DP | @ekhoophotography - Photography

Speedliting tips, tricks, forums

nospam@example.com (Eugene Khoo) — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 09:25:41 -0500

If you're a Canon shooter, you better be heading over to Syl Arena's new site and forum if you've always wondered about using flash with your Canon system (of course, other DSLR owners are welcome too).

There's also a big How-to section which will be growing. There's one interesting post which shares 15 tips for using your speedlite, including this gem below:

"1. Understand that the hotshoe is not the best place for your Speedlite.
I know. You paid good money for your camera and your Speedlite. Its not that you didnt get the deluxe hotshoe. You did. Its just that shooting with a Speedlite in the hotshoe is similar to the lighting used to make drivers license and passport photos. You cannot create interesting light when the main source of light is parked on top of your camera."

But if you've only got one light... don't fret. Here's one article for you too!

580EX IIs and RadioPoppers

Gee-Aff-One

nospam@example.com (Eugene Khoo) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 11:11:00 -0500

You know what's the best things about presents when you receive them? It's not the value. It's the abso-freaking-surprise when it's something you really, really want and that the person went through great lengths to research (blog, twitter, social, whatever) what you really want. So, from the bestest brother ever, I get this awesome little thing of black plastic and magnesium alloy.

It's so awesome but the most hilarious thing is my mom going "like are you sure you're gonna buy this camera expert a camera? It's not even a Canon. It's a Panasonic! He's already got enough cameras (ahem)!" A small camera, just what I need. This is OMG Awesome. Yeah, so Canon, if you're listening, I want an EF-S mount (EF with adapter) body the same size as the GF1. APS-C Sensor and HD Video.

Thean Hou in the Morning

nospam@example.com (Eugene Khoo) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 20:12:19 -0500

A very different appearance compared to the previous shoot we had. This time round, we were shooting my brother in-law and his family. Despite the clouds and a short drizzle, the weather was hot. Chinese New Year hot. So hot that I got pretty dehydrated before I even got home. Anyways, because of the rain, the lion dance was also pretty tame. In fact, they were mostly going after anyone who waved a hong bao (red packet with money inside I presume) in their face. So tame that even tourists could pose by the lion and take a photo!

Thean Hou in the Evening

nospam@example.com (Eugene Khoo) — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 14:37:19 -0500

On the fourth day of Chinese New Year, we decided that the evening was just the right time to drop by the Thean Hou Temple in KL for a shoot. As usual, it was packed and being the Lunar New Year, it also features a lot of performances and activities that add to the bustling atmosphere. My first time here in the evening and I'm already loving the light or the lack of it. Makes the use of small flashes all the more important but also trying to jostle light to add a bit of sparkle to the already vibrant scene.

With the year of the Tiger, there were many tiger lanterns made from wire and canvas. In the darkness, they glowed beautifully but if you drop by in the daytime, they look faded, dirty and uneventful. Tripods were a challenge in a crowded place like this so I ended up shooting handheld with the McNally grip, high ISO (up to 6400 but mostly on 1600 and 3200), and wireless flash and radiopoppers. We also had another shoot the following morning. I'll post that later and you can see the difference.

Joe McNally in Kay-El

nospam@example.com (Eugene Khoo) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 11:24:00 -0500

Let there be light. And there was light! A one day seminar at Shangri-La KL was packed full with a large group of people already lined up waiting to get into the ballroom. I mean, this is the Shang, with excellent finger food, coffee, tea and all that and people rather just line up to be the first into the room? Anyways, the day started with a short introduction with Louis Pang showing guerrilla lighting techniques for wedding photographers.

More fun was the "krumping" by volunteers and Joe McNally himself as the "father" of the "bride", Evon. The only letdown was that we didn't get to see the shots from Louis' shoot of the krumping. We got cool stuff in our goodie bags and finally snagged my World Tour DVD!

