Levels & Curves

I want to share my experience on post-processing a.k.a PP of digital images. As we all know, our eyes are the best imaging device one could have as it can capture almost all visible gamut and spectrum of colours, but a camera with all its might in digital technology is not able to reproduce what we see with our eyes. Perhaps, not as yet. While exposure, focus details and other light-technical capabilities can be manipulated by the camera sensor and their numerous lenses, an image that 'comes-out' from the camera would typically look like this

However, when a photographer shoots in RAW (digital negative) and PP for image enhancement using softwares like Photoshop, Capture NX, Aperture, etc, an image can be transformed closed to what our eyes can actually view (as per the scene in front of camera lenses). With a little bit of tweaking on colour casting and contrast through the process of level and curve adjustments, the image below is very possible to achieve...

As the final workflow, sharpening the entire image can be applied to enhance the details and clarity of an image as what one can see when they are 6/6 eye clarity index.

Hope i have sufficiently poisoned someone. Go buy Photoshop CS3 and an iMac 24" !!

cheers


Photoshop

Kuala Muda Rendevous

On 11 Oct 2008 we went to Kota Kuala Muda, a fishing village near the Penang-Kedah border. Three guys and a girl Ning (ChanKM's daughter). Picture below is an image taken by Ning using a camera hardly for her to lift but she still managed a nice vertical shot (smile)
And here is one the first few snaps that i took upon reaching Kota Kula Muda, rendered in black n white

its the 3 of us harry, larrie and moe and shot taken by Ning
This scene was taken using a single RAW and processed with 7 exposures for HDR image to enhance the tonal dynamic range
She is an ever enthusiastic girl who was ready to pose anytime when her dad requested, and with her, a Sony cybershot full of cats and kittens potraits as we stumbled into many along the fishing village
Brian Tan serious in capturing a good scene. Seen above is his new 70-300mm nikkor lens that he bought 2 weeks earlier
A colourful scene not only in Thailand, but also in Kuala Muda
Near a jetty walkway, preparing for shots
Brian reviewing his captures
2 camera bodies = pro
figuring for composition, it was a hot day indeed
i post processed to make the image less warm
ikan belanak for rm3/kg. I think its easy for him to cast 3kg within an hour as 1 cast brought him at least 3 belanaks (mullets)
there he goes again, another 3! Picture below is part of our team who will plan another outing pretty soon. Cheers

Hakuna Matata

... (make life great, no worries)... from the silver screen Lion King


The 4th day of Syawal, I went out photo shooting with Brian Tan (his blog here) who recently dived into the realm of digital photography. He is now armed with a nikkor 70-300mm, apart from his kit lens 18-135 (under repair) and a prime 50mm to barrel his nikon d80. It was a drizzling saturday morning when we arrived at the fort cornwallis. This image i dedicate to the increasing enthusiasm of Brian...

We started our day with roti canai in Transfer Rd before proceeding to the esplanade in a Fiat Punto Cabriolet. Seen here, in his italian marque pride (se ottenete annoiato con Fiat Punto e volete donare per libero, lascilo prego conoscere huh)


(I hope he can click on the pic to extract the bigger image for his keeping....nahhh I am sure he is smart enough to know that!). There was nothing interesting to shoot in the fort cornwallis... even the wall of the fort looks a 2nd worthwhile image to capture

We rounded the day by visiting the Khoo Kongsi in Georgetown, and of course whizzing around with an open-top cabriollet. Cheers, to Brian

Raya 2008

The raya 2008 started with aplomb, the USAIN BOLT style. The pictures below depicted the celebration we had in many locations; bukit jambul, bagan dalam & kampung (tak) selamat.

Jani & family came and stayed with us 1 day before raya and fahrudin came a day later. It was a packed atmosphere in bukit jambul during the 1st day syawal




















This is the family of tan sri hanan and puan sri zaharah who made the crowd on their toes with their antics. they followed us to kampong selamat and then to mak tam's and fahrudin's sg petani. we had a great session in mak tam's when we spontaneously made two teams and threw riddles to each other. obviously puan sri's team won by a narrow margin.

Akmal who was our darkhorse answered 'taxi' and if not for this answer we would lost to the puan sri's team heavily.

In Bagan Dalam, we had this one big great photo organised by Jani, with 3 nikon clicking-away. This line is made up of the better halves who toasted the 40-under club....perghhh!








and this is Ina's family















and Noni's















and Jani's too


























































shivaji the 'boss'

Najoise3 Series