QR Code!

Just so that I don't feel left out in the technological changes, here's the QR code to this site...hehe. Been awhile since I've blogged or updated new stuff due to my current hectic schedule. Will promise to update some new tips soon. Cheers :)

The Ariel Wedding Photoshoot

The original plan was to shoot 30+ wedding gowns from Ariel Wedding's new collection. A couple of weeks beforehand, we have already started scouting for talents for this shoot. Finally it was decided that we obtain the talent of Natalie Sim. Tiffany Yeoh was the make up artist selected for the shoot and the whole project was underway. Location of shoot is at Ariel Wedding's Penang outlet - de Montage located at Cordrington Avenue, Pulau Tikus area.

I asked Mujib for assistance for this shoot as it will be a whole day shoot and it would not be as tiring if we have 2 photographers to cover it. We packed the Canon 5D Mk2, Canon 7D, 24-70 f2.8L, 17-40 f4L, 50mm f1.4, 85mm f1.8, 3 units of Canon 580EX II speedlite and a Canon 430EXII. One softbox, one octabox, shoot through umbrella and a reflector were brought along for the shoot as well. Remote triggers used were the Pixel Knight TR331 which enabled high sync  triggering.

Mujib during light testing..LOL

On the day of the shoot, we were supposed to have started off at Youth Park but after my morning cycle ride at that area, I decided against going there as there were just too many people around (and it was a blessing in disguise as it rained halfway through the shoot). So we all ended up at de Montage and the shoot began in earnest at 9.30am. Tiffany had also done her homework way before the shoot and matched both hairstyle and makeup perfectly to the gowns of the day.

As usual there were lots of laughter and craziness throughout the shoot including the period where super duper classic songs had to be played to create the mood for the gown being worn during that time. We ended up using a 3 light configuration due to the space but I think in the end, it worked out quite well and we were happy with the results.

Tiffany hard at work on Natalie

Natalie was great and she knocked of poses after poses so that we can focus on the lighting and composition. Great model asset and something which upcoming models should definitely strive for. 

A special mention about Ben Leong (Tiffany's boyfriend) who must be the most patient boyfriend in the world as he was there throughout the whole shoot while waiting for Tiffany to complete her job!

The whole shoot was completed at 6.30pm and we managed to shoot 20+ gowns. Once again, a big thank you to Tiffany Yeoh, Natalie Sim, Ariel wedding gang and the folks at de Montage for making this shoot a success. Till next time~!

For more photos of the shoot : https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150319941054362.363666.607859361&type=1

Yashica Mat 124 - an unexpected find

 

sample shot from the Yashica 124

I stumbled across this Yashica Mat 124 which had shutter sticky issues and was going for a really good price, so I immediately picked it up. The overall exterior condition is close to mint and I guess the previous owner did not want to spend the money to do a full CLA on the unit. A quick check on the light seals shows everything was in good shape. Even the insides of the film bay compartment was clean and nothing needed to be done there.

another shot from the Yashica 124

I then removed the front taking lens element as well as the back and proceeded to clean the shutterblades which were really covered with a thin layer of oil/grime. The 2 lens elements were cleaned up as well as they had some residual on them, most likely from the shutterblades. A quick test firing off the shutter shows everything in perfect working condition, from B mode to 1/500. Oh ya the seller has even included a battery and the light meter is working fine.

After reassembling everything back together, a roll of Kodak Ektacolor was loaded and I met up with the guys for a short coffee session at coffee bean. Within a few minutes, I've shot off 12 shots at coffee bean and I must say, shooting with the Yashica was a quite fun due to its light weight compared to my Mamiya C330. 

testing the lens capability to handle extreme contrast

I tested a few items during the 12 shots namely - bokeh, ability of the lens to handle extreme contrast, edge to edge sharpness, color rendition and shutterspeed. I did not test for high aperture shots as I was mostly interested to test the wide open capability at this time. Will do another test on landscape for the higher aperture values.

Yashica 124 and I

 The shots that came back from the photolab were quite impressive and the Yashinon produced sharp clean images even when shot wide open. This would be a great camera to have in the bag due to its compact size and ability to shoot 6x6 medium format images. Certainly a great buy at the right time.

Do click on the images to see the larger versions of the photo. If you have any questions on this TLR (twin lens reflex), do feel free to drop me an email or comment on the article below.

Till next time..adios.

Full Circle - Medium Format

Musician at a chinese opera performance

Well it has been exactly 3 months since I stepped into the world of medium format and what can I say other than WOW! For those who know me long enough, they'll know that I like to try out new things / techniques that can change my picture style. I'm never very happy staying with one style for too long as I tend to get bored with the repetitive images.

