A little something from Taiwan..

One of the things that you get in Taiwan is that you get to actually see the Sun set behind the horizons, or rather in this case, the mountains (yes, those faint outlines beyond the buildings in the distance are mountains). In Singapore, you will be more likely to see it set behind the HDB flats opposite your house. Although there is plenty of fresh air up in the hilltops, pollution control is pretty bad in the cities, and having a motor vehicle population that is 1.5 times greater than its human population does not help. That contributes to the haze that is characteristic of its cities.

Anyway, here's the photo. It was taken from inside the tour bus while travelling along the expressway from 内湾(Neiwan) to 高雄 (Kaohsiung).

Oh, did i mention that Sun sets at 5pm during winter there? Its pitch black by 5.45pm.

Hellooo photographers! :D today, cheng boon, paul and I went out to the southern ridges to shoot and here are a couple of photos to share. Well, there was rain and stuff, but i still managed to capture a few shots and i find it a good photog destination for all!

there was this butterfly,

and this structure popping out at a playground...

If only i had a macro lens wif mi, the photo would hav been a lot better! Both photos were shot with my 500d and 18-200mm kit lens. Alright, that's all, meanwhile, shoot more often and brush up our photography skills! (:

-posted by Kenny Tay

MJC Prom in Black and White :D

Hihi! :D

The J1s might not know me but I'm from the 0708 batch of photogs :D Anyways, I was one of the laolaos who covered Prom on Wed night, so I thought I'd share some of my pics here *at Shruthi's request!* some game that they play every year during prom.. tying random stuff together :D and this is the table that won :D

one of the many performances that night *and the chandeliers are freaking cool!!* this was a spontaneous shot btw.. i just aimed at him and he instantly ":D"

and and and not forgetting, THE SENIORS! :D
Erfee looking like a diplomat :D

Zhanlun pretending to be Batman, or Ultraman, or some other comic book character (@_@)guess whose ring is this!

obligatory camwhore shot in the lobby (and new profile pic!)

Full album is on Facebook, just click on the link below:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=300195&id=521724992&l=e494104720

BYE! :D
THE SQUIRREL

PS: J1 Exco: if you want the pics, juz drop me a msg (by SMS or email or whatever) and I'll try to get over my shitty Internet connection and send them to you k! :D

PPS: Everyone post more on the blog k!! Whether photog-related or random stuff, juz post and keep it alive for whoever pops by this little page on one of their blog-hopping sprees :D

Journey Across India

Going on your end of year vacation soon? Consider embarking on a project like this-

Journey Across India from Mike Matas on Vimeo.

Project CAM (video)

Hi guys,

Here's the video that I did to show our students and the Cambodian partners. Its really a rush job but still you will be able to roughly understand what the students have done over there.

Regards,
PPC

Passion for Photography

"This is why I love photography. It captures the littlest moments in which we all tend to miss. Like how we always dread going to school/work early in the morning (I'm guilty) but we fail to see the brilliant shade of the sky, the annoyingly pleasant beam from the sun, and the lovely fluffy clouds above.

I love how photography freezes time. Memories tend to fade as time go by, but photographs stay stagnant and still. It reminds us and allow us to reminise. It is that that makes it so unique, special, one of a kind.

I love how I look back at my baby photos and be amazed at how much I grew, how I developed, how I celebrated my birthdays. Then I would laugh when I see a younger version of myself, with the weirdest hairdo, dunking my nose IN the creamy cake and be all overjoyed.

This is photography. It is as simple as that. You don't need a fancy camera, or a well-adored polaroid camera. As long as it captures, as long as it brings back memories, as long as it aids your memory, this is photography.
Sometimes we accidentally capture some sort of a random person in the background, then we re-take the shot and ignore the previous one. But I think that's fate. You see, out of so many people to have photobombed you, it is that random stranger, the person who is there at the right place, right moment, in that mere fraction of a second when you snap a photo. That's something amazing, isn't it?"

A levels is finally over and as I was navigating around the web, I saw something to share. :D
Indeed, i found it true that photography is something which enhances our lives, making us more appreciative of what we do not cherish in the past. This is his passion for photography, what's yours?