Joe was funny, humble, instructive, approachable, direct, simple, profound and all that thrown in. He doesn't hide a thing, shoots openly for all to see. His thought process laid-bare. The way he approach the subject, the lights, the step-by-step build up, was just inspiring. Joe started with a single speedlight and built up using reflectors, diffusers, multiple speedlights, EzyBoxes, Octas and more. The gear alone was staggering but the information and stuff he showed were all more important. After all, there'll be newer bodies, newer lenses and newer flashes but light is light. If you can see "light" and you can direct it, control it, bend it, beat the heck out of it, you'd be good to go! I think I need one of those paint pole thingies and an EzyBox, and more speedlights!

And here are some shots of the day...

Of course I have to have a shot of us and the Guru of Lights... and of course, he signed both my books! Awesome!

Christmas Wish list

nospam@example.com (Eugene Khoo) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 09:39:41 -0500

Hey, one can wish right? There's a lot of stuff I need for the house like a new refrigerator or oven or even some new furniture but I think I'll be quite happy if someone would just drop a 1 meter long GlideTrack into my Christmas stocking!

RadioPoppers rock!

nospam@example.com (Eugene Khoo) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 13:48:30 -0500

Took my RadioPoppers into the jungles of Pahang over the weekend and they absolutely rock! One time, I had them on two lightstands at a distance of 400 feet and they still worked flawlessly. With e-TTL to boot! They're so awesome I'll be getting another set next month plus a pair of 580s to go with them.

For me, range is not that important, well, anything up to 100 feet is good enough for me but e-TTL is. The ability to have exposure control plus the ability to remotely control the slaves is important. However, more importantly, reliability is the key. The existing Canon wireless system is too dependent on line of sight and is quite easily confused when in bright areas, especially outdoors. I even had problems one time I did a portrait shoot where the left flash unit was fired through a translucent reflector and the right-side flash was bounced off the right wall and ceiling and one of the flashes wouldn't go off 100% of the time. I shot forty frames with that configuration and ended up with 9 frames where one of the flash units did not fire properly. This is indoors with a full height glass wall on one side. Maybe the infrared beams went through the windows but who knows.

In a wooden shack building 40 feet by 70 feet, I had 100% trigger rate no matter where I placed my two slave flashes. I had them outside the building firing through the side windows, left and right of the main hall, anywhere basically and all seventy frames fired successfully!

Video Workshop at Integricity Visuals

nospam@example.com (Eugene Khoo) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 22:47:48 -0400

"What? He's doing video also now?"

That's what my brother-in-law said when he found out I was attending a video workshop. Funny but that's where I was on a Sunday morning. In fact, the workshop ran on till past 7pm! We had a blast.

Why would a stills photographer attend a video workshop? Well, my DSLR has been called a VDSLR but I like what Vincent Laforet calls it, a HDDSLR -- a SLR that shoots HD video. It's also a world apart when working with stills and video. It's not easy but it's something that requires a different kind of planning, approach and all that stuff.

While I'm not sure if I'll be producing a lot of movies, I do believe that no learning is wasted and that if you only stop learning when you die. So, even from the stills photography side of things, movie-making does give you a few ideas and a cinematic approach is not a bad thing to add to your array of styles or ideas.

It was fun to see how things are done in the movies and learn some interesting camera tricks as well. There was basically an overload of information and I think it would be best done as a 2-day workshop as the video project takes time to work out, and do. Also, movie-making isn't a solo endeavor so teaming up is a good approach but time is a biggest factor here. That said, the entire workshop taught me a lot of things, not to mention that if you want a cinema look, try not to use the zoom! That's pretty easy... zooming on a HDDSLR is not the easiest thing to do.

Sorry bout the some of the photos below... I was using my iPhone as the class pace was fast and loaded, making it difficult to reach for the HDDSLR and take notes at the same time! The only thing I wish there was more off would be more examples and sample videos but this is an intro workshop so can't go into such depth. Time to save up for my Redrock Micro video DSLR rig and the Intermediate Video workshop

A fun thing would be to have a Collision Conference or Re:Frame right here in Malaysia.

Kee Sitt and Grace demonstrating a 180 degree flip... a no, no in video.

Gear envy!

Editing our little Nescafe ad we made...

