© 2011 Wazari Wazir | Putra Mosque Putrajaya | ISO 2000 | f/5 | 1/100 | 24mm

Does Hight ISO Matters? You may get a different answers from one photographer to another, depending on whom you ask, depending on their chosen photographic genre. If you ask landscape photographers, they usually don’t bother so much about it because most of the times, they will be shooting on tripod with long exposure, they will use the Lowest ISO possible to get the best result and having a camera with the ability to shoot at High ISO is not their concern.

Same goes to fashion photographers who like to shoot in the studio for most of the times and on location where they usually will bring studio lighting with them or just use off-camera flash system, CLS or  Strobist. These photographers also don’t need to worry so much about High ISO since they also for most of the time rarely use High ISO, they like to use Low ISO because the lighting help them to get their subject properly exposed.

Those are just few example of the photographers who doesn’t really need to worry so much whether their camera have the capability to shoot at High ISO, they rarely need to use them. So who does need the High ISO? Natural light or Available light portrait photographer will need them, and maybe travel photographers who like to focus more on human interest in their photography than to focus more on interesting place or monument will greatly benefit having a camera with the capability shooting at High ISO with minimum noise. I will not go further about “Noise” issue here, since by now I believed most of you has already understood what “Digital Noise” is.

For the photograph above, I’ve to push the ISO to 2000 to get the shot, I can’t use ISO 100 or 200 to get the shot, it was quite dark there under the pink Putra Dome Mosque. The reason why I can’t use Low ISO is that, I will not be able to use fast enough shutter speed to get the shot if I were to use ISO 100, so I need to push the ISO that will give me faster shutter speed so I don’t have to worry about camera shake or blurry picture. You may ask, why I don’t use flash? My answer is that, I don’t like using flash for my family pictures. Actually this place is not suitable for flash photography because the flash will disturb the people praying there or those who meditate there.

My point here is that, having the camera that can shoot at High ISO with minimal noise does matters to those who like to shoot with natural light or just available light and to those of you who like to shoot in low lighting conditions without the help of the tripod. Take for an example a travel photographer, as mention before, travel photographer who like to shoot human interest like a monk meditating inside a monastery rarely use flash and in some part of the world, using flash is prohibited because the light will become a disturbance to the activity inside.

Shooting at High ISO has it downfall which is “Noise”, your picture will not look smoother, your picture will be a little bit grainy but thanks to the new technology today, we can safely shoot at High ISO with minimal noise but I would like to remind you especially those who are new with photography that, we should only bump up the ISO or use the High ISO as the last resort. Just because your camera can shoot at ISO 12000, doesn’t mean that you have to use that setting. Always start with the Lowest ISO possible and only increase the ISO when you think that the Lowest ISO does not permit you to use fast shutter speed that will prevent a camera shake.

The choice of the shutter speeds also depend on the activity of the person being photographed. If you shoot a person sit still praying in the mosque, maybe you can use much more slower shutter speed than shooting a picture of a Whirling Dervish Dance  in the dimly lit indoor theater. The choice of shutter speeds and the choice of ISO often goes hands in hands. Sometimes having the right camera will give you more flexibility to manifest your vision. If you asking me, does High ISO matters to me? My answer is, Yes, it does matters.

© 2011 Wazari Wazir | Expressive Portrait Photography | Improve Your Photograph With The Right Cropping

In photography cropping is also the way how you compose your photograph but normally we use composition technique when it comes to picture taking process and we use crop when it comes to editing in Photoshop or in any photo editing software but basically they are more or less quite the same. During picture taking process you can crop the picture in the frame which we call “composition” meaning that you choose what should be in the frame and cut out unwanted part with careful composition.

Cropping is also part of editing skills apart from image enhancement, with the right cropping you can improve your photograph so much. Before I go further I really would like to stress out that it is better to get it right in the camera when it comes to composition, so you don’t spend your precious times in Photoshop, but there is a situation where you just can’t get it right in the camera, maybe your lens is not long enough to get the tight shot that you want or you just can’t get close enough to your subject for a variety of reason or circumstances and the only way how you can improve your photograph is to crop it later in Photoshop.

