= Stefan's Weekly Singapore City/Landscapes II =

[shiosaki]

hi stefan
your thread is a great source of inspiration
from reading all your small write ups, it made me believe further that a direction is important in all things we do
your photos have a great sense...you know where you want to go with them
it sets apart from people who just shoot for the sake or interest (like me :x)
great great job

 

[tecnica]

anyway Stefan, what ND filter(how many stops) will you recommend for shooting around 6-7pm?

i usually stack my big stopper with 0.6/0.9 GND, however i find the exposure time too long for my liking when approaching golden hour.

i don't really fancy shooting with extremely small aperture(f16 onwards), usually i will be at f9 to f13. 10 stops ND is too much due to the diminishing light but if i do without the ND, then i cannot yield a long enough exposure time to smooth out water surface, get the clouds moving etc.

what do you reckon eh?

 

[SomeFormOFhuman]

Thanks very much for info , you can be one of clubsnap landscape photography Mentor , great experience , will try the technique you just mention
. Thanks again

No issues Andy. Also, I must add nothing beats learning from your mistakes and keep shooting often, through trial and error, and experiment to your heart's content. You will develop your own taste and style when do that.

#135 is great.

IMO the 3 rocks fulfilled the purpose of being foreground subjects(not distractions), thus making the bottom half of the photo less empty but not overcrowded to the point of being distracting.

anyway, i would prefer more illumination from the million dollar condos. hmm, was wondering where did all the occupants go to~?

hahaha!!! Good point, tecnica!! Thanks. Well actually, I noticed the Costa Rhu Condos are always very dark at night especially in the mornings. It's like they turn off the lights every time, I wish they could all turn it on. So, in fact to fix this, during post-processing I actually increased the exposure to one stop in Photoshop RAW adjustment for the condos to appear "brighter" (One of those HDR tricks lol) but after masking it looked weird and didn't really work in the shot. Because the first thing that drew to my attention was the Shears Bridge, the condos were just a secondary element, well for that matter when I was at site. So having the exposure increased for that condo didn't work and the details i.e the windows and all were mildly distracting, I guess maybe a slightly silhouetted condo with its nice contours accompanied with the vast negative spaces around it (The sky and reflections on the water in this case) creates this visual balance. Well at least I *think it does. I don't know. LOL :bsmilie: 'Scuse me for my n00bishness. :bsmilie:

hi stefan
your thread is a great source of inspiration
from reading all your small write ups, it made me believe further that a direction is important in all things we do
your photos have a great sense...you know where you want to go with them
it sets apart from people who just shoot for the sake or interest (like me :x)
great great job

Hey thanks for visiting my thread and I'm glad that they're an inspiration to you. Well, all I'm doing is just finding places on Google Earth, friends and relatives around Singapore and doing what I love most. I wish I have all the time in the World to be an explorer. hahaha. Well personally, photography is like watching a movie, a play or reading the papers. There should be a headline, a written script or a short story behind it that I would like people to comprehend. Just like music there should be a tempo, a beat of some sort, a good tune or melody with meaningful lyrics to the song that people can groove into and remember. It should have direction like what you said. Thanks!!

anyway Stefan, what ND filter(how many stops) will you recommend for shooting around 6-7pm?

i usually stack my big stopper with 0.6/0.9 GND, however i find the exposure time too long for my liking when approaching golden hour.

i don't really fancy shooting with extremely small aperture(f16 onwards), usually i will be at f9 to f13. 10 stops ND is too much due to the diminishing light but if i do without the ND, then i cannot yield a long enough exposure time to smooth out water surface, get the clouds moving etc.

what do you reckon eh?

6 to 7pm? It depends on the light though, if the lighting is poor but good hues of blue for the blue hour or red orange skies (Dust particles in the sky that caused this phenomenon I heard) stacking 2x ND 0.9s to achieve 6 stops coupled with f/8 to f/11 range would be sufficient for a 60 - 120 second exposure on ISO 100.

Yeah I wouldn't also highly recommend shooting at f/16 - which is technically the highest f stop I will ever go up to, because the 7D's base ISO is 100. There will be softness, but it still fixable by sharpening up a little bit. But will be alright if 50% of the frame is filled with water and sky. For me, those parts appearing soft would be fine but not for background elements. ISO 50 would've been a great blessing, which is only found in 5D MK III.

 

[SomeFormOFhuman]

#136

Bishan Overglow

​

5 Image HDR/DRI using GND 0.9 soft + Lee Big Stopper for smoothed cloud effects. Bishan Estates, Singapore.

I know, it's the same ol' view that I've taken if you look through my gallery. But if I may predict, I should see the sun rising out precisely where the HDBs "point" during this time of the year.

