Areas in Punggol

[zoossh]

please accept my sincere apology if i have offended anyone of u (or anyone out there) with my mindset.

em. i also hope i didn't sound too stern and serious to cause any misunderstanding. to me, it is just like another discussion. and just see me as equals. i'm just another forumer like you, perhaps just started earlier only.

thanks night86mare and zoossh for sharing your knowledge. hope you both and join outting to show us some things that we should not door things we should do.

you can ask nightmare if he is in sg, although he may prefer some silence with his coastal shots. sometimes too large a group also very rowdy.

as for me. you wouldn't want to see what i'm doing. i'm always doing things that should not be done, by right. i shoot more by instinct than by visualisation, not really a good idea.

 

[foxguy]

em. i also hope i didn't sound too stern and serious to cause any misunderstanding. to me, it is just like another discussion. and just see me as equals. i'm just another forumer like you, perhaps just started earlier only.



you can ask nightmare if he is in sg, although he may prefer some silence with his coastal shots. sometimes too large a group also very rowdy.

as for me. you wouldn't want to see what i'm doing. i'm always doing things that should not be done, by right. i shoot more by instinct than by visualisation, not really a good idea.

lol.... could alway meet to have coffee or tea. i dun think there are rules, should do not see what should or should not do.

 

[night86mare]

you can ask nightmare if he is in sg, although he may prefer some silence with his coastal shots. sometimes too large a group also very rowdy.

as for me. you wouldn't want to see what i'm doing. i'm always doing things that should not be done, by right. i shoot more by instinct than by visualisation, not really a good idea.

won't be back till summer, come to think of it i don't even know when my school ends.. pwned

that is true, i find huge groups very hard to shoot.. will have people here, people there.. and we all know how much i dislike people in my shots, it's just a quirk

nonetheless, i suppose this dec i will work on the sunset thing i have been trying to work on
right now, i still have a lot of nonsense things to do along with school, wait till extreme boredom sinks in between my italy trip and the start of school again..

 

[foxguy]

won't be back till summer, come to think of it i don't even know when my school ends.. pwned

that is true, i find huge groups very hard to shoot.. will have people here, people there.. and we all know how much i dislike people in my shots, it's just a quirk

nonetheless, i suppose this dec i will work on the sunset thing i have been trying to work on
right now, i still have a lot of nonsense things to do along with school, wait till extreme boredom sinks in between my italy trip and the start of school again..

lol, no big group la........ pm me if you are back and want to join for coffee.

 

[Killer_Jay]

em. i also hope i didn't sound too stern and serious to cause any misunderstanding. to me, it is just like another discussion. and just see me as equals. i'm just another forumer like you, perhaps just started earlier only.

no, i do not think you have offended anyone, because of the manner you express your views. if only everyone else on clubsnap was like you, being able to see blunt words for a lack of a need to paraphrase things nicely because that is more direct.

and that attitude is very correct, like i always emphasize, screw color, screw sharpness. work on composition first, then everything else will come with practice.

bosses,

after saying so much, then can i ask for your "direct-whack-me-if-u-can" comments on my composition? :bsmilie:

how can i improve it? lai, lai, lai, no need to keh ki.

jay the killer

 

[night86mare]

ok i'll give it a shot, suddenly more free than expected so, i'll just treat images individually

for this one - don't really see anything inherently wrong with it. it is not a bad shot to me, but neither is it a fantastic shot. i think the problem lies with the lighting at the point of shooting. i think this would be solved with good b&w conversion. i did try to pp it but somehow, the subject does not stand out as much from the bg as it would like it too, the bokeh is already pretty done but i would think it to be a matter of tones, your subject is light-toned, and the house is light toned. if it was totally against the grass then it might stand out. but here it cuts across the similarly toned mathilda house section.. and thus the effect is not as pronounced as it would like it to be.

to be honest, i can't offer you much about this, i have never tried to do such shots, nor do i have a particular liking for them, so i do not know much about this.

 

[night86mare]

now this is a shot i can comment a lot about.

i hope you don't mind being harsh, this seems like a shot without purpose or idea, nor was any thought put into it. the choice of framing is interesting, i can see what the subject is supposed to be, the darker window flap, but somehow its position, along with the mess of elements which clash in a riot of presence together, does not make it seem to be the subject.

in any case, i tried to work on this, did some cropping, and some layering with selective orton and some burning and dodging (sloppy work) to try to bring out some idea, not sure if it works

 

[night86mare]

the idea here is great. there is an attempt to use leading lines by means of the stairway leading up to the door. the doorway is dark, which adds to the picture, adds a sense of foreboding and suspense. what spoils the picture is then minor technicalities, like the fact that it is horribly distorted due to keystone (converging verticals) effect.

corrected it easily using the filter --> distort --> lens correction tool
values used were distortion + 6 and vertical perspective -30 or so, you can use the grid lines to help you with this.

did some cropping as a result, i am not entirely sure if now the composition works, this is why it is best to avoid keystone effect altogether, when it is too much correction will spoil the careful composition done in the first place. added some grain as well.