By the way, I'll post our end result once I get the final copy from Karan.

Mark IV

nospam@example.com (Eugene Khoo) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:42:10 -0400

It's finally launched. Unfortunately not full-frame but otherwise, a rocking camera body I can't afford anyways! Okay, wait, I have to clarify that. Purchase it, I can but need it I do not. Hmm, that came out rather Yoda-esque. Pretty happy with my 5D Mark II. Next on the list is a H4N audio recorder and a Red Rock Micro Video DSLR rig! And plus my 7D

Rob Galbraith has a good preview here and of course you have to watch Vincent Laforet's Nocturne video.

And in case Vincent's blog has been flogged by too many people, here's the embedded link from Vimeo:

Nocturne from Vincent Laforet on Vimeo.

Awesome Seminar : Jerry Ghionis in KL

nospam@example.com (Eugene Khoo) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 22:30:31 -0400

Jerry Ghionis' recently had a one-day seminar in KL and it was definitely worth going! Besides his usual humorous and approachable self, Jerry also dispensed with a lot of advice -- what you normally get in a five-day workshop was distilled into just about 9 hours. Of course the classroom was larger, packed with over a hundred eager photographers and you don't get a hands-on session with models and all that. That said, it still packed a lot of information and Jerry doesn't hold back one bit. You get the genuine teacher in Jerry and he's passion about shooting is equaled only by his desire to teach others.

We simply had an awesome time and managed to network with many great photographers as well. And time to start saving for the 5-day workshop!

Just to relate a short story here. I signed up for Jerry's educational website, the ICE Society and Jerry's beautiful wife, Georgina refunded me some cash. She told me that the credit card went through without the 20% promotional discount. I didn't think much about it and went home pretty happy. Last week, I got my credit card statement in my inbox and it had the 20% discount applied. This means that I got 40% discount. I always believed that if you think you deserve to get paid for your services and work done, this also applies to others. I emailed Georgina immediately about the mistake and offered to pay the balance.

To be honest, Jerry and Georgina came across as good people to me. Good as in they were the kind of people you know were genuine 100% honest to goodness folks who made it. This means that I actually knew in my heart they won't ask for the money. I even knew that even if I offered to pay the balance, they wouldn't take it.

Well, that is true and Georgina thanked me for my honesty. To me it wasn't about the discount, the money, or being honest about it. I guess that is the way I was taught or brought up but I can see why Jerry's successful. Nice guys don't finish last. They get the money and success (like all the awards he's won)! Thanks Georgina and Jerry! I'll send you a Christmas gift in the post!

Awesome experience with Jerry Ghionis!

Elyana and Family - Portraiture outing!

nospam@example.com (Eugene Khoo) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 18:32:04 -0400

On a lovely Sunday morning, Elyana and family got together, dressed up and spent some quality time with each other. In addition, they brought us in to have a portraiture session with them. I must also say that Elyana's mom really cooks well and we had a boxful of yummy dumplings to take home with us! Oh, congrats to Elyana and Roslan on their tenth anniversary! Many happy returns!

Anyways, we started in their cozy home in Bandar Mahkota Cheras with their family and relatives and then took a short drive out towards Putrajaya where we had great fun near the Putrajaya mosque and main boulevard. Great time for the kids to go out, parents, relatives, and grandparents had great fun too!

I'm actually quite impressed with the way this outing was organized and we wish more people would actually spend the time to take photos of their family. You may not appreciate the photos right now but years later, when you look back at old photos, the memories are priceless. A lovely outing with the family, quality time with the kids and get family photos to boot! Excellent combination if you ask me!

And here I am caught by my lovely wife shooting on the move

Dell U2410

nospam@example.com (Eugene Khoo) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 09:49:20 -0400

Now, this is not meant to be a proper technical review of Dell's new fancy U-series monitor. It's just my personal (as well as an industry professional color & printing expert) opinion.