Along came Mr Medium Format in all its glory to open my eyes to this new form of canvas for me to paint on. Subject perspective, details, dof from the shoots enabled me to see things that I've never seen before. While waiting to restore my dad's Mamiya-6, I managed to obtained the Mamiya C3 and C330 TLR's (twin lens reflex) which gave me good portability for street shoots as compared to my RB67. 

Aunty watching chinese opera at Kuan Yin Teng Temple

I used a tripod whenever I'm shooting with these fellows to ensure that I do not introduce any camera shake into the photos (these babies are heavy!). The tonal range coming out from the film scans (using a CanoScan 8800F) are incredible to say the least with the histogram showing full tonal range right across the graph. I've never been able to obtain that from DSLR but we have to be fair, as the medium format film size is 6 times that of a full frame DSLR.

Kek Lok Si - Wishing Ribbons

Working with this beauts are not as difficult as it may seem and once you get your exposure / metering figured out, it is pretty much down to composition and the usual stuff. For those who are not aware, a roll of medium format film (120 format) will give you 10 shots (6x7 format), 12 shots (6x6 format) or 15 shots (6x4.5 format). These means that you will not only need to think before you shoot but you will also need to manually meter with your eyes (unless you're using a light meter which I don't as I find them too cumbersome to use) as you will only have those limited number of shots. Developing time for color films will take only 15 mins for the negatives while BW (black & white) will take a couple of days as they need to be manually developed as oppose to the machine developed color negatives.

Once scanned, I'll do the usual post processing on the photos. Why still need to post process? For one, post processing will enhance the photo further by bringing out the sharpness, details etc. And again for those who are opposed to this, well everyone has their own way and this happens to be mine ~ no offence. 

Audience at a chinese opera performance

I know a lot of old timers will be laughing at me as they have already experienced this eons ago but hey, better late than never ~ big grin!

If you have any questions with regards to the above article, please do not hesitate to contact me : kevin@kevinchooi.com

For more photos, you can either go to my facebook or flickr :

http://www.facebook.com/kevinchooi

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinchooi/

Montage montage and more montage...

 

















I've always like mixing and matching different types of photos together or what we call montage, reason being it simply amplifies the original image without overwhelming it. However having said that, there are times when the complimentary images do overwhelm, either in the form of having a distracting color or simply contains more "wow" factor as compared to the main subject.

I've spent the last couple of nights coming up with this 3 images and trying to come up with a new signature style. Hope that you guys like it :)

Restoring a Mamiya-Six

Mamiya-six

I inherited this Mamiya-six from my dad and found it to be a perfect subject for a full restoration to make it usable again. The bellows was pretty much gone, having disintegrated through age while the lens was covered in haze and fungus.

Lens removed from shutter assembly

Luckily the shutter was firing well and being fully mechanical, this medium format camera was really quite simple in overall design. The first thing I did was to remove the Olympus Zuiko lens which only took a simple step of unscrewing it from the main shutter attachment. There's a tiny screw at the side of the lens that needed to be removed before I proceeded to clean the 2 elements.

Viewfinder removed

The next thing that needed some minor cleaning were the viewfinders whereby I needed to remove the top cover. This was quite simple and only consisted of 6 screws around the top cover. After that I removed the film advancing knob by just unscrewing it which enabled the top cover to be removed. The viewfinder was held together by 2 screws and a plate.

Dark slide chrome bits

Top cover

Next up I cleaned the chrome bits of the darkslide using Autosol to restore it back to its original shine. That was quite fun and I ended up polishing all the other chrome areas of the camera..lol.

Lens after cleaning

The final part was to remove the worn out bellows and this was quite easy as it literally melted when touched. The only problem I have now is finding a way to remove it from the end parts where it is connected to the shutter/lens mechanism and the back portion connected to the body. The back portion is quite easy as there's a sort of holder snapping it to the main body where it is glued down but its the shutter/lens part which is giving me the problem. I'll try to fabricate a lens hood out of suede cloth in the coming days before attaching it to the camera.

I'll post more pics after I've build up the bellows, hopefully by the end of the week.

Family Outing Photoshoot - Penang Hill

Most of us photographers seldom have the chance to shoot with our family beside us. Today I had that chance when my wife, son and sister in law decided to tag along with me to Penang Hill for an early morning sunrise shoot. 

We woke up quite early around 5am+ as I had to feed the dogs and prepared to catch the first train up to Penang Hill at 6.30am. We were the first to arrived at the station and the 2-way train ride cost us RM18 (2 adults and 2 children).

The timing of the train was spot on and by 6.30am, we were on our way uphill in the newly launched trains. The speed of the trains have improved significantly as compared to the old ones and the air-conditioning was excellent. Gone were the days of smelly humid fully packed trains.

We reached the summit just in time to catch the sunrise although it was not really one of the best ones. After about 15 mins of shooting, the fog started to roll in and we could no longer see the view of Penang island. 