-posted by Kenny Tay

By popular demand

Hi!!! (From the Kingdom of Cambodia)

PPC








(Hee pardon my lameness... will update you guys with a blog on my thoughts about Cambodia soon... :-) )

Il Premiere 2010

Please don't complain that we don't blog lah, after all we aren't proficient bloggers ourselves.

*gives innocent puppy eyes*

Anyway, after the pretty horrible Promos, we have been busy with preparing for Prom. You know, Prom Prom Prom. The ever magical P.R.O.M. PROM.

We have been kept pretty busy with many logistics stuff, from printing to set-up...

This is how we are:



We also don't know what to wear, so we have been making some references as to what to wear. After all we are not the stars and we're not in the spotlight, so you can't expect us to wear super glam tux, etc.. Neither can we wear like shorts and slippers, cause its Shangri-la, not Bugis Street.

Anyway where is Shangri-la? Last year was at Marriott is it?


View Larger Map

Compared to Marriott, Shangri-la is relatively inconvenient. Well even though its in Orchard area its still a stretch away from the train station, so I suppose if we were to walk there from the train station under the extreme weather (scorching sun/torrential rain) we can don't bother going there at all.

However, wouldn't it be cool if we can charter a cab, a nice glam one, and strut down the cab like a celebrity, walking into the hotel?

But that can only happen in our dreams I suppose.

Nevertheless, whatever way we are getting there, I suppose we are pretty ready for prom and everyone is going to do great and have fun!

I hope there won't be random weird stuff popping up that day...

J2s, we wanna see you rock the house!

So, signing off, here's a random video for you to watch and laugh.



By the way, I love typing on Mac keyboard.

- Jx

PROM.

The next big MJC Event is coming to town real soon! Is everyone prepared for the invasion of Il premiere - MJC Senior Prom 2010?

The theme states Hollywood Glam so do expect the seniors to arrive in dazzling outfits, looking prim and proper as they look forward to party the night away! As photographers for the event, I look forward to working hard with the rest of the photog-gers as we churn out class prom photos and even couple shots for the seniors to cherish those precious memories! This event will mark another milestone in MJC's history so look out for some awesome photos that will be posted after the prom event!

Whatever it is, the photog club will be there capturing all the great moments as the seniors end their college life and exit with a BANG! Come for photoshoots! Early-bird discounts will be available before 6pm!

P.S: For now, let's wait for PPC as he uploads some pictures from his Cambodia trip! (:

Namaste, Nepal!

It's strange since the exams are over, people should have more time to update this blog! Especially so when they have more time to shoot now that it's the holidays!

Nevermind... This ol' senior is here just to announce an exciting piece of news (at least for myself). I just got 4 vaccines, and that's because I'll be in Nepal for six months starting January for my internship at a magazine company there. My physical presence may not be felt, but I'll be sure to exert my virtual presence here. I'll be posting pictures!

If I'm lucky enough, I might get to see Mt Everest and the Himalayans!

Look at what I've found!!

Since no one is in the mood to write a new post and dunno what happen to our dear children also...

Anyways.. I was clearing up my room, throwing away stuff to make some space for the new behemoth that was coming into my room today.. and I stumbled onto this.. My first meeting notes. Ahh so nostalgic.. Enjoy..


Ohh.. and I forgot to mention, on the back was the printout for the very first version of the club logo.. it was in khaki green..hehe^^

Be like him..

Enjoying my temporal boredom (freedom) while it lasts..

To the J1's: All the best for your promos next week.

To the J2's: Study hard for the A levels. =D

Have fun mugging. :)

Hahaha

Something I saw on the net I thought you all might be interested to see..

"My film SLR can set ISO 6 - 6400, some say put ISO 100 but some say put highest the best.."

This is what happens when you apply digital concepts to film photography^^

Clementi Railway

"You’re waiting for a train,
a train that will take you far away.
You know where you hope this train will take you,
but you don’t know for sure.
But it doesn’t matter, because we’ll be together."

King and I went to track down the Sunset way railway track today. Or rather, King tracked it down on Google Maps and we made our way down today.

The grass has grown all over the tracks and at first we were a little unsure where the track is when we reached there. My legs were scratched all over by the lalang, which was very irritating indeed.

The path leading up to the bridge.

The old track has been abandoned and overgrown with grass.

