The sky is the photographer’s friend. Most of us love blue blue skies and it certainly helps in making a photo ‘prettier’. Grey nimbus clouds can ruin a scene of blue skies and fluffy white cumulus clouds. Predicting the look of the sky is essential if you want to make the best use of it.

1) Under normal circumstances, the sky will look best in February or October. However, with the rainy season being unpredictable lately, this may not be true.
2) Normally if there is hot sun after a few days of rain, the skies will be pristine.
3) If it’s a grey muggy day, I normally like to shoot in B&W where the colour of the sky won’t matter so much
4) Magic hour (the hour right after sunset) is known as such because the sky is always a nice tone of violet and blue and is an excellent backdrop for landscape or architectural photography.

Learn the cloud formations and they will serve you well…

Cloud formation information at Wiki

Anyway here are some samples of how the sky can be the main subject.

And a couple of shots I took yesterday evening (it was such a glorious sky)…

With a CPL (circular polarizer), you can get deep blue skies and if you use the B&W conversion technique I mentioned earlier, and turn on the Red filter in the Channel Mixer to 100%, you will turn these blue skies into a deep shade of grey or black. Should there be white clouds in the sky at that time, they will really stand out.

However, you may want to use this effect with some moderation.

With the National Day just round the corner (about 3 weeks from today), I would like to share with you a shot from easily one of the most photogenic sites in Malaysia i.e. Putrajaya.

This one from the MOF/National Treasury…

Like KLCC, Putrajaya has been shot to death… so the challenge is for photographers to find new angles.

Stage photography is something that I indulge in and is one of my favourite genres of The Art.

The photo below is the Hands Percussion Group’s performance entitled Dialogue In Skin. I shot this 2 years back and I am a big fan of this group. I try to make it for all their productions. The exposure for this is about 8 seconds on a tripod. As you can see, employing a long exposure on a tripod (which can be a luxury under most conditions) during a performance can produce wonderful results.

If you wish to indulge in stage photography, these are the tips

- obtain permission from the producers
- if possible, do it during full dress rehearsals
- wearing black is a good idea so that you can blend into the shadows
- a fast lens (large apertured) of around f2.8 is advised; useful focal length of 70-200mm but don’t forget to give wide shots too
- flash photography is a no-no
- tripods are cumbersome and can block the view of the audience; try to master using a monopod
- you won’t have time to fiddle with manual settings, shoot Av (aperture priority)
- the lighting in most performances will change very quickly; make sure you know how to spot meter or quickly do exposure compensation
- turn off the annoying beep of focusing confirmation
- white balance may be hell but sometimes you want to preserve the mixed coloured lighting of the show for atmosphere
- reviewing images will make you miss a shot and the light from your LCD screen will also annoy the audience

2 Golden Rules I would like to share with you all on stage photography…

1) If it is done during paid performances, try not to move to much or make to much sounds or obscure the view of the paying audience. They have every right to be enjoying the performance and not be annoyed by a photographer.
2) Do not fail to see the forest for the trees. Sometimes, you need to sit back and enjoy the performance for what it is. Looking through the viewfinder isn’t always as fun as just absorbing the show with your own eyes.

I start this post with a couple of pictures. The first photo was how the sky looked like in the evening, processed from the RAW file with minimal adjustments. The second is the photo after some level tweaks in Adobe PS. Which catches your eye more?

Before manipulation

After manipulation

This brings me to the thoughts where photographs can be altered for various reasons. I am not posting this to start a debate on what is right and what is not but you can feel free to share with us your thoughts on this.

Since the dawn of photography, some photographers have strived to change reality pre and post exposure. Salon photographers pay cyclists to cycle in the sunset to capture their silhouttes and they also pay old men to dress up as monks so that they could be interesting subjects. Today, in the digital realm, the manipulation of reality is more prevalent with tools like Adobe PS being ubiquitous and graphics artists use such tools as tool to create fantastical creations.

The only stance I take firmly is if a photograph, used for purposes of documentation, is altered. I do not agree to this.

Since we are on the topic of saxophones, here’s a shot of Greg Lyon’s talented hands on his favourite instrument

Stage/performance photography is all about capturing the emotion and giving the feeling of being there (as Chris and ST demonstrated below).

Parting shot…