Sunset at M.O.A.

Yesterday I went to Mall of ASIA (MOA) to meet some guys who do HDR (High Dynamic Range) Photography, the guys are friendly and they even set up a small lecture on how to use Photomatix,A software used for doing HDRs, for some of the Hobbyist who attended.

Yesterdays' sunset was beautiful because it was not so cloudy, so instead of composing some shots for the HDR I did some exercise for my self, I tried shooting different looks of the sunset yeasterday, and with a little luck I have this shots.

Faces of Binondo 08.18.2008

Yesterday I went to Binondo (where the oldest China Town in the world is) together with some PinoyPhotography org members and forumers (Http://PinoyPhotography.Org). The aim of the group is to do street photography and learn with each other, and of course food trip, since Binondo is known for some good chinese restaurants.

The group was divided into several smaller groups and some of my groupmates are Christopher Tano, Carl Roldan, Lambootz (Cant remember his whole name), Orly Ocninon.

First, my problem was what to shoot, there are simply a lot of subjects and of course a lot of shooters around. So what I did was used my 18-55 kit lens and just think that I was the only shooter around, I also tried to go away with the group for some time so that I can look for some subject worth shooting. So looking around I have met a guy from Santiago City Isabela, an Ilokano (First Picture Below), and I tried to talk with him, he told me that he just walks around everyday looking for food and places to stay, gaining some confidence talking with total strangers, I then decided to just shoot portraits using my 1 week old Lens A Canon 70-200mm F4 IS USM lens, since of course its great for portraiture. So during the whole half day I walked with this big lens and talking with Total strangers just to gain their trust and later shooting their portraits.

first part of the whole set can be found on Http://Www.HumpreyCogay.Multiply.Com

Here are some faces I tried to capture

macro Photography at Pulilan

Last week we went to San Ildefonso Bulacan to Shoot some kids. After the shoot we went to Pulilan to visit a butterfly farm... Of course this is a Macro Chance.... =)

A photoshop trick

I was looking at one of my picture i took during my trip to ilocos and tried to make something out of it. While checking it on photoshop I saw that the histogram tells that there are no clipped shadows or highlights (Those excess graph on the left most or right most), which means that i can just use the levels to brighten it up a little. So sitting on it for a few minutes and after adding some more layers, I got this.

With Special Effects

Digitally enhanced
Original Photo
Original Photo showing histogram
Enhance with histogram and layers pallet (Click to view full size)
Final image with histogram

Another Photoshop Exercise

Photoshop is one of the hardest Application I tried to study and until now I'm not that good at it. We'll some says its easy but well, the basics are easy but there's always room for more....

Dark Tones
Old Sephia
Semi Cartoon HDR 1
Semi Cartoon HDR 2
Experimenting Filters 1
Experimenting Filters 2
Experimenting Filters 3