by.aaron.kok photography » Guides

What equipments do I use?

Aaron Kok — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 06:59:12 +0000

One of the most frequently asked question I get is, "What camera do you use?" Especially those who are avid shooters themselves.

Firstly, I do think that equipments matter, but the question instead should be rephrased into, "What is your equipment setup?" That should be the right question to ask any professional, as someone who you paid to capture your once-in-a-lifetime memory. More after the link.

A professional photographer should never leave home without at least a backup of almost everything they have, from cameras & flashes, to lens, batteries and memory cards. I always carry with me 2 professional level bodies, professional series lens, duplicate focal lengths & multiple flashes. This is to ensure if anything fails, it will NOT effect you, The Customer and you shouldn't notice any issues at all. Equipments should be the least of your worries.

Another item which I think many tend to forget is duplicate memories or backups in the field. Of course, most important, there always should be more than adequate memory cards with you at all times, so there is no need for picture deletion in field. (I personally carry around 30gb+ to every event, (which comes up to about 10,000 shots) I never delete or format a card during the day; that should only be done during processing stage and after completion of all copying and backups.

Before I leave the venue, I also make a copy of all my data into a portable drive. The drive goes into the camera bag, while the memory card is kept on my body, so in case of equipment theft(touch-wood), I still have your important shoots with me.

That's it!

p/s: I'm a Canon user in case anyone is wondering.And I'm also mainly a prime shooter. I'm an available light shooter, I shoot every available light is accessible to me, be it the sun, tungsten, flouresent, flash, etc.

plug: I get some of my stuff online. Shashinki is my fav Malaysian online-store. Check them out!

Guides to better children photograpy

Aaron Kok — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 06:00:44 +0000

As promised earlier this year here is my 1st part of a multi-posts on improving your children's photos.

I will begin with some simple tips & maybe put to rest some worries too. Don't forget to comment if you have any questions.

Click more to continue.

Babies and flashes.

Just welcomed a new member to your family and want to start capturing them? But wonders if the camera flash are harmful to the babies eyes?

Although there are some who says it does, there are no studies that says it's harmful. It's probably irritating to the babies, just as if someone shot multiple flashes right in front of my face.

Here are some links to advices and articles on flashes and eyes.

http://www.naturescapes.net/042004/do0404.htm – Dr. Dennis Olivero

http://www.ubhtnicu.com/parents/early%20days.htm – NHS – UK Hospital Recommendation

What I would recommend if you were to use flash, diffuse or bounce the flash away from the baby. This not only reduce the irritating direct flashes at the eyes, but at the same time, make the photo look better.

Sample photo of bounced and direct flash.

Check out your friendly neighborhood camera store, or my favorite online store, www.shashinki.com for diffusers.

Another method is of course to switch off your flash, open some windows to allow daylight to fill the room. Or try bringing them out for walks and taking photo outdoors. Lights right around dusk and dawn are the best lights of the day.

This was taken early in the morning around 8am

Since I mentioned outdoors, if you are ever caught out at the midday sun, and realized the photos don't look that good too, move your subjects into the shadows. Example behind a building or a tree. It's much easier for the camera and you to get a proper exposure. Trust me on this

If there is not enough light and you do not have any diffusers (even home made ones) use higher iso, ISO800-ISO1600 or above. Ignore the noise etc etc, it's better to have a sharp noisy photo than a clean blurry one.

As long as you do not do large prints, or all your photos are for web, then high iso more than adequate, especially with current crop of high megapixel cameras.

As a final solution, you can even convert them to black & white, then all the noise disappears, or even becomes part of the "effect" of the photo.

This was shot with a camera phone

Just keep an eye out on more guides coming soon!

p/s: If you have a blog, and enjoy the posts, I would appreciate a mention or linkback

SOOC or TLC?

Aaron Kok — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 06:52:55 +0000

With the advent of digital photography, one can't run away from sitting in front of the PC, or the "digital darkroom"

I have many friends who asks "Do I need to process my photos?" The same person will then asks another question, "Why my photos doesn't look like what I see online?"

Check out the below Before & After comparisons.

SOOC or (Straight Out of Camera)

This is only downrezzed directly from Lightroom. This is how it would look like if you open the RAW file directly. This is a backlit shot from the setting sun. As you can see below, I left the WB still on the warm side to convery the actual time of the shot.

Post-processed with my standard blog watermark

This file has already been massaged in Lightroom for white-balance/tonality/shadow&highlight. It is then moved to Photoshop for additional TLC and adding the watermark.

Finally, a B&W toned version.(also done in photoshop)

So is it worth it to spend the time in front of the PC? Why don't you tell me