Charcoal/Pen Sketch Portrait

Charcoal/Pen Sketch Portrait, originally uploaded by PewThian.

Grain Sketch Portrait

Grain Sketch Portrait, originally uploaded by PewThian.

Sunrise

Sunrise, originally uploaded by PewThian.

Woke up early in the morning for this shot but was disappointed to find out that the sky was cloudy and was about to rain. Almost lost hope, I nevertheless decided to wait for a few more minutes and was pleasantly surprised as this scence showed up in front of me - there was a gap in the middle of clouds just enough to let the sun break through. This scene lasted for a couple of minutes before the sun went behind the clouds again.

Splash

Splash, originally uploaded by PewThian.

Captured at the moment the droplet hits the surface of the water.

Droplets

Droplets, originally uploaded by PewThian.

Taken using Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro with Kenko 12mm extension tube. The shutter speed was set at 1/200s to freeze motion and aperture at f/11 for deeper DOF; studio flashes (600Ws and 300Ws) with blue and red gels, respectively, were used to light up the scence.

Droplet macro photography as such is really a tricky business; I literally went through almost a thousand shots to get these images. The setup: a plastic bag filled with water hanging at a distance above a basin - also with water. Poke a very small hole beneath the plastic bag and let the droplets form and drop from the plastic bag to the basin, hitting the water surface. Let this stabilize until the droplet falls to a fairly consistent location on the water surface. Get a toothpick or anything else accurate enough, slowly position it at the position where the droplets hit the water surface. Now, with the camera and lens set on a tripod, focus on the positioned toothpick using manual focus. You can then start zapping maybe with the help of the remote shutter release. I think the best time to release the shutter is when the droplet hits the water surface, try it out!

But before this, there are in fact a few more things to take into consideration: I've used Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro with some extension tubes to take these shots - the DOF is really shallow. So, one needs to really size down on the aperture (I've used f11) to get maximum possible DOF. At this aperture, lighting becomes a really important factor. In order to get enough light for good exposure, I've used two strobes (600Ws and 300Ws) - one with a blue gel on camera left and the other with a blue gel on camera right, respectively; with these I managed to shot at f11, 1/200s and ISO 200. One really can't afford to push the ISO higher because the noise would probably ruin the 'silky' look of the image. Droplet photography as such is really a probability infested endeavor - the droplets simply do not fall on the exact spot each and every time and with such shallow DOF more often than not the droplet would not be in focus. So, one needs to really shoot shoot and shoot against chances to get the a successful candidate.

Ring

Ring, originally uploaded by PewThian.

I particularly like how the background was lighted - using a sink filter.

Glass - A Study of Diffused Lighting

Glass, originally uploaded by PewThian.

Direct harsh light doesn't work well with glasses due to specular highlights. To evenly lit them, one needs diffused light.

A Recent Painting

IMG_6367, originally uploaded by PewThian.

Done this one for a to-wed-client's new house.