Hong Kong - Low Light Photography

When you are traveling to another city, in another country, you often want to experience the vibrant night life over there as well, especially in a city like Hong Kong. The biggest solution to low light situations is your flash. However it is not always possible to use it. For example when you are doing landscape photography, when you are indoors in big halls. Flash can spoil the artistic effect or just spoil the mood of the photo, can make photographs look flat.

So learn to use angles and natural lighting. If you are shooting someone, try to angle the face so that one side is always brighter than the other side.

If you have a SLR, make use of the settings, increase your ISO. Increasing the ISO will make the photos grainy, however. You can use noise reduction software afterwards to reduce the graininess in your photos. Or just use the noise as part of the photo to create the mood.

Another good way to shoot in low light is to use a fast lens. I have bought this canon F1.8 50mm for less than $200. It is a cheap and good solution for low light situations. Anyway, the best is to have a tripod with you, but in case you are not carrying one, you can still shoot nice photographs even in low light.

Shooting Landscape - Pulau Ubin

I have always enjoyed photographing landscape. It is where you can really get creative. There are various tips for landscape photography. You may find that most of the times your photos look more or less the same as everyone else. That is because you are thinking like everyone else. Lets see some tips.

1. Use different depth of field (DOP). For a bit more creative landscape photography, use variations in your DOP. USe small apertures for example. Re-calibrate your horizon line.
2. Follow the rule of thirds, and break that rule at times.
3. Here again, if you want to shoot waterfalls, traffic or clear and sharp photos, always use a tripod.

Night photography - Gardens by the Bay

The Gardens by the Bay, at Marina bay, an icon and a central piece to turning Singapore into a "green city". It consists of 3 integral parts. It opened for a preview for a week, but the official opening is only for 2012. But we are not here to talk about that.

Night photography, a total different way of shooting. The exposures are longer, and the settings and lighting can make a whole difference. Want some rules of thumb? Some tips perhaps?

Well here are some useful advices.

rule 1. ALWAYS shoot using a tripod. It will give you the greatest flexibility to get the angles you need while keeping your camera steady for those long exposures. But guess what, for the photos taken below, I did not have a tripod. I did not even have a SLR. So I should go back and do the shoot one more time, properly that is.

TIP 2. Use wide angles. I love wide angles for night photography. I am not going to explain why, just try it out for yourself and you will find out why.

TIP 3. You want to minimize flares from outside light, simple... Use a lens hood.

TIP 4. Bring a flashlight, there are some very powerful 3watt, LED pen-size flashlight bring one along. Why? Simply because your camera requires light to focus. For some darker objects or subjects shine the flashlight onto it,this will allow your camera to focus properly.

TIP 5. Shooting water and traffic lights? Try long exposures, 15sec and above.