Dell's Ultrasharp series of monitors were their premiere line of monitors with zero-pixel defect warranty and 8-bit panels and all the good stuff. Recently, some of their Ultrasharp panels got watered down TN-panels, especially the smaller sizes. That didn't sit well with me and a lot of people. Lately, they revamped their entire monitor line with single letter prefixes, i.e. G-, S- and U-. The G-series seemed to be Green, as i.e. low-power, environmentally friendly monitors. While I do minimize my carbon footprint, using solar energy as much as I can (from water heating to pumping water), recycling rain water, etc, I needed accurate color without the price tag of an Eizo monitor. The U-series replaces the former Ultrasharp line and while a 27" incher would be lovely (as of writing this, the U2710 has not made an appearance), I rather have two monitors than one.

The U2410 caught my attention for one reason. IPS panels. You can go read here about LCD panel types but when I replaced my 21-inch 45-kilo Mitsubishi DiamondTron monitor for Dell's Ultrasharp 2405WFP, the monitor still won on color accuracy but not by much. The 2405WFP by the way uses a S-PVA panels which is not as accurate as an IPS panel.

Reference targets and print matching...

The RM1,799 price was also too good to be true (there's a additional RM200 rebate that I can get being a Dell partner so if you're nice to me...). I paid RM2,385 for my 2405WFP in 2005! Talk about deflation! I have to come clean here about my 2405WFP's price. Dell's check-out process double-added the Merdeka rebate, i.e. original rebate was RM900 with a RM250 Merdeka rebate. I ended up getting RM900 + RM250 + RM250. Kudos to Dell however. They shipped, I got the monitor and it was awesome.

Calibrating with an i1 Photo SG and reference Eizo monitor

Likewise, the U2410 (Ultrasharp, 24-inch, 2010 model) came in a non-descript brown Dell box. I'd love some Apple packaging but at the price I paid, I'd live with brown boxes. I won't talk about the specs here, you can read them over here plus a better review if you want. Compared to my 2405, the calibration went much better and when compared to an Eizo monitor four times the price (and minus 4-inches), it looked close enough. The advantage of the Eizo was a presentable color-temperature, i.e. 5600K, 6000K, 6500K etc.

Good color uniformity

The best would be to use my pro-lab's words. They calibrated my monitor with their production Macs that output to Gretag-Macbeth lightjet printers and a lovely 60"-wide HP DesignJet Z6100. First words after calibrating with an Eye-One Photo were "How many more can you get?" The calibration however was consistent and it was not too difficult (under 30 minutes) to get it to match a print under 6500K lighting. Compared to the Eizo, I could tell the Dell was visibly cooler but only if they were side-by-side.

With appropriate color profiles for the LightJet and DesignJet loaded, the reference target prints look great. We matched on Photoshop, we matched against prints, and we matched with a specific kelvin temperature light. I've been printing with this lab for 10-years and the past four years with my 2405WFP with relatively faithful color reproduction (with the preview profile loaded of course) so if they claim the U2410 is better than my 2405WFP, I ought to have a easier time previewing and working on the difficult colors.

My pro-lab is a stickler for color accuracy so they'll still do final proofs on the Eizo but for 99% of daily photo work, they can use the U2410 so that says a lot. That's because it's already very close to the Eizo according to them so it makes sense to have more monitors to work with and only save final proofing for the Eizo. After all, you can buy a few U2410s with a single Eizo.

The U2410 (left) with my 2405WFP (right)

Compared to my 2405WFP, the U2410 was a bit cooler. That's probably because my 2405WFP defaulted to a native white point of 5700K compared to the U2410's default of 6500K. Color uniformity is good with deep blacks and vivid colors. Overall, the U2410 is easier to calibrate (with an i1 Display2) than my 2405WFP. I don't notice any response time issues. I've been working on a video the past three days so video previews has no noticeable ghosting or contrast issues. No dead-pixels either! The only drawbacks for me is the lack of a CF reader (yes, would be nice to download 2 CF cards at one time using the monitor and my Sandisk reader) and the boring stand. At least my 2405WFP stand can double up as a stationary tray of sorts. Anyways, it makes up by having SDHC support on the SD, MMC, Memory-stick reader and the soft-touch buttons are nice. The double-DVI and display port options are also nice so I can easily hook up my notebook. HDMI is also a good thing to have. Overall, no regrets with another excellent Dell monitor. Won't mind getting another one if I can just make the cart double my rebate!

