DAY PARADE
Photography is about capturing light, to capture the quality of the moment. I make no bones about the fact that I love lush colours and bright sunshine on a blue-sky day.
The problem with blue-sky days is that they come without clouds, and the sunshine is intense. Hence, while the photography is great, the temperatures and UV are into the stratosphere. Thus, you need UV protection like long sleeves, hats, sunglasses and other non-photographic gear to keep yourself safe.
The day parades are not a problem. There is more than enough light, except that the light may be coming from the wrong direction. The solution to this is to use daylight fill-flash to counteract the back-lighting and top-lighting, and especially High-Speed Sync flash with low ISOs. This means you need a powerful flash unit with meaty batteries to withstand the power drain, especially if you are bouncing and diffusing the flash output as well.
The reason you need fill flash is because of the harsh shadows that will be obvious on participants' faces, which need fill flash to give them that extra lift. A lot of the time, the sun will be overhead or behind, due to the time of day (around noon). I have never seen anyone bring along a reflector, so your best bet to is keep mobile, and to use daylight flash fill liberally.
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| Without fill flash, shots like these will be much darker and unattractive |
Chingay is about the colours and the colours, so gravitate towards the colours! You can't go wrong with strong reds and greens against a blue sky.
I bring along a longer lens, but I find the Ultrawide Angle Zoom the most flexible. In my case, this is the Canon 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 EF-S, which is equivalent to a full-frame 16-35mm UWA. This enables you to get really close to your subject, thus solving the problem of people standing in front of you and hindering your view. This is street photography at its rawest!
If you do not have a wide enough lens, you run the risk of needing to lean back and do the Limbo like this lady below at the temporary shrine, to get the scene all in. This is dangerous, as you could easily fall into a drain, tip over a priceless relic, spike yourself on some joss sticks, or step on other people. In addition, getting an acute back problem from doing this puts paid to your photographic hobby real fast (but makes orthopaedic surgeons quite happy, as you will be with them for life).
The purpose of having an ultrawide lens is to be able to stand much closer, but they do need practice to use. A great article about this is at:
http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/how-to-use-ultra-wide-lenses.htm
I also mount the camera body on a monopod, and use this item as a remote release:
http://shashinki.com/shop/aputure-gigtube-tilt-swivel-viewfinder-gt1c-canon-600dt3i-550d-500d-1000d-450d-dslr-camera-p-8937.html
The remote LCD viewer certainly helps you compose when your camera is in the air, high above it all.
One thing to remember: Drink lots of fluids. You would be surprised how fast you can become dehydrated.
NIGHT PARADE
The night parades have been the perennial problem, and have been so until very recently. The best shots of Chingay involve movement, and this is essentially is Night Action Photography, which is a difficult subject and deserves a book all on its own.
In the old days of film, one was practically limited to ISO400 film as the fastest available.
Flash, of course, lit the subject adequately,
allowing short exposure times; the problem was always in adequately exposing for the poorly-lit background as well, which needs
long exposure times.
The old solution was a
posed shot, using flash for the foreground exposure, with a
long exposure (with the camera on a
tripod) for the background details. All told, that meant the subjects had to keep still. None of your candids, unless you wanted totally dark backgrounds.
Digital changed all that:
1) Useable ISOs on DSLRs have gone into the stratosphere, and you would not believe what a great help using ISO 3200 or 6400 can be in freezing motion, as well as balancing for ambient light. The Canon 650D I use has ISO 25600 as its maxinum sensitivity- that's a real crazy number!
2) You can check to see how the exposure went via Image Review on the ubiquitous LCD displays, and adjust as necessary
3) Grain and noise is now very well-controlled at high ISOs.
One great advantage of the High-ISO capability is that you do not have to bear the penalty in weight and cost to use f2.8 lenses (unkess you need the bokeh).
However, you do need to use a DSLR so that you can focus and compose through an optical viewfinder. Compact cameras are not great in low light because of image smear and poor low light response from their LCD viewer.
Nowadays, I tend to leave the camera and flash on
Shutter Priority at 1/100 seconds, using ISO of 1600; this is fast enough to freeze motion, while allowing enough exposure leeway to expose for the background. On an Ultrawide Angle zoom, this shutter speed is more than enough to counteract any camera shake- and I do not shake much to begin with.
So, I mount a powerful flash, set the camera on shutter priority at 1/100 secs, and walk around shooting what catches my eye. The camera should not become a hindrance to your pursuit of shape and form, and the Canon flash system takes away the chore of calculating flash exposures.
Do not set Canon DSLRs on Program mode with your flash on; a quirk of the system is that only the foreground is properly exposed with that setting.
A great read (for a photographer) and an appalling boring read for anyone else is this explanation on why Canon flashes behave the way they do:
http://www.mediafire.com/view/?68gcig39l10x4qi
A different method is to wait for the performers to pass through a brightly-lit area, then to start shooting. There are a few of these zones around, especially along Jalan Wong Ah Fook and at the stage area in front of City Square.
However: the best place to shoot is just in front of the stage, looking towards City Square, if you look official enough. That is
Show Centre.
The downside is that it gets very crowded there once the procession starts to pass- you have to make a judgment call as to positioning. You will be fighting for a good angle with all the other fellas with cameras.
Also, some of the parade marshals there think they can manhandle photographers roughly, and the look on their faces make you realise that they are not here to revel. Some of the language they can use during a Holy Procession will make sailors blush. They have forgotten they are here to enjoy themselves- to lift the mood, and to celebrate the New Year with the Gods!
Most of the Police, however, are very nice and understanding. I take my hat off to them.
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| Be where the videographer is! |
Shooting from the City Square side towards the stage is not very rewarding, as the lighting is all blasted towards your position, giving rise to flare and ghosts.
They do not mind dazzling menbers of the public, but the VIPS must have the show lit just right. Knowing where the lighting is pointing, it is now quite easy to know exactly from where to shoot.
Another side-effect of the heavy-handed lighting is that it mucks up the photo opportunity for the VIPs too!
The scene above is an example on how NOT to do stage lighting- and yes, the VIPS are up there on a stage, to enjoy the adulation of the public. That means they have to be expertly lit, but that is not happening.
Later on in the performance, the stage lights should be turned down, to focus pn activities of the performers. That did not happen, either.
Vehicle-mounted floodlights pose the exact same problem:
It used to be a lot easier to shoot, as the stage was open to the air previously, and did not sport a canopy until 2012 and 2013. With the canopy came all the harsh lighting. The lighting was quite helpful to photographers in years past, but in 2013, the lighting guys turned up the lumens way too high (and positioned the lights way too low). I hope they will correct it next year.
With advanced lighting, the organisers think they should brighten the area until it resembles the Singapore Night F1!
There are quite a few spectacular set-pieces executed right in front of the stage.
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| Credit: The Star |
All the reason why one should position in front of the stage and not face towards it from the other side- photographs of the rear aspect of the lions and other performers are generally less attractive than from their frontal aspects.