But please remember though, one thing for sure if you decided to crop your picture later in Photoshop, your photograph will loose it’s quality a bit depending on how much you crop, depending how large your original files is and also depending on your camera megapixels. That’s why it is better to shoot with RAW Format or if you like to shoot with Jpeg, make sure it is set to “Large Fine” so that when you decided to crop it later in Photoshop, you have a large file size to begin with. When you crop a large chunk of your picture, the end result is that you will have a “grainy” picture, you will see some “noise”, that’s why it is better to use lower ISO like ISO 100 or below, so when you crop, you still be able to maintain the quality of your photograph.

Like I said previously, it is better to get it right in the camera when it comes to composition but sometimes you can’t. I would like to use an example of my son picture above. I took that picture with 50mm lens, after spend few hours shooting, he get angry with me a bit, maybe he get uncomfortable with me chasing him around with my camera, in this particular photograph my vision is to captured his expression, his emotion, his anger and I’ve very little time to really concentrate on composition, and I really can’t get close to him because if I try to get really close, he might grab my camera and I will loose my shot, I can’t zoom in closer because all I have with me is a fixed 5o mm lens. So I’ve to shoot with a safe distance where he can’t touch my camera within his arm’s length.

When I come back home and look at the picture on my computer screen, I see that I can get a better picture if I crop it tight, I think this particular photograph will have more impact if I crop it tight since this photograph is about emotion, expression and I think by having a tight shot, I can make this picture even more stronger. Personally for me when it comes to portraiture, if you want to show someone emotion, expression, a tight shot will have more impact but depending on the situation also. Sometimes you need a background (in photojournalism, background is important for storytelling) to enhance the story telling and sometimes you don’t. Like the photograph above, the background is just plain blur and doesn’t add up to the context of the picture.

Sometimes it is better not to shoot too tight in the camera and it is better to leave some negative space especially if you shoot for brochure, magazine or any editorial purpose. They can use that plain boring negative space for text, maybe put some title on it. That’s why if you wanted to shoot for stock photo or magazine it is always better to have a reasonable head room for portrait so that the magazine can put some text or title above the head. When you shoot for magazine cover, or hoping that someday your picture will be used for magazine cover, it is always better to keep in mind to leave some negative space all over your subject, leave some space to the left, right and top or bottom and make sure plenty of space on top of your pictures so that if someone decided to use your picture for cover, they can easily put the title of the magazine on it.

I’ve also read somewhere in photography magazine not too long ago, there is this one photographer who customize his viewfinder for magazine cover. So when he shoot his picture, he knew exactly where to position his subject because he have the layout cover of the magazine in the viewfinder. He don’t have to imagine how his picture will end up on the magazine cover because his viewfinder is already customize for it.

Since the title of this blog post is about cropping, I will not go further about that “Negative Space” for editorial purpose but hopefully you get some ideas and hopefully also you know what you are doing. Get it right in the camera if you can but if you can’t then crop it later in Photoshop or any photo editing software. Undoubtedly a good crop can enhance your photograph. A good crop can eliminated unwanted distractions, give it more impact, create more balance image but nothing can beat to get it right in camera.

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© 2011 Wazari Wazir | Take a Break With Ice Cream | 50mm | f/1.8 | 1/640 | ISO 200

Basically Negative space is the space within a photograph which is left unused. Negative space is a great way to help add emphasis to your main subject. Negative space usually is an empty space, it is not an important part of the photograph and usually we don’t focus on that area and most of the times we leave the empty space out of focus or blur but nevertheless if we use it wisely it can have a profound impact to the photograph.

Actually there are three main component when it comes to photography composition :

• Frame – The Frame is the border around the image.
• Positive Space – The main subject in the border, this is where our camera is focused and this should be the sharpest within the frame.
• Negative Space – The rest of the image, located between the positive space and the frame or all around the main subject.

Photographers talk a lot about fills the frame for more impact but sometimes certain pictures needs a breathing space for more impact or simply to complement the shot. The negative space may not be the centre of attraction but nevertheless it help to make the picture much more stronger, for an example like the picture of my son above,by giving an empty space to the left side of him, I put an emphasize where my son is looking, a room to breath.

Since his eyes is looking on the left side of his shoulder, then it is only natural for me to give an extra space on the left side of the frame and it will look odd if I give an empty space on the right side of his shoulder.

