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Showing posts with label Bay East Garden. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bay East Garden. Show all posts
30 Oct 2013
Lotus and Flowers @ Bay East Garden

  • at 10:58 pm
  • 1
This morning I returned to Bay East Garden - 2 weeks back, I came here in the wee hours for the night cityscape of Singapore and did not have a chance to look around the park since it was dark. I only managed to cover a third of the huge park before it started to rain heavily.

Lotus Pond

The moment I entered from the visitor's center, I cannot help noticing a huge pond that is full of lotus. Not many parks in Singapore have lotus ponds - most have water lilies that may be mistaken by many as lotus. Lotus have a unique lotus seed pod that grows inside the flower, after which the flower withers leaving only that lotus seed pod behind.

Lotus not only has important symbolic meaning in Buddhism (i.e. purity), but lotus seed in Chinese culture also carries the meaning of "many descendants to come".

Looking closely into the lotus ponds, I could also find lots of water spiders and other insects.

Beautiful Flowers and Plants

I love photographing colorful blooming flowers. If you are just like me, then this is the right place to come. Besides lotus, there are many different types of flowers and plants.

Some Tips on Close-Up Photography of Flowers

  • If you are using macro lenses to photograph flowers, then you should avoid using too wide aperture as the depth of field (DOF) would be so shallow if shooting the flower at close proximity, which will ruin the shot i.e. the focus area of the flower would be very sharp and the rest would be blurred. For example, the DOF would only be around 0.1cm shooting at F/2.8 using 100mm focal length at a distance of 30cm away from the flower! Using lenses with a shorter focal length with a smaller aperture (i.e. bigger F number) and standing further away from the flower would help to increase the DOF.
  • Alternatively, using a long telephoto lens to zoom into a particular flower from a distance using a wide aperture could throw the foreground and background into out-of-focus so that you can draw your viewer's attention to the flower in the picture.
  • If using auto-focus in close-up photography, the auto-focused point could be thrown off easily with slight movement that is caused either by your hand or the wind. Hence switching to manual focusing could be a better option.
  • Don't be shy to use a tripod especially when using macro lenses as the slightest movement could result in the picture to be out-of-focus. The help of remote shutter release would also help to minimize potential shakes on the camera.
  • If you do not have a tripod, then try to maintain shutter speed that is equivalent or faster than the inverse value of the focal length of your lens used to minimize potential out-of-focus problems caused by slight camera movement. For example, shutter speed of 1/100s or faster should be used if using a lens with focal length of 100mm.
  • Sometimes lighting condition may not be ideal, as such using reflectors could help to brighten up the scene. Simply have a white piece of cardboard or towel to redirect/bounce the available light from other sources onto your subject. 
  • The wind can always ruin your picture and definitely frustrating. Unless you can move the entire plant indoor, otherwise just have to be patience and wait for the wind to subside. We cannot fight nature right :)

Butterflies, Bees and Other Insects

There are definitely a lot of beautiful butterflies and bees (and wasps) flying around the flowers. Photographing them is definitely not going to be easy as they are hardly still, and would fly away whenever you try to approach them - just gotta be patience and wait for your chance.

Dragon Boat at Kallang River

As I was photographing around the lotus ponds, I heard cheers and shouts at the Kallang River next to the park and pop by to take a look. To my surprise, there were students (I guess) practicing dragon boats. Quite fun to watch them rocking their dragon boats and rowing away.

Day View of Singapore Cityscape

Of course, not to mention the Singapore cityscape view that you can photograph.

Please visit http://jefzlim.smugmug.com/Destinations/Singapore/Bay-East-Garden for more photos ...


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21 Oct 2013
Zooming Light Burst Effects

  • at 11:08 pm
  • 0 comments
Night photography in a small city like Singapore has one advantage, which is the abundant amount of difference light sources around us at night (e.g. street lights, traffic lights, building lights, lighted sign-boards, etc.) that will allow creative zooming light burst effects to be created.
Following my post on the night cityscape of Singapore yesterday, I've actually tried out zooming light burst effect of the cityscape and it turned out to be amazingly creative.

Equipment and Setup

The equipment and setup is no different from taking a night cityscape shot as shared in my post yesterday. However, a zoom lens is definitely needed. In my case, I've used my EOS EF24-105mm F/4L IS USM lens to create the zooming light burst effects.

How to Create the Zooming Light Burst Effect

The zooming light burst effect is created by the manual zooming of the lens when the shutter opens for the duration of the exposure. Here are some consideration factors when trying it out:

Smooth Zooming

Zooming in or out create different perspective and effects. Whichever the case, you need to practice on a smooth zoom i.e. meaning turning the zoom lens at a constant speed. If the zooming is not smooth, the picture may end up with jerky light trails that may not look nice.

It may be difficult to maintain a smooth zoom if you have a zoom lens with wide focal length (e.g. 18-200mm) that require turning the lens barrel for almost a full round. So in this case, you don't have to zoom all the way - work on a more comfortable focal length range where a smooth zoom can be maintained.

