Reza Ali’s The Right Eye

This is the first portrait I’ve taken (which is not of myself) using all these wonderful lighting stuff I’ve been working on. This one is a simple setup using 2 lights. As usual, the tough part was managing the shadows. Stay tuned for more on how this image was taken.

The Prime Minister has announced that the price of petrol will increase by 40% to a new price of RM2.70 per liter.

I wrote earlier that we have to seriously look into the various subsidies that exists in Malaysia and formulate a plan to eliminate it totally. Why? Because state intervention through subsidies should be an interim measure, not the end solution to economic problems. Well, it looks that Malaysian subsidies on petrol and other fuel products is a thing of the past though I am sure there are many people who will not (and are already not) happy with it.

We should expect to see the prices of other items increase dramatically and that is a dangerous thing for the economy. Discontent and unmanaged energy like that is likely to lead to a lot of headaches. What is missing is the plan to generate economic activity so that people can start earning more. People will need to be more efficient in what they do and not create economic ‘waste’.

Its not a matter of reducing costs but being more cost efficient. Anyway, it’ll be interesting to see what happens in 7 hours time when Malaysia awakens to a new, more expensive day.

I’ve been busy again, this time making a small softbox for the speedlite. Have a look. Obviously the one below and on top are softboxes lit by Speedlites 580EX and 580 EXII. The one in the middle is a home made snoot with grid lit by a Nikon SB-16 which was given to me by my late uncle a long time ago. Didn’t have a use for it until now.

This is a picture of them in action.

Am gonna test them soon with a subject and I’ll giver a heads up on what they are capable of. If it works, I’m gonna make bigger softboxes.

Wow. I have spent the last 3 hours trying to get this one right. I wanted to balance the light on my face and reduce the contrast there. The problem is that I would spoil the shadow effect (which I wanted). Everything I tried would cast a spill onto the shadow. Anyway, this is going to be one of those images that’s gonna float around in my head until I get it right. I’ll post the lighting diagram with the explanation later. The lighting diagram is below.

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I am starting to put up lighting diagrams for the lighting setups that I am experimenting with Its part of my desire to share knowledge with the world. Maybe not so much what to do but more on what not to do.

I’ve already posted 3. Read on if you want to see them.

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I made this flash diffuser after reading Chuck Gardner’s instructions on how he builds his flash diffuser and I added some modifications of my own.. It’s very power efficient and directs the light anywhere you want it. The other great thing is that it becomes flat when dismantled.

See more and read on to find out how to make your own.

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I had a bit of fun today. My first outing in the middle of broad daylight armed with some speedlites, a lighting stand, remote radio triggers and a sense of humour.

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I took a series of self portraits as part of my experimentation in the last few days. This one is quite an interesting one.

See the lighting diagram to know how i did this shot.

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Well. Not a bad shot though it was a pain to light myself properly. See how I managed to get this shot and the lighting diagram below.

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Sometimes I despair at how decisions are made in this country. The movie 300 was supposed to be shown on ASTRO which has been advertising the movie for the last 4 weeks. Tonight I saw a crawler saying ‘the movie ‘300′ has been withdrawn in compliance of local regulations. we apologise for any inconvenience cause’.

I do have some views on the censorship philosophy of Malaysia but I think what I find amusing is that the movie 300 was shown on the local cinema circuit and was later released on DVD here. One would have thought that if the content of the movie were deemed unsuitable then it should never have been allowed to be shown here. Consistency (or lack of) is the key issue here. We don’t even have to go into the debate of suitability (which is a totally different ball game altogether). The second thing I found amusing is the lack of explanation (so far) on how the movie did not comply with local regulations.

Anyway, I thought the issue of sufficient importance to highlight here in my blog. Is this how things will be like 10 or 20 years from now?