairs standing up and walking after TB Joshua had prayed for them! He had no doubts about the miraculous healings because he was intimately acquainted with the the medical condition of the 3 inmates. After all, they were his cell-mates !

Who is Jesus Christ? Do you believe the claims of Christ - that he is the Son of God; He was crucified on the Cross for our sins and rose from the dead three days later, appearing to more than 400 hundred people; He ascended into heaven and will come back to this world again at some future date. And finally, He freely gives eternal life and salvation to all those who confesses their sins, and accepts Him as their Savior.

Perhaps the ultimate test is for you to go see for yourself the extraordinary powers of TB Joshua in Lagos, Nigeria. Anyone who has a fatally verified medical condition - such as advanced cancer or medical condition where there is no cure like muscular dystrophy - could go to TB Joshua for prayer and healing. You have nothing to lose but everything to gain.

Check it out at the TB Joshua website.

Panoramic Boat Quay

2009-09-15T12:29:00.009+08:00

Boat Quay is the place where locals go to for fresh sea food and local hawker fare.

However the place has gotten a bad repute over the years when tourists complained of rip-offs by some outlets. In a recent case, a tourist complained paying "S$210 for a single crab that made the meal". Sometimes, brawls and fist fights break out in the evenings there.

Consequently, the popularity of Boat Quay as a foodie haven has dropped markedly.

I think if owners and/or tenants at Boat Quay get together and form an association to weed out operators who over-charge for meals and other malpractices - simply by having agreed to and standardized price lists for popular food dishes, the place may regain its former glory.

The panorama below was shot using the Nikon 14-24mm lens mounted on a D40, then stitched together using Photoshop's photomerge tool. What used to be a complicated task producing panos is now so simple !

Tried out different amounts of USM to determine which amount will produce the crispest image for the web.

300% usm

250% usm

200% usm

120% usm

Transformation 6

2009-01-20T01:00:00.002+09:00

Original before PP, Cropped

Transformed

Transformation 5

2009-01-20T00:56:00.009+09:00

Original before PP, Cropped

The charismatic Kym Ng, after PP

Background blurred, skin smoothed and toned down, teeth whitened, enhanced catchlights in eyes.

Transformation 4

2009-01-18T01:57:00.000+09:00

Original JPG

Cropped and Transformed

Skin Tone Revisit

2009-01-17T20:22:00.008+09:00

Getting skin tone right is a matter of judgment, a trial-and-error process. Fact is- you know it when you see it.

So the question is, which of the photos below will garner a more positive response from viewers?

Skin Tone I

Skin Tone II

There is no right answer ! *grin*

You get as many different responses as the no of people you asked!

Lesson: Just stick to your judgment and produce what you think suits the sitter best. Never allow your sitter to compare!

Related Post: Good Skin Tone

Transformation 3

2009-01-16T01:56:00.007+09:00

Original JPG

Cropped

Transformed

Transformation 2

2009-01-16T01:55:00.001+09:00

Original JPG

Cropped

Transformed

Transformation 1

2009-01-16T01:53:00.003+09:00

Most pictures straight-out-of-the-camera can be greatly improved - and transformed - with some post-production work.

For this discussion let's use a photo taken by my dear wife A at an event in Bangkok:

Original JPG

What can one do to improve the photo?

Step 1 - Cropping to improve composition

The first step is to crop the photo to improve the composition. As the main star of the event is the pretty Thai actress, the photo is cropped to re-focus attention on her.

After cropping, the usual treatment of color adjustment and sharpening is applied. Most people will be quite satisfied and will stop at that point.

Step 2 - Transformation

However, the glamorous star seems to share the stage with another person, even after cropping. Also, the background is noisy, the actress's face needs a light retouch. Above all, the skin tone could be better.

What must we do? Immediately many methods comes to mind: masking, extraction, etc, etc.

There are many roads to Rome. Just use the shortest and simplest. In this case, instead of using the various complex and challenging extraction methods and masks to isolate the subject from the background, I duplicate the background layer 2 or more times, add layer masks, then try different blur types on them to get the effect I look for.