This type of negative space also commonly use during sports photography, like race car or during running event where usually photographers will give a lot of empty space in front of the subject where they are heading for them to have a room to “move”. I know the image is static but it is just appropriate to give room or space in front of the moving subject rather than behind it.

There is a time when we need to get real close to the subject, to get it as tight as possible in the frame, fills the frame with the subject and there was also a time when we need to give some space to he subject. Just be remember that, in photography sometimes negative space have a lot of positive impact on the photograph.

© 2011 Wazari Wazir | A Portrait of My Son

“If Your Pictures Aren’t Not Good Enough, You’re Not Close Enough.” 

- Robert Capa -

Sometimes it was true, that our picture is not good enough if we are not close enough. But when it comes to portrait photography, we have to look it in a different ways, sometimes we need to leave some space for that particular person to have a room for breath or to have something in the background to add context to the photograph especially if we are talking about environmental portraiture where we need to show to the viewers about the subject, where he work, play or rest but when there is nothing much to tell about the background then it is better for us to get really close to the subject.

Close-up portrait photography have more impact compared to the loose picture of a person. If you fills the frame with just the face of the subject, you will have more strong photograph where nothing will distract the viewers from the person being photograph. I took this photograph of my son form my point of view where he is really close to me, even though there is no eye contact between me and my son but I like his expressive joyful look here and the background behind him is not important in term of story telling, I just wanted to share with the viewers, the expression of my son hence I think close-up work is more suitable than full length portrait.

Talking about expression, I like what well known portrait photographer, Bambi Cantrell once said “Expression Beats Perfection” meaning that if you have great expressive picture, it will always outperform perfect photograph with no expression or emotional impact and getting a close-up portrait of your subject will definitely enhance the impact of your portrait photograph.

© 2011 Wazari Wazir | Happy Birthday My Son | 50mm | ISO 1250 | f/2 | 1/40

Time flies when we enjoy the most. My son HaiQal is four year old today 22nd August 2011. Since we are in the middle of Ramadan, fasting month for muslim, we don’t make any birthday party for him. I just bought him a small birthday cake and light a candle and just let my son have all the fun. I don’t really celebrate birthday party actually, maybe because I’ve never celebrate it all my life.

The reason we bought the cake is just to make him happy, to let him having fun blowing up the candles and it was also an opportunity for me to get this shot that I’ve always wanted to captured. I know that if I don’t switch off the light, the picture will be brightly lit but then again I will not be able to captured the mood, so in order to get the right mood when my son blowing up the candles, I switch off the light and just take the exposure from the candle light itself.

Just a simple celebration for our family, hopefully my son will grow up to be a better man than me, to have a brighter future than me and to be a great brother to little brother Raphael which is just reach two month old. This coming Eid al-Fitr will be another great joyous occasion because we have a new addition to our family which is Raphael. Happy birthday HaiQal, be a good boy…

© 2011 Wazari Wazir | Harmony With Nature | My Wife and My Son | Kuala Lumpur Bird Park Malaysia

Among the most talk about when it comes to photography composition is “The Rule of Thirds” or in simple words is to place your main subject off-centre whether you put your subject close to the right or close to the left but not in the centre of the frame, and in photography we refer that kind of composition as “The Rule of Thirds”. It is not really a rules but more about “guide”, something that we refer to make our composition much more pleasing or aesthetic to our eyes.

But there is something that most people less talk about which is “balancing elements” in photography. Like I said previously, a rules in photography is just a guide, it is not something that you must follow blindly, but you must understand why the so called rules does work and why most photographers like to stick with the rules.

Ok now, let’s talk about “balance” here, usually when we compose our picture according to the rules of thirds, most of the times we tend to leave the other side of the frame empty, left in void. When that happen, the photograph will look “unbalanced” when we put more “weight” on the left or on the right of the frame. Depending on your intention, sometimes it works and sometimes it may look awkward. Sometimes it is good to have an empty negative space when you want to put more emphasize to your main subject.

But in order to create more harmony or balance photograph we may try to put something to fills the void. To make our picture more balance so it is not weighted more either to one side of the frame but more balance. Take a look at the picture above, I did purposely compose the picture so that I can included the fish on the pond in the frame to create balanced in my photograph, I did wait for a few minutes until the fish gather around to the left side of the frame. The reason is that, I want to create more balance photograph, and it helps also that the colors of the fish in the pond is harmonious with the colors of my wife clothes.

