why are photos taken abroad look so much better?


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zig

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woodlands baby!
will somebody tell me why?.. i am haunted by this fact.... its tormenting me that i cannot sleep at night...
is it the light quality? the air quality? the UV levels in the air? the ozone? the people? or maybe foreign lenes are different?

why?​
 

;) yah ... I also have the same feeling.

Have you ever seen the sky in Nepal?
My colleague used a normal cam and could take really really beautiful pics!!
 

Its the direction of the sunlight. We are near equator where the sunlight comes down almost stright from above the head. Move away from the equator, sunlight comes from an angle.
 

Pro-New said:
Its the direction of the sunlight. We are near equator where the sunlight comes down almost stright from above the head. Move away from the equator, sunlight comes from an angle.

Let me continue from your unfinished para... ;)

and in effect, that makes the sky more blue and thus things look nicer.

also, the air in the non-tropics areas are less humid and 'more crisp', if you know what i mean, so i do expect certain images to appear nicer and sharper in a certain way.

this doesn't apply everywhere, try taking photos in typical fog filled and grey sky london, your pictures will turn out dull, unlike in new york, which is a city that is an urban photographer's dream, in which the sky is deep blue and you get so much detail and texture in the city fabric.

still, we do get colorful pictures here in singapore, you just need to take photos at the right time of the day.
 

One other thing to consider is that the colour temperature at the equator is not the same as the more temperate countries. For instance, the cloudy and shade presets in the digital cameras are calibrated for the northern or southern atmospheres. Try using them in Singapore and they will look too warm. However, they are spot on when used up north or down south.
 

pictures taken in singapore can look very nice also what, maybe you too stressed at home, when you go overseas suddenly everything looks so relaxed and welcoming and beautiful
 

Ever thought the foreigners would think:" how come pics from Singapore always look so good?" Always can have hazy effect, concrete jungle all around, not like us, so much greenery and too clear skies.....

my one cent worth.. :think:
 

Any New Yorker who is a photographer, is living the streetshooter's dream..
 

Also the four seasons which bring in different photographic opportunities.

We could have summer beaches, autumn maples, spring gardens and winter sunrise and sunset which is the best time for dramatic sky.

You can be so fortunate that you may take such opportunities for granted. Our eyes tend to get tired of familiarity.

Having said that, making the best use of what you have is more important. I have seen some great entries from Malaysia and Singapore in a competition in an international photo magazine.
 

Maybe the question should be paraphrased as "How do I made my photos more interesting?"
 

...Singapore is too small, nothing really interesting to shoot. After you've done Thaipusam, Chinatown, Changi Village, etc. it becomes a real challenge to take more original pictures.

Having seen coffee table books about New York, it's plain to me that Singapore just can't compare. Lets not be nationalistic about this. Call a spade a spade.

And as others mentioned, there's 4 seasons + better lighting + great landscapes overseas. Winter, esp. makes for very interesting pictures.

However, it's not fair to compare S'pore to US, which is 1m times bigger. If we compared the whole of Southeast Asia to US, then it would not be fair to say that overseas pictures are different. There's so much to take in here, ranging from Angkor wat to the floating markets of Thailand to landscapes in Vietnam and cambodia. That would be a fairer comparison.

Wai Leong
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zig said:
will somebody tell me why?.. i am haunted by this fact.... its tormenting me that i cannot sleep at night...
is it the light quality? the air quality? the UV levels in the air? the ozone? the people? or maybe foreign lenes are different?

why?​
 

We may sometimes unknowingly put the blame on the weather, the position and size of the country you live in, the colour temperature or even the stress we encounter everyday but did not admit that it is the self that is not 'seeing'.

Let me quote from sources of the higher awareness of the human being:

Eyes of the Soul

Here is a passage from Martia Nelson book, Coming Home:

My greatest teacher was the experience of living in split realities: personality and true self.

Personality is our daily companion, our conscious self that sees the world through the eyes of limitation and dutifully keeps us informed about what we can and cannot do.