You have no idea how scary this bridge is until you walk on it!!! It's quite a high drop if you miss a footing, and believe me, you really don't want to miss a footing. My last words to Kingston were: "If I die.... Please help me return all my equipment!!!"

Nuts and bolts

I want to die!

The underneath of the bridge.

A very cute looking Kingston shot with the lensbaby.

Half the time there I was very scared of dropping off the bridge... I swear it felt like the longest 100m in my life. And although we went there for the bridge, my favourite shot was the first one of the leaf and the water droplets.

And I wouldn't recommend this location to any of you guys for a photo excursion. It's really dangerous.

I noticed that the moon seems especially bright tonight and that kind of inspired me to share this shot of the moon with everyone.

The crescent, taken many weeks ago at Hendersen Bridge, with Zhanlun's 500D and 18-200mm f3.5-5.6

On the Right Side of Wrong

Heh heh~~ Since someone requested an update, allow me showcase my latest fiddlings..

My proof of concept!! Black and white slides.. Wheeee!! No where in Singapore you can find this service commercially. Now, now, isn't film photography fun?? Hahaha

Journey of the Photojournalist

I've never worked so hard in my life ever. I've haven't had a day's break ever since the Youth Olympic Flame arrived in Singapore, but the experience has been even more intense than anything that I've experienced in the past 4 years as a photographer.

Just to share, I've been physically manhandled in every way thinkable- pushed, pulled, shoved, nudged... and even grabbed! A photographer's got to do what a photographer got to do. I had to take the shot, and despite being told not to cross a certain boundary, I had to do it. I had followed the Flame on foot for two days, and had followed through most part of the rest of Journey of the Youth Olympic Flame on the media truck. I've never derived so much satisfaction from my job before, despite the fatigue I experienced, having only 4 hours of sleep every day while chasing the flame.

I had gotten to meet photographers from all over our nation, and I've formed bonds with men whom I've never met, and probably will never meet again, just because we stand shoulder to shoulder helping each other during the course of our work as media personnel. I'm the only girl standing on the media stand at an MM Lee event, being dwarfed by Xinhua's extremely tall Chinese guy with a 300mm prime lens (it's the f2.8 version, mind you, and all the rest are carrying one). I've also gotten to meet photographers from major agencies such as Reuters, AP, other foreign press- a Japanese dude, an Indian dude (from India, haha)- ST, Zaobao, TNP, even met CCTV's filming crew, and just today I chatted with a photographer from San Francisco who is working for ST just for YOG while I was getting a massage at the Main Press Centre.

Every day I will meet with failures some way or another, but new events always energize me, finding new satisfactions as a photojournalist. Not only have I gotten to know new people who volunteered their services for the YOG, I've also gotten to know a young ambassador from Trinidad and Tobago, whose warmth never fails to surprise me. (She hugged me!)

Taking pictures is easy. But being a photographer is hard. We face with new challenges everyday and some may even cripple us. We have to jostle with other people to get the winning shot. Truth was that after my third day chasing the flame, I wanted to quit so badly. It rained on the second day, and my camera and I were completely drenched. The third day, it was so scorching hot I had to douse myself in water. By the end of 7 days of JYOF (including celebrations at NUS), I was sun burnt and had slimmed down, complete with two blisters and a callus on my thumb for shooting too much. But the moment I knew my efforts did not go to waste was when the final product of the photo story was incredible.

Of course, I also got to hold the torch, after 7 days of chasing. (Though there was no fire.)

Fight on!~

hiiii there

okayy, so its now august, mid-august to be exact, and all of us are busy with life as usual - mugging for exams and stuff.. sad to know that the j1s have stepped down from now until end of promos, it feels like we've stepped up just yesterdayy =x

yes ppl (j1s), our promos are round the corner (literally in like a month and 2/3 weeks? xp ). so yeah do pick up your notes and start revising everything(means redo-ing heh). yes EVERYTHINGG (:

**jiayous to j1s taking bio/phy spa practical this week and chem in the following! 7.5% of our A grades okayy!

ohyes, YOG has officially started, hope singapore bags numerous victories :D

http://in.reuters.com/article/idINIndia-50849120100814 <-- the flame cauldron loooks awesome =] and you can browse through the article too XD

okk imma going back to my chem tut now..

fight on!

ciao, kym (:

Who's that Boy?