This photograph also have “contrast”, not in term of colors but more about the contrast in nature or “situation” where you can see that my son Raphael is crying, making some noise while at the same time, the fish in the pond is calm by nature, peaceful by nature. It may create tension but the fish in the pond helps to balance the  situation, when I see this pond which is located inside Kuala Lumpur Bird Park, I know that it will make beautiful balance photograph for my family.

Hopefully by now, you should be able to create well balance photograph in the future, it is not something that each and everyone must follow but it is good if we have some better understanding how to balance our photograph when we composed our pictures. A well balance photograph surely will be much more interesting to look at and it shows that you have put your mind or take the time to create a photograph rather that just take a snap shots.

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© 2011 Wazari Wazir | Baby as Art | Natural Light Newborn Photography

“It is an Illusion That Photos are Made With the Camera, They are Made With The Eye, The Heart and Head.”

- Henri Cartier-Bresson -

© 2011 Wazari Wazir | My Son Raphael in The Comfort of My Wife Arm

“Everything Around Us, Ourselves Included, is in Constant Change. Photography is Our Means of Capturing Now – and to Remember Where We’ve Come From.”

- Amanda Van -

© 2011 Craft and Vision | A Deeper Frame by David duChemin

A DEEPER FRAME is an introduction to the discussion about re-introducing the illusion, or perception, of depth that is removed when the camera flattens the three-dimensional world into two.

This eBook will help you understand principles that artists have understood for centuries, but that seldom get discussed in popular photography with more than passing mention. A DEEPER FRAME outlines seven ways that we can create more engaging images through the re-creation of a sense of depth in the flattened image to create photographs that feel immersive and invite a reader of that photograph to not merely look at the photograph but into or through the photograph. | Craft And Vision

This is new eBook from Craft And Vision written by David duChemin and for those of you who have follow David duChemin blog blog for sure will get this eBook, full with insight how we can create more engaging and deeper photograph through depth, since we all know that normal photograph are two dimensional, so in order to create something deeper and have more depths so that we can see through a photograph instead of just looking at the photograph, David will show you how, even though this is not “how to eBook”.

I’ve to tell you that this is not “easy read”, but one thing for sure if you can absorb what David try to share with you in this new eBook, you will undoubtedly become a better photographer, better at expressive your vision through photograph instead of just sharing your photograph, you also will mange to express yourself through photograph. Get the eBook from Craft And Vision and make a “Deeper Frame” in your next photographs.

© 2011 Wazari Wazir | Family Photography | My Family | My Wife, HaiQal and Raphael (Newborn)

“No matter what you’ve done for yourself or for humanity, if you can’t look back on having given love and attention to your own family, what have you really accomplished?”
- Lee Iacocca -

Sometimes as a busy woking photographer, we tend to take our family for granted, we spent so much time to make other people look great in front of our camera, we spent so much time taking picture of other people family be it for business purpose or pleasure but none of our very own family and then we regret when suddenly we realized that how little our family pictures are compared to what supposed to be when in fact we have “the photographer in the house”.

I highly suggest to all my photographers friends to take a lot of pictures of their own family, a good picture, not just a simple snap shot, even though nothing wrong with that but why we give the best of our efforts to photographs other people at their best but give second best to our family?

Actually I do have a regret on my own, I don’t have a great picture with my family as well, most of the times, I take only a picture of my wife and my son and now in this latest picture with a new addition to our family, I’m not in the frame as well, maybe I need to buy a tripod ASAP in order for me to be in the frame or I could hire someone to take a picture of us together.

I believe a simple family picture will bind us together for a very long time, we can look at it for many times and never get bored, our son will grow up in no time, my son HaiQal, a big brother to Raphael is now coming close to four years old this  August 2011, “InsyaAllah,” God Willing, times really flies, even though I’ve taken thousand pictures of our  first son HaiQal, I still feel that I can take some more, how I wish I could do more.

I can write a long post about this subject but I guess, you all get the idea, as a photographer or someone who have a decent camera, a photograph, a great photograph of our family is the most precious gift that we can give to our family. The toys that we bought for our child today will be broken the very next day but the picture that we take today will be with us forever provided that we took good care of them, (filing, printing, archiving, etc,etc).

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