We potter around the place for awhile before heading back down and the heavens poured down just as we reached the base station. The family thoroughly enjoyed the trip and can see my son and wife happily snapping away with their cams during the whole trip.

Overall quite a nice photo outing and managed to capture some photos and video. Till next time... 

Video link : Penang Hill video outing

Equipment used : Canon EOS 7D, Canon EF 17-40mm f4L, EF24-70mm f2.8L and EF70-200mm f2.8L, Manfrotto 190 ProB Tripod and 3-way head. Photix remote trigger.

The World of Medium Format

We all know what medium format (MF) can do but for those who don't, let's just say the details and depth of field alone will blow any 35mm full frame pro range DSLR to Pluto and back (and maybe to Pluto again just for the fun of it). One thing for sure though, MF digital backs (layman's term - digital sensors that you slap to the back of a MF camera to turn it into a MF digital camera) are way out of reach of most photographers (due to their crazy prices).

So then how do we venture into this seemingly Holy Grail of a camera range without having to sell everything right down to your slippers? Well luckily (or unluckily, depends on how you look at it), the 2nd hand MF film cameras themselves are priced so crazily affordable (cheaper than some point and shoot) that you might and I say here MIGHT, take the plunge into this unknown realm. You will of course need to consider film cost, developing, scanning etc but all in all it should be around $2 per photo.

Ok let me stop here for awhile, what crap am I babbling about when I haven't even shot a single frame let alone develop to see its result. Well normally I do a lot of research before jumping into anything and MF is one of them. Initially the idea was to go with a Hasselblad H1 with a digital back but a quick check in ebay sent me immediately back to the drawing board. 

Next came the Mamiya 645 AFD with a Leaf/Phase One digital back. Now this was looking more promising but again, 2nd hand 645 AFD are still on the high side, to start trying out MF on film. At the same time, I needed to have a MF body that is capable of attaching a digital back since not all are compatible with the new technology. 

That pretty much left me with the Hasselblad 500 series or the Mamiya RB/RZ 67 series which are boxy in design as compared to the H1 or 645 series which are designed more similar to the DSLR range. Quick check on ebay and Hasselblad 500 series is once again off the list even though there were tons of them available. Now we're down to RB/RZ 67 and as luck would have it, the local camera shop that has everything - Foto Easycam has on its hand, a mint condition RB 67 Professional SD + 90mm lens + 180mm + prism finder + 3 film backs all going for a really attractive price. The previous owner had apparently only shot 5 rolls on it and then put it up on sale. A quick check on the equipment confirms this as some of the items still had the Mamiya tags on them - that is practically unused. Anyway, I've got 5 rolls of Kodak Ektacolor Pro 160 to start off with and hopefully I can rake some shots off after reading the manual on how to operate this monster (it makes my EOS 7D with 24-70 f2.8L look like a point and shoot).

Until then, let the fun begin and photos flow...

Strobist workshop - Part 2 & 3

Today was the continuation of my strobist workshop and we were very fortunate to have 9 models to work with us. Really appreciate the effort guys and gals. The event started at 8am and I spent about 40 mins giving the 70 photographers a quick run down on some basic strobist setup before breaking them up into groups and pairing them off with the models.

The car park location was really hot even though it was indoors, probably due to the low ceiling height. The teams quickly went about setting up their lights and some had difficulties synchronizing their speedlites to trigger. 

I wanted to stay longer to help out further but as usual on Sunday, I had to be a taxi driver to my little big boss to ferry him to his tuition classes..hehehe. Overall I hope everybody had a great time and thanks again to all the 9 models for a great job. My hats off to you guys!

Thanks John Liew for the group photo.

Follow Focus DIY!

Ever since I started focusing on video (pardon the pun), I've always needed a good follow focus system. A quick search in ebay got me running away from all the ads at top speed. The prices were just outright plain ridiculous for such a simple mechanism. I mean, paying $600 or more for what was practically some gears and a couple of rods were just plain crazy. 

Luckily we have the internet with its vast resource and a quick search gave me a blueprint to make my own follow focus system and a not too shabby one at that. As usual ACE hardware and Thye Huat were the typical hardware shops available locally (how I wish we had Home Depo) and a couple of minutes later, I had most of the materials I needed.

Assembly of the rail system and the focusing mechanism were very straight forward but a little bit of work was needed on the L-bracket. I sent it to the local metal work shops to get mine modified and should be ready for pickup tomorrow. Anyway the photo shown is the completed rail system mounted on a Manfrotto 701 video head and the focusing mechanism. All that's left now is to fix the L-bracket and I'll have a fully functional follow focus system. 

Total cost? $80 which is a fraction of what you'll be paying for, if you buy it off the shelf.

Sample video footage showing the use of this follow focus.