10s without tripod ...

this is to answer "how I shoot this 10s without tripod, monopod , table and etc" :D



details of picture above

View On Black & Large

on our way back in law place but wife found we missed out something ... so turn back to collect.... but then saw the beautiful sky so decided to captured it ...ohhhhhh my tripod was in the car then ..... how ?

So anyone know how I shoot this without tripod, monopod, table or etc and the SS is 10s :D

5dm2 + SIGMA50mm F1.4 + "secret"
# Exposure Time (1 / Shutter Speed) = 10/1 second ===> 10 second
# Lens F-Number / F-Stop = 8/1 ===> ƒ/8
# ISO Speed Ratings = 100

pp
- non crop
- curve increase contrast
- increase saturation
- frame resize
- smart sharpen 130, 0.3, opacity 50%

and my secret is

... lost ...

am busy recently with work (exam), family (my Jie Xi getting active and need more time from daddy and mummy http://jiexi2008.blogspot.com/), tired (landscape photography make me tired as woke up early in the morning, hiking ... running ....driving far...)

with all the things above nothing much from me recently and just wish to make this blog active while I can still remember I had stop posting for weeks ......

2 things I going to share

1. finally I got Robberflies mating picture .. saw them together for 3-4 times but just fail to capture the moment ... and finally I got this with some pay off (bite by leech... spent ~hours to chase it ....they are just too shy/sensitive with my movement ... then again ... longer macro len will help, if I have one :D )


2. patient Bee in Fly (BIF)..., last week was 4 days holiday for Malaysia and I fully rest in my in law house but still walk around the garden and saw a Carpenter bee keep flying around few spot .. and I don;t want to miss the opportunity then brought my gear with longest available (SIGMA150 + 1.4tc + flash) and spent 2-3 hours to chase the BIF

there 2 methods I use to capture below picture
i. AF, pre AF those leaf close to the bee stop by or flying around ... then while it get close just move my focus point close to it and press the shutter ... keep trying ;D and I get




more can view from my flickr bee set

ii. MF , pre focus the place where the bee normally flying around or stop ... (failure rate is higher) ....then while it come close by (depend on luck) then press shutter .... (here then I hope I have faster fps camera :D, that's y I always say ... never say we don;t need but it is good to have)


ok .... so anyone have any suggestion for me .....

News - http://www.liewwkphoto.com/ launch

I finally activated my own personal page but it still far to integrate here and flickr into my own page ... so for the time been I still maintain

1. photo @http://www.flickr.com/photos/liewwk/
2. blog@http://liewwk-macro.blogspot.com/
3. all other commercial and new @http://www.liewwkphoto.com/


so ... patient and I will get all 3 integrated into one ASAP....

Landscape Spot 3 - Bukit Tabur

another beautiful landscape spot locate @Melawati, Kuala Lumpur/Selangor. it is not easy to locate this place but it is near by Taman Melawati, TAR college or Zoo Negara.
not easy to access, but it can locate through google earth or map ....and not really sure what is best way to be there except drive ...

This place actually dam (Klang Gate Dam) which a main water source supplier ... after reach the Klang Gate Dam entrance, we need to follow a jungle track locate ~10-20m from the entrance, then it is a ~1.5hour track which include few dangerous rock climbing path. it is recommended wear grove, long pants.... and do not bring too heavy gears up as there are few paths need 2 hands for rock climbing.

I have yet get the best picture from this spot ... but let share what I have now ...

1. spot 1 (~20minutes from the entrance)
- very safe hiking, this is just before rock climbing



2. spot 2 (~45minutes from the entrance)
- need to pass through 2-3 rock climbing paths

Landscape Spot 2 - Genting Highland

went above 1850m from sea level (aka call Genting Highland) from beautiful sunrise and manage to saw most beautiful sunrise ever

woke up 3:30am and drive from Kuala Lumpur and reach there ~6am for breakfast then start driving up to look for sunrise location (ohhhh ... yea we went there with compass and no experience) .... after repeat the same path we think we got the best direction for the day ... (a road path behind First World Hotel)

Direction
- from Kuala Lumpur look for Kepong or Batu Cave direction (~10-20minutes drive)
- then Genting Highland signboards are any where just follow (~60-100minutes drive)
- so back of First World Hotel is facing East :D




or
View On Black & Large

Landscape Spot 1 - Tanjung Tuan

I am slow recently, due to need to spend more time on family and work (aikssss preparing for exam now).... but I think it is good to start share some of the Landscape spots that I visit before I forget the details ...

