This has been a very productive week. Got a lot of things done but there're still a lot of things left to do on my 'to do' list. I've finally had to put my PDA back into action organising contacts and 'to do' lists. The last time I used my PDA was more than a year ago when I was still in Staffordshire University. Had to use it then to organise my laboratory notes and time tables.

Anyway, I found a place to print my t-shirts and have ordered a batch. I really am gambling with this since I don't really know what it'll look like compared to what I actually designed. Hope they get it right. Anyway, it is a small batch and I'll be giving a few to clients to find out how they like it. Again, it comes free with the package so you can't really complain. You might not want to wear it in public but you can still wear it to bed. Maybe I should have thought up a kinkier design. Hmmm.

Alright, on to more important stuff. I did some experimenting today with help from my beautiful wife and kid. You can see in the photos how happy they are to be helping me out with my photography.Basically, what I've tried to do is experiment on how to shoot available window light with fill flash. The photos were metered using a handheld Sekonic Flashmaster L358 lightmeter. This is a very useful piece of equipment and is worth knowing how to use. Anyway, what the meter gave me was 1/60s, f2.8, ISO1600. So that's what I set my camera to.I shot the first picture straight. No flash at all. The result is not bad but from the picture you can clearly see the left part of the picture in shadow and that half of little Dian's face is dark. Personally, I think the shadows need a little bit of fill. So it's time to turn on the flash and fill those shadows up.

The second shot was shot with the flash on ETTL2 (Canon) and a Lighsphere2 attached with the inverted dome on. No compensation was dialled in. This setup totally destroyed the available light look in my opinion. The flash overpowered the ambient light and although well exposed there was a lack of modelling effect on the subject's face.

I then decided to reduce the flash by dialling in a -2 compensation on the flash. I'm using a Canon 580EX and this is easily done using the button and the dial. A big improvement over the 550EX which I now have relegated to slave and/or backup flash. Anyway, I shot the picture with the flash compensation dialled in and the third picture was the result. I found that this was the most pleasing shot of them all. The flash has filled in some of the shadows and softened it a little. This has evened out the lighting but also preserved the available light look that I was after. It has not overpowered the ambient light and therefore the modelling effect was still maintained.

So, to end this experiment I asked myself, WHICH PICTURE IS BEST?
There is no wrong or right answer. It all depends on what you are looking for in the picture. In this instance I was looking for a soft/delicate portrait effect which still preserved the available light look. The first picture was good but the shadows would have benefitted from a bit of fill.

The second picture I guess is just a well exposed flash shot. I wasn't looking for this kind of effect. I wanted the ambient to rule the picture and in this picture it didn't. Plus there's a faint side shadow on the back wall.

The third picture is the middle ground. The flash has filled in some of the shadows and created a softer portrait whilst still maintaining the ambient lighting I was after.

This isn't the greatest picture of all time but it does show how you can use flash to your advantage without overpowering the ambient lighting. Of course, you could have evened out the lighting by using a reflector but I don't have one and I don't really have anytime to use it in a situation such as a wedding. I will be shooting a wedding next week and I'll be sure to try out some available window light portraits with fill-in flash if I have the opportunity.

Thank you for reading.

Have fun shooting.

Point44

I've had this idea for quite awhile now. Making t-shirts for clients and giving it to them as gifts after the job's been completed. I doubt it'll do much in terms of marketing but I've always liked t-shirts and hopefully the clients will appreciate it. Was thinking of other stuff but I think t-shirts will be the most useful. Not everyone wears a cap and a keychain doesn't really do much in terms of marketing. EVERYONE WEARS A T-SHIRT AT ONE POINT OR ANOTHER. So I guess it will be used. Don't really care if people want to wear it at home in their 'sarung'. As long as I know it will be used I'm happy.

I got this idea from those London t-shirts people always buy. You know the one....'My sister went to London and all I got was this lousy t-shirt'. Didn't really want to put the negative aspect into my design so I just thought of the 'I got shot by' idea to keep the t-shirt kind of exclusive to 'paying' clients only. I'll probably design something else for everybody else. I just came up with the design in about 5 minutes. Yeah, it shows (I'm not a designer, I just take photos). But hell if someone gave me a free t-shirt I'd take it. Doesn't matter what's written on it. I can always use it for sleeping.This is where I currently get my t-shirts.

Anyway, the final design is gonna be something like in the picture above with maybe some tweaks here and there. However, I'm just having trouble deciding how many I'm gonna make and in what size. Unless I use Lycra® and make it free size, I'm gonna have to decide on an average Malaysian size since I won't have the funds to make hundreds of t-shirts in different sizes. So, off I go this weekend to scout around for someone who can make good quality 100% cotton t-shirts for cheap. Man, good quality and cheap just doesn't sound right.

