The faces of Thaipusam (more pictures)

Post-process a raw chicken

Hi,

I wanted to post-process my friend’s pics this morning when I opened by mistake a very old folder. And suddenly appeared … A Chicken!

No much to say about the pic, except it has been taken and abandoned by the photographer, which had absolutely no knowledge in photoshop at the time the picture has been taken.

Well, things have changed, and I decided to cook my raw chicken with an image adjustment auto, a gaussian blur, a multiply and finished by adding to the recipe a sharpening.

All these made this old pic a bit more tasty.

Cheers

Post-processed

Original pic

Hi,

Lumiere-art-nude has been renamed. It is called LumiereArt Glamour and is accessible via the following links:

http://lumiereartglamour.geraldblondel.com/Welcome.html

http://www.lumiere-art-nude.info

Cheers,

Learning Experience in Bangkok

Hi There,

You can always learn by yourself; but what best can you achieve? I don’t believe in a self-made artiste. Being trained by someone much better than yourself is part of the learning process.

It is the reason why I flew to Bangkok.

Why Manny and not another photographer? Because he is a master in post-processing. And the post-processing, it is something I do not really do.

Those who have seen my past pictures will be a bit surprised.

I took and processed these pictures last Saturday…

Important tip: Do you really need a powerpack strobe @ USD3000 when you have a reflector at USD30? NO…keep your money for something else. Of course, you need the sun. Outside Malaysia where it is summer the whole year, you may still need a fake sun…

Cheers,

Happy New Year to Everyone !!!

Health, Happiness & Wealth

self-portrait

Hi There,

These are three self-portraits. huh… almost self-portrait. I did setup the lighting, but my wife pushed the button

Me

Me

And Me Again …

Please … enough …

maybank2u … upgrading to the worst

Maybank has just upgraded its website.

Before the upgrade, I was connecting and paying my bill within 1 minute.

Tonight, I needed 13 minutes

THIS IS THE PROGRESS !!!

Thank you Maybank…

I love their toilets!!!

Sorry, no link with photography,

I am actually in Japan for a conference. In 2001, I lived for a short while in Tokyo, and the toilet experiences were always funny. But the 2008 Japanese Toilets are even better. Fully electronic with screen on the wall to control the functions.

- Bidet function for Man

- Bidet function for Woman (with special oscilation of the water)

- Temperature, soft or strong jet

- Music

- Heater

- Height

I want the same one @ home!!!

Cheers

Chapter 2: People go sailing to drink beer!

My idea of sailing was and is still is total freedom and to have access to islands, lands where it is difficult or impossible to go.

Imagine yourself on a 45 footers, approaching heaven … an island, beautiful beach, palm trees, few beach huts, and almost no one around, silent.

Suddenly, you hear …. “yerrrrrrr, no bar, no beer, let’s go somewhere else!”

I’m not joking, I’m not being dramatic … This actually happened.

They dragged our asses away from that to an Australian Beach Party with crappy bars serving expensive warm beers. But it was beer; this was the most important part.They don’t bloody care about the rest. And this happened day after day.

Never mind, during this trip, we saw beautiful islands, even if we are the only ones to enjoy it.

Could it have been better? yes … with wind. A guy, who sails on a trimaran told me later, that when the wind blows strong enough, the beer is forgotten.

How to use a Flash Meter?

Hi Everyone,

One month ago, I told you about getting the right exposure in all situations with a flashmeter. Let me explain today how to use it when you are shooting portraits…

Whatever lighting you are using, your camera flash, studio lighting, no lighting, your flash meter must always point in the direction of your lens. The “white ball” shall be out and right under the chin of your model.

On your flash meter, you should have a few modes:

- Ambient,

- Flash,

- Studio

In the case of the picture below, I used Ambient because I did not use any additional lighting except for the room’s downlights. I took this picture for the purpose of this post.

If you put your flash meter in flash mode, it takes the measurement when you trigger your camera flash.

In case of Studio Lighting, it’s pretty easy; my flash meter triggers my strobes. So it takes the measurement are this moment.

Do not forget, the ball must be outside to ensure that you are measuring the light coming in 3D, as it will be on the face of your model.

So the flash meter gives you the couple aperture and shutter speed. Like your camera, you should have an aperture priority and shutter speed priority mode.

Hope this post can help you to get your exposure right!

Cheers