Pause and Hold the Zoom

The camera will collect more light when a pause is made at any point of the zooming (e.g. at the start of the zoom, halfway during the zoom or end of the zoom), making the light burst at the point of zoom appears stronger in the picture taken.

For example in the picture below, I took a 1 second pause at the end of my zoom which will allow more lights to be collected at that point, thus making the cabin from Singapore Flyer more visible.

Where possible, try to avoid camera shake during the zooming process. You do not have to rush through the zoom, a smooth and steady zoom is better. If there is camera shake, you may end up with jerky light trails and the background picture may not be sharp.

Aperture and Exposure Time Required

I typically work on the exposure time required which is made up of the time needed for a smooth zooming and the pause time required - in my case, 2 seconds for the zooming action plus 1 second for the pause at the end.

Knowing that my exposure time, I switch to Shutter Priority (Tv mode) and let the camera meters the aperture needed at for a 3 seconds exposure @ ISO-100. If the camera cannot meter the aperture because a wider aperture beyond what the camera can handle is needed (i.e. you see the aperture value blinking), I will then step up the ISO to a value that can be metered by the camera.

This will gauge my starting point for further adjustment which in my case, the camera metered a value of F/4 for a 3 seconds exposure @ ISO-400.

Fire Flash to Freeze Part of the Image

You can also try out firing a flash during the exposure time to freeze part of the image along with the light burst. For example, you are trying to create a zooming light burst effects on the lightings of a Christmas tree with a person next to it and you also want to capture the person vividly along with the light burst, you can fire a flash to "freeze" the person in your picture while zooming.

Note: This technique can also be tried in broad daylight, not necessary only at night with light sources.


Go try it, it's fun!


Visit http://jefzlim.smugmug.com/Destinations/Singapore/Bay-East-Garden for the higher resolution pictures ...



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20 Oct 2013
Night Cityscape of Singapore @ Bay East Garden

  • at 11:19 pm
  • 0 comments
Insomnia has returned to haunt me over the past few nights, and so I have been going out in wee hours for night photography - hopefully getting me tired enough to sleep.

I never had taken photographs of Singapore night cityscape. So I visited the Bay East Garden, first time ever since it was built. It was a big park, and too dark at night to appreciate the beautiful park (perhaps I should come back again during the day). However, I was thrilled by the excellent lighting of the cityscape view over the Kallang River although could have been better without a gloomy-looking sky.

I have prepared some tips as reference point for anyone new to long exposure night photography.

Survey the Environment Before Setting Up the Equipment

I typically do not jump to set up and take my shots when it comes to landscape or cityscape, cause they are not going to go away any moment. I would always walk around and survey the environment before deciding on the best spot for the composition that I want.

Essential Equipment/Accessories

Tripod

Needless to say, tripod is the fundamental needed accessories for long exposure shot. If strong wind is expected (e.g. taking Hong Kong cityscape from The Peak), additional weights such as sand bags or a heavy bag, would be needed to weigh down and secure the tripod to prevent shakes of the camera caused by the strong wind that could ruin the long exposure shot.

Remote Trigger

Important to minimise shake caused by pressing the shutter release, and definitely essential if shooting on Bulb mode with exposure longer than 30 seconds. If a wired remote is used, the remote should have a trigger lock feature so that you don't have to press and hold the trigger for the amount exposure time exposed. For wireless remote trigger, it should have a timer release so that the amount of exposure time can be set.

Wide Angle Prime Lens (Preferred)

Prime lens are ideal for night landscape photography as they typically have lesser number optical elements within the lens to prevent potential lens flare caused by bright light source from street light and buildings. Wide angle lens (35mm or less) provide a greater field of view for your landscape - zoom lens can also be used but it means lesser field of view.

Timer/Stop-Watch 

For long exposure shots, I always use the stop-watch function on my mobile phone as it it probably too dark to see the timer display on the camera itself. Even if the camera has a feature to light up the LCD panel display, it is recommended not to use it during exposure time, as pressing the button to activate the light may introduce shakes to the camera.

Settings on Camera

Turn On Long Exposure Noise Reduction and Use Low ISO

Long exposure can introduce quite a fair bit of noise to the pictures taken. Access the camera menu and settings to turn on long exposure noise reduction. Also, to counter the potential noise from long exposure, ISO should be set to the lowest (i.e. 100).

Use Bulb Mode with Remote Trigger

For long exposure shot, I typically use bulb mode to control the amount of exposure time that I require. In bulb mode, I always use a remote trigger as I do not want to have any potential shakes caused by the need to press on the shutter release on the camera.