This photo on the left is from a recent wedding I did. It was my cousin's wedding actually. It was quite a challenge since I couldn't bounce my Lightsphere2 anywhere due to the wooden ceiling and the coloured walls. In the end I shot several test shots and decided to up the compensation of the flash for most of the shots. However, I got lucky with this shot. The positioning of the bride was perfect as a stream of light from the doorway just happened to light her up with such soft light. I shot this with a Canon 20D at 1/60 f2.8 and ISO800. I think the lens used was a 24-70L at 70mm. I didn't use flash on this shot.

What I like about the shot is that she took a natural glance at me when I clicked the shutter. With the light streaming in and isolating her face it just made the perfect picture for me. Another thing that I felt added to the picture was the presence of the character standing at the back of the picture. This gives a sense of occasion where everyone is trying to catch a piece of the action.

I have been quite surprised by the high ISO performance of the 20D. At ISO 800 there have been no problems with me enlarging this shot up to 8x10. I'm sure I can go bigger though since there's very little noise in the print. Maybe from now on I'll use ISO800 as standard at weddings and go to 1600 when I'm a little brave and want to experiment. Since not many large prints are made for weddings I think it's very possible to go that high.

However, I shoot 100% RAW. This has helped a lot when it comes to noise. I can't remember the last time I used the JPEG setting. There is so much advantage of shooting RAW that the disadvantage of having to buy more cards is negligible. Since memory prices are dropping everyday it has become easier for me as well. Maybe in future posts I'll say some stuff about RAW.

This shot has been photoshopped. I used an action to achieve the ethereal or glowing effect. It's called the midnight sepia action available free at ATNCENTRAL. Nothing else was done to the photo. I know I shouldn't use effects too much but this particular action gives such a nice feeling to the photo. I just love this action so much that I've used it on a few shots for this particular wedding. I tried it on a picture from another wedding and it didn't work at all. Just made the photos even worse. Just shows that a little goes a long way. You can't use one thing for everything.

Personally, I think the picture was nice on its own without any photoshopping done to it but in this instance I think it added to the picture without changing the picture much. There's no reason you can't photoshop images and there's no rule that says you can't. People still shoot black & white images and real life isn't black & white. If you want to photoshop, then do so. My motto for almost everything is 'Real Men Do Whatever the Hell They Want'.

Anyway, to end the post I'd like to share a personal tip for shooting indoors. If you're using flash on a current modern SLR with ETTL2 (or i-TTL if you're using Nikon) try using the manual setting. I can't explain to you the whole ETTL thing in a blog but you could go to the greatest Canon flash resource centre here. Basically, expose for the ambient/background and the flash will do the rest for the subject. If you're shooting in a dark area then drag the shutter. Set the shutter speed to the lowest speed you can handhold and set the aperture accordingly.This will result in a better overall exposure where you get some ambient light which will also get rid of the cave look where the background is all black. Using this technique as opposed to using Aperture Priority prevents the shutter speed going down so much that there will be evidence of blurring. Aperture Priority has it's place and I use it always when I'm outdoors and there's enough light, but indoors it's 100% manual.

I'm in the papers. Woo Hoo! It came out last Friday (21/07/2006) in Utusan Malaysia. Basically it's just about me and my wife's wedding photography gig. It's still fascinating to see yourself in the papers and I'm quite happy with what the reporter wrote although I didn't really understand most of it due to my very bad Bahasa Melayu. But it still sounded nice.

Anyway, this is my first post in my newly created blog. I have had this thing for quite awhile but I've been agonising about what to write about and how to go about doing it. I don't fully understand this blogger thing yet but I'll learn along the way. I think I am competent enough to post although I won't be able to do any fancy stuff with it. So it'll just be a basic blog.

So after a lot of thought I have decided that I want this blog to be just about my life and about my interests. So I guess it'll be mostly about the stuff below:

• Wedding Photography
  
• Forensic Science
• Knives
• Watches

Before I end this first post I feel I need to give a basic introduction into who I am to those who don't know me, so here goes....

My name is Iskandar and I work as a Forensic Consultant in a company which deals with mostly fire investigation. We do other stuff as well but mostly it's fires. I graduated from Staffordshire University last year with a BSc. First Class Honours in Forensic Science from Staffordshire University. I did a first degree in Actuarial Science in City University but decided after graduation that I didn't want to be in that field due to my sudden disinterest in mathematics and statistics.

I came back to Malaysia after 8 years studying in the UK. If I had the funds I'd be a professional student. I just love being a student and just having to learn new stuff everyday. Unfortunately, I've not won the lottery yet. So I had to come back. After I came back I applied for one job and got it and after six months I'm still there digging through crap to find the origin and cause of the fire.

Something special that's happened to me in the last year is that I've got a little baby girl. Dian Iskandar. She's the highlight of my day. Everyday. She learns something new almost every single day so she's always entertaining.

I think I will end this first post here. I have so many other stuff to blog about so I'll keep that for future posts.

Thanks for reading.

Lata

Iskandar
Point44