By the way, 3840-pixels wide is just amazing

Factory calibration report!

Yi-Lyn's Birthday shoot

nospam@example.com (Eugene Khoo) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 22:03:08 -0400

Malacca has always provided a good backdrop for a lot of our shoots and this time, it's no different. Yi-Lyn's first birthday also provided an opportunity for the family to get together, get some portraiture shots taken as well as just enjoy the moment. With the lovely backdrop provided by Everly Resort, there's definitely a lot of fun to be had. As some family members had to rush off to Singapore and others to the airport, there was no time to have some fun shots in the hotel park and gardens and the lovely beach (despite the smell).

A 60D possible?

nospam@example.com (Eugene Khoo) — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 10:55:14 -0400

A few friends asked me if they should get Canon's newest DSLR* 7D. The thing is that camera is as big and heavy as the 5D Mark II. Nothing wrong with that. I use my 5D Mark II with the BG-E6 grip, making the camera the same size and weight as a 1D series. The problem is that these friends aren't dedicated photographers plus they have kids and lugging a few kilos of equipment around is a bit difficult. The video mode is great feature for them though since they usually take small clips of their kids and not having to lug the camcorder around is a good thing.

If you look can Canon's US line-up shown below you can see that Canon has opened up their line-up a bit more, i.e. more tiers plus also to match Nikon in terms of the D300 & D300S. The Malaysian price conversion factor is roughly 3.85-3.9 times the US price.

You'll see the price ranges like this: Tier 1: $6999 and $3999 (1-Series). Tier 2: $2699 (5D Mark II), Tier 3: $1699 (7D), Tier 4: $1199, Tier 5: $700-900 (xxxD series/Rebels) and Tier 6: $599 (xxxxD series/Rebels).

So which tier has no video yet? The 1-Series of course and video is going there of course but that's out of this discussion. Next is the EOS-50D. While only a year old, it lacks video, and comes with a sensor that's not much better than the 40D. The thing is that the 500D actually trumps the 50D in the sense that it has the same sensor but has 1080 and 720 video! So of course if you're looking for a camera that ergonomically better than the 500D (that's the only reason why I won't get the xxxD series, but the 7D is a bit over your budget (or size & weight limits), then you're actually looking at the 50D. No video you say! Of course, so I think a 60D is definitely coming from the tier above. The only question is when? I mean Canon has a problem in terms of if they just dump video into the 60D, it's gonna look like the 500D. Well, they can but they might need to cut the price a bit then. Oh well, my 7D's coming when my 40D turns 3 in 6 months. Joy!

Dragonfly sitting on the tip of my Christmas tree!

* The term DSLR or Digital SLR is a bit overused now considering the fact that most SLRs sold today are digital anyway. Just a pet peeve of mine that now every model has a "D" in there somewhere. 5D, 500D, D300, etc.

New Canon Stuff

nospam@example.com (Eugene Khoo) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 10:50:35 -0400

Yeah, this is a late posting. Was busy yesterday with an AsukaBook production plus and bunch of other things.
Of the recent releases from Canon, two are the most interesting; the 7D and the new 100mm macro lens. They still don't have a Panansonic TZ-7 equivalent so I'll still be picking that up in October. The EOS-7D adds two important elements, a better AF system and a built-in master flash commander (ala Nikon). The 60FPS 720P video also rocks. I'll probably get the 7D as a second body in Feb, once my 40D reaches it's 3-year cycle. I've got other photo things to get first which are more important. Not sure how the image quality will stack up with such a dense sensor.

I'm loving the smooth images that have a 3D-feel and the depth that my 5D Mark II produces... I might get a second body as well! However, my biggest want is a better flash than the 580EX II.

For previews of the 7D, you can drop by one of these sites:

DPReview

Rob Galbraith

Imaging Resource

Digital Camera Info