Don't forget the black and white

Busy colours in black and white

Capturing image in black and white is much more challenging than in full colour as the variation in colours will only be captured with different levels of grayscale. The following colour combinations will be difficult to differentiate: white and yellow, white and light blue, green and red. As such, textures of the cloud and sky, flower and foliage, sun, sky and cloud at sunset, lips and skin tones will not show any distinct contrast in a black and white format.

Yellow filter to enhance different tones of white

To further highlight these contrasts, filters are available for this purpose. For the old SLR cameras which using 35 mm film, filter can be screwed in-front of the lens to achieve this. For current DSLR cameras, these filters are available in the monochrome adjustment. The filters pre-set are available in yellow, orange, red and green. Yellow filter is used to make the blue sky looks more natural and the white cloud looks crisper. Orange filter will make the blue sky looks slightly darker and sunset looks more brilliant. Red filter will make the blue sky looks quite dark and brown/yellow objects look crisper and brighter. Green filter makes skin tones and lips look fine and tree leaves look crisper and brighter. If your DSLR did not have these pre-set filters, you can get the screwed on filters and used them just like using the UV or polarised filters.

Detail of image (originally rich with different tones of brown) showed with green filter

Other than the filter effects, black and white photography will require optimal light metering. Play with different sets of metering mode and look at the detail of your image captured. Evaluate closely the bright and dark areas. Good metering and the use of filter will produce an image with high contrast, thus, each detail in the image can be clearly seen.

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Converting Bedside Table to a Portable Wash-Stand (IKEA Hack)

What to do if a ready made furniture is not able to fit in the space that is available? Your choice will be either build a customised furniture or hacking a furniture for a different purpose. Hacking a furniture will cut almost 70% of the work required to build a customised furniture from zero. Here, I share a step-by-step process on one of my DIY weekend projects converting bedside table to portable wash-stand. What will be required for this project? Tools (e.g. saw, metal ruler, hand drill), sand paper and brushes for wood work, base furniture to be hacked, water-resistant paint and metal knob. STEP 1. Get some ideas on the design and materials by visiting several furniture galleries/shops. For example here, the idea was from an IKEA wash basin base cabinet, Lillangen. The material mainly particleboard, which might not be that suitable for Malaysian humidity and bathroom practice. For that reason, I choose solid wood material the project. The dimension of the IKEA cab

Too dark...too bright....

Too dark or too bright.....this is due to poor exposure of the sensor to light. Is it a problem if my photo is too dark or too bright? May be yes and may be no, depends on what you want in your image. If the photo is too dark (underexposed), you will loss the detail of the shadow. If the photo is too bright (overexposed), you will loss the texture of the cloud and sky. Exposure is a combination of two fundamental settings: the aperture opening and the shutter speed. Aperture opening is the function in your lens and the shutter speed is the function in your camera. Optimal exposure can be achieved with many combinations of aperture opening size and the shutter speed, BUT each combination will have differences in depth of focus, motion blur and etc. How this exposure can be controlled? The answer is by having a good understanding of the combination of aperture and shutter speed. Shallow depth of focus, focus point was on the middle broccoli, focal length of 50 mm, large aperture ope

Cranberry and Raisin Scones....simply yummilicious

The scone baking project was to fulfill the weekend afternoon, and not because of the "doughnut story".....hihihi. Here I share the basic scone recipe. As I have mentioned earlier "Now everyone can bake", as such the recipe is easy to follow. Ingredients: 2 cups plain flour 1/3 cup sugar 1 tablespoon baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup butter 1 egg (medium) beaten with 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/3 cup whole milk 1/2 cup raisins 1/2 cup dried cranberries 1:1 ratio of egg:milk wash Method: Pre-heat the oven to 180-200C. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add in the butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs (photo 2) and then follow by the egg and vanilla. Add in the milk slowly to form a firm soft dough that can be roll out. Stir until the dry ingredients are moistened. Add in the dried cranberries and raisins. Roll out the dough on floured surface to 2 cm thickness. Using a 5 cm round scone cu

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