For Photographers

Diane In For Photographers, Tips + Ideas

Bokeh Fun!

Don’t you just love the creamy background blur that Grace and the team get on our pictures? :)

I remember one of the deciding factors that drove me to purchase my first DSLR is the ability to produce bokeh. The word “bokeh” is essentially a Japanese word for blur. In photography, bokeh is used to describe the blur that is behind the focused subject. It is typically produced when one shoots with a large aperture, like f2.8 and below. Therefore, prime leses, such as the 50mm f1.8, 85mm f1.2, 35mm f1.4 and others will give you pretty bokeh.

Normally bokeh is round, sometimes it’s hexagon, according to the shape of your aperture opening. Well, they are great, but boring. (Yawns) So I am going to show you how to change the shape of your bokeh to look like this:

You will need:

1. Cardboard. Go green, don’t have to purposefully purchase it. Use your unwanted cereal box. They work great!

2. Your DSLR with a prime lens. (the nifty 50mm f1.8 will do!)

3. Pen, marker, scissors, pen knife and clear tape.

Grace Tan In For Photographers, Life, Musings, Promotions, Relationships

Portraits for Pixels: Stop Violence Against Women

The team at Stories is making a stand to stop violence against women! Together with a few other photographers under the branding of Bloom, we have decided to participate in a campaign that fights for this cause.

“Portraits for Pixels” is a collaborative fundraising campaign with photographers worldwide to raise funds for The Pixel Project, a non-profit organization whose mission is to raise awareness, funds and volunteer power for the cause to end violence against women (VAW) worldwide.

The “Portrait for Pixels” campaign involves participating professional photographers to hold special “Portrait for Pixels” charity portrait sessions in their community where they will take family/individual portraits/headshots for a one-off special price.

In support of the Pixel Project, Bloom will be running the “Portrait for Pixels” campaign for the month of September, 2012. For every “Portraits for Pixels”shoot, RM100 will be donated to the Pixel Project and photos of the campaign will be published online to raise awareness about VAW.

We hope that you will stand alongside us and help us make a difference to those in need. Do email us if you’d like to book a portrait session with us. Thank you in advance for your love!

Grace Tan In For Photographers, Musings, News, Running a Business, Tips + Ideas

Bloom Workshops #2: From Passion to Skill

Bloom Promo
We are really excited to announce a new photography workshop coming up this 31st August till 1st September 2012, called “From Passion to Skill”! Earlier this year, we had our inaugural Bloom Workshops titled “Empowering Female Photographers” and it was a huge success. Frankly, organizing a workshop like this is HARD work.

Together with the pregnancy, I wonder if I am killing myself by doing too many things this year. I hear lots of advice telling me to ‘slow down’ but I think it’s part of my DNA to keep on going! (Interestingly, last week, at the wedding I was photographing, I got lectured by the grandmother of the bride… telling me to be careful since I am pregnant! Coincidentally, during the same wedding, the banquet manager noticed too and he offered me a chair. How sweet!)

The good thing is… I have a holiday scheduled for next week! The unfortunate thing is that… it was meant to be a diving trip at Sipadan island (one of the world’s top diving sites!) but now, I can only snorkel. Anyhow, I am not complaining.

Well, back to the workshop. I hope that all our hard work will really benefit someone out there. Actually, the 30 participants that we hope to get. The four of us share our hearts out at these workshops, and we give everyone 100% of our attention and energy, as much as we can. So I look forward to seeing familiar and new faces at the upcoming Bloom Workshops. Good thing is, while the previous workshop was only targeted towards females, this one is now open to everyone!

Have a look at the previous workshop and what we achieved in 2 days. Thank you, Weiming for shooting and editing the video!

[FMP poster=”http://www.stories.my/wp-content/uploads/2012/videos/BLOOM_HIGHLIGHTS.jpg” width=”672″ height=”368″]http://www.stories.my/wp-content/uploads/2012/videos/BLOOM_HIGHLIGHTS.mp4[/FMP]

Diane In For Photographers, Musings, Tips + Ideas

Take your photos off-screen!

Great photos are meant to be shared. Other than uploading them on Facebook and blogs, they should be shared in its’ most traditional form- in print. For me, I find that I am more likely to turn the pages of a ready physical photo album than to access the soft copies from my computer.

In light of that, I would like to show you a quick way to make a simple photo album. They are great as little gifts for your loved ones or simply for keeps. For this simple tutorial, I will be making a pocket-sized photo album, featuring some of my favourite Instagram photos.

Oh, by the way, did you know that Instagram is now available on Android phones as well? :)

You will need:

– A4 sized craft paper. Any colour you might like!
*Tip: If you are going to use cardboard, please note that it is slightly more challenging to fold as they are thick.

– 6 of your favourite photos.

– A blade, cutting board and a ruler.

– Double-sided tape for the insides. (optional)

Grace Tan In For Photographers, Musings, News, Running a Business

Bloom Workshops: Empowering Female Photographers (our first!)

Who would have thought, that 4 very different photographers with unique personalities and style could sit together and organize something as unlikely as a female photography workshop? It took us 5 months to brainstorm ideas, get together a sponsor list, and plan for the event, but our inaugural Bloom Workshops was a hit! The event was held on the 10th & 11th of March 2012 at the Terrace of Hock Choon and attended by 30 eager female photographers. The trainer list consisted of Anna-Rina, Asther Lau, Fiona Lim and myself.

We would like to thank our main sponsor, Canon and all our other sponsors Schmidt Marketing, Wall Canvas Arts, Simplr, Laura Mercier and Kelly Moore bags for adding lots of spice to the workshop.

I had a session on lighting, which is a huge topic to cover in 3 hours! I taught the participants how to look at available light and also did an introduction on off camera flash techniques. I was really excited to read some of these comments on my session:

“Something new and challenging but very beneficial as before this lighting was something that I didn’t take seriously. Understand that it’s all about the light and not all only about the location and pretty subjects.”
“Clear & Precise. Enjoyed applying the techniques during the practical session. Hot models haha.”
“I came away with so much more tips that I’m excited to put into use!”

For those of you who couldn’t make it, here are some photos from the workshop! When the participants arrived, they were greeted by Diane’s friendly smile.

And they received a Canon paper bag filled with lots of yummy goodies from all our sponsors! They even received a personalized print of their photo, created by Simplr.