I liked the clouds this morning, all moving very fast, towards South, (Right side) created the streaks that I've always yearned for.

 

[SomeFormOFhuman]

#137

Solitary Beginning (Reprise)

​

5 Image HDR/DRI 4 image Panorama to relief right side spatial tightness using GND 0.9 soft + GND 0.6 hard for higher tonality of the skies. Bishan Estates, Singapore.

A reprise shot that was taken last year: Solitary Beginning | Flickr - Photo Sharing! Didn't realise the town council re-painted the blocks.

I say the same for the other blocks in that Street 13 district that the HDBs will "point" the sun this time of the year. One more area to visit before the sun moves its direction.

 

[debyos]

Great job on #136 and #137! Very nice!

 

[SomeFormOFhuman]

Great job on #136 and #137! Very nice!

Thanks!! Glad you liked the outcome of the images!

 

[SomeFormOFhuman]

#138

My Lazy Evening

​

3 Image HDR/DRI using GND 0.9 soft + Lee Big Stopper for smoothed cloud and water effects. Labrador Park, Singapore.

Didn't have time to post-process the shot taken a few days back, so finally here it is. Based on a similar composition last time at Sembawang: My Lazy Morning | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Initial plans called for a 3 image panorama to relief left side spatial tightness and visual "heaviness" and to stand further to the right for this to work well, but the light diminished quickly and I didn't have the ample time to continue using the Big Stopper on such short notice. Will come back and attempt this again, probably just stacking 2x ND 0.9s to achieve 6 stops would suffice.

 

[CS7890]

Nice pictures you have here.

 

[SomeFormOFhuman]

Thanks, glad they turned out alright for you.

 

[Kiwira]

once i ord, wanna venture more into landscapes.. inspiring works as always =v=

 

[Kyaw Lay]

Awesome photos since the very first post.

True talent and a pro indeed.

Just out of curiosity, what apps do you use for HDR, noise controls and the sharpness?
How long did you shoot on the big stopper frame?

Thanks in advance for sharing the knowledge.

 

[SomeFormOFhuman]

once i ord, wanna venture more into landscapes.. inspiring works as always =v=

You know, deep inside me I always keep telling myself to someday venture into macro photography of plants and flowers (No insects please LOL)- but that never came into fruition. ;p The thing I like about closeup and macro is you can shoot anytime of the day whether rain or shine. But that would require me buying a new macro lens and flash setup.... Money. Anyway I love your gallery too... that is one hell of an awesome example. :bigeyes: Thanks man. Glad you liked.

Awesome photos since the very first post.

True talent and a pro indeed.

Just out of curiosity, what apps do you use for HDR, noise controls and the sharpness?
How long did you shoot on the big stopper frame?

Thanks in advance for sharing the knowledge.

Thanks for your kind words. You just have to keep shooting and playing around with your gear and compositions you feel about the place itself.

Well for my HDR (I realise recently they're not really called HDR but rather DRI instead, but there's still no definite term or defined processes between the two.) I use Photoshop for manual blending of the exposures and Nik's Software for the final touchups like micro contrast, and etc. The thing I dislike about 7D is image grain even at base ISO. I use Nik's Dfine tool to reduce grain and noise for all the long exposure images.

While shooting with the Big Stopper I always go by the multiples of 2... If I had the time, I will calculate it but generally after shooting for quite a while the golden numbers under bulb mode are 30, 60, 120, 240 and etc. I observed that depending on the light, majority of my exposures are around 60 to 120s tops coupled with f/10.

For 7D I would not go anything higher than 300-400s.... Noise, grain and especially hot pixels are eminent and the 7D will get kinda warm if you're attempting to do DRI long exposures. Not good for the sensor. I once shot at nearly 1700+ seconds (that's like 30 mins of exposure) of attempted star trails at Seletar/Ubin a few years back somewhere in 2009. The camera didn't turn for a few minutes. I admit I was scared and I thought I fried something inside.

 

[SomeFormOFhuman]

More behind the scenes at Labrador. Enjoy You might find significant colour difference because of the poor auto white balance on my Galaxy S II. In actuality, the entire environment is lit a bright hue of orange and red.

 

[andysim65]

You know, deep inside me I always keep telling myself to someday venture into macro photography of plants and flowers (No insects please LOL)- but that never came into fruition. ;p The thing I like about closeup and macro is you can shoot anytime of the day whether rain or shine. But that would require me buying a new macro lens and flash setup.... Money. Anyway I love your gallery too... that is one hell of an awesome example. :bigeyes: Thanks man. Glad you liked.

Thanks for your kind words. You just have to keep shooting and playing around with your gear and compositions you feel about the place itself.