True self, on the other hand, patiently stands by, offering the unwavering knowledge that a state of vibrant well-being and unlimited possibility is our true nature, a birthright that can be lived if we choose to do so.

True self simply refers to the aspect of our being that is completely aware of its expanded nature no matter what we may be experiencing at the time.

Whenever we feel constrained, fearful, unworthy, inadequate or anything we deem to be negative, we have identified with our personality. We can always choose to view the same situation from the perspective of our soul.

"As a Witness, you begin to discover that you are not that which you have been observing; you are not those things that you have been noticing about your body. Instead, you are the noticer.

-- Wayne Dyer

__________________________________
May I suggest you grab your camera and go back
to the basic of knowing how to find the fundamentals
of creativity with usually start from the right type of mindset.
On the other hand there are photographers
who blame for having a lousy camera or a non
competent photography instructor.
 

forward said:
We may sometimes unknowingly put the blame on the weather, the position and size of the country you live in, the colour temperature or even the stress we encounter everyday but did not admit that it is the self that is not 'seeing'.

Let me quote from sources of the higher awareness of the human being:

Eyes of the Soul

Here is a passage from Martia Nelson book, Coming Home:

My greatest teacher was the experience of living in split realities: personality and true self.

Personality is our daily companion, our conscious self that sees the world through the eyes of limitation and dutifully keeps us informed about what we can and cannot do.

True self, on the other hand, patiently stands by, offering the unwavering knowledge that a state of vibrant well-being and unlimited possibility is our true nature, a birthright that can be lived if we choose to do so.

True self simply refers to the aspect of our being that is completely aware of its expanded nature no matter what we may be experiencing at the time.

Whenever we feel constrained, fearful, unworthy, inadequate or anything we deem to be negative, we have identified with our personality. We can always choose to view the same situation from the perspective of our soul.

"As a Witness, you begin to discover that you are not that which you have been observing; you are not those things that you have been noticing about your body. Instead, you are the noticer.

-- Wayne Dyer

__________________________________
May I suggest you grab your camera and go back
to the basic of knowing how to find the fundamentals
of creativity with usually start from the right type of mindset.
On the other hand there are photographers
who blame for having a lousy camera or a non
competent photography instructor.


beautiful :thumbsup:
 

zig said:
will somebody tell me why?.. i am haunted by this fact.... its tormenting me that i cannot sleep at night...
is it the light quality? the air quality? the UV levels in the air? the ozone? the people? or maybe foreign lenes are different?

why?​

Maybe overseas photographers have better cameras? :sweatsm:
 

Sion said:
Maybe overseas photographers have better cameras? :sweatsm:

we all use the same lens.
the bigger the place, the more places to shoot.
Singapore is small, but you can always find ways to make the photo interesting, be it exposure time, lighting, and most importantly, the moment.

If you are talking about interesting places , then it is more interesting abroad. IMO, everything in Singapore is just too new and clean for landscape shooting. It is fun for awhile, but gets old quick. Then it is the people. Because Singapore is small and tightly populated, people tend to dress and act alike. Singaporeans are also more self conscious and uptight when it comes to street shooting.

So you have to ask yourself, what category of shooting do you want to do and go to that country if you can afford it.
Otherwise, life is good in the sheltered Singapore.
 

I always think about moving away to find new ground. How can i move away when i haven't finished what's left here?
Try to look beyond the Bohemian sunset.
 

The main reason is the light, like pro-new mentioned. On a fine day, you get nice warm light and blue skies. This combination magically makes a picture look good, even with cheap P&S cameras. A friend once commented after a trip to Beijing "The secret of a good photo is the blue sky" :bsmilie:

This kind of light you only get in Singapore once in a while, and when that happens you either:

1. Are in school/office
2. Don't have a camera with you

When you are travelling, there's also less chance of that happening.

That said, when it's overcast overseas, it looks just about as bad as in Singapore, with dull flat lighting, white skies which blink on your camera's LCD, etc.

Regards
CK
 

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