Covering for events have always been part and parcel of a MJC Photographer. I could still remember my days where we "chiong" here and there to cover a event and "ponning" lessons to shoot. Those were the days where covering a event was a responsibility and a sacred task to be completed.(Even though sometimes the photos turned out rubbish) The very presence of a photographer at the event boost the ego of the participants and they know that they have to put on their very best, cos we are armed around the corners to capture the actions.

For me, covering the events is a passion. Fueled by adrenaline, I was there to soak in the atmosphere and capture the memories to prolong it in people's mind. I thought I was already a crazy Photographer who would go on and on. Then I met Chee Howe who would stop at nothing to get the photos.

Today, in the news, a young boy showed me what shooting with passion is all about. He tracked the torch relay far beyond what he have planned. Braving rain and other professional Photograhers(who might be flaming me now cos they are also going through the same shit), he shot with his small digital camera until it died on him.


Though to some, his efforts might not be a feat. But I salute him for his drive and passion at this young age to get his shots.This is what event photographers really need. To my dear Juniors, you don't have to be as crazy as Chee Howe who almost got us disqualified for Soccer finals(long story this one) but put in a little passion in your assignments and I am sure your pictures will show :)

For those who want to read about the full story, heres the link:
http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_564756.html

Till the next event, See ya :)

&

Happy Shooting !


-Xing Quan

YOG Torch Relay

Hi this is KYM(the one typing is Chester);

HAPPY 17th BIRTHDAY FARHAN!!!!

THIS IS A GIFT FOR YOU SINCE YOU LOVE MINI WINGS TTM! :D

10 Acknowledgements

1. @Shruts: Hi Shruthi we, the citizens of MJPS, have arrived to revive the blog! ^^
   
2. Kym: Sorry Sorry Miss Koh! I have your pretty pretty shots with me! (:
   
3. We saw Eunice outside MJC on a YOG vehicle, shooting the torch-bearing process!
4. We are HUNGRY. RAWRRRR!
5. The temp. switch in timetable this week puts Tuesday's and Thursday's timetables side by side, meaning consecutive PE and PW lessons!! OMG PE ON 2 CONSECUTIVE DAYS?! GOD BLESS US -.-
6. LYO and MERLY LOOK GOOD TODAY.
7. DPM TEO CHEE HEAN LEFT HIS FOOTPRINTS IN MJC TODAY!
8. Photographers braved the sweltering heat to capture defining moments in Singapore's history today!
9. We had school today, but every other school in Singapore didn't.
10. mjc>photography <3

PHOTOG! x3

OKAY CIAO! (Y)

JYOF Day 1 Shooting in the Rain

http://whyohgee.wordpress.com/2010/08/07/the-daily-post-82-rain-runners/

Hi guys, just wanna share an epic photo that was taken today on the first leg of the JYOF (Journey of the Olympic Flame). Just as the first torch bearer took the torch and ran around CHIJ Toa Payoh's race track, it started raining heavily. I was drenched in the process as well, but sadly I was still in the school compound when this happened.

Remember to bring your cameras when the flame passes by MJC on Tuesday! It's definitely a once in a lifetime experience.

On Her Majesty's Fan Service

People always tell me my posts are usually too long winded and that I should type less and put more photos..So here we go.. A short preview of the special behind the scenes photos from the actual day of the LO-FI Project with captions. If you are interested to view the whole roll, you can see them here

Alumni hard at work doing up the final touches..

Special thanks to Jiayi for coming so early to open the photog room for us

Something Jun Sen picked up during his stint as a construction worker

Cam whore is a prerequisite when holding a camera

This is the sixth sense girls often talk about; they know when the camera is pointed at them..

Lazy to add captions le..too troublesome..

And a lofi picture to end it off..

The Day After Tommrow

Hihi^^

The exhibition went up today to much success. It is located at the canteen and its so big you can't miss it.. Especially if you're like me always cheong from lecture to canteen at the chime. You'll find it irritating cos suddenly there is this huge wall of colour blocking the most direct path between you and the malay rice stall.. Hahaha

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who took the time to edit and submit your photos to us and showing us your support!! I hope you all will enjoy the exhibition.