Turn On Mirror Lockup and Use Self-Timer

Each time when the shutter is pressed, the camera will flip-up the mirror and open the shutter. The mirror flip-up action may cause unnecessary vibrations on the camera. So to reduce this, I always turn on mirror lockup for long exposure, and set my trigger on a 2 seconds self-timer release. This means that the moment the remote trigger is pressed, the mirror will be flipped up and after 2 secs, the shutter opens.

Note: Mirror lockup option can be accessed from the camera menu/settings option.

Shoot in RAW

I always shoot in RAW format as it allows me better control over my editing during post-processing. RAW allows greater non-destructive editing such as adjust white balance, sharpening and noise control, and to better recovery of images that could be over or under exposed.

Set Auto-White Balance (AWB) to Tungsten (~3200K)

Long exposure night shot of cityscape will typically turn out to be "orange" in color. This is caused by color cast of street and building lights. By setting the AWB to Tungsten (typically around 3200K), the lighting in the picture will look more "correct and normal". Although I can correct this in my RAW during post-processing, I still set it to Tungsten.

Use Small Aperture (i.e. Big F-Number)

Typically a small aperture starting from F11 or higher to maximize the depth of field (DOF) when photo-taking cityscape or landscape. Personally I do not encourage going beyond F20 as the sharpness of the picture may end up too "soft"due to severe diffraction of lights passing through too small an aperture.

Having said that, the primary consideration on the aperture to use should be how far the subject is. If the subject is really far-far-away (e.g. shooting a mountain), then it does not matter what aperture is used as the full depth-of-field can be achieved. There is also a need to consider hyperfocusing distance if there is a subject much nearer to you in the foreground that you want to capture it in the picture.

In this particular case, the cityscape buildings are probably about 1-2 km away from where I stand, separated by the Kallang River (i.e. no foreground object that I want in my picture) - so, I've used an aperture of F16-F20 for most of my shots.

Taking the Shot

Gauge Exposure Time by Using Aperture Priority (AP) Mode

It is often hard to gauge the right amount of gauge time needed for a long exposure, and there is no other better way then trial and error. However, I follow a particular method to narrow down to a suitable exposure time and do fine adjust from that point. The method is:
  • Switch to Aperture Priority (AP) Mode.
  • Adjust the ISO to the highest available on the camera (e.g. 6400). Just to note that ISO-6400 is 6-stops higher then the eventual ISO-100 that I will be taking (i.e. ISO Stops: 100-200-400-800-1600-3200-6400).
  • Look at the exposure time recommended by the camera using F20 at ISO-6400. Let's assume that the recommended exposure time is 2 seconds @ F20 and ISO-6400.
  • This means that to take the picture at ISO-100 using F20, I will need to increase the shutter speed by an equivalent of 6-stops. I do so by doubling the recommended 2 seconds for 6 times (or mathematically 2^6), which will give me a value of 128 seconds (i.e. 4s-8s-16s-32s-64s-128s).
  • Switch back to bulk mode, and set camera to ISO-100, F20 and take a test shot with exposure time of 128 seconds. 
  • Look at the test shot and adjust from there ...

Look at the Histogram of the Taken Picture

The taken picture that shows up in the LCD display can be very deceiving and I usually do not rely on it to check the exposure of the picture, except for checking the composition of the picture or zooming in to check details of the fine details/sharpness of the picture.

For exposure, I rely on the histogram of the picture to ensure that the graphs is not too clipped to the extreme left (i.e. under exposed) or extreme right (i.e. over-exposed). It is ideal to have some spread across the entire histogram so ask to allow more rooms for fine adjustments (e.g. recovering details, brightness control, etc.) during post-processing.

Watch the Horizon Line

It is important to watch the horizon line when composing the picture of a cityscape. As a guide, the horizon line should be on the lower half position of the picture if the picture has a dramatic sky. Whereas in my case, the reflection on the Kallang River is dramatic without much detail of the sky and thus the horizon should be positioned higher.

Watch out for Barrel Distortion

Barrel Distortion occurs typically in wide-angle lens where edges of the taken picture appears to be curved. This is particular obvious when taking landscape picture of buildings, where the buildings on extreme left and right appears to be leaning towards the centre of the picture.

Although these distortion can be (not always) corrected with image processing tool, it is always good to correct them as much as possible when the picture is taken simply by just tilting your camera to aim slightly higher/lower or avoid having tall buildings in the extreme edges of your picture.
Please visit http://jefzlim.smugmug.com/Destinations/Singapore/Bay-East-Garden to see the higher-resolution photos taken at Bay East Garden.

Safety Precautions

I did not find any shelters Bay East Garden. So if you are going there for photography, make sure that you have an umbrella or rain jacket that could prevent your camera equipments from getting drenched :)


Here is another of my favorite cityscape photo taken a few years back from The Peak in Hong Kong. If I could recall, the weather was freezing cold (~10 degree) at night under strong wind condition where I had to weigh down my tripod and spend an hour battling the coldness just to this one perfect shot.

I hope by sharing these tips, it could help you in taking better landscape and cityscape pictures. 



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