Chui Hian’s Birthday

Wow it’s been ages since I blogged! I guess it’s because I haven’t been shooting nearly as often as I’d like to…

I have bought a 16-35mm f/2.8 + 5D Mark II! I am still acquainting myself with the camera and the focal length (16mm FOV on full-frame is unchartered territory for me)… perspective gets screwed up when shooting ultra-wide… and because it “sees” so much, it’s tough to control all the elements within the frame.

 Also, given that my favourite shooting style is portraits and people… ultra-wide skews features and subjects can look strange to downright unflattering if not handled right… I’m still working these things out… :s

Nevertheless, I brought the camera and took some casual snaps at a colleague’s birthday party… my keeper rate was much lower than usual, but the conditions were tough too. It’s hard to tell from the photos but it was dark.

How dark? f/2.8, 1/30, ISO 6400 dark! Mostly available light, but I put a CTO gel on my speedlite and set FEC to -2 just for a touch of fill. Love the warm and natural colours.

Whoops… those red lines are caused by the AF-assist beams from the speedlite.

See what I mean about people getting skewed? But the flowers look nice haha.

Quickly grabbed a 3/4 portrait with the 35mm focal length. Background sucks, sorry.

The blue jeans and black socks is me… tip toeing and holding the camera above my head to get this shot.

All shots above shot at ISO6400… to be honest, the RAW files are a bit too noisy for my taste… for facebook or blog size images, sure it’s hardly visible. Perhaps if well exposed and after some noise reduction work, I’d dare print 8×12… but I would be a bit reluctant to use ISO6400 when shooting a wedding or event. Of course, if it’s a choice between that and not getting the shot at all, it’s a no-brainer. Having said that, I’ve survived with ISO800 on my 40D all this while…

I hope to blog more often!