Sunday, October 12, 2008
Photography - Mastery of Light
Went up to KL for a work trip this weekend with Mark Law & Celia Teh (the very famous model when we were growing up). I think i was reading my aunt's Her World through my gawky teenhood. No airs at all from the pair of them, one's a leading fashion photographer & the other's a famous home grown model who made it big on the international scene. Both really uber nice people and a truly sweet couple.
So-so work trip, not that super busy, thankfully, with enough time for me to catch up on sleep and walk around to concur that KL's not a really fun place, especially since i don't count shopping as my hobby, ok, except bead shopping (but that's work so it still doesn't count).
Was re-enlightened about photography, that at the end photography is about light patterns, and the shadows they cast. Re-looked at some of the shots i've taken, they may be not bad, but now i know there are things i wanna improve. One is to have mastery over light. It means, i need to start controlling the daylight streaming into my room and onto my bed (where i take most of my pictures when there's sufficient light). Now is to figure out how to do that, afterall daylight has it's own mind. I need to up one level. Does this mean i need to buy a dSLR? RAWR.
Personally i saw how with the adjustment of exposure levels, allowed the light to come into the sensor and capture really lovely photos. My client showed me exactly how it was done, through a comparison based on normal setting with backlight (took a totally underexposed shot), adjustment of exposure level (picture became properly lit) & adjustment of white balance (super nice picture). I really should get the pictures and upload them here with the step by step explanation. All this while i had not moved at all. Given that he is quite a good photographer as well, but it did make me feel that taking good pictures doesn't seem that difficult afterall (or maybe he's that good and is giving me this false illusion). Take home lesson for this weekend - Photography is mastery of light. All the jazzy shit will not serve its purpose if you do not know how to control light.
Unknown at 11:25 pm