Today is the Day!!

Although today is the day, we know you'll only catch it on Monday.^^

1 More Day!!

1 more day to go and both my feet are wet..

2 More Days

2 more days to go and cyclic redundancy errors are appearing every morning-.-|||

Help Wanted!

Hi guys! Firstly I'd like to thank all of your support, from those who have submitted and for those who didn't, I know you'd definitely turn up at the canteen for the exhibition!

Yesterday our group of dedicated Alumni members were back arranging for the exhibition, and all I can say is that the exhibition will be AWESOME. Yeah. You can ask the J1 exco, they've seen a preview of it, and they'll definitely tell you the same thing.

Thing is, this is our first massive exhibition and we will need help hanging it up on Saturday morning. Work will start at 8am, and it is crucial we have everything up by 1pm. There are 300 prints linked together, and we'd really appreciate it if you could come back and help us.

No matter whether you're Alumni member or not, if you are able to volunteer your services this Saturday, please SMS Kingston or email him at kgston@hotmail.com.

Thank You~

pointless

puns are pointless because they don't hurt 

4 More Days

4 more days to go and the sea captain isn't very happy...

5 More Days

5 more days to go and its going up, up and away!!

Coming Soon

Coming soon, to a canteen near you.

IT'S COMING

Thank you all for your submission.

Stay tuned. 

Magnesium

Magnesium reacts with oxygen to produce a white flame. It was used as a flash in photography hundreds of years ago.

-SA-

P.S me doing my group 2 elements e learning :)

Submit submit!

Hi!

Please remember to submit your entries for LOFI!!

How a Leica is made.

A little insight to how a Leica is made. Each is handmade like a mechanical watch in Switzerland and Canon don't do that ;) Enjoy !

L-Camera TV #1 - Does Leica still make MP and M7? from Andreas Jürgensen on Vimeo.

A Pilgrimage to Kranji War Memorial

As a prelude to to the upcoming LO-FI project, I thought it might be good to show you some of my recent dabblings in LO-FI photography. In any case, since they are not colour photos, they would not be eligible for the exhibition anyways.

I have always mentioned from time to time that I have always wanted to go to the Kranji War Memorial to shoot, but most of the time people brush me off as a lil crazy as its super far. So this time I'm gonna prove to you that it is a place of interest worth the effort travelling to. But then again, please don't bring 20 photogers there and disturb the peace and serenity of the area.

I also want to prove to all you new generation photographers that film is not dead. There is very unique feel the film imparts to your photos; maybe its the wide exposure latitude or perhaps its the grain and tonality that imparts it an "old world" look. Whatever the reason, it surely still is worth the effort to shoot film.

And lastly, my inspiration for this set of works comes from the imaginary "Wu Xiao Kang" whose set of work caused quite a bit of stir when it was first posted online and when the truth came out later on. For those of you who remember the incident, you would know what I'm talking about. For those of you who don't, then I maybe one day I shall have the opportunity to show them to you. Regardless of the circumstances, the works themselves were indeed good and thought provoking and hence inspired me to carry out my latest project in a similar fashion. Except that I used 3 rolls instead of 1. Next time I'll shoot a perfect roll...

The following set of photos you are going to see was shot on 3 rolls of black and white film, 2 of which was developed in coffee; Nescafe if you really wanted to know.. All 3 rolls were developed entirely by myself; from shoot to scan.

I would like to start off with the following introduction,

"I was waiting for a ISO 200, 1/250 kind of day..."

Convenience of the 7D =)

Hi Beautihoo Chewrens =)

While you wait patiently for JS's next tutorial, you can take a break from your revision (you have been studying right??) and watch my amateur-ly made Japan videos. I thought you better see mine first before you see PPC's Japan photos shot with 5DMkII and L lens LOL

Sorry my hands are not very steady so sometimes it's like Blair witch project hahaha and my 18-200mm is a bit ngeh ngeh (not smooth) so zoom in zoom out is argh argh argh...

I'm getting lazy... when I feel tired of shooting, I just switch to video mode heehee...

