MIFC (Malaysia International Fireworks Competition) ended on 2 September 2007 and we went for photo shooting on the 1st night 18 Aug. Some reader might asked, this event is outdated and it has passed more than 1 month, however I would like to share some tips and technique that I used and learned that you can use for next fireworks event like New Year.

Here are 8 tips and techniques that I have used and learned:

1. Reach the location earlier in order to get a good location with an unobstructed view.

2. Tripod is a must. No question ask even you have VR, IS, it doesn’t helps.

3. Set your camera’s ISO setting to lowest to prevent digital noise.

4. Turn the camera’s built-in flash OFF.

5. Use the Landscape Mode for Point and Shoot Camera or Infinity focus setting for DSLR.

6. Shoot at 5 to 10 second shutter speeds at around F8 to F16.

7. Use a remote release if you can—or use self timer to prevent camera shake while you are pressing the shutter.8. Include the foreground in some of the shots such as buildings add scale and identify the shooting location.

Gary Fong’s Lightsphere is a great flash diffuser to create soft and even flash lighting. The only problem I found out is this diffuser too bulky and quite inconvenient to carry around. However, I have overcame this problem with a little bit of DIY.

Prepare the following items:

1 Velcro Cable Organizer

1 Hook

Tie the velcro around the Lightsphere and hook it onto your bag … tada…. you are done !

Here is the end result

Hope you find it useful.

One of the fancier lenses in the world of SLR and digital SLR (DSLR) photography is the tilt-shift lens. Architectural photographers use tilt-shift lenses to eliminate the perspective distortions that sometimes give buildings the appearance of falling over. Aerial photographers use them to make large cities look like toy models. Art and portrait photographers use them to control exactly where the focus falls.

Tilt and Shift lens can create nice effect but it will cost you a bomb as well. One of the samples of T&S lens is Lensbabies. 2.0 version cost USD$150 and 3G version cost USD$270 (http://www.lensbabies.com)

However, you can fake the Tilt and Shift effect by using Adobe Photoshop and today I will show you step by step how to do this.

Open up your photo and make any usual correction before start step 1.

Step 1: Click the Quick Mask mode button.

Step 2: Select Gradient Tool to indicate the parts of the image that you want to blur. Go to option bar at the top of the screen and click the reflected gradient type (the button that looks like a cylinder. Next, click the drop down button to bring up a small panel of gradient presets and select the box that black at top left hand corner and fades to white at the opposite corner.

Step 3: Click in the middle of your desired focus point and drag out a gradient line to the edge of the photo.

Step 4: Use the Curves (Image -> Adjustments -> Curves) to adjust how much you want to blur the photo.

Step 5: Now go back to Standard Mode and select Lens Blur filter (Filter -> Blur -> Lens Blur) to artifact the narrow depth of field.

Step 6: Adjust the blue by set the Blade Curvature to 100, Brightness to 0, Noise to 0 and Radius to 50 (adjust it to get the nice effect that you want). Click OK.

Step 7: Now you done and you can remove the selection. (Select -> Deselect).

Now you can see the before and after Tilt & Shift Lens Effect.