Not Quite Night series #3 – Urban Nocturne

Spotted this nice little corner in an industrial area and captured this beautiful urban night scene with my Apple iPhone 6 Plus on default mode. Post-processed in Adobe Lightroom Mobile on the colors and distortion correction in Snapseed.

A Night at Dakota Crescent Serial - Week 6

Let Me In

After making the shots of the mail boxes, my URBEX sense was ignited and I went up the stairs to the second storey and discovered two flat units' main doors unlocked and wide opened. So I invited myself in to explore. More after the jump.

A Night at Dakota Crescent Serial - Week 5

Mail Boxes

These mail boxes belong to Block 16, a 3-storey high HDB flat building, just right next to the Dove playground. All residents in this building have since moved out and some promo flyers can be found inside the unlocked ones. There are no elevators in this building but staircases. Though the building is vacant for months now, the lights are turned on at night. I made a few shots for HDR post-production in Nik Collection HDR Efex Pro and this is the result.

Next in the next blog, I'll be exploring one of the vacant units, so do subscribe for the new update.

A Night at Dakota Crescent Serial - Week 4

It's always interesting to find these so-called backyards space where residents staying at the ground floor, took advantages of, having all sorts of stuff i.e. plants, bicycles, etc. Somehow it tells us something about each respective household's living style.

A Night at Dakota Crescent Serial - Week 3

A Laughing Buddha was found standing under an old tree in the car park behind Block 4 and 6.

The Laughing Buddha is cherished all over the world. He is found in homes, restaurants, places of business and so on. The Laughing Buddha is the Buddha of abundance and happiness. He is also known as the “Buddha of Wealth”. It is believed he will bring wealth and prosperity to a home or business. 

I wonder why this one is left abandoned there. Well, it certainly serves as an interesting subject for my night photography, perhaps as surrealistic as it can get. Here I adapted a low angle perspective and exposed for 8 seconds. There's a street lamp behind camera right and I took advantage of its lighting position to fill in light with my FENIX flashlight, on the Laughing Buddha for a Rembrandt effect.

As the 8-second exposure was enough for the foreground subject, Block number 6 on the light box in the background, was over exposed and not legible. Hence I have to under-expose 5-stops just to get it right. Later in Photoshop I used the stacking and masking technique to show it through as natural looking and legible as possible.

A Night at Dakota Crescent Serial - Week 2

Block 4 3rd Storey Lift Lobby

I came around Block 4 and decided to explore further by taking the old school elevator to 6th storey. FYI, there are only 3 lift lobbies on these old flats (Block 1 - 6), basically the ground level, 3rd storey and 6th storey. I walked down the stairs as I explored each household doorsteps just to find something interesting to make photographs of. I ended up here at 3rd storey lift lobby and took up camera position.

I made about 4 or 5 photographs for HDR post-production and somehow I couldn't get the desired result. Hence I resorted to use the stacking and masking technique in Photoshop. I got down to every details in this photograph in which I wanted to show the building block number 2 clearly and getting the right exposure for that light box is petty challenging but I managed to get it by under exposed 3 f-stops or more.

Next I went for the interior details through each household window and balcony as much as possible but to keep it as natural looking at the same time. Well just a little over exposed by 1 f-stop on Block 2, and just about right on Block 4. Of course all done on 2 separate masked layers. The shadow details on the tree is taken care of as well.

Finally, taking care of the exposure on the lift lobby and corridor is pretty straight forward. I'm pretty satisfied with the overall result compared to the HDR generated by Nik Collection HDR Efex Pro, which of course I would not show you.

Next week, an interesting Dakota nocturne will be posted so do stay tuned.

A Night at Dakota Crescent Serial - Week 1

Words are added on this photograph in Adobe Spark Post app on my Apple iPhone 6 Plus.
Click on the photo to view the original version. 

Good evening fellow night dwellers! Tonight I'm kickstarting this short night photography serial on Dakota Crescent which I would be posting one night photograph of this unique and soon-to-be-gone oldest rental flats estate, on every Saturday night 10:10PM SGT. View the photo after the jump.

A Night at Dakota Crescent - a trailer

New set of urban night photographs will be posted here on this blog site as well as on my website. Subscribe to my blog site for new updates.

Pekan Quarry

Pekan Quarry, Pulau Ubin

It was my third attempt on star trails and this time I made my way to one of the quarries in Pulau Ubin – Pekan Quarry. The whole place was illuminated by a waxing gibbous (96% full) moon hanging high up in the night sky. The night atmosphere was so mesmerising that I stood still for a few moments, to view and feel the atmosphere before I set up my tripod and camera.

I've always wanted to make star trails on this small island and so finally I got it made, of this 'DANGER' signboard by the wooden railings. Thirty long exposures of one minute were made and stacked in Photoshop using Dr. Brown's Stack-a-matic. A little fill-in light was added on the signboard, wooden railings and the surrounding foliages.

I'm pretty satisfied with the result and on my next attempt. I would try to make a longer star trails, say 60 exposures of 1 minute. Until then, I hope you enjoy viewing my work. More Ubin night photographs in the next blog same time at 10:10PM.

Note Quite Night series – What We Cannot Speak Of Must Be Passed Over In Silence

The setting sun is down and warm glowing light beautifully lit up in one of the old church rooms. A great twilight to capture this with my Apple iPhone 6 Plus on default mode and post-processed in Snapseed.

The Only Moment We Were Alone

Stacks of bricks and concrete walls of buildings, hoarding boards and cargo containers, all came together under a warm summer night. Captured with my Apple iPhone 6 Plus in Slow Shutter app, vertical 9x16 aspect ratio, and post-processed in Snapseed.

Whampoa Dragon

Dragon fountain in Whampoa captured with my Apple iP6+ in Slow Shutter app and post processed in Snapseed.

Solitude

Night phonography of a lady sitting quietly by the bench outside the National Library. Made possible with my Apple iPhone 6+ on default mode and post processed in Snapseed.

Ubin Land Rover

Ubin Land Rover

This abandoned vehicle was found parked outside a large empty wooden house, in central part of Pulau Ubin. Dirty stained windscreen, rusty body with peel-off paint, broke down engine and punctured tyres, it stationed in this open space with surrounding trees. The whole desolated place was illuminated beautifully by the moon light.

After a few trials on different color effects, this is the final result that I'm most happy with. I tried to keep things as simple and aesthetic as possible, keeping in mind on the color complementation. I've also managed to attained the same effect result for the second close-up photograph shown below.

Let me show you the rest of the color effects and you will know why I chose the red one. Well that's my personal taste. Which one do you personally like? Leave down your choice in the comment below. I would love to know. Thank you.

All nocturnes are long exposures under full moon and some light paintings on the surrounding trees and vehicle exterior with neutral white light. Colored light paintings on the vehicle headlights and interior with Cyan, Yellow, Red color gel respectively. All light paintings are manual work and definitely not created digitally in Photoshop. Photographs are made in RAW format and post-processed in Photoshop.

Not Quite Night series – Take Right to Kelantan Road

Night phonography with Slow Shutter app in 16x9 aspect ratio on my Apple iPhone 6+. Post processed in Snapseed.