On December 13th 2008. my brother was commissioned as an officer of the Singapore Armed Forces. I was there with my parents to catch the ceremony. I'm pretty proud of the shot from a timing and post-production angle. He was at the corner of his formation, so I knew there was an opportunity for a good shot in the march-past. As the earlier contingents marched past, I searched through my lens for a good angle and moment, and found that when they came nearer to my side of the stadium, they did two 90-degree turns, and decided that this was the shot I wanted. I took a few test shots to test the settings, and pictured the shot in my mind. I would only have one chance to catch the moment, and when it came, I snatched it. First time I felt like a proper photographer.
Although I got the moment, the photo was not quite as good. My brother appeared lost amongst all his platoon mates. At post-production, I did slight cropping, and used a mask in photoshop to create a depth map. Using lens blur, I simulated a greater DOF than the f5.6 I had. The slight change in crop and increased DOF provided a better point-of-focus, and I had the shot I wanted.
For this shot, taken at the parade square with hundreds of people running around, I knelt down to take a low-angle shot of him against the Tower, isolating him from the crowd.
2 comments:
Both shots are great...way to isolate your brother in the shots and the right amount of bokeh :)
Thanks Howard. Just noticed the head at the bottom left of the 2nd shot thought!
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