This is going to be same as MACRO spot ... I will share some picture from the spot, how to be there, what need to be take note ... etc

Tanjung Tuan is located down south from Port Dickson Town, a popular beach destination for city folks. Also known as Cape Rachado, this place is essentially a coastal forest gazetted for a park for bird watching, especially for raptors, as well as being a tourist attraction (lighthouse at the peak). The forest is composed of both rainforest and mangrove swamps.

Direction
- Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan
- from North-South Highway toward South (Singapore, Johor) Direction from Kuala Lumpur
- drive ~1hour to Port Dickson exist
- follow sign board, it will lead you to Port Dickson near a place call Teluk Kemang
- toward the end of the highway, you will reach a roundabout turn 9 o'clock
- follow the main road you will reach Hutan Rimba Tanjung Tuan Or "Tanjung Tuan Light House" ... this will take ~10-15minutes
- make right turn from the main road after see the signboard Hutan Rimba Tanjung Tuan
- will pass by Tanjung Biru (Blue Lagoon), Tajung Mirror....
- ~1km will reach Hutan Rimba Tanjung Tuan Entrance
- walk into the Hutan Rimab (reserve jungle) toward the end ~30-40minutes walk
- light house will be at the end
- it will be a down hill path which lead to sea side (will discover next visit)
- this post only share the view from the hill

Difficulty
- need to pass by a Hutan Rimba (reserve jungle)
- no drive up
- not really tough as it only need ~30-40minutes walk

Why
- this is located @west coast of MALAYSIA so sunset ... from hill
- people come here also for raptors .... but not me :D






more pictures can view here

MACRO PP - How I Sharpen my Picture or Should I ?

This question have been ask by myself since I start photography, I know it going to improve the overall sharpness and it look better but if we fail to find the balance point, we could over do it or we call over sharpen.... so should I ?

I seldom do sharpen for my pictures before Jul 2009, even few occasions I did that just for some testing purpose or accident add the Unsharp Mask (USM) Sharpen by Ninja Noise (ohhh ... it is part of the task....) so normally I remove all USM while doing my ninja noise.

Then after I start my landscape photography, I found sharpen my picture is almost a must as it look really blur (it could be I shoot RAW but no RAW sharpen done). So I start apply sharpen as below method

1. USM
- while i start my sharpen, I start with USM
- but I worry to overdone it so I normally create additional layer for the USM and change the opacity if I feel it is over done

i. edit whatever you need to do before sharpen



ii. duplicate additional layer





iii. go for USM


iv. normally I will apply 120, 0.5, 0 for my 5dm2 picture size
- this is very much depend what or how many you going to sharpen but no worry on over sharpen here as later stage we still can change it or softern it


v. change the opacity of the USM sharpen layer, normally I use 20-50%

vi. sample sharpen and non sharpen

sharpen


100% crop





without sharpen


100% crop


vii. after resize, picture normally look softer so


so I will increase the USM sharpen layer to higher opacity to get more sharp picture



2. Smart Sharpen
- I learn this from "Juza photography", Juza is one of my favor natural photographer who really share how he shoot, pp ...
- I continue use the layer opacity method to avoid over sharpen too

i. duplicate a layer for "Smart Sharpen" purpose




ii. go to filter - smart sharpen


iii. depend how much you going to sharpen or your image size and again this could be change by the layer opacity


120, 0.2, Len Blur

iii. sharpen image and change opacity of the image so it is not over sharpen


normally I apply 30-50% for full size of 5dm2 full size picture


iv. sharpen and without sharpen picture on 100% crop
sharpen


without sharpen


v. after resize, increase the opacity from 20-50% to 70-100% as the resize will soften the image





sorry for not really provide a good example here, the sharpen and without sharpen picture with very minimal different ... as rushing on this for a friend of my Derrick :D

but it is straight forward to have a try ... enjoy .....