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Jacintha Photoshoot

August 6, 2009, Singapore

Looking at Jacintha, I was certain she could be no more than 17 years old. Her physique is that of a teenager. I would have loved to ask but I came a bit later due to a previous engagement and everyone was all in the zone of posing and shooting. The shoot was in the area of Clark Quay, a good 15 minute walk from the MRT station. We chose a spot where bounced light from the street was the light source and it was more than sufficient. I was with Terry and Boon good chaps from a group called Alpha DSLR. This is the first photography group I joined in Singapore. Terry is a seasoned photographer who knew his craft really well. Boon is a jolly fellow who is in his college and has a good eye in photography and his forte is events.

 

The alley that Terry chose was a good place to shoot. The angles were perfect for my style as I like "horizons" to disappear over bokeh. On this shoot, I wanted the model to stand out by darkening the background and popping up the subject by the use of a strobe. I used old school flash on this project, the Vivitar 285HV which is now discontinued. I shot through an umbrella and the simple light setup was held by a light stand, nothing fancy. To darken the picture, I put the settings to a small aperture adjusting between f11 to f16. I don't generally fancy the use of tripods so I shot with a shutter speed of 200. I adjusted my ISO between 100 to 400 to compensate the settings.

Jacintha aside from being young seemed new and we shot for TFCD on this occassion. The approach to Jacintha was just communication. This is what broke the ice between the two of us as she felt uneasy in the beginning and I felt the same way too. After a few minutes of talking non stop stop and sharing jokes, she unwrapped her flare for posing and she was in fact pretty good.

On this shoot, I used the Tamron 17-50, 28-75, and Macro 180. These three provided the range I needed. So why did I use a macro? I wanted to achieve a really good bokeh and for me, only the macro delviers the bokeh and the sharpness I need. The 17-50 gave me the wide requirements I wanted that time and the 28-75 became my portrait lens in use. These lenses take good sharp images and because they're fast, I am able to depend on these lenses on my most important shots. The Tamron lenses are also light and backed with full warranty as these sets I have are sourced locally from the official distributor.

Tamron 17-50 f2.8	Tamron 28-75 f2.8
Tamron 180 Macro f3.5

 

I always use flash on full manual setting. TTL is something I read but I do not fully comprehend and appreciate in actual use. In fact my flash when hooked onto my camera is always on manual even with simple bounced light. Well I guess I am really old school and this manual habit is quite difficult to break. Additionally, my advise to shutter fingers out there is to try shoot with your flash off camera as much as you can. This adds depth to your photos. You will also notice that as you do this often, you will get to know lighting by experience (which is the best way to learn) and develop you own techniques overtime.

 

I will see you on the next article. Catch up with you later... Chris

 

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Singapore Tech Review, 2009