= Stefan's Weekly Singapore City/Landscapes II =

[SomeFormOFhuman]

#84

Rising Legend
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5 Image HDR/DRI using GND 0.9 Soft + Lee Big Stopper for smoothed cloud and water effects. Marina Bay Sands, Singapore.

I've seen and heard so much about this area for a good sunrise spot. Decided to investigate, but honestly I couldn't come up with any good composition there. Maybe I'm starting to suck. Anyway, this is what I came up with after walking around.

 

[SomeFormOFhuman]

#85

Ghosts of Punggol​

4 Image HDR/DRI using GND 0.9 soft + ND 0.9 x2 stacked to achieve 6 stops for smoothed water effects. Punggol Beach, Singapore.

Another very common composition of rocks at Punggol yet again. I've rarely visit that beach when the tide is low. I'm probably not used to shooting there on low tide evenings. Need to try something experimental next time when I'm there again.

 

[SomeFormOFhuman]

#86

Last Wave

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3 Image HDR/DRI using GND 0.9 soft + ND 0.6 hard for higher tonality of the sky. Punggol Beach, Singapore.

I increased and exaggerated the warm temperature of the skies by 30%. Rarely do I do this in my shots (I consider this as a "cheat" IMO), but I'll let this pass; or it'll be painstakingly boring to look at.

Last one from Punggol Beach. Same ol' thing again, nothing new lately. Just shooting this to enjoy the waves splashing on my feet.

If there's one thing I dislike about this beach, is those industrial buildings and refinery rigs at the shores of Johor. The only workaround is to "nicely include them" to be rightfully placed elements in your photos, or else they'll end up looking rather "accidental".

 

[nikoneer]

#38

Last Wave



3 Image HDR/DRI using GND 0.9 soft + ND 0.6 hard for higher tonality of the sky. Punggol Beach, Singapore.

I increased and exaggerated the warm temperature of the skies by 30%. Rarely do I do this in my shots (I consider this as a "cheat" IMO), but I'll let this pass; or it'll be painstakingly boring to look at.

Last one from Punggol Beach. Same ol' thing again, nothing new lately. Just shooting this to enjoy the waves splashing on my feet.

If there's one thing I dislike about this beach, is those industrial buildings and refinery rigs at the shores of Johor. The only workaround is to "nicely include them" to be rightfully placed elements in your photos, or else they'll end up looking rather "accidental".

Looks natural to me...

I agree with you on those rigs, ships and industrial buildings...

 

[hjbyeo]

I think those industrial buildings made it "more Singaporean shores".

 

[SomeFormOFhuman]

#87

Land Rise

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4 Image HDR/DRI using GND 0.9 soft + Lee Big Stopper for smoothed cloud effects. Sembawang Beach, Singapore.

Decided to try out the middle portion of Sembawang Beach instead. The land formations are quite similar to Changi Beach itself.

 

[SomeFormOFhuman]

Thanks everyone. Here's another behind the scenes shot from Punggol again:

 

[SomeFormOFhuman]

#88

The World of Ang Mo Kio [Panorama]

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3 Image HDR/DRI 17 Image Panorama. Ang Mo Kio Central, Singapore.

Many thanks to Jin Wei for introducing me this view as he lives in that block.

This is by far one of the hardest Panos attempted as I thought of breaking conventions in my usual photography where every building has to be "straight and rigid" and the horizon, made flat. This end result may not be for everyone's liking, but anyway the idea was, Ang Mo Kio is my World - It's a fun place filled with all the people I know to hangout with. It's everything to me, and it's The World to me. The nightlife especially. So get dizzy.

This whole place meant alot of to me - my dad grew up here in the 70s, it's relatively near where I live, every amenities you name it you got it, friends and families, people and friends I know living and staying here and gatherings of sort, it's all right here in this amazing centralized neighbourhood.

 

[avsquare]

#88

The World of Ang Mo Kio [Panorama]

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3 Image HDR/DRI 17 Image Panorama. Ang Mo Kio Central, Singapore.

Many thanks to Jin Wei for introducing me this view as he lives in that block.

This is by far one of the hardest Panos attempted as I thought of breaking conventions in my usual photography where every building has to be "straight and rigid" and the horizon, made flat. This end result may not be for everyone's liking, but anyway the idea was, Ang Mo Kio is my World - It's a fun place filled with all the people I know to hangout with. It's everything to me, and it's The World to me. The nightlife especially. So get dizzy.

This whole place meant alot of to me - my dad grew up here in the 70s, it's relatively near where I live, every amenities you name it you got it, friends and families, people and friends I know living and staying here and gatherings of sort, it's all right here in this amazing centralized neighbourhood.

wow, I like the curved horizon, as if I'm flying damn high and looking down at a round Earth!

 

[RedDeadEye]

hi! love your work! how did you manage to get such nice colors and contrast for your HDB HDR pics!? mind posting up a short tutorial?

