Category: Altered Reality

A visit to the neighbourhood market at Ang Mo Kio yielded this find: a boy yearning for a toy on sale at a stall in the open. The morning lighting was brilliant, highlighting the boy as well as the toy he was longing for. Further processing in Photoshop has helped to isolate the boy even further as the main subject.

Exposure information: Canon EOS 20D, Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM, Shutter speed – 1/200 sec, Aperture – f/10, ISO – 200, Exposure program – Manual, Metering mode – Evaluative.

When I first bought my 300D, one of the places I went to test out the camera was the Lower Seletar Reservoir, where early morning activities basked in good sunlight usually abound. For the 20D, I did the same again and was rewarded by scenes of anglers looking for their first catches of the day. This particular shot was post-processed in Photoshop to give the water an almost unreal/artistic feel and touch. Depending on your taste, your opinion on that may vary :p

Exposure information: Camera – Canon EOS 20D, Exposure Time – 1/100 sec, Aperture – f/9.0, Exposure Program – Manual, ISO – 200, Lens – Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM, Auto focus – One shot, Metering – Evaluative

The Steven Spielberg-directed movie, “The Terminal”, inspired me to try my hand at taking some candid shots at the Singapore Changi Airport last weekend. Indoor shooting was however much more challenging due to the dimmer lighting conditions which necessitated using higher ISO settings, slower shutter speeds and wider apertures. These all led to a compromise on noise-levels, sharpness and the ability to freeze decisive moments.

For this shot, the interesting patterns of the floor tiles together with the unusual lighting first caught my eye. Setting up my tripod to await passers-by to add a human-element to the pictures I would take, this maintenence man who was collecting used baggage trolleys pushed his load right into the camera frame. Seizing the moment, I snapped a shot only to find that sharpness was lacking due to motion blurring as a result of the slow shutter speed I was forced to use. Worse still, the picture appeared very grainy since I was forced to push the ISO setting up to 800!

All this was a pity since I liked especially the composition and setting of the shot. Not wanting to waste the shot, I decided to do some Photoshop-work on it. The result you see here is a combination a usage of the smudge-tool (to give a brushed art feel to the shot), solarisation, and application of a canvas-texture to the final picture.