- Dato’ David Goh
The first day I arrived in Miri after travelling for over 24hrs was to shoot a formal Thanksgiving Banquet event for Mr. David Goh who was newly named Dato’ David Goh. For those of you how don’t know, the term “Dato'” is sort of like the British equivalent of “Sir”…correct me if I’m wrong.
So I was shooting with Ian and the Medianlabs team – Ian Salang, Nick Lim (who’s work I’m a huge fan!), and Djohan Rozario. Its funny because they’re all using the same Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 lens (the same one that I sold coz it sucks) but Ian’s on a FF Nikon, Nick’s on a Canon, and Djohan’s using a Sony. Whats with that right?! So anyway, they’ve all posted this like ages ago…wanna see their posts?
Here they are:
Ian Salang:http://iansalang.wordpress.com/2009/02/08/from-mr-to-dato-david-goh/
[no pic]
Nick Lim: http://nicklimjg.wordpress.com/2009/02/08/dato-david-goh/
- Nick Lim
Djohan Rozario: http://lynnroz.wordpress.com/2009/02/07/thanksgiving-dinner-by-dato-david-goh/
- Djohan Rozario
The event took place at…erm…crap I can’t remember…some golf course place in Miri…anyhoo…heres a picture of the beautiful ballroom:
- ballroom
When the event started, I pulled out the 50mm f/1.8D coz I didn’t have an f/2.8 zoom and my travel kit consists of rather slow lenses (not anymore though : ) ). I’m not particularly fond of flashes at formal events and I’d rather crank up the ISO…I was shooting at ISO800-1600 most of the time. Really pushing the D80 I’ve used it plenty and the results are fine.
- The audiovisual guys. Always good to be friends with them because they can help you out if needed.
Ok, this is a lil tip which just so happens to have a perfect example that follows it:
When taking portraits, look around the frame, check the composition and avoid blown out highlights because the human eye is attracted to bright colours and lighter colours…unless of course its a hi-key image or something.
So basically I took this first shot of some two young ladies who were helping out with the event. As you can see I just said “Hey, can I get your picture?”
“Okay, smile!”
Luckily after a quick review on screen a quick repositioning (180 degrees from the before picture) I was ready to reshoot. Simple posing tips like bending joints and creating angles are all that are necessary to make a normal happy snap like the before picture appear to have more quality to it.
Both straight out from camera + watermark + border. No touch ups.
- Before
Notice how you can see the shadow of their heads on the wall behind? thats BAD.
- After
My one complaint is the girl in red let her hand hang like its dead…try to avoid the flat back of the hands.
- hehe, although it doesnt look like it this picture actually took the longest to process in photoshop because I had to clone out an entire table with people because it cut the frame and looked like crap. Any guesses as to where the table was?
- Here’s a hint.
- I love this shot. I don’t know why but I do. I was playing around with the black and white adjustment in PS. pulled red all the way down and yellow all the way up! This resulted in silhouetting all the people and showing the tables and chairs!
Heres a fun fact:
All humans have red in their skin whether it be white, Asian, black or anything in between. Its the pigmentation of the skin. play with red tones and it will no doubt adjust the hue of a persons skin tone.
- Here a picture very much like the above shot of the opposite side of the ballroom. Just shows how many people attended.
- performance #1. Sing.
- #2: Fashion show
- …more fashion show
by the way, the fashion show exhibits apparel from Giordano, one of the companies managed by the group of companies that threw the banquet.
- Model line up. They’re not professional models (duh!). They’re employees of Giordano.
- #3: more singing.
Notice I didn’t have any pics of the guest of honor besides the first one? …too blur to notice. Jetlagged and I only found out it was him about half way through.
Also I’ll admit the shots are pretty mediocre. I have learn’t one lesson from this:
Can you ued a 50mm prime to shoot an entire event?
“YES”
Should you?
“NO”.
All in all I had fun with the Medianlabs team. Good experience and learnt some new things. In Malaysia? Want an event photographed? Contact Medianlabs!
- www.medianlabs.com