Thomas Shum Photography

 After taking the photographs, it is time to do the editing. First, here is ZFC_5000.jpg.  It was a coloured photograph before editing. But I want it to be black & white. So I choose Black & White at the right upper corner on the menu of Basic. The following are the reasons why I used such settings. First, it was a bit underexposed so I increase the exposure directly so that the photograph would look brighter. I think in B&W, the photographs can have more contrast, so I set the contrast to +35. Since the photographs got brighter, the whites and highlights were slightly overexposed, and in order to reduce the light reflection on the skin of the model, I tune down the setting of the whites and highlights. The histogram shows that the photograph's shadow and blacks are way underexposed, so I set them to a positive settings, so that it can show more details on the shadows and blacks. To make it a bit softer while not losing any clarity, I slightly reduce the clarity an...

 I finally photographed my first shooting on 21 FEB 2024. As planned, I photographed inside the studio. Here is the link for contact sheet, which has a total of 36 pages as I photographed over a thousand pictures. I invited Pedro to be my model, as he is a talented guitar player and he is a member of a local band, called Spellgaze.  My equipment for this photo-shooting are a Nikon Z fc, a Nikkor Z 24-70mm f/4, a set of two point lighting and a set of black wallpaper for the background.  First, I will talk about ZFC_5031.jpg. It was a photo that Pedro was sitting on a chair and playing his guitar.  Here is the EXIF for ZFC_5031.jpg.  As shown, I was using manual mode, since it is my preferred setting of all times. I used F/4 to allow more light came through the lens, and ISO500 for the low light scenario, and to balance the dark lighting, I have to use a shutter speed of 1/50 sec. In this photo, no exposure compensation was set, as I was using manual, the exposu...

Another music photographer that I will do research into will be Jim Marshall(1936-2010). According to his own biography, he was well-known for "his iconic music photography" and his photographs were published through magazine features, music album covers and his books. He has photographed over a million black-and-white colour negatives, and I will be looking into one of his work.  The Grateful Dead, Haight Street Fair, San Francisco, March 3, 1968 This is an image that taken in 1968, when the Grateful Dead was performing on a stage in Haight Street Fair, San Francisco. The photograph was taken in a black-and-white film, as at that time colour films were not very popularised. As we can see, Marshall used high angle to photograph the band and the audience, and this created a contrast between the foreground and the background. In the foreground, that occupied the lower half of the frame, was the members of the Grateful Dead playing with their instruments, while the background wa...

 Before starting the project, first I have to do some researches. Since my topic would be about musicians, I am searching for music photographers.  The first music photographer that I will do research on is Ross Halfin (1957-present). He is a British photographer and according to his own biography, he studied in Wimbledon School of Art in the 1970s. He has been shooting photographs for different rock bands and stars, such as Metallica, a famous American heavy metal band.  Below is a photograph of Metallica on the stage taken by Haflin in Belgium, 1993. We can see that the photograph was shot through eye level, which possibly horizontal to the stage as it seems that Haflin and the guitarist were on the same height. As Haflin took the photograph up high from the ground, it created a connection between the guitarist and the passionate audience who all raised their hands, that the members of the band has a higher admiration by the people and were untouchable from the perspect...

This week we are going to produce our Photography Project. We were required to do a photo-shooting project of portraits for Creative Media. In the beginning of the term, I was thinking to take pictures of people  who are living in the life style of 'carpe diem'.  My first initial idea was to take pictures of a musician playing his/her instruments. The reason why I choose musicians is that they are very passionate when they are producing their work. They remind me about John Lennon who was murdered after being photographed by Annie Leibovitz in 1980. He was a member of the Beatles, a band that they described themselves 'more popular than Jesus' (The Beatles Bible, n.d.). Most of the musicians are passionate on creating music and most of them are down to earth, and for me this is one of the reasons why the music plays an important role in terms of cultural significance. I plan to do the photo-shooting in the studio, and photograph one or two musician(s) playing his/her in...

 We spent around an hour in the studio for some portrait practice today. I used Aperture Priority mode so that the camera will change the shutter speed itself in different light conditions. First, we were in the studio to shoot with our model. I was shooting with RAW+JPG, and that was the reason why I have two set of files for the same photograph. I have used the B&W as the picture profile for some of the indoor and outdoor shooting, and the RAW files were just for the backup of editing, which kept the standard and original colours. There are not many photos but I still managed to try both portrait and landscape for different poses, as well as photographing inside and outside the studio.  Here is ZFC_2551.jpg. It was a studio photo in which a two-point lighting was set up.  Below is the EXIF data of the photo. As shown, I was using the aperture priority mode. The camera will adjust the shutter speed in order to compensate the aperture and ISO setting which were set. T...

 Today we went to do a tasked shooting called 'Above and Below'. It was to practice taking high and low angle portraits and to practice the settings on the camera. The settings that we have practiced were aperture (f/ stops), ISO and exposure compensation. We went out on campus with a partner to take some portrait images and it turns out that I do not have a specific partner as I shoot nearly everyone in class for my own practice. As what we did last term, we have to make a contact sheet after we returned from our shooting. The process of making contact sheet was to open Photoshop, then select 'Files', choose 'Automate' and then 'Contactsheet II'. Since I did not take a lot of photographs, Photoshop generated only 2 pages of contact sheet automatically. This is one of the favourite shots and I will have a look onto the EXIF data. 1/2000s, f/4, ISO-200, EV -1.0   As we were asked to use A Mode, or the Aperture Priority Mode (AV Mode), the shutter speed wa...

 After having a month of rest, it is time back to school. Before my term starts, I would like to do a self-reflection.  I would look at Annie Leibovitz, one of the best modern portrait photographers. She is also famous for taking picture of John Lennon just hours before being murdered. Annie Leibovitz (1980) John Lennon and Yoko Ono She enrolled in the San Francisco Art Institute in 1967 and then became a photographer since 1970 . According to Britannica (2024), she is well known for her iconic portraits of celebrities and cultural figures. Through her work with Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair, Leibovitz has developed an unique style of photography, which made herself as a leading role in portrait photography. In the photo above, it was the final photo of John Lennon before assassinated, and she captured the precious moments of the couple. She took the photo from high angle, and from the perspective of composition, John being naked and kissing Yoko, showing his love to his...