Last Saturday I held the first ever ‘Cakap-cakap Fotografi Ted Adnan feat. Shamshahrin’.

Checkout the crowd lah, since this is a free talk (participants need to pay own petrol and toll charges ajer. bcoz the talk coincides with the fasting month they oso dontch need to pay for food and drinks oso) if I dontch add any restriction sure full house punyer (As it is my studio aircond is working overtime to keep the studio cool, I should’ve charge money for this talk but then again I kennot say that this phototalk is ‘free’ lah kan if I do ha hah). My selection process were simple, working pros and people who shoot wedding on weekends for money dontch need to write in (kasik chancelah kepada noobs la kan?), The rest of you, either write in telling me ‘Kenapa saya perlu hadir cakap-cakap fotografi Ted Adnan’ or join ‘Farra’s lighting set-up competition’. All who write in managed to gain a place while none make it from the competition one, aiseh man.

It tickled me pink tho when a dewd mentioned that ‘I wanna join your talk coz it’s free’. Very the honest answer, I like the fella already

In the talk I didnt even mentioned about gears that I used (if you wanna join workshops/seminars/outings about what button does what and what menu to go to get what function then sorry lah, you gotta gugel elsewhere lah), I talk about basic compositional rules (which IMHO, is merely a guide ajer not a  ‘Commandment casted in Stone for All Eternity to obey Lest Ye Be thrown to Purgatory oh yea’) namely the Rules of 3rd, lead-in lines, horizon placements and view points and such. If you rajin you gugel them up lah it’s all over the Innernet. In Bahasa Inggeris.

(please excuse the low quality of the low light picture)

Yup, I conducted the talk in Bahasa Melayu. I had a lot of fun lah  trying to find Malay term for rule of third (‘hukum sepertiga’), lead-in lines (‘garisan petunjuk’. I made them up), horizon placement’s (‘kedudukan ufuk’. I made them up too!), frames (‘bingkai’. Master Adhadi uses ‘pembingkaian’ in his eBook tho). I posted a few times about ‘Google is your friend’ so taking my own advice I gugel the terms in Malay. Dewan Bahasa Pustaka site is hard to navigate but some of the technical term in Malay in this blog I found from that site so it’s worth the extra effort.

(A little bird whispered in my ears that a coule of years ago someone somewhere submitted a photography textbook in Bahasa Melayu to Dewan Bahasa Pustaka for approval and it’s supposedly will be published a couple of years from now. If the little bird been telling me stories then if you read this dontch lah tell DBP people that I ‘ve heard this from a little bird. Who would trust a dewd who listen to little birds anyway where got credibility one? The dewd must be cuckoo in the head oso, no? That being said, some dewd who tell people that he listens to little birds got elected as an MP by you, so there…)

Before I rambled one and one tho I would like to convey my gratefulness to Mr Shamshahrin for his willingness to share his experience and knowledge working as  photojournalist with the phototalk participants. I oso learnt something new, believe it or not, from Mr Shamshahrin’s talk. If a person who has been working in the creative industry for the past 10 years (ajer..) can gain new knowledge from another dewd, what more ler you reader’s of Ted Adnan’s Lighting Blog (with bad grammar’s) and such…

(lately I’ve been making a lot of silhoutted images, why? Coz I forget to put on the flash on my camera that’s why…)

Here’s a group photo of those who made it. (Some can’t make it due to suspected cases of H1N1. Good lah you guys who say away very the responsible citizen. Next photo talk ‘tentatively’ will be held in October 2009 you guys can come in lah)

(if you want a higher res version click here lah!)

Biasa lah kan, after the official talk ended there’s an informal session where some of the participants stayed back a wee bit longer for the erm, informal session.

Anyhow, Mr Syafirol (with his permission, of course, I put up some behind the scene shots of the one-on-one private tutoring with Ted Adnan *as advertised here*. Didn’t I post up an entry or two in this site sometime back that this blog is nothing but purely to promote my workshop, phototalks and seminars one for monetary gain one? No? Do a search lah if you dontch remember) come back again the next day for the One-on-One Tutorials (featuring Ms Andrea)…

(here I guided Mr Syafirol on how to effectively best use 2 umbrellas for beauty lighting set-up. Kalau engkorang tak fasih sangat bahasa Inggeris ni jugak dikenali sebagai penataan cahaya rama-rama atau ‘butterfly lighting’. Apasal dipanggil sebegitu? Sebab kedudukan lampu serupa seperti sayap rama-rama, simetri sempurna. Tak perchaya kalu cuba try test tengok camna rupa rama-rama kalau tengok dari atas….)

Here’s how’s an on camera flash can simulate a studio lighting effect by bouncing the lights to the Wall (if you wanna do this at home, make sure the Wall is painted white ya?)

Here’s how a top light looks like…

Ms. Andrea in baju kurung, I should’ve cloned out the lightstand but I leave it there so you can see where the placement of the backlight lah. A clue to ‘reverse-engineer’ someone else lighting set-up: checkout where the shadow falls on the picture. The source of light is directly opposite it lah.

We play-play with some colour gel we get this (not so) dramatic effect…

Those beam thingies at the back can oso be easily cloned out later, if need be. ‘Photoshop is your friend’ oso, remember?

Last, but not least, Mr Syafirol took a photo of Ms Andrea in low light with flash. See the warm yellowish tone at the back ? That one was from a RM69.90 Ikea™ lamp while front light is from a Chap Palang™ (Brand ‘X’, if you dontch know….) 40cm x 40cm softbox for portable flash. Mr Syafirol triggered the flash in the Chap Palang softbox (which happens to be an ancient film-era Nikon SB-26 Speedlights) and the hairlight (another Nikon SB unit, flash coverage zoom manually to 105mm and feathered so the full blast dont hit Ms Andrea hair. Go figure..) with a (plasticky damn expensive piece of erm, American made plastic) Pocket Wizard Plus II radio trigger…

..noticed the black lines on Ms Andrea’s left shoulder? That one is caused by Ms Andrea movement’s when she try to stand very still for the long ambient light exposure. The flash freezes her movement if not she’ll be blurred even further due to camera shake oso (note the blurred images on the Wall at the back). Tak faham? Go gugel ‘ghosting’ effect onthe Innernet laaaarrr…

Here’s a happy Mr Syafirol, posing with the lovely Ms Andrea for posterity…

Congratulations is in order to Mr Syafirol for being the 1st person to take up the Ted Adnan’s One-on-One Lighting Tutorial. To quote my friend up North, ‘I lup you’ ady. *grins* We’re going to head out to a seaside location before the week is out for a refresher session with a friend or two then we’re gonna ends the day with a nice, scrumptuos seafood dinner (I’m buying lah hahahah).

Okay lah people, I have an assignment in the next couple of days so won’t I be online for a few days (my Blackberry™ Bold® trackballs is giving me problems so off to MAXIS it goes for ‘service’, ish ish. Uh Hullo again my old Nokia E61i heh heh heh ). Till then, watch this space for updates* on the next Ted Adnan’s Location Portraiture Lighting Technique Workshop in Melaka and Penang, prolly in October and November 2009, see how lah *wink*

*Kan aku dah bilang website ni cuma nak promote workshop si Ted Adnan tu ajer mana ada dia nak share-share ilmu dia dengan orang awam whoah hahahahahah