Cropping to improve composition

After some trial-and-error I decide Gaussian Blur gives me the effect I wanted.

That step is followed by skin tone correction, facial retouch such as eye and teeth whitening and blemishes removal. On retouching, always do less rather than more, to avoid overdoing it ! Finally, I do two or more rounds of USM, depending on the circumstances.

The finished work is below:

Transformation

Postscript: I avoided embossing my watermark on the retouched photo so that you can, if you like, use it as the background image for the Clutter-Free Desktop tutorial.

Cropping

2008-12-25T20:20:00.026+09:00

The Effervescent Kym Ng

Cropping is such an important first step in pp that I deem it almost mandatory.

Sure, one should always compose carefully in the viewfinder before pressing that shutter. In practice, however, priceless captures of a winsome smile, a toothless grin, or a frown - whatever the expression may be - are often fleeting and leaves you no time to compose and shoot. Ready or not, you either capture the expression, or lost it forever.

Hence I almost always crop my pictures, before I commence pp proper.

When you crop, the picture composition invariably improves dramatically. Unless you don't have any idea how to compose photos.

The quick-and-lazy method is simply to try - try - try until you are satisfied with the composition. Looking at others' work helps. If you like a particular photo pay attention to the composition.

Read up on The Golden Mean, Rule of Thirds and The Diagonal Method on the net. You will develop a deeper understanding of composition and your pictures will improve as you learn to crop better.

Original JPG

After Crop, before PP

How far you pp is a matter of judgment. As the background was distracting, the subject was extracted using the magic wand tool, and the edges were refined to blend into the new background.

The background to be used was treated to a fair amount of lens blur before it was suitably cropped and dragged onto the main subject layer. Next, the main subject image was adjusted for shadows / highlights and hue / saturation to lighten the shadows in the hair and tone down the excess red in the skin tone.

The eyes were retouched slightly to bring back the sparkle in both eyes and the signature embossed.

Finally, the image was sharpened and blurred using the smart blur tool in the final step before the image was File -> Saved to Web.

Are Our Eyes the Same?

2008-12-24T15:35:00.028+09:00

Sometimes I wonder if I'll ever become a successful photographer. One able to earn his keep through photography.

Take technical excellence in post-processing for instance. To be commercially successful, professional photographers today must not only possess excellent photo-taking skills i.e. an eye for "pictures", but also be technically competent when it comes to Photoshop.

One only has to go through websites put up by local wedding photographers to see what I mean. Check out the better known ones who command high rates for wedding shoots. I have no doubt most possess good compositional skills.

But when it comes to technical competence in Photoshop, some are still lacking. I see :-

- colors that are off,
- white balance with a cast,
- unacceptable noise,
- too much or too little sharpening,
- and overall "clarity" is lacking.

I have seen better photos. In fact, I checked out a site by a young local photographer and was really impressed. His rates were nowhere near those charged by the better known photographers.

Yet I was intrigued by his pictures.

Pictures that were Impactful. Compelling. Captivating.

Above all, the guy knows what is a good skin tone. And how to get one. It hits you in his pictures.

Skin tone is what I look out for in photos. Especially in wedding shoots and portraits. Check out this guy's work and see if you agree with me. Better still, check out his blog.

Am I missing something?

Maybe the fault lies with me - with my eyes ?

Do I see what others see? Is it possible that somehow I see color differently from others? The same color may appear in different shades and tones to different people.

I may not appreciate the work of the $10k-per-shoot photographer. But his clients do. They see his work in the same shade and tone as the photographer's. And liked them enough to become his clients. That is all that matters, isn't it ?

Therefore the fault lies not with that photographer's. The problem lies with me.

Makes me wonder - are our eyes all the same? Do we see a certain shade of red, for example, exactly as seen by another person? If having a good eye is in the genes, there is nothing we can do about that. If that is the case, then maybe I will never make it as a commercial photographer.

