Photography today through my eyes
Having been a photographer for the past countless years I hate to say that the promotion of conceptual art/photography has spurred a whole new artform in Singapore (and probably in other parts of the world too), it is neither good nor bad, but the objective is no longer just the images, but the content in the images. Contrary to post-modern thought, an image is an image, not what the contents hold. Richard Avedon quoted something which I find rather parallel to this point -"All photographs are accurate. None of them is the truth."
Having digital photography around doesn't help more than producing countless images and seeing the results instantaneously. It seems that the skills and camera handling have become obsolete, but really it does not, and it still plays a big part in the process by reducing the amount of digital trash or unused portions, and hence reducing cost in storage of raw images. As the saying in Bahasa goes, "Sedikit sedikit, lama-lama jadi bukit!" (A little here and a little there, and soon you'll have accumulated a mountain full of it!) It may not seem any relevant at instant, just wait till a couple of years later with regular shooting, the end user might find several terabyte harddisks full of images, and surely a pain to go through however good the organization of the data can be. In the same situation with film photography would result in cabinets and cabinets full of transparencies, negatives and prints put away in archive. Fortunately the virtue of making every shot count in the earlier days, so having too much to archive wasn't a big problem. We do have a luxury to shoot more images now, but that shouldn't mean being trigger happy is a sure way of getting the winning image.
An observation I've made over the past few years till now is how people perceive their own surroundings how well forgotten the sunlight is to everyone, it is practically taken for granted. In the past months of December 2008 and January 2009 we have experienced in Singapore the perfect weather, fantastic sunlight and cerulean blue skies but yet I haven't seen many people make use of that quality available to make pictures (I hope it is just me, because it is the perfect time for architectural photography.) It is not totally true that the late morning sun through midday and early afternoon is not ideal for photography. When making pictures of people at such a time, be sure to have your reflector handy to even out any undesired shadows. An ordinary and easily forgotten street scene would look stunningly glamorous during the right time of the day with the desired position of the sun, even with the sun blazing fiercely overhead.
Who says sunlight is harsh? Honestly speaking with no reservations made here, sunlight is the best light and it has a certain quality that surpasses all commercially available lights and light modifiers out there in the market, and lighting manufacturers all strive to produce light with a quality and intensity like that of sunlight, something that HMI and HID lighting have done very well. Often we see this type of lighting used in the showcases of apparel chains and higher end department stores here, replacing the once popular dichroic halogen lamps. Photography lighting manufacturers do well in promoting their range of expensive lighting modifiers, umbrellas and softboxes that almost everyone using their products would achieve the same effect without fail, as seen in today's available commercial photography. A side note: commercially available strobe lighting used as a bare bulb or with a simple reflector dish does produce a similar result but with a different color temperature.
All being said, with the world economy collapsing, good images can still be produced, and all it takes is an open mind, less of a mind on what camera and lighting to use but what to photograph.
Disclaimer: This post is purely on my own opinions and it does not represent the views anyone else.
Having digital photography around doesn't help more than producing countless images and seeing the results instantaneously. It seems that the skills and camera handling have become obsolete, but really it does not, and it still plays a big part in the process by reducing the amount of digital trash or unused portions, and hence reducing cost in storage of raw images. As the saying in Bahasa goes, "Sedikit sedikit, lama-lama jadi bukit!" (A little here and a little there, and soon you'll have accumulated a mountain full of it!) It may not seem any relevant at instant, just wait till a couple of years later with regular shooting, the end user might find several terabyte harddisks full of images, and surely a pain to go through however good the organization of the data can be. In the same situation with film photography would result in cabinets and cabinets full of transparencies, negatives and prints put away in archive. Fortunately the virtue of making every shot count in the earlier days, so having too much to archive wasn't a big problem. We do have a luxury to shoot more images now, but that shouldn't mean being trigger happy is a sure way of getting the winning image.
An observation I've made over the past few years till now is how people perceive their own surroundings how well forgotten the sunlight is to everyone, it is practically taken for granted. In the past months of December 2008 and January 2009 we have experienced in Singapore the perfect weather, fantastic sunlight and cerulean blue skies but yet I haven't seen many people make use of that quality available to make pictures (I hope it is just me, because it is the perfect time for architectural photography.) It is not totally true that the late morning sun through midday and early afternoon is not ideal for photography. When making pictures of people at such a time, be sure to have your reflector handy to even out any undesired shadows. An ordinary and easily forgotten street scene would look stunningly glamorous during the right time of the day with the desired position of the sun, even with the sun blazing fiercely overhead.
Who says sunlight is harsh? Honestly speaking with no reservations made here, sunlight is the best light and it has a certain quality that surpasses all commercially available lights and light modifiers out there in the market, and lighting manufacturers all strive to produce light with a quality and intensity like that of sunlight, something that HMI and HID lighting have done very well. Often we see this type of lighting used in the showcases of apparel chains and higher end department stores here, replacing the once popular dichroic halogen lamps. Photography lighting manufacturers do well in promoting their range of expensive lighting modifiers, umbrellas and softboxes that almost everyone using their products would achieve the same effect without fail, as seen in today's available commercial photography. A side note: commercially available strobe lighting used as a bare bulb or with a simple reflector dish does produce a similar result but with a different color temperature.
All being said, with the world economy collapsing, good images can still be produced, and all it takes is an open mind, less of a mind on what camera and lighting to use but what to photograph.
Disclaimer: This post is purely on my own opinions and it does not represent the views anyone else.