Category: Photography

Honey Honey – A Look At Selective Focus Selection

Also an opportunity to discuss a little known post-production technique for photographers.

I was using a wide angle lens and too much background was in focus. What do I do? Many may not be aware but Photoshop has a select by focus function.

You can let it choose the focus area and then use Gaussian blur to defocus a zone. Only disadvantage is that a huge image such as the 36 MP image from the A7R can be back breaking for the PC.

Sometimes the auto selection if off target and you may need to trim the depth manually.

A slowed down processor can be frustrating as it is hard to fine tune, A smaller GM-1 image was manageable. A glass object is tricky for the algo and much time was spent cleaning up garbage matte leftover. Don’t do it when you are in a hurry. It is not yet a perfect solution for blurring backgrounds and it cannot be applied to all subjects. Use it sparingly.

Panasonic Lumix GM-1, ISO 200, f6.3, 1/320 sec

#farmville #cafe #sekinchan #honeylemon #lemon #drink #focus #blur #foodphotography

A Tree In Sungai Lembing

While searching for the previous tree image, I found one image from 2007 photographed in Sungai Lembing, the historical mining town. There was also a tree in the middle of the road. That was ten years ago and I am not sure if it is still there. Maybe recent visitors can confirm.

Known as the El Dorado of the East, it was once a bustling cowboy town in Pahang. It had one of the world’s biggest and deepest underground tin mine while it was in operation. Today it is a sleepy, rustic town with a few relics still standing in the ghost town. It was like as if time stood still, all of a sudden.

2017 re-processing of the image made the colours pop. Originally, it was flat and dull. I still remember having a homemade pineapple ice drink with boiled pineapple cubes and attap chee at the stall across the road. Wonderful stuff.

My friend the famous turtle scientist and conservationist Pelf Nyok has a cousin staying there who can guide and ferry you to the famous rainbow waterfall. I didn’t go though. It was on the local hipster bucketlist during the last decade.

Olympus E-510, ISO 200, f10, 1/250 sec

#sglembing #pahang #tree #smalltown #tree #nature #heritage

Trees Are Poems The Earth Writes Upon The Sky

A re-visit to Pasir Penambang. the small seafood and fishing town off Kuala Selangor, brought a smile to my face. Happy to see the old tree in the middle of the road still standing and alive. In a society with scant regard for conservation and preservation of nature and old things, it was surprising to see the tree still in the middle of the road spared – four years on.

I last photographed it in 2013 and titled it King Of The Road – Small Town. Big Tree. Instead of using sepia, I used Nik Collection’s Color Efex Pro 4 Bi-Colour Filter for the current image It is similar to bi-color Cokin filters of old days.

Although published in my old blog and on Instagram, I made the mistake of not tagging it adequately. Finding the previous image was tough and it took a while.

Upper: Olympus OM-D, ISO 200, f11, 1/640 sec. (2013)
Lower: Panasonic Lumix GM-1, ISO 200, f10, 1/320 sec (2017)

#pasirpenamambang #kualaselangor #smalltown #tree #nature #landscape

Bukit Hipster

Bukit Broga is as challenging as climbing a woman’s breast in comparison to other hills. It was made barren by hipsters making obligatory weekend pilgrimages.

Malay hipsters climb up to do yoga poses for selfies (and to add a cliched poem or quote as captions for Instagram) and Chinese hipsters go to the peak to do a “Christ the Redeemer” pose ala the famous statue in Rio, Brazil. WTF?!, I know.

So can someone explain how that poor guy get lost in gentle Broga Hill recently and was found only 7 days later? Baffling, right?
No automatic alt text available.

#hill #hike #broga #hipsters

Drive By Shooting

I don’t know what was going on. A senior citizen was arranging some old newspapers outside her house in a village in Sekinchan paddy land. I was a passenger in a car and I shot with the window rolled down.

You can take preemptive actions such as upping the shutter speed and deciding how you want to frame it before the car approaches. I kept one finger on the exposure compensation dial as I was thinking her silver hair might be problematic. It wasn’t in the end as the camera’s dynamic range contained it.

While anticipation is good, I didn’t expect her to lift up the broadsheet to conceal herself at the critical moment. I cued driver and friend Daniel Tang to look at my LCD screen so he can adjust or pace the car’s speed accordingly. Takes practice but I have been on many trips with him in the past.

I chose a black and white rendition as the vegetable patch was overwhelmingly green. Black and white also gives street photography the raw and gritty look befitting the subject.

Panasonic GM-1, ISO 200, f10, 1/320 sec.

#sekinchan #village #streetphotography #blackandwhite #ruralscape