Think about that. Do we have what is required to be a commercially successful photographer?

Good Skin Tone

2008-12-21T20:26:00.011+09:00

Final Treatment

Original photo

The above jpeg is what one gets straight-out-of-the-camera: dull-looking, lacking in contrast and clarity. Any way to improve the photo?

Well, the standard pp is to apply levels and curves, with adjustments as needed for brightness/contrast, shadows/highlight and hue/saturation. That is then followed by USM sharpening, with a little Gaussian or smart blur thrown in at the end to take the edge off an overly sharpened image.

The improvement, depicted below, is obvious: clearer colors, sharper print.

First Post-Process

Yet something still seems amiss. Not only is the background distracting...but can we improve the skin tone ?

Almost everyone will know what is a good skin tone when they see it. Yet it is hard to pinpoint what makes a good skin tone. It is a very subjective feeling. And there are no magic numbers to punch in to produce a nice skin tone.

==

I guess skin tone is a closely guarded secret amongst professional photographers. Few talk about it, much less share what they know. Googling for skin tone how-to's reveals the various techniques and tools used, but none on how to produce beautiful skin if the sitter has a less-than-perfect skin tone.

As for me, I use the Selective Color tool, including Hue / Saturation, trying out various color combinations until I've got the skin tone I look for.

Admittedly I am not there, yet.

Sure, the print could be improved: the washed-out chinaware due to the inappropriate flash used, masking could be better, etc ... but you get the point on the skin tone, don't you ?

No, I am not talking about matching skin tone to the sitter's actual skin. But rather to print process such that the skin tone of the sitter becomes breathtakingly beautiful! Never mind if the final print result has nothing to do with reality. After all, everyone wants to look their best in print, isn't it?

Beautiful skin tone was the reason why photographers raved over Fuji's Velvia or Kodak's Vericolor in the days of film. And chose those films when they want to portray their subjects in beautiful skin tones. That is what I'm talking about.

Skin tone is therefore a very subjective issue. And because it is subjective, I consider it as the holy grail of print processing. Many clients will beat a path to your door if you succeed to produce a beautiful skin tone for your subject.

Because then your picture-taking will stand out from the crowd.

PP: Focus on Color

2008-12-19T18:55:00.002+09:00

A photo with a distracting background can be improved simply by fading out the background. There are many ways to achieve that effect. One of the simplest is to select the background with the magic wand tool, then desaturate the background layer to zero. This gives a grey background that helps to focus attention on the main subject, which retains its full color.

Compare with the original, straight-out-of-the-camera jpeg here:

Why Post-Production ?

2008-12-17T20:29:00.003+09:00

Before today - Dec 15, 2008 - the D40 photos depicted on the blog were unprocessed, straight-out-of-the camera jpegs. Post-processing each photo simply took too long, and I had switched to using jpegs instead of nefs in my wife's D40.

If you wish to p-p your photos, you should set the D40 to use the camera raw format instead of jpegs. Post-processing jpegs degrade the image, especially when you need to crop and reduce the photo to a smaller size.

However, to show what p-p can do to a photo, I decided to p-p a jpeg photo at a friend's request:

Cropped & after PP

So why post-process? Well, check out the unprocessed original, straight-out-of-the-camera jpeg here.

For the above photo, the post-processing comprises the following steps (the numbers in brackets vary with each photo):

1 - crop,

2 - color correct using levels and curves,

3 - set brightness (+8) / contrast (-5),

4 - set shadow (20-20-20) / highlight (10-20-20),

5 - hue (0) / saturation (-10),

6 - emboss copyright and EXIF info,

7 - sharpen with USM.

8 - File->Save for Web

The "File->Save for Web" was used to strip out the exif info for a smaller file size for the web.

In recent weeks I reduced my p-p time by combining the more common p-p steps into an action (steps 6-8), and was quite happy with the result.

Postscript: USM should be the last step in the p-p process, i.e. after cropping, curves, etc. Be especially careful when cropping &/or reducing the size of jpegs, because artifacts are introduced, some more evident than in others.