Well for my HDR (I realise recently they're not really called HDR but rather DRI instead, but there's still no definite term or defined processes between the two.) I use Photoshop for manual blending of the exposures and Nik's Software for the final touchups like micro contrast, and etc. The thing I dislike about 7D is image grain even at base ISO. I use Nik's Dfine tool to reduce grain and noise for all the long exposure images.

While shooting with the Big Stopper I always go by the multiples of 2... If I had the time, I will calculate it but generally after shooting for quite a while the golden numbers under bulb mode are 30, 60, 120, 240 and etc. I observed that depending on the light, majority of my exposures are around 60 to 120s tops coupled with f/10.

For 7D I would not go anything higher than 300-400s.... Noise, grain and especially hot pixels are eminent and the 7D will get kinda warm if you're attempting to do DRI long exposures. Not good for the sensor. I once shot at nearly 1700+ seconds (that's like 30 mins of exposure) of attempted star trails at Seletar/Ubin a few years back somewhere in 2009. The camera didn't turn for a few minutes. I admit I was scared and I thought I fried something inside.

Fantastic explanation , can tell is from your heart, thanks

 

[nitewalk]

You know, deep inside me I always keep telling myself to someday venture into macro photography of plants and flowers (No insects please LOL)- but that never came into fruition. ;p The thing I like about closeup and macro is you can shoot anytime of the day whether rain or shine. But that would require me buying a new macro lens and flash setup.... Money. Anyway I love your gallery too... that is one hell of an awesome example. :bigeyes: Thanks man. Glad you liked.



Thanks for your kind words. You just have to keep shooting and playing around with your gear and compositions you feel about the place itself.

Well for my HDR (I realise recently they're not really called HDR but rather DRI instead, but there's still no definite term or defined processes between the two.) I use Photoshop for manual blending of the exposures and Nik's Software for the final touchups like micro contrast, and etc. The thing I dislike about 7D is image grain even at base ISO. I use Nik's Dfine tool to reduce grain and noise for all the long exposure images.

While shooting with the Big Stopper I always go by the multiples of 2... If I had the time, I will calculate it but generally after shooting for quite a while the golden numbers under bulb mode are 30, 60, 120, 240 and etc. I observed that depending on the light, majority of my exposures are around 60 to 120s tops coupled with f/10.

For 7D I would not go anything higher than 300-400s.... Noise, grain and especially hot pixels are eminent and the 7D will get kinda warm if you're attempting to do DRI long exposures. Not good for the sensor. I once shot at nearly 1700+ seconds (that's like 30 mins of exposure) of attempted star trails at Seletar/Ubin a few years back somewhere in 2009. The camera didn't turn for a few minutes. I admit I was scared and I thought I fried something inside.

For the Big Stopper or ND110 for the matter, I find that multiplying the correct exposure by 2 for 10 times seems to be insufficient. Normally I multiply by 1500. Not sure why 1028 is insufficient even though that would be the theoretically correct value.

 

[tecnica]

when using the big stopper or ND110 usually i go with 2048 which is 11 stops. 1024(10 stops) imo still gives me a slightly underexpose image.

 

[nitewalk]

when using the big stopper or ND110 usually i go with 2048 which is 11 stops. 1024(10 stops) imo still gives me a slightly underexpose image.

Yes that is the problem. But when I "over-expose" by one stop, i.e. what you are doing now, then the shutter speed will stretch beyond 4min. Problem is my weird preference of shooting at f/16. Need to change my habit hahah.

 

[tecnica]

Yes that is the problem. But when I "over-expose" by one stop, i.e. what you are doing now, then the shutter speed will stretch beyond 4min. Problem is my weird preference of shooting at f/16. Need to change my habit hahah.

i think for 10 stops ND, there is a need to compensate for the change in lighting condition as we are not talking about few seconds of exposure, rather mins of opened shutter. so by going 11 stops it should be a safer bet.

anyway my preference is to stay below f14, usually f8 to f13. f16 is really stretching my limit and it yields too long an exposure time also. perhaps you can dial down the aperture a bit huh? if you shoot at a wide enough angle(below 24mm FF equivalent) and hyperfocus to the minimum distance/focusing 1/3 into the frame, infinity DOF coverage should not be a problem from f8 or f9 onwards.

what i usually do(for maximum DOF coverage from camera to infinity) is @ 16mm, f9 and 1m hyperfocus distance is my baseline. if i can stop down somemore, then the hyperfocus distance can increase a lil' more(e.g f11 @ 2m) and relax a bit.

 

[takafan]

Hi Stefan, can you share the filters used and exact placement of them on the horizon for this shot? Thanks!