Lightroom Tutorial: Create Your Japanese-Style Photos

It has been long since I last posted a Lightroom tutorial on how to retouch skin using Lightroom. I must say that I am no way near a pro-photographer, or advanced user in post processing. I only use a few basic techniques to fine tune my photos. And today I am sharing one of my very often used techniques: how to create Japanese-style photos.

What's Japanese-style photo? It is not something clearly defined. This photography style originated from Japan and is most popular in Asian area. In general, the photo colours are light and undersaturated. The picture is somewhat over-exposed and slightly out of focus. Compared to normal photography, it demands fewer rules and techniques. The photos create a soft and light-hearted feeling. Some good examples can be seen below.

 

So next, how can we render and produce pictures like this? It may require both pre-processing and post processing work. 

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Close-Up Pictures Taken by Sony RX1: Flowers at Gardens By the Bay

I took my Sony RX1 out last Saturday on a photography outing with a few friends. The place is Gardens By the Bay, which was just launched last year in Singapore and I have never been there before. So I feel it may be good to pay a visit and also see whether I can grab some good photos using my RX1. To be honest, Sony RX1 isn't the perfect candidate for shooting macro photos. The Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* 35mm F2 on RX1 is not a macro lens. Though it indicates as macro if you turn the focus ring to 0.2-0.35m. The magnification factor is only 0.26x (A typical macro lens would have a magnification ratio of 1, or at least 0.5).

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Why Other People's Posts Are on the Top of Facebook News Feed While Yours Are Not

(Source: Spreadeffect.com)

After last time I posted on the Facebook’s graph search, I have been wondering how Facebook is ranking one’s News Feed in the homepage. So I did some small research on how this works.

Apparently the News Feed is not populating in chronological order, since some news can be on the top of the new feed for several hours and even a few days. In fact, Facebook is applying an algorithm called ‘EdgeRank’ in determining the order in one’s News Feed. So why Facebook is doing this instead of in chronological order which appears more reasonable?

The reasons could be two:

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Size Matters: Which Screen Size Suits You Better?

This is an era that has a massive explosion of gadgets, ranging from smartphones, cameras to gaming consoles and home entertainment system. No matter what kind of gadgets that is, a screen is usually attached to it and the screen size has always been an important factor when people make a purchase decision, especially in the case of buying a phone, a tablet, or a computer. 

I personally own two phones, three tablets and one laptop, with an external monitor plugged in. They have all kinds of screen sizes but I do find they are all useful on different occasions .

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Small yet Powerful - First Impression and Tips on Sony RX1

Soon after I got my RX1, I went on a short trip to Thailand. Along the way I have taken some photos with the new toy. I have to say that the outcome is very impressive. The camera comes with good control design and the photo quality is definitely outstanding. Before I post the photos, here are some tips I find that may be useful for other fellow users.

1. As many review sites already stated, the lens distortion correction is not set as on by default, so make sure you turn on that in the menu when you got the camera.

2. JPEG image quality is set default as FINE, but you can set it as EXTRA FINE if you want. The image size is about 15-20 mb per photo. But I haven't done any comparison to see how much more details are retained in the extra fine option.

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Get Your Fair Skin Using Lightroom

It has been quite a while since I posted my last blog. I have been busy with school projects and presentations. Finally I got some time to write this new blog. Anyway, today I am writing on how I usually retouch skin in the post process. It might not be the best technique out there. But at least it does help to make you look better :)

Here is an example how to do this. My friend is very kind to let me put her picture here as an example. Thanks very much! (For sure nobody wants to see my face here :p)

↑First step is to open your Lightroom and go to the picture you want to edit and click "Develop" to bring you to the interface. As you can see, there are a few skin imperfections and our goal is to try to minimize or remove those. So first click the spot removal tool. You could adjust the size of the tool and its opacity. It's very much like the clone tool in Photoshop, so do not use the tool of too big size as the outcome may not be very smooth.

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Selling Your Used Gears Online - Tips That You Should Know

 

The update of gadgets is getting really fast nowadays. Popular products like iPhone and iPad, get their update once a year. Some other phones or cameras are even updated once in 9 months or even shorter! Tech geeks like me probably feel hard to resist the attraction of the latest products. Then how about the toys in hand? Of course we should sell them, and salvage some money as the fund of purchasing new gears.

Selling things online would be the most convenient way but it sometimes may be frustrating as well due to various reasons and it is also interesting to know how we can get the most salvage value from our used gears. Today I am going to share some tips here when selling your gears online.

Tip 1 Sell your gear at the right time to get the most value.

As the majority of us tends to buy the latest products, so it is easier to sell your item at a higher price if the newer version is not released yet. If you know that the updated gadgets will be launched soon, sell your item fast. Otherwise, it depreciates sharply after the launch of new products and many users will sell similar products as well, which makes your item even less worthy.

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