Your mom was right. Mat Salleh gila! Don’t try this at home. To shoot this base jumper falling off the top of KL Tower, I had to strap myself and lean as far out as I can when he jumped. After that, several assistants will drag me back onto the deck. The colour was tuned to match the funky colours of helmet cams.
Composing, framing or cropping for a square format is more challenging, actually. One way is to use a ‘frame’ as a compositional element to ‘de-square’ and make your picture more intriguing. In this picture, I used the overhanging leaves and hill slope as a frame for the family around the tombstone. Under-exposing created the silhouettes, evoking a sombre yet detached viewpoint.
Using very subtle Depth-Of-Field change to direct attention. Because the kid in front is sharpest, the viewer is drawn to his eyes first. A moderate wide aperture (f3.5) creates a gradual transition to a softer background. I wanted to blur the faces of the two busybody taxi drivers behind. Once you understand how a lens renders this effect, you won’t be using your Instagram’s ’tilt-shift’ filter recklessly for selective focus 🙂 This family outing was captured on a fishing village in Pangkor Island.