Shizuoka - the home of green tea with verdant tea fields and teahouses everywhere boasts of excellent views of Mt Fuji (if the weather permits). When we were there, we saw only clouds LOL it's also the childhood residence and retirement home of Ieyasu Tokugawa (who unified Japan). The Toshogu Shrine is the first and original one built by Tokugawa's son. The one in Nikko (built by his grandson I think) and all others copy its architecture. The Oigawa Railway is (I think) the only steam locomotive in Japan and definitely the only one which uses the ABT saw-toothed system to climb slopes. Okuoi kojo is a train station that sits on a dam. It's part of the rainbow bridge that runs across the dam.

There's some problem with the second transition...



Kawaguchiko, one of the Fuji five lakes boasts of splendid views of Mt Fuji (if the weather is good). The weather was not good when we were there hahaha but it was still beautiful =) Love the cute trains (at the beginning and end of the clip)

Two of the transitions are a bit off (see if you can spot them!) and I forgot to turn off the sound at the Kawaguchiko Natural Living Centre hahaha. Don't be so ngiao la!



Tateyama Alpine Route was the one I was most looking forward. Unfortunately, 2 days before our trip, the hotel sent us an email to inform us of a last minute maintenance at one part of the route so it was not possible to go all the way. But it's still really beautiful and I strongly recommend this place =)

Lesson 1 – Selective Tone

I know this is supposed to be a tutorial on how to make your photos look like something out of a cheap, plastic excuse of a camera. But spare me for a moment, and let me talk about something very much related to this topic.

The oil spill. You know, the one that happened at our coast in the south? And the one that's raging the politicians over in the big U.S. of A. I tell you, it's a goddamn conspiracy for two major oil spills to occur within the same time. Gil Grissom from CSI would tell you that there is no such thing as a coincidence, and I'm inclined to believe him in this case.

And of course, there is the whole mess of the cleanup. Oxymoron aside, it's a well known fact that the operation at the Gulf of Mexico has seen failure after failure, and the oil still remains there today. On the other hand, we cleaned up our East Coast oil spill successfully in just a week. This right here is complete proof of our superiority. Hoo-ah.

Of course, the skeptics to my claim will say that the extents of the disasters in both places are vastly different with the one in America being a hundred times worse than ours.

To appease my critics, let me bring up a totally related statistic such as our population size. We're almost one hundred times smaller. Which means we have one hundred times less manpower. But, we still cleaned it up well, and fast. My math can't be wrong.

And then, there's the environmental impact. Usually, I'm not one to be squeamish in horror movies where characters get impaled on spikes, and blood and bone splatters as if the person is a can of paint in a microwave oven. When I watch the Fear Factor, I'm usually laughing when the participant eats some animal's reproductive body part.

But when I see the photos of the damage of the oil spill disaster, I feel sad.

You know what I'm talking about. It's the classic oil spill photograph in which an egret is covered in crude oil and cannot fly. Or the picture of a once golden beach now stained black, with dead fish all over the place. I'm not joking. It's disheartening to watch.

And now you ask: what has this got to do with lo-fi photography? Bear with me, I'm getting there.

Photography is a bit like a photo of an aquatic bird covered in oily muck. Imagine looking at a simple picture of a duck floating about and…doing whatever a duck normally does. It's a common, everyday shot, you know, the kind you see beginner photographers snap away as if it'll end up being some Sotheby's masterpiece.

And now, picture that image of the same duck being covered in tar and crude oil. It's still visibly alive, but deep inside, you know it's doomed. The water around it is sickened with the oil slick, and the entire image screams of humanity's evils, and death.

"Photography is a bit like a photo of an aquatic bird covered in oily muck."

This, then, is the point I'm trying to make. An ordinary picture of a duck might be all good and nice, but it takes a thick film of oil to evoke emotional appeal in your audiences. Of course, I'm not saying you should carry around a jerry can of diesel along with your camera and pour it on your subjects every time you take a photo.

Instead, what I have elegantly shown in your past five minutes of reading this article, is that today's tutorial on selective toning is to teach you a way to add that thick film of crude oil on your photos without destroying what's left of our environment.

What Toning Is

In basic terms, toning is what the Wachowski brothers did to the Matrix films, by making it all greenish without making it completely monotone. It's the same in post-processing your digital images. You tone your pictures in order to impart it an ethereal, highly saturated quality reminiscent of cross-processed film. Here's what I mean:

Courtesy Warner Bros.

