Hong Kong - Locations & Textures

Hong Kong - I'd say a 3d Artist's heaven for textures. Here are some shots of the place while we gathered 3d references as well as backgrounds for usage on future jobs.

Had a lot of problems choosing photos to put up as they were so random and they look very different full screen on a 22" LCD screen compared to this blog. Can't really see the grain and texture from the treatment once its this low-res.

Anyway, hope you think it's cool. Cheers.

D700 said "And let there be light!" - BackStreetBoys - Coverage

So Obscura got to cover the BackstreetBoys event during the F1 in Singapore. Apparently reason no. 268 of 2009 reasons. Interesting ad campaign push

We worked with Sony BMG on this one. We tried to keep it journalistic and slightly different, hope you guys like the photos. I must add, the BackstreetBoys are a very funny, happy bunch of buddies and were fun to work with along with the Sony people.

LX3 & I - Portraiture

Model: Kelly Latimer

I'll start off by apologizing for the lack of posts. Been really busy balancing everything and my methods of DI can be a little painstaking, but I am comparing those results & what one is able to get through plugins and filters.

Obscura has done quite a body of work since we started but posting is always an issue and we tend to take awhile getting around to that.

As for the shoot. We've got a couple of shots of Kelly but I have yet to post the remainder but will eventually get around to filling this bit with about three to four shots.

Hope you'll like em. Nothing too daring nor artistic though. Hope we get a wicked crazy project soon.

Gymnastics - American School Gymnastics

I've been getting quite a few questions about the gymnastics advert we did awhile back so I figured I'll give a brief walk-through the thought process and include just a few before and after shots.

We were using a D700 on F2.8 24-70mm. We had one 90x60 soft-box on the left and two rim lights on the back left and right. We gel-ed the right flash rim with 1/16 CTO to give a little bit of a kicker.

As for the settings. I can't be bothered to check but I used a slightly wider aperture to make sure we got it all in focus regardless of movement. Also when I shoot, I tend to check my histograms, making sure nothing is blown-out but still pushing my highlights close to clipping points in the particular case.

In my opinion, this way, when you up the contrast in post... everything drops nicely and you don't have to deal with high colored noise levels which seems to show up in the background when light kisses anything there by a tad. Had I shot it to look more like the final shot but in-camera, I would really not be able to do that much without putting a lot more effort in photoshop.

I guess what I am trying to say is, when you shoot, do what is best for DI and not what looks good on your lcd screen on camera. And I know, we should have tethered but we had to move a lot on this one and work fast due to limited time. Oh and lastly, just painted out the light and the remaining reflective materials in the background.

Rock Climbing Event - Pumpfest 09 - More Photos

I've always disliked events for the sheer number of photos i'd have to go through and the amount of restraint i'd have to practice in order not go in and tweak every photo one way or another. Well these are the few I liked. Hope you like em to.

Rock Climbing Event - Pumpfest 09

First time Obscura is blogging work done in the field. Covered a rock climbing competition in Singapore hosted by NTU at Velocity mall, Novena.

Probably might upload another set of photos later. Depends. Still figuring out our export process for clients as well as blogs and the like. Cheers.