 

[night86mare]

nothing wrong with these pictures to me, actually. i think they are done very well, an fine example of how "keeping it simple" works.

you might consider shooting in raw and playing with white balance in the raw output programme to obtain different color palettes. right now it looks like most shots are almost the same colors.. so variance wise can get a little boring. but once the composition is there, there is no worries

 

[night86mare]

once again this is one of the sort of photo where i cannot offer much comment on, because i have no idea or particular liking for the concept.

but i can see that there is some attempt at arrangement of the plants here.

 

[night86mare]

this is a good example of good idea, wrong timing. in some sense once again this is not a bad shot, but neither is it a good shot.

here the processing has been overdone as well. do you notice a dominant blue cast on the picture? the guy on the boat is obviously wearing white (right guy) but it has been turned into blue. color casts are fine, but here it is overpowering, and in general blue casts are not flattering for the sunset type of sky. contrast is overdone, not sure if it is due to gamma manipulation of upping contrast too much.. but it is a teeny bit too much for me.

 

[night86mare]

i am going to ask you why a vertical (portrait) viewpoint was taken here. an inclusion of the not so useful sky as "space" on the top does not work here. this had the potential to be an extremely beautiful silhouette shot. but i'm not sure, perhaps there were other elements in the picture you wanted to exclude, so maybe you had your reasons. still, if there was space on the right, why not take a landscape format? the silhouette would really stand out from the "painted sky".. and i think this might even work in pano format.

the rocks at the bottom are fine, albeit messy, mainly because of that little shimmer of water right at the bottom, either crop it away.. or the cloning tool can be your temporary best friend.

 

[night86mare]

lovely sky. bad foreground.

maybe it is just me, i absolutely hate having photographers in my picture, but that aside, the pose is not interesting, unlike the previous picture. i just see a guy bumbling around with a camera on a tripod. that is not interesting to me, so i would not expect many people to find it interesting either. besides that, his head has blended (not entirely, but it is bad enough) into the horizon line in shadow. close-up it isn't all that bad because i can see details, but a little further from my computer screen and i have to admit that he looks headless.

once again, there is a very very strong blue cast. is this due to pp or?

 

[g-khoo]

won't be back till summer, come to think of it i don't even know when my school ends.. pwned

that is true, i find huge groups very hard to shoot.. will have people here, people there.. and we all know how much i dislike people in my shots, it's just a quirk

nonetheless, i suppose this dec i will work on the sunset thing i have been trying to work on
right now, i still have a lot of nonsense things to do along with school, wait till extreme boredom sinks in between my italy trip and the start of school again..

nightmare bro, can i tag along too when u go shooting:

once again this is one of the sort of photo where i cannot offer much comment on, because i have no idea or particular liking for the concept.

but i can see that there is some attempt at arrangement of the plants here.

Hmm this seems sorta like a cross between macro and landscape.. Theres nothing with this shot per se but neither does it stand out.

 

[g-khoo]

i am going to ask you why a vertical (portrait) viewpoint was taken here. an inclusion of the not so useful sky as "space" on the top does not work here. this had the potential to be an extremely beautiful silhouette shot. but i'm not sure, perhaps there were other elements in the picture you wanted to exclude, so maybe you had your reasons. still, if there was space on the right, why not take a landscape format? the silhouette would really stand out from the "painted sky".. and i think this might even work in pano format.

the rocks at the bottom are fine, albeit messy, mainly because of that little shimmer of water right at the bottom, either crop it away.. or the cloning tool can be your temporary best friend.

Taking a landscape version of this shot would've solved what nightmare wrote as "uninteresting sky" but if for some reason you still wish on taking a vertical portrait, i think leaving the sky fine - contrary to what nightmare has said. The square crop just looks weird to me.

The vertical shot can still be salvaged to some extent with careful PP. Just do selective cloning and air brushing to give the upper sky more tone and colour.

Hope this doesnt confuse you.

 

[Killer_Jay]

ok i'll give it a shot, suddenly more free than expected so, i'll just treat images individually

boss,

wah. so pai seh and so gum dong. :embrass:

u got a little more time to spare u should use it for urself mah..... but if u really got so much time, can i upload all my photos and let u comment on each of them? ;p :sweatsm:

for this one - don't really see anything inherently wrong with it. it is not a bad shot to me, but neither is it a fantastic shot. i think the problem lies with the lighting at the point of shooting. i think this would be solved with good b&w conversion. i did try to pp it but somehow, the subject does not stand out as much from the bg as it would like it too, the bokeh is already pretty done but i would think it to be a matter of tones, your subject is light-toned, and the house is light toned. if it was totally against the grass then it might stand out. but here it cuts across the similarly toned mathilda house section.. and thus the effect is not as pronounced as it would like it to be.

once again this is one of the sort of photo where i cannot offer much comment on, because i have no idea or particular liking for the concept.