The Original Form of Toning

Ignore this section if you have never done any traditional darkroom work before, but read on if you are interested.

In the old film days, photographers do selective toning as well. The use of sepia would tone the entire image a soft, low-contrast brown. The use of selenium would tone everything with a slightly magenta shade. Other toning chemicals, such as those with copper (red) or iron (blue), or even uranium (yellow), were used by photographers as well.

Split toning, another form of selective toning, is what happens when we use two or more of these toning chemicals to tone a single print. For example, when the print is immersed in selenium, the property of selenium causes shadow areas in the print to tone first before the rest of the image.

The print is removed before the highlights are affected, and then subjected to another toning process, such as sepia, to tone the rest of the highlights. This selenium-sepia split-toning technique gives the image a unique look. The shadows will take on a slightly magenta-ish quality, whereas the highlights will look yellowish. Couple this with a photographic paper that is cooler in nature, and there'll be a nice mix of warm and cool tones in the final print.

An example of selenium-sepia split-toning:

Photo by Ng J. S.

Toning Digitally

Mastering the techniques of digital toning would give you the foundations for further editing, converting your original pictures into one imitating the effects of film, or even surpassing what traditional film medium cannot do.

We call this the digital darkroom. It's another version of the old darkroom, but with bits and bytes instead of chemical developers and fixers. Adobe Photoshop is the standard manifestation of the digital darkroom. You'll need Photoshop in order to proceed with the rest of the tutorial, but any other similar software will do as well.

The process of image editing is a long and tedious one to explain. There are multitudes of ways to get the final effect that you want, and it is not possible for me to explain everything here. Hence, I shall provide only a simple guide; for more variations, consult myself or toy around with the settings.

Note that the colour properties of pictures from LOMOs or Holgas are not the doing of the cameras, but from the work done on the film and print in the traditional wet darkroom by the lab technicians.

So, I shall start off with a picture that is already decently edited, but not yet selectively toned to resemble that of film. Let's begin with this image that has been edited already.

Photo by Ng J. S.

Here's where it starts getting a little bit complicated. To tone your image, you need a combination of various tools, all found in the Layers palette. These are known as Adjustment layers, and can be used to do many things, among them, to edit the colour properties of your picture.

Channel Mixer

The first of these is the Channel Mixer tool. Play around a little with the sliders and the drop-down menu, and see what it does. All of your pictures consist of 3 channels, red, blue and green, which make up the primary colours that form the image you see. The channel mixer tool allows you to increase or decrease the level of intensity of each channel, allowing you to modify the overall colour cast.

To emulate a cross-processed look (usually yields a dramatic cyan-yellow result that also lacks magenta casts), I used these settings.

Red Channel: R/129%, G/9%, B/-3%, Constant/-15%

Green Channel: R/0%, G/135%, B/51%, Constant/-17%

Blue Channel: R/-18%, G/35%, B/123%, Constant/-13%

To emulate an aged-film look (slightly desaturated and low contrast, purples in the shadows, yellows in the highlights), these are the settings.

Red Channel: R/100%, G/0%, B/0%, Constant/5%

Green Channel: R/16%, G/58%, B/41%, Constant/4%

Blue Channel: R/9%, G/10%, B/51%, Constant/14%

There can be many different variations to give you a spectrum of results, from wild colours to muted, neutral tones. The Channel Mixer adjustment layer requires a little bit of practice to wield effectively, but once mastered, you can have full control over the colours of your image.

Selective Colour

The Channel Mixer tool is not the only utility in the adjustment layers menu that allows you to edit colours. Select the Selective Colour tool in the same menu.

You will see that this is similar to the Channel Mixer tool, but instead of directly manipulating the output of the 3 channels, the Selective Colour tool directly alters the overall colour in the image without dealing with channels. Experienced users of Adobe Photoshop will realize that this concept is almost the same as how the Hue/Saturation tool works, but with more control.

However, while the Selective Colour tool may be preferred by many, it does have a danger of posterization, an effect caused by the limited number of colours a digital image can hold coupled with the heavy editing by the user.

Here are some samples:

Next Lesson

Stick around on this blog to see the next tutorial lesson on Vignettes, Curves and Contrast. I will be overseas, so, wait patiently. :)