Photoshop or Not Photoshop

This edition of post will explain to you, through crab eyes that is, whether to photoshop/edit a picture or not to do so. In many cases, I do came across people who think we should NOT edit any picture and instead, try to take a picture as sharp and as vibrance as possible to even be classified as good. So, now, how do we take those kind of picture then?

Firstly, you would need to know who is the target audience for your pictures. Remember, camera is just a tool for you to use to take what you are seeing and for us to make it yummy, we might sometime need to tweek a little to make it 'edible'. Personally i think that changing a picture color or even perhaps removing something which does not suite into the picture is totally ok so as long as not to jeopardize the main subject in the picture.

To tell you the truth, 99.99% of pictures in the magazines or even in posters has been changed a little either in Adobe Photoshop or any other software that allow us to do so. This is because, professional people understand that by changing that, they would be able to entice more readers or on lookers to stop and say 'Wow!!!'.

Buying Tripod

Lighting is what our camera go out and intent to capture. How light is manipulated is determine how good the picture you have taken turns out to be. Simple as it may seems but this technique is a combination of hard work as well as luck.

Anyway, taking night scene most of the time requires dedication in the sense of making your camera holding still. Any little movement would cause blurry picture and that would definitely  ruin your nice shot. To solve this, normally people would use flash but what about subject which is far away. If your flash is not strong enough, the picture you have taken might even turn out awful. Normally i would try not to use flash but once you do that, ghostly image tend to happen. So, how to overcome this problem? Easy, use tripod.

What is tripod?

A tripod is a three-legged stand for your camera to sit on. The three legs provide an incredibly stable base for your SLR. Tripods let you take photos no matter how little light there is - even in the dead of night.

But tripods are also useful when there is plenty of light.

Taking the 1st Step

As the title sounds, taking the first step is never easy and my journey of learning how DSLR works does not run far from the meaning as well.

To those who knows how to use DSLR camera like eating a cake, I've bet when they started their first step, it was not so easy as well but then, with pure passion as well as determination, they are where they are right now. Knowing how aperture works to how does ISO configure are all part and parcel of every day picture taking experience. Once you know how to play these configuration around, then you are actually ready to snap picture away but wait, how do you know which combination works with what kind of environment? A good photographer that i know says, if you see your picture is nice enough, it's already nice. The hard part is getting the moment. You can take a still glass of water, or  you could even take picture of a flower but then, would that make them a great pictures? I don't think so. What makes them great then? I'm not saying i'm good in taking picture but then, i do understand what is trying to be said by the professional to someone as rookie as me. Moment happen when fox jump into his prey or even an eagle catching its prey, the live action appear in your moment with a perfect timing as well as quality picture, that what makes a picture great.

D90 Selling Price

Selling price for this product normally differ from one shop to the other. Since the new hidden model of replacement to D90 that is coming out end of this year, the price for this D90 has gone down tremendously over the months. Last time was around RM4300 but now, it's around RM3300 with 18mm - 105mm lens.

So with this package, normally it will come with 4Gb SD memory card, one Nikon bag as well the main thing itself, the D90 body. If you plan to buy additional battery as well as upgrading the memory card, they will cost you additional RM180 - RM200 depending on which shop you will go.

Below are the summary after went to a few shops here around Penang Island.

Hike Enterprise:

RM3290 (Body + 4Gb SD Card + Bag)

RM150 (Additional Battery)

RM40 (Upgrade to 8Gb SD Card)

** Need to wait till next week as currently, out of stock

D90 Preview

Buying DSLR camera is not like buying vegetable in the market. You really need to see what you want to buy in order to get something worth the money that you are going to dump in. What I would normally do is browse through website that explain the camera that I wanted to buy in detail. Once you know a little bit about the features as well as specifications,  I will then proceed to forums or blogs to get the 1st hand view by the user themselves. They would normally explain in their terms on how to use the camera, sometime even list out the advantage and disadvantage of using the camera.

By now, you would know which camera suite you best since you might come across a lot of article comparing the one you want and some other model in the market. So now, what you need to do is to scout for the market price and hoping to get a price lower then that. What i did was to go to local bidding web site where i could see the price being advertised for the product or model. Once i get the picture of the price, I would proceed to find it at the store. For this kind of expensive stuff, buying from online store is not such a good idea as we might not know how establish they are. Also,  mostly of the stores are very from you and therefore, interaction by meeting in person would sometime be a very difficult factor. If you would stick to a store near you, when you really need some helping hand, I believe they would be more then willing to help you for something that does not requires warranty claiming.