= Stefan's Weekly Singapore City/Landscapes II =

[SomeFormOFhuman]

Happy New Year, everyone.

#280

Sail Away

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2 Image HDR/DRI using GND 0.9 soft + GND 0.6 soft for higher tonality of the sky. Lower Seletar Reservoir, Singapore.

Though this was shot sometime in November 2013, I didn't want to upload until the last day of 2013. It represents my thoughts about 2013 - As the words of the late Freddie Mercury from Queen has put it, I want to break free. I desire innovation, I desire fulfilment, I desire perfection, I desire change, I desire improvement. Honestly with my current level regardless of how many I've shot & saved, I still consider myself an amateur in photography and there are still many areas for improvement and exploration.

I once said my photography direction will change, and it will. For starters, the ugly borders. I did some trial and error and it's now designed to fit well with white and black backgrounds with the help of a subtle shadow to "pop" a little. Not sure it works but I feel this is much better than the previous thick frames I had.

What's installed for 2014? Only me and my EOS 7D will tell.

Speaking of which, here's Queen - I Want To Break Free: www.youtube.com/watch?v=eM8Ss28zjcE

UPDATE: Brightened image by 20%.

 

[SomeFormOFhuman]

#281

Greener On The Other Side

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2 Image HDR/DRI, 12 image panorama to relief spatial tightness using GND 0.9 soft + GND 0.6 soft for higher tonality of the sky. Punggol Fields, Singapore.

Clearly, there was a message intended in this shot that I wanted to voice out - Deforestation of Punggol. It just isn't the same like I remembered. I can only sit, stare and watch as building by building, they erect while tree by tree, they fall. The fallen fence also represents a temporary divide as because what's on the left where I am, will be gone too. But I chose to stay this side of the grass as I enjoy the love of nature as much as I enjoy the love of photography.

If only I could travel through time, and go back to the days Punggol was nothing but a beautiful country side. Such rarity isn't much seen in Singapore.

Anyway, the light was awesome. Thank goodness after weeks of heavy downpours and bad weather, I can finally see the sun for once - Probably the first proper sunrise of 2014.

 

[Fable]

Nice capture! Happy New Year Stefan.
Do share even more stunning images this year.

 

[MachBot]

Nice write up to go along with the photo!

 

[SomeFormOFhuman]

Thanks guys for the appreciation. Glad you liked them!!

#282

Road To Gotham​

2 Image HDR/DRI 4 Image vertorama + 3 images timelapsed for MBS lightshow and 2 images timelapsed for vehicle tail lights below. Marina Bay, Singapore.

Awesome hangout with Jon Chiang, Jonathan Danker, Yoong Ren Rui and the rest of the photog. gang, I'm glad to meet them in person to explore this wonderful place.

I like the way it turns out here; not much processing has been done other than dodging the shadows a little and blending the rest of the shots together to form one image. Initial plans were to include a lamp post located on the left, but that took away the overall attention of the lightshow and doesn't sit well with my 10-22mm (Too much flare and its starburst is terrible on camera).

Well, time to invest in a better setup... My trusty EOS 7D is also somewhat ageing.

UPDATE: Corrected right side proportion.

 

[soulFLY]

Thanks Daoyin. Appreciate it.

#276

The Future Is Now

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This is great! Great POV and good use of the exposure...exellent work!

 

[SomeFormOFhuman]

Thanks SoulFly, glad you liked it.

#283

Pride of ADM

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2 Image HDR/DRI 2 images timelapsed for sky + Haida 10 stop filter for smoothed cloud effects. School of ADM (Art, Design and Media), NTU, Singapore.

Initial plans actually called for a 5 image vertorama shot to achieve 100% vertical parallelism of all the window mullions (vertical window frames if you will) then later cropped as per the above composition like as though taken with a T&S lens - However the final decision was made to accept the way it was taken.

Funny, I've been in this awesome school for a full solid year and I have yet to explore and shoot much about the school I'm in; I'm always in love with the architecture, and I'm proud to be enrolled to such a school. So here's a simple long exposure of it with a mild tint of desaturated blue - Why blue? Well as much as I love Art and Design, going to school (be it my Primary, Secondary, ITE or Poly days) the word "school" always send moody and depressing chills down my spine. I hate mugging and studying and it'll be a lie if I said otherwise.