but i can see that there is some attempt at arrangement of the plants here.

ok. for these 2 photos, it was not really my idea, it was someone else. and let her upload her version (if she ever does) and see.

jay the copycat

 

[Killer_Jay]

corrected it easily using the filter --> distort --> lens correction tool
values used were distortion + 6 and vertical perspective -30 or so, you can use the grid lines to help you with this.

did some cropping as a result, i am not entirely sure if now the composition works, this is why it is best to avoid keystone effect altogether, when it is too much correction will spoil the careful composition done in the first place. added some grain as well.

boss,

this 1 i a bit lost of wat u trying to say. wat is keystone effect?

as for composition wise, after i came back then i relised that i can make it better if take at the lower angle. i was on knee height, i was thinking if i shot it lying down will it be better?

when i was PP-ing this pics, it was in the middle of the night and outside my house was TOTAL quietness. it give me the creepy feeling and i just quickly get it done and over with. :embrass:

jay the timid

 

[Killer_Jay]

this is a good example of good idea, wrong timing. in some sense once again this is not a bad shot, but neither is it a good shot.

here the processing has been overdone as well. do you notice a dominant blue cast on the picture? the guy on the boat is obviously wearing white (right guy) but it has been turned into blue. color casts are fine, but here it is overpowering, and in general blue casts are not flattering for the sunset type of sky. contrast is overdone, not sure if it is due to gamma manipulation of upping contrast too much.. but it is a teeny bit too much for me.

boss,

original photo was quite bright. so wanted to darken fisherman in order to give the feeling of old tradition was fading away to mordern technologies.

yah, timing was not really right for tat kind of feeling. sigh.

so i have to bring down the level to quite a lots to have those kind of feeling. i admit i over done it.

jay the over-done

 

[Killer_Jay]

i am going to ask you why a vertical (portrait) viewpoint was taken here. an inclusion of the not so useful sky as "space" on the top does not work here. this had the potential to be an extremely beautiful silhouette shot. but i'm not sure, perhaps there were other elements in the picture you wanted to exclude, so maybe you had your reasons. still, if there was space on the right, why not take a landscape format? the silhouette would really stand out from the "painted sky".. and i think this might even work in pano format.

the rocks at the bottom are fine, albeit messy, mainly because of that little shimmer of water right at the bottom, either crop it away.. or the cloning tool can be your temporary best friend.

boss,

after u mentioned, i was curious why i took vertical (portrait) viewpoint. i dbl check my photos, and relised tat if i took landscape mode, i would have included the container crane (seen in the fisherman boat photo) in the photo liao.

i din crop it tighter was becos i am trying my best to observed the "basics". the fisherman and the horizon are in the "rules of third" and the "cut away potion by u also in the final third sector.......

jay the basic

 

[night86mare]

boss,

this 1 i a bit lost of wat u trying to say. wat is keystone effect?

as for composition wise, after i came back then i relised that i can make it better if take at the lower angle. i was on knee height, i was thinking if i shot it lying down will it be better?

when i was PP-ing this pics, it was in the middle of the night and outside my house was TOTAL quietness. it give me the creepy feeling and i just quickly get it done and over with. :embrass:

jay the timid

hahahaha no no please, not that free, just that i decided to not attend a function that would have taken quite a chunk out of my weekend. so i'm catching up on homework. but have to rest what, so just do a quick one.

in wikipedia, this is the definition of keystone effect.

The Keystone effect is caused by attempting to project an image onto a surface at an angle, as with a projector not quite centered onto the screen it is projecting on. It is a distortion of the image dimensions, making it look like a trapezoid. In the typical case of a projector sitting on a table, and looking upwards to the screen, the image is larger at the top than on the bottom. Some areas of the screen may not be focused correctly as the projector lens is focused at the average distance only.

so basically the best explanation of a keystone effect or what others call "converging vertical" is when you go to a tall building's foot, and look up. is it vertical any longer? no it isn't, all the verticals are CONVERGING to a certain point, that is the keystone effect. it is usually present more often than not when you shoot at wide angles, and angle your camera up. to avoid this, you can simply place your camera's back parallel to the vertical. this is also why tripods have a spirit level, not just to avoid tilting horizontals, but also keystone effect.

this lomo picture of mine does demonstrate keystone effect pretty well,just look at the hdb blocks, they are tilted, yet you can see that the top of the lower building at the bottom is almost horizontal. keystone effect can WORK for you in certain aspects, but when it does not work, as in this case, and can be easily corrected, then you shoot.

actually, for that shot you can shoot at that original level of height, just tilt your camera upwards more. i.e. the bottom part of your camera nearer the ground should be moving up, if you catch my drift. if you still do not get it, get your camera, set it at the widest angle, and walk to a corner of your room where there is a vertical line? look down through the lens, and then slowly shift the camera perspective up. note how the vertical changes. there is only ONE point where the vertical is truly vertical, and this is when your camera back itself is parallel to the vertical.