Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Another Evening in Singapore


Marina Bay Sands, Singapore [HDR]

If you have been following my tweets or is a fan of my facebook page, you probably knew that I went to Singapore again last Tuesday for an assignment in one of the petrochemical plant in Jurong Island, Singapore. And this time, I flew straight from my hometown, from Ipoh to Singapore. Do you know that Firefly of Malaysia Airlines fly between Ipoh and Singapore twice a day? Although it was a bumpy flight (turbo-propeller plane), it saved me plenty of time without having to travel to KLIA by taxi for a flight from the nation's international airport (minimum 3 hours ground travel from Ipoh to KLIA).

So I reached Singapore a lot earlier than I previously did, about 3.5 hours from home to the hotel room and guess what, I went on a photography outing that very evening, before I started working on the next day. This is odd as most of my previous photography outings were after the completion of my assignment.


Sunset in Singapore
An Evening in Singapore
The Helix

I surveyed the Singapore map on Google Map, looked for the direction of sunset and searched for some highly rated pictures taken in Singapore on Flickr in preparation for this outing. As this was my second trip to Singapore in the same month, things were a lot easier for me. I knew exactly where I am heading to for the best sunset picture. I came out from Raffles Place MRT station, walked passed Merlion Park, went across the Esplanade Drive, walked along Raffles Avenue and reached a DNA liked pedestrian bridge - The Helix. Along my walking journey, I saw a lot of people setting up their DSLR camera, attempting to photograph Singapore's sunset. I must admit that I almost wanted to stop by and take a few shots every time I saw those photographers, but I knew that I only have this one evening for the best shot. So, I went on without stopping to my final destination, The Helix to photograph the golden moment of Singapore's Sunset.

After the golden moment, it was time to capture Singapore's beautiful nightscape. I captured them along my walk back from Marina Bay Sands to Raffles Place MRT station. 

Singapore's Nightscape from Marina Bay Sands area
The Helix and Marina Bay Sands Hotel
The Helix and Marina Bay Sands Hotel
Nightscape of Marina Bay Sands
The Art Science Museum
Marina Bay Sands, Singapore
Singapore's Nightscape

If you happen to be at the Marina Bay Sands waterfront, it is worth to check out this spectacular 'The Light and Water Wonder Full Show' that will start at 8.00pm and 9.30pm every night and with an additional 11.00pm show every Friday and Saturday night. To access their official website, click here.

Some photography tips that I wanted to share here:
1. Always survey for the best location to photograph prior to the trip. Use resources like google map, flickr, etc. This way you don't waste time walking around.
2. The golden moment is when the sun have already set, where you see beautiful yellowish and purplish skyline and at the same time, the buildings have started to lit up the lights.
3. Always carry a tripod for nightscape photography.
4. Composition is the key to top class nightscape pictures. Think of how would you get the best composition before hitting the shutter button.
5. Although wide angle lens is best for landscape photography, the sharpness at the sides of the picture tends to deteriorate when you are at the widest focal length.

Note that all pictures in this article are HDR Pictures, a combination of 3 bracketed shots. I noticed that to produce a better quality nightscape HDR picture, taking bracketed shots is a must to get the most light details for the final HDR product. Nightscape HDR picture created from a single RAW file is often plague with noise, caused by the lack of light details.

To access my earlier Singapore Nightscape article with pictures taken during my first trip to Singapore this month, click here. Note the difference in composition and attractiveness of the pictures posted in that article. Those pictures were taken with less pre-outing preparation, compared to the ones in this article. Do you see how important the preparations are in taking better pictures? Do you do pre-outing preparations too? Share with me some of the preparation works you do in the comments section below.



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