Post-production Workflow 1

2008-12-14T15:45:00.002+09:00

This is my current workflow:

a - Make duplicate and Post process the raw file

b - Emboss signature watermark (script)

c - Flatten image (script)

d - Resize to 800px horizontal, constrain proportions, 72 ppi, resample, bicubic (script)

e - Convert to sRGB (script)

f - Convert to 8-bit (script)

g - Apply Luko USM technique (script)

h - Run frame script if desired

i - Save to new file (script)

j - Close file (script)

I made all those steps marked with script into an action and run it after step a.

Resizing

When resizing, should I use File->Save for Web & Devices.. or Image->Image Size..?

If you use resize using Image->Image size.. the exif info is retained after resizing. Save as jpg using a quality setting of 7 and Baseline format option checked.

Using File->Save for Web.. will discard all exif info in the jpg file, reducing file size by about 50k.

You should also ensure your photo is converted to and assigned with sRGB v4 ICC before saving. Without the color profile your photo will look washed out in browzers.

Nikon's amazing 14-24mm f/2.8 Lens

2008-12-12T12:24:00.003+09:00

Above view of Singapore's financial district at Boat Quay was taken with the 14-24mm f2.8 Nikon lens mounted on a D40.

When I first looked at the image, I was awe-struck by the "flatness" of the image rendered by the amazing 14-24mm lens, the same feeling I got with images taken with the Nikon 24mm f/2.8 lens. Is that only me or do you also have the same reaction?

The DX format D40 is an admirable camera, but does not fully exploit the full-frame lens. To buy D3X, D3 or D700? Each has its pro's and con's. Well, no hurry, as I believe Nikon will launch a full-frame camera targeted at the prosumer market in about 18 months' time i.e. a product with the features and capability of the D3 full-frame sensor but in a US$1,500-2,000 price package.

The Indochine Restaurant at Empress Place

12-24mm Nikkor or 24-70mm Nikkor ?

A common question that has been asked on several forums is which lens should one buy to go with the D700 / D3. Particularly when it comes to a toss-up between the amazingly sharp 14-24mm f/2.8 and the equally impressive 24-70mm f/2.8.

The answer is simple: both are equally indispensable: in a space as small and confined as a HDB flat, there is simply no substitute for the 14-24mm Nikkor ! The 24-70mm Nikkor does not have a wide enough angle to capture group shots comfortably in a confined space. Likewise, out on the streets or in a church hall, the 14-24mm Nikkor does not have the "reach" of the highly versatile 24-70mm f/2.8 to give close-up shots of events that happen. So both are indispensable, depending on the occasion and space available.

The former General Post Office Building at Fullerton Road

Now rebirthed as The Fullerton Hotel

SERVICES

2005-12-28T13:41:00.003+08:00

Please contact us for the following :-

Workshops

We want to organize conferences and teaching workshops conducted by experts in the respective fields of photography. Such workshops may be standalone, or combined with a photoshoot to local places of interests.

We may additionally organize and schedule visits to places such as Angkor Wat in Cambodia, Chiangrai in Thailand, Bali, Saigon, etc on a Workshop-cum-Photoshoot tour for those who are interested.

Several of you have mastered skills in Photoshop, Lighting, Portraiture, Photo Framing, etc and may wish to share your skills and knowledge with us. If you have such an inclination and wish to offer your services and lead such workshops, please send us an email.

If you are keen to attend such conferences and workshops, please send us an email.

Photo Shoots

Our local photoshoots are aimed at teaching, learning, sharing. Usually the itinerary will involve a photoshoot in the early morning, break for lunch, then meet to discuss post-processing techniques, and finally to share the results of members' work using LCD slide projectors.

So send us an email if you want us to organize such a photoshoot.

ABOUT

2005-12-28T13:33:00.008+08:00

We are a bunch of guys with a passion for creative expression. Our tool is a digital camera.

This is the story of our discoveries (oh yes, and frustrations too!), as we share what we learned on our Journey.

Join us !