why are photos taken abroad look so much better?
- Thread starter zig
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I too think it has to do with the quality of light. Just try shooting in India or Sri Lanka. They get that beautiful red sun for hours on end and the golden hour seems more like 2. And especially in India where everything is just so colourful. If ever I were financially self sufficient, I would love to spend a year shooting there.
Encountered too many times liao!nad said:
Oh yeah, and the other thing about the further overseas countries : They have longer magic hours with that good light. Our's too short.
Regards
CK
zig said:
are you talking only about the awesome blue sky?
If yes, you can go to Potong Pasir area
The sky is great, almost every day, and last the whole day (especially these past few months, where the weather is so hot). I always spend some time everyday admiring the sky on the way to/fro my working place.
When I stay at Clementi before, I rarely saw this kind of sky :thumbsup:
So next step is to find a nice foreground to complement the sky
There are both good and bad as photographers in Singapore.
Good: The "limitations" imposed on us make us look hard and be different (only if you chose to), in the process training our eye for great pictures. A great preparation for overseas shoot, perhaps...
Bad: Although a great preparation, once in a foreign land, very often Singapore photographers are overwhelmed by the nice deep blue sky, rich autumn colours, splendid landscapes to a point we "lost" the fundamental in making good/great pictures. This happens to me occasionally as well.
Familarity and revisit of a place is crucial unless you want to try your best of luck, hope for the best to happen when you were there!
At this phase of my photographic life, deep rich blue sky bores me to death. It has been done/seen to death. Am not a sucker for dull greyish sky either. But, a deep grey, almost threathening sky or a blue sky painted with unusual clouds works for me!
What Singapore sky is lacking is not deep blue sky but a dramatic sky, a dramatic unpredictable weather and also a good quality air (which often translates to good quality light).
Fluffy or Thundering Clouds/mist/fog make a sky or a scene different. No two clouds/mist/fog are the same which make them, a scene or a sky unique/dramatic in their own right.
All said, I surprised myself that my best landscape/cityscape pictures were mostly taken in Singapore. Familarity plays a part as well...
Quoted from Ckiang Friend: "The secret of a good photo is the blue sky" but
"The secret of a great photo is the dramatic sky"
Good: The "limitations" imposed on us make us look hard and be different (only if you chose to), in the process training our eye for great pictures. A great preparation for overseas shoot, perhaps...
Bad: Although a great preparation, once in a foreign land, very often Singapore photographers are overwhelmed by the nice deep blue sky, rich autumn colours, splendid landscapes to a point we "lost" the fundamental in making good/great pictures. This happens to me occasionally as well.
Familarity and revisit of a place is crucial unless you want to try your best of luck, hope for the best to happen when you were there!
At this phase of my photographic life, deep rich blue sky bores me to death. It has been done/seen to death. Am not a sucker for dull greyish sky either. But, a deep grey, almost threathening sky or a blue sky painted with unusual clouds works for me!
What Singapore sky is lacking is not deep blue sky but a dramatic sky, a dramatic unpredictable weather and also a good quality air (which often translates to good quality light).
Fluffy or Thundering Clouds/mist/fog make a sky or a scene different. No two clouds/mist/fog are the same which make them, a scene or a sky unique/dramatic in their own right.
All said, I surprised myself that my best landscape/cityscape pictures were mostly taken in Singapore. Familarity plays a part as well...
Quoted from Ckiang Friend: "The secret of a good photo is the blue sky" but
"The secret of a great photo is the dramatic sky"
eel said:
fully agree. would love to visit India again.
Singapore occasionally has good light, but many other places, like India, have amazing light.
LazerLordz said:
Haha not exactly... i lived & worked there for 2 years...hardly take much photos...regretted though
Sometimes its just not wise to raise your camera in the streets.the pictures taken overseas are more interesting because they aren't complaining about their country not being interesting, and actually trying to see things in interesting ways
Hong Kong's got pretty boring architecture but you don't see wong kar wai complaining about it, instead he does something interesting with the character of the country
if you stay in new york long enough you'll get bored of the dirt and grey buildings and constantly overcast skies
you see all these coffeetable books with cliched images and you try to find that sort of "beauty" in another place where such images weren't created, and you're not going to find it because it's like trying to fit a square into a circular hole
You have this beautiful country full of greenery everywhere mixed with the vibe of a city, a mix of the old and new where a thoroughly modern building is just a short walk from an old shophouse, you have a country mixed with all nationalities of people
you have millions of things around you, just look harder and don't follow other countries' examples when making photos
Hong Kong's got pretty boring architecture but you don't see wong kar wai complaining about it, instead he does something interesting with the character of the country
if you stay in new york long enough you'll get bored of the dirt and grey buildings and constantly overcast skies
you see all these coffeetable books with cliched images and you try to find that sort of "beauty" in another place where such images weren't created, and you're not going to find it because it's like trying to fit a square into a circular hole
You have this beautiful country full of greenery everywhere mixed with the vibe of a city, a mix of the old and new where a thoroughly modern building is just a short walk from an old shophouse, you have a country mixed with all nationalities of people
you have millions of things around you, just look harder and don't follow other countries' examples when making photos
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