Victoria Junior college I Photography Society

25 years ago when photog was first established, our aim was to help document college events. Up till today, we are still doing that. Each year, we cover over 50 events. That translates to tens of thousands of photos.

But as event photographers, what should be our photographic aim?

If you ask me, it is simple: we should be so good at events coverage that our photos out-of-camera do not need any post-processing work.

Now you might be wondering why I say that. We all shoot many events quite frequently (especially so during this season), and we have many hundreds of photos to look through, select and Photoshop and this is a very time consuming process. So if we can get the photo right in-camera, then this eliminates our Photoshop work and helps us save time to do other stuff!

This means getting the exposure, framing, colour, subject all correct when shooting to ensure we do not waste unnecessary time correcting them in post. Let's all face it, post-processing/Photoshopping is a waste of time. So our aim is to get photos so good that they don't need editing, and this saves time for us!

Now here are a few tips to get good photos out-of-camera.

1) Check the white balance.
Before the event starts, go early to the venue and get some test shots. Try out different white balance settings in tricky lighting situations, e.g. hall and performance theatre. If need be, DO A CUSTOM WHITE BALANCE. I find this the easiest way to get accurate colours in my photos.

2) Check the frame before snapping.
Always look around the viewfinder and check your composition before pressing the shutter. Make sure you do not cut off people's hands/legs/heads, make sure no weird things creep into the edges of the frame, make sure the horizon is level, subject is properly focused... simple things like these are quickly forgotten when one is in the heat of photographing an event.

3) Expose your photo properly.
This is important. Always make sure your exposure is correct. Do not have the mindset that I can underexpose and then later use Photoshop to brighten the image. If it can be done right in-camera, why do it in post? This also means that it is better to shoot at a higher ISO and get a properly exposed image than shooting at a lower ISO but get an underexposed image. If you need to go up to ISO 1600 to get good exposure, DO IT! Do NOT use ISO 800 and underexpose by two-thirds of a stop. Recovering data from shadows usually isn't pleasant.

4) Do NOT spam shots.
Take your time to compose your shots, and only snap when the moment arises. Remember, the more you shoot, the more you have to look through!

9:02 PM

Image copyright Ian Ho 2007

Practice makes perfect. Perhaps you've heard of this old adage many many times before, but boy is it true when it comes to photography.

Many people want to succeed in their photography, quickly. But there's no shortcut to success. The only way to improve is to practice! Shoot more, snap more, see more. As photographers, we must come to recognise the importance of integrating shooting time into our regular schedules. MAKE time for photography. Maybe set aside 2 hours every Saturday and head down to the park near your house to get some shots. Or sign up to cover more events in college! The more you shoot, the more familiar you are with the camera, the more confident you get with your skills and that's how you improve.

But besides shooting more, it is also advisable to look more and share more. Look at more good photos. Be it online, in bookstores, libraries, newspapers, visiting exhibitions etc., looking at more good pictures by professional photographers WILL go a long way to inspire you and give you the impetus to shoot better images than before. And if need be, start by emulating these good images. Ask yourself: how was this image created? What makes it so special? But don't stop there... try to create YOUR own original image after that.

Then, share more. With digital photography and the Internet, sharing images with fellow photographers and friends has never been easier. There's Flickr, Facebook, blogs etc., so many avenues for you to publish your photos and receive feedback. Ask your fellow photog members to critique your photos, and learn from your mistakes. That's another fast way to improve in your photography - make mistakes.

These are just some quick tips on how to improve your photos if you're just starting out. Remember: shoot more, look more, share more!

11:11 PM

Happy 牛(niű) Year!

2:09 PM

Hello! These are the pictures from the Mayday J1 punggol trip! Thanks Irene, Aaron, Shawn, Kai Chun and Jeridyn for making the trip so fun and awesome even though it was really really hot and the lallang was really really itchy.

Our secretaryyy.

Shawn, Kai Chun, Aaron, Irene, Jeri.

Lost....!!!!

Found!

Followed by ice-cream and drinks from the really unhygienic ice-cream cart dude later. But it was fun (: See you guys in schooool.

8:50 PM

Here're the photos that were taken during today's practical lesson. Due to time contraints, most of you'all are able to take one or two photos. We'll try and arrange for another time for you guys to do more of this interesting stuffs. This is just the tip of the ice-berg for light-painting.. :P

Good Luck to the J1s taking their O lvl results tmr!

8:34 PM

Hi guys

Here's an important photo from the punggol outing that I think you may wanna keep :)

LOL! and here's more of my photos:

10:02 AM

By order of Kelvin, here're my photos from Punggol:

Entrance to Matilda's House. Greg Gorman conversion and a slight hue for effect.

Isolated lalang (f/4.8). Slight adjustments of levels and curves, then abit of saturation for the nice golden colour. Applied a high pass filter with soft light.

Silhouette of lalangs against the sunset. Quite heavy saturation and again adjustment of levels and curves.

12:25 AM

Here're some of the photos I took during the punggol trip on the Saturday that has just past. Hope to see more people on our next outing.. :P

That's all for our outing on 17/11/2007.

10:14 PM

Hi guys...

Tried out cross processing too, and this is what I did. For the first pic, Ignore the subject, focus on the colours :D

@ Punggol LRT Tracks:

How? Comments? lol (:

4:32 PM

Hi, there's an outing to Punggol this coming Saturday. Do check bascamp for more details! :D

4:38 PM