Anyway it's been a while since I've uploaded anything new - actually for the past weeks I have shot a couple of stuff around Singapore but never really upload them - Most of them were shot for experimental purposes and will probably visit those areas again when the time is right.

 

[Fable]

Lovely angle and long exposure shot. Nicely processed in black and white!

 

[SomeFormOFhuman]

Thank you Fable!! Actually if you look real close, there's a mild tint of blue in it.

Here's something fresh from this morning.

Adventures On The Eastern Side
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2 Image HDR/DRI using GND 0.9 soft + GND 0.6 soft for higher tonality of the skies, 2 images timelapsed for the waves. Changi Coastal Walk, Singapore.

Since I had time, thought I'd like to visit this old place that I love so much. The tide was high, the sky was awesome. Great morning indeed.

I've a habit of putting "MF" on my 10-22 instead of "AF"; thus, a certain carelessness on my part for not focusing prior to taking this shot. Because of that, it appears slightly soft on 100% in the original, so some interventions were made such as applying varying degrees of sharpening and tonal contrast (Nik's Software is awesome!) to the left side. Thankfully, it doesn't seem all that bad. I've been shooting for so long yet I still make a careless mistake like this.

Note to self: Always check your focus before firing.

UPDATE: Fixed overall tonality and sharpness.

 

[hyperFocal]

Pride of ADM

Love this one! :thumbsup: Nice perspective and processing.

 

[voice123]

can explain what do u mean by
'2 Image HDR/DRI using GND 0.9 soft + GND 0.6 soft for higher tonality of the skies, 2 images timelapsed for the waves.'
the shot for #282 dam nice sia especially the sky....

 

[MachBot]

can explain what do u mean by
'2 Image HDR/DRI using GND 0.9 soft + GND 0.6 soft for higher tonality of the skies, 2 images timelapsed for the waves.'
the shot for #282 dam nice sia especially the sky....

Blended 2 images to so call "replicate" what you would actually see on scene. He stacked 2 graduated ND filters to have a effective 1.5GND filter and blended 2 images of the waves together to achieve a smoother looking wave.

Terminology
DRI - Dynamic range increase
HDR - High dynamic range
GND - Graduated Neutral Density

 

[richiemccaw1]

Glad to have found this thread!

 

[SomeFormOFhuman]

Thank you everyone. And yep, that's how they're executed all the time.

#284

In Harmony​

3 Image HDR/DRI using GND 0.9 soft, 2x2 Verto+Pano to relief spatial tightness. Telok Blangah, Singapore.

First time coming here and indeed the sun was amazing. All the buildings "pointed" to where the sun was setting at this time of the year. I wish to include more of the right side but due to the protruding walls, I wasn't able to execute it even with the shift method; the amount of POV I gained wasn't much to justify the need for more. So here's to a simple 2x2 verto+pano shot, enjoy.

 

[voice123]

means that picture consist of 2 image overlapped?

 

[alwaysjerricky]

means that picture consist of 2 image overlapped?

I think blended is a better word to use.

 

[SomeFormOFhuman]

Thanks everyone.

#285

Toa Payoh Fantasy (Experimental)

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2 Image HDR/DRI, 48 image (24x2) verto+pano. Toa Payoh, Singapore.

Simple one from Toa Payoh, I took this a couple of times long ago but they weren't to my expectations. So this time I revisited the area to study the visual melody and composition of the area to get it right in frame.

A verto+pano might suffice but because of previous tests of the same POV, building distortion was a main problem; thus resulting past experiments a failure. This forced me to rethink about the processing and shooting methods employed here. Didn't really used much of the pano tutorials on the internet because they weren't much of a help. Adaptive Wide Angle tool in Photoshop wasn't doing much help either, thus much trial and error was employed with both AutoPano and PTGui especially the method of shooting.

I thought desaturating a little might help with my urbanism thoughts of Toa Payoh. It's just urban concrete, basically.

So in a nutshell, it's deemed experimental because of the vast changes of both shooting and post-processing methods acquired to achieve the least amount of distortion. It just looks a little better but much still to be achieved.

UPDATE: Fixed some pano-mismatches + dust spots.

UPDATE II: Contrast fix for building crown & brightened scene a little.

 

[alf626]

I am no good in words. But is simply awesome looking at your pics.

 

[SomeFormOFhuman]

Hey Alfred, thanks!!

 

[macaroni]

TPY fantasy is top notch man!