Melvin Foong Photography

 

Slow Shutter

I have recently read an article on Improve Photography on how sometimes a very long shutter speed does not equal to blur picture due to movements.

When I was doing my club shoots, I often do not go faster than 1/3s of shutter speed. Partially it was due to hardware limitation, and secondly is because I love the effect of a long exposure — Long exposure gives a creamy light effect when used under the correct condition.

I had a very ancient hardware. Something that I do not mind dropping, and spilled with alcohol. It was a rugged camera that does it job. In exchange with that, ISO noise is abundance, which is why I often stay below ISO400.

Elmo

ISO400, f/3.2,1/3s,SpeedLight at 1/32

Filed under  //   Club Photography   Night Photography   Portraiture  
Posted December 21, 2011
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Laser and strobe lights

I have grown to like shooting in the club so much that I have gotten used to laser beams and strobe lights.

Lisa Kensington

Lisa’s set was great that night. Blow the roof off, as some might say. Then again, if on every club nights the DJ would blow off the roof, then the roof maintenance must be pretty high.

Filed under  //   Club Photography   Lisa Kensington   Night Photography   Portraiture  
Posted December 21, 2011
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Tattoo girls

During my stint as a photographer in night clubs I had met with people from different backgrounds. From the rich who is willing to spent money on beverages, to the peeps that begs for a ‘guest list’.

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I myself is a tattoo fan, sporting a few tattoos myself. Met these two sweet young girls during one of the shows, and got a glimpse of their tattoos on their back. Show off, I would say, but I love them; both the girls and the tattoos.

Filed under  //   Club Photography   Night Photography   Portraiture   night clubs   tattoo girls   tattoos  
Posted June 14, 2011
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It all started

When I first started photography, I had a lot of chance to shoot in a night club. Being able to hold the camera still to get a perfect exposure with slow shutter speed was my advantage.

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That being my foundation, I was never needed to be on ISO higher than 400, and I could capture much of the ambience and lighting of the surrounding.

I wasn’t pleased with what I get. I started going deeper into the realm of slow shutter speed, going down as long as 1 second, without a tripod.

Back then, I was shooting with JPG and never had the thoughts of exploring on RAW. Media wasn’t cheap as I always opt for the highest speed that I could get. Back then, a mere 4GB class 6 would cost me RM400+, not to mention hard disk storage, DVDs and etc.

Then I slowly moved on to RAW as media is getting cheaper and cheaper. I generally shoot about 100-500 pictures for a night’s event but it depends on the degree of assignments. I have also try to refrain from shutter spamming too much, as I have learned during one of my fashion shows that not only it hurts the flashguns, it also hurts the processing time.

RAW processing is another learning curve for me. As much as I love the on camera’s processing power, putting in the sharpness, saturation and etc into the picture in a JPG I still prefer tweeking these myself. In return, I get to make the picture the way I want it, with so much more flexibility.

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Filed under  //   Adobe Lightroom   Club Photography   Night Photography   Portraiture   RAW Processing   slow shutter speed  
Posted June 13, 2011
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Clubbing pictures?

A friend once told me that I should start a website with content that I readily have, the Malaysian clubbing scenes.

The friend said, I have a lot of materials that I have took with my trusty camera back in the days. These materials are premium never seen before pictures of girls in clubs. The first thing that came to my mind was, it could be a good idea.

It wasn’t one friend that suggested it, it was three friends; they had the same ideas. I sometimes think that their ideas were pre-meditated, that they had planned it along; strange enough, they do not know each other.

Then I thought, what about model release, issues where people do not want to be seen on my website looking like how they look; pretty, natural, drunk and stylish? I got to be kidding myself.

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I could not have put things to how I want them to be, I want to put the pictures up to ‘show off’ and at the same time that show offs might end me up in trouble. I guess I could have the best of both world, by putting up a disclaimer, that if you do not want your picture published, shoot me an email.

I guess, that would be fair, right?

Filed under  //   Club Photography   Hed Kandi   Night Photography   Portraiture   Saxophonist  
Posted June 12, 2011
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