Lamp Shade
Nov, 2015Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken inside a Japanese restaurant while I was staying in Hong Kong. The restaurant is located in the Tsim Sha Tsui area at the tip of the Kowloon Peninsula of Hong Kong, it's famous for its BBQ Wagyu (a special breed of cow from Japan) and other Japanese specialities. According to the Hong Kong Tourist Board's website (URL: http://www.discoverhongkong.com ), "Hong Kong as we know it today was born when China’s Qing dynasty government was defeated in the First Opium War in 1842, when it ceded Hong Kong Island to Britain. Within 60 years, Kowloon, the New Territories and 235 Outlying Islands were also leased to Britain. However, the history of the more than 1100 square kilometres that Hong Kong now occupies predates the events of the Qing dynasty by more than a thousand years. And, as you explore the city’s colourful heritage, you’ll discover stories of powerful clans, marauding pirates and European traders."Time
This photo was taken when me and my wife treated my eldest son for a farewell dinner, it was the night before he would fly back to Canada after his short visit to Hong Kong with his girlfriend in September 2010. We brought him there because my son loves steak, particularly Japanese Beef ("Wagyu") in BBQ style, and, of course, me and my wife love it too. While we were waiting for the food to be served, I looked around the restaurant to find if there was anything that would be interesting to be captured with my digital camera - I often brought my digital camera with me back then wherever I was outdoor, it's because I was still excited to capture anything and everything with my first DSLR camera which I bought in April 2009, that was the time I started learning photography by myself.Lighting
This photo was originally taken in color with a white balance of 3000K, aperture F5.6, speed 1/125 sec and ISO400. In fact, before this shot, I had had a few other shots with different white balance, focus and angle, as I was still practicing my skills and senses hoping to improve them further. This photo was cropped out of the original shot with post-processing which I will talk about later. As said earlier, I had taken a few shots of the same set of these ceiling lampshades (if you didn't know it) but found them either too warm, over-exposed, or the composition was too "square", though the lights from the lamp through the lamp shade did come out nicely and show a good outline of the lampshade and the curved lines pattern. I then turned my camera to an angle and took a tilted shot which came much better.Equipment
The DSLR camera that I used was an Olympus E-520 with a 24-42mm F3.5-5.6 kit lens. It's a 4/3 format camera and the cheapest entry level camera back in 2009 that I could afford, so are the lens. This photo was taken without flash, filter or tripod, I shot it with both of my hands holding the camera and my left ankle rested on the dining table.Inspiration
I like photography, fine arts, movies, advertisement board, various patterns or anything which is visually attractive to me. I would say I'm not a totally artistic kind of guy, as I studied mathematics and computer science when I was in a Canadian university and worked for over 35 years which involved very little with arts related stuff such as photography. I might be grouped into the category of "arts affectionists". Ever since I started learning photography myself from reading photography books, watching videos from the Internet and practicing with my first DSLR camera, I have always wanted to shoot photos which would contain an accent of fine arts as much as it could. I believe I am inspired by the artworks created by my good old friend (my university schoolmate and housemate), a very talented guy who plays musical instruments, draw pictures (mostly black and white sketches), does art design, and, of course, works on photography, all as a hobby ---- he also studied mathematics and computer science and work his whole life in the IT industry. Since I like to include artistic elements in my photos, I always look for objects with patterns, lines and curves, light and shadows, geometric shapes, etc. The lamp shades in this photo provide an excellent combination of the elements that I like.Editing
I did post-processed this photo. It is cropped out of the original color shot which is in portrait format and has some background objects. I used free photo editing softwares downloaded from the Internet to change the photo to black and white, take away all unwanted background objects, and fill the background with dark black color. I also adjusted the brightness, contrast, etc., and had a noise reduction done as well. This photo is a result of my third attempt done in November 2015 after I've acquired more editing skills and "artistic" senses. The first attempt was done in March 2015.In my camera bag
I have only 2 sets of Olympus camera, my first one is a E-520 DSLR, and the second one is a EMD-1 (a Micro 4/3 format camera) which I bought in April 2015. Before April 2015, I normally put the E-520 with the kit lens, a 24-42mm (i.e. 48-84mm in 135mm equivalent) F3.5-5.6 and a 40-150mm (i.e. 80-300mm in 135mm equivalent) F4.0-5.6 in my camera bag, though I have gradually bought 3 more lens (including a macro, a pancake, and a telephoto) over the past few years, I seldom bring along with me. After I have got the EMD-1, I only use it for my shooting these days. The lens that I use are a 12-40mm (24-80mm in 135mm equivalent) F2.8 and a 25mm (50mm in 135mm equivalent) F1.8, these are the 2 lens that I normally use now, occasionally, I'll bring the Olympus 4/3 telephoto lens with a converter on, or an Olympus 4/3 Macro lens. Other than the above, I always make sure that I've a spare battery with me and an external mobile phone battery charger. As to tripod, only when I have plan to take night shots or other special effect shots then I'll bring along with me, otherwise, it always stay in my home.Feedback
I'm just a self-learned photography hobbyist, so I'm really not at a qualified position to provide advices. However, I think if anyone who would like to capture something like this photo, it would certainly help if they would always observe what are surrounding them, either near or far away; looks for objects that have patterns, geometric shapes, lines and curves, minimal background, and a good contrast of light and shadows on it. Keep taking photos at the same object with different angles, locations and altitudes; adjust white balance, speed and aperture if needed or for no reasons, just experiment it. Last but not least, I think it's important to realise the fact that, a good photo is hard to capture in one single shot, so don't be afraid to do post-processing, but be patient and creative while editing the photos, it's a time consuming work; certainly, this is not a good practice if you are a pro, or want to pursue a photography profession to earn a living, but before then, try your best.
