Freeze the moment (motion)

After the Justice of Peace announced to the couple: 'I now pronounce you husband and wife', the couple faced each other and kissed!

I was expecting the kiss and was actually standing by my finger on the shutter button, ready to snap the moment of love. But... It happened too fast! Before I knew it, it was over!

Checking back on the photo, I did manage to capture the kissing part, but with all the motion blur around the couple, they were kissing way too fast!


My flash suppose to help freeze the motion in case things happened too fast. But since the room was not dark , and they were faster than what I would have expected, the motion blur showed up pretty clearly in the photo. Hmm... If the room was really dark, I think the motion blur would not be so obvious.

Showing my unsatisfactory, I requested them to kiss again. Unfortunately, they were too shy and I was only given the below chance: Kiss on the cheek. Sigh...


Album: http://picasaweb.google.com/kcshashin/ROMShots18Dec2009

Kampung (Village) feel

The couple walked too fast! They kept leaving me behind... Shooting behind the back seldom get good photos...

We walked into this hut and it gave me some old 'kampung' feel. Hmm... with the couple holding hands and walking happily, I took a shot and kept it for post processing later on.

Looking at the photo, since it gave me some old 'kampung' feel initially, I decided to give it a vintage look. I adjusted the colors and gave a little pinkish look to it. And of course, I added in the effect that I always like - vignetting.


Wish the couple hold on to each other till old age, happily!

Album: http://picasaweb.google.com/kcshashin/ROMShots18Dec2009

Turn around and smile

I was walking behind the couple and we passed this walkway. There was a rack (squarish wooden rack/windows or whatever it is called) and it seemed nice. I quickly asked the couple to turn around and took a shot.


The light was coming from behind the couple and when they turned around, it gave shadows to the faces. But it was not too dark, so I did not need a flash to fill their faces. The couple was brightened up just enough to be captured in the photo.

I like this photo a lot (the rack and the colors)! I seldom took photos with lotsa greenery in the background. The green always turned out to be dark... This photo, somehow I managed to get the nice color out of the leaves! It just feels peace to the eyes! =D

Album: http://picasaweb.google.com/kcshashin/ROMShots18Dec2009

Try again, without flash

After the under-exposed shot covered in the previous post 'Fill flash', I stubbornly wanted to try to take a shot without flash on. Yah, stubborn (or trying my luck)... haha...

I got the couple stood on both sides of the cannon. I then tried to move around to check which angle the light was coming from. I positioned myself to make sure there was enough light on the faces.

Alright, found the right location, right pose, and right smile. Say 'Cheese'... Snap!


Album: http://picasaweb.google.com/kcshashin/ROMShots18Dec2009

Fill flash

I was invited to take Registration of Marriage (ROM) photos for my childhood friends. We know each other since primary school. And yah, after many many years, they finally got together! Hehehe...

That was my first outdoor shooting. I think it should be considered as outdoor since we spent most of the morning walking around Fort Canning park to take photos before the appointment.

As usual, the sky was full of clouds (this is Singapore), but there was enough lighting to take photos. Or so I think...


First shot with the cannon, it appeared to be under-exposed! I could hardly see the faces! Hmm... the available light coming from behind the couple was too strong (where was the sun???)!

No choice, I've got to fix up my flash and took another shot. The flash used here was for the purpose as fill light. With the flash, the couple got lightened up on the faces. Hey bride, look here...


Album: http://picasaweb.google.com/kcshashin/ROMShots18Dec2009

Turn the flash off

Recently I went to shoot 2 wedding dinners and I repeated a mistake twice!! ARghh!! During march in, a lot of time there will be spot light (not all the ball room have this though) pointing towards the couple. I did not pay much attention to the spot light and continue shooting the couples with flash on. As a result, I got the faces over-exposed! And those photos were totally beyond repair~

Hmm... I don't have the habit to check every shots I took on the camera LCD and ended up, i did not correct my mistake on the spot.


Looking back to the wedding dinner photos I took last year, I am writing this post to remind myself, to turn off the flash when there is spot light shinning at the couple. The photo above was shot without flash (luckily I did not have an external flash that time...)

I do not want to repeat the mistake again... Next time, I must turn off the flash, and maybe try stopping down the EV and see if it gave a proper exposed photo.

Album: http://picasaweb.google.com/kcshashin/WeddingShots21Feb2009

Built in flash

I am always reluctant to use the built in flash on the camera. The reason I hate using that flash is because it always gives a very harsh image. The objects just got lightened up unevenly. And one thing I cannot understand, since the camera manufacturers are making DSLR to have pop up flash, why can't they just make it pointing upward, instead of pointing directly to the objects...

Anyway, this photo was taken with the built in flash. Wedding dinner will always have low lighting and I have no choice to use the flash. At that time, I did not have an external flash and I was using kit lens to shoot. I boosted the ISO to 1600, f stop to 3.5 (biggest aperture that kit lens is capable of), and managed to get 1/50 sec shutter speed. To make the photo less harsh (or so I think), I stepped backward and tried to keep as far away as I could from the objects.


The harsh effect on this photo was not that bad (I guess keeping a certain distance from the object does help). I have to use 18mm focal length to achieve f3.5 (kit lens). Therefore, the photo I took actually covered much bigger space than this photo. I cropped the photo to remove the unwanted space.

Album: http://picasaweb.google.com/kcshashin/WeddingShots21Feb2009