 

[SomeFormOFhuman]

wow, I like the curved horizon, as if I'm flying damn high and looking down at a round Earth!

Thanks. Glad it worked.

hi! love your work! how did you manage to get such nice colors and contrast for your HDB HDR pics!? mind posting up a short tutorial?

Hi, thanks for asking. It's quite simple actually, with the multiple exposures you've taken you just have to blend manually in Photoshop, and simply play around with the settings to get what you want.

 

[SomeFormOFhuman]

More behind the scenes from Punggol. Very long overdue stuff.

 

[Mustank]

Hi, never been in your thread before. today is my first time. awefully impressed!!!

i am a father who only takes pictures of my children and almost nothing else. because landscape mean nothing to me. to me, everyone can take landscape but only i can take pictures of my kids. and i aim to shoot very "sports" photo of my kids, the extremely unique expression which can only be caught at at least 1/250. thats why i never really bothered to check out the landscape threads.

but your thread showed me how filters and hdr can give an artistic interpretation of landscape. i also hope to learn it so that i can take pictures of my old house, my old school, my sons school, my sons favourite playground, the places my family visit and give them the artistic interpretation.

thanks again for your efforts to post

 

[SomeFormOFhuman]

Hi, never been in your thread before. today is my first time. awefully impressed!!!

i am a father who only takes pictures of my children and almost nothing else. because landscape mean nothing to me. to me, everyone can take landscape but only i can take pictures of my kids. and i aim to shoot very "sports" photo of my kids, the extremely unique expression which can only be caught at at least 1/250. thats why i never really bothered to check out the landscape threads.

but your thread showed me how filters and hdr can give an artistic interpretation of landscape. i also hope to learn it so that i can take pictures of my old house, my old school, my sons school, my sons favourite playground, the places my family visit and give them the artistic interpretation.

thanks again for your efforts to post

Thank you Mustank, I'm glad you've taken the liberty to look through my works. Just shooting and capturing these scenic moments in Singapore, one shot at a time.

I think in scenic and landscape photography, it's just one out of many ways of seeing things and trying to interpret them in your own imagination of the particular place and time. Like how you capture a child's moments, the same ideas and principles can also be applied vice versa. There's no mistake that in photography, it's about understanding the subject and not just its mere exterior, but the inner beauty it posses that no one sees. Like music, they've got to have a tune or rhythm in this case composition, that everyone can "dance" to; otherwise it's just a snapshot - it's got to mean something . In my humble point of view, people should try not to be bogged down by the mere technicalities like lens, sharpness, hyper-focal distance (Honestly, I don't ever use or even know what's that till today) while I agree those are good points to consider, but ultimately and everything else but, it's a real enjoy to hear that click of the shutter and seeing the results to what you want the shot to be - that's when you have finally understood the spirit of the place. Well one of my many traits I apply for my shoots.

Thanks for your support.

 

[SomeFormOFhuman]

#89

By The Lotus

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4 Image HDR/DRI using GND 0.9 soft + ND 0.9 for smoothed water effects. Marina Bay Sands, Singapore.

Commonly taken by thousands, but still nothing is better than waking up to a simple morning for a simple shot.

 

[SomeFormOFhuman]

#90

Chinatown Ride

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3 Image HDR/DRI 2 image panorama to relief left side spatial tightness using GND 0.9 soft + ND 0.9 for smoothed traffic effects. South Bridge Road, Singapore.

Decided to head down to South Bridge Road again for some thrill of street life there. A convoy of huge double decked buses wooshed past me creating all those whizzing lines and the half toned blues in the sky. Wanted to Photoshop away that weird looking convergence line of blue sky caused by the bus but.... Meh. As the way it is, leave it as it is.

Supposedly thought that white car parked by the road would move, but I guess it looks good here - That's why it's called Chinatown ride. Now if only its headlights were turned on it would've been be a thrill!

 

[SomeFormOFhuman]

 

[theshooter]

omg. this is a must-subscribe thread.

stefan, i understand that you manually merge the photos using photoshop and gradients.

could you please go more into details how you do that? the effect is spectacular. even better than those done with programs like photomatix etc.

 

[SomeFormOFhuman]

omg. this is a must-subscribe thread.

stefan, i understand that you manually merge the photos using photoshop and gradients.

could you please go more into details how you do that? the effect is spectacular. even better than those done with programs like photomatix etc.

Thanks for your compliments.

With the different exposures you've shot, you use the gradient and masking tools for your photos to balance the exposure. Just think of it as a way to bring out foreground brightness and details and lower brightness for the sky. Whatever detail or subject in your composition that you wish to bring out, you use a higher exposed shot to reveal this. Areas that are unnecessarily bright like the sky, some mid-ground details you can use an lower exposed image to cover those. But ultimately, you just have to play around in Photoshop and see the kind of results that you think suits real.

 

[SomeFormOFhuman]

EDIT.