Tag Archives: carmen hong

Ambience

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As you know, fine dining isn’t about taste or service alone; is also about ambience. Hundreds of candles light up the Theatre of Cuisines during MIGF’s Gala Night. In the centre, a Latin band plays The Girl From Ipanema, adding to the magical ambience. Salsa your way there today, as there is still time to sample all the food from participating restaurants.

Malaysia International Gourmet Festival. See www.migf.com for details.

Photography Notes: It was not too long ago, that camera manufacturers advertised shooting under candlelight as a special feature. Today, we do it without batting an eyelid. Better sensitivity and image stabilisation makes it easy. Only thing to watch out for; is the white balance. The camera might automatically over-correct the warm colours. If it does, go to your White Balance settings and try the various presets. Keep it warm to preserve the ambience. Yes. If you want to sound snooty, say ambiance.

Olympus OM-D, ISO 2000, f3.7, 1/30 sec.

Ambience - MIGF Gala Night

SeptemberFest

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Many Malaysian food stalls serve fruit juice in mugs similar in size to the mass krug or siedel used during Ocktoberfest. They are 1 litre or 34 ounce glasses. Some stalls even have gallon glasses for customers with a bladder of the camel. While some German Octoberfest waitresses can carry 6 mugs of beer in each hand, here Carmen struggles with a single watermelon drink.

Photography Tip: Push your wide angle lens close to the subject (the mug, in this case) to exaggerate size. Take advantage of a wide angle lens’ characteristic perspective distortion and deep depth-of-field for a dramatic or fun effect. Contrary to popular belief, the wide angle lens is not just for stepping further and taking everything in. It shines when you dare stick it close.

Photographed at Restoran Studio 5, Ampang Jaya.

Olympus OM-D, ISO 320, f4.0, 1/40 sec.

SeptemberFest

There Must Be An Angel Playing With Your Heart

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Once upon a time, a long long time ago, in an enchanted forest, there lived an angel with a big heart. In this modern version, the leaves are LEDs, the forest is i-City and the heart drawn by my assistant and model, Carmen.

This shot was done with her drawing the heart with a pair of LED lights held in each hand. We tried the LED light from two Samsung phones and it worked just as well. It should also work with torch-lights, glow sticks and sparklers.

The tricky part was figuring out the optimum time and speed to draw. Another challenge was in lighting up her face without too much ghosting since the FL-50R flash was fired in slow shutter sync. Light Painting is an established photography genre and art form. Hope to bring you more such pictures and share with you the techniques.

Olympus OM-D, ISO 200, f11, 1 sec.

There Must Be An Angel Playing With Your Heart