Fancy working and learning in Malaysia’s most awarded wedding photography studio?

Louis Pang Studio is a team of talented artists that strive for excellence and international achievements. We have been breaking new grounds and expanding in the industry for the past six years. Now, we would like to hire a part-time intern to assist our team in production work.

This is what we are looking for:
- an individual with a good sense of art and design
- hardworking & responsible
- able to meet deadlines
- hungry to learn
- some knowledge in Photoshop & Lightroom would be nice
- based in Kota Kinabalu

If you’re interested, please send your CV/resume and application to studio(at)louispang.com. We look forward to chatting with you & welcome you to Louis Pang Studio.

Having come away with a gorgeous engagement shoot for Shelley and Kenny last year, I was looking forward to photographing their wedding this year at Shangri-la Tanjung Aru Resort & Spa. They are madly in love and drop dead gorgeous. Love Shelley’s audacity to wear a pair of chilly red shoes instead of the traditional white ones. It was a pity that Shelley lost her voice on her big day. The usual stress of organizing a wedding and the spicy Malaysian food were probably the culprits.

I enjoy this wedding a lot. From the getting ready, wedding ceremony, group formals and all the way to the first dance… The more I shoot, the more I learn how important it is to manage the photography well throughout the day. Shelly & Kenny, these are my favourites

Made this picture yesterday at an engagement shoot. I sums up how I feel as a photographer & dreamer. Albert Einstein once said, “Great spirits always encounter violent opposition from mediocre minds.” Each time I wanna launch into the galaxy of my dreams, there are resistance, drag, gravity that pulls you back and down.

“It is impossible.”

“It’s too hard, too costly.”

“Nobody had done that before.”

“Who do you think you are?”

It is hard to nail great shots…they are few and far in between. I have quite a few good ones, but the truly great ones are rare. It requires me to keep pounding on the door until it opens. Then I race down the hallway, only to find another door between me and my next destiny. Then I pound on the new door again. Guess that makes it fun…if all the doors are open then it would be too easy.

At Louis Pang Studio, this is the fifth year we have been pounding on doors, many of which according to the experts, could never be open. We were supposed to go out of business in 3 months because nobody would hire a photographer based in Sabah. We were supposed to be obscured because a small town shooter would never have any prominence.

This is the story of my life. Defying gravity. I want to see you do the same by sharing my ideas with you. Join me at one of my workshops & you start to defy gravity as well.

Hong Kong – April 22-24

Malacca – July 26-29

Let’s join me to defy gravity!

p/s Love this song! Get it from iTunes today!

The word Photoshop usually conjures up one of two distinct responses. “Wow!” or “Yuck, cheater!”. Some deride the famous Adobe software as a shortcut to good photography. Others embrace it as the cure to bad photography. “Ah, I can photoshop it later.” (Please forgive me for using the software title as a verb.)

I preach the virtue of getting it right on camera and I am down right religious about this. Anyone who shoots with me will know how much I detest, bad framing, under and over exposures. Am I always perfect? Far from it, but at each shoot I work hard to be as close as I can.

With the same breath that I preach “getting it right on camera” I proudly proclaim my undying love for Photoshop. Am I a hypocrite? Am I contradicting myself?

I think of photography as a beautiful woman. No matter how beautiful she is, having her nicely dressed, styled and prepared only enhances her beauty. This is where Photoshop comes in for me. As a photographer, I would use every tool at my disposal to move my craft forward. If there is something that can bring an additional stop of details from a dark or overblown area, trust me, I would learn it and use it. Photoshop, and recently Lightroom as well, are tools that I embrace.

While I am not a guru or expert in Photoshop, I know enough. Mostly importantly, I know the feel and message I want to communicate through an image. I work closely with my digital artist, Kah Yee, to bring my ideas to fruition.

I must add, however, that just as good make-up can make someone more beautiful, bad make-up can be disastrous. I have seen my fair share of poorly presented and awfully photoshopped prints as a judge at WPPI a month ago.

Back to finishing “Peace”. It starts with the original capture. I made sure I didn’t blow out any details especially on the skin of the subject. Also have to be certain that I maintained details in the shadows so that I am not just showing a blotch of blackness.

Don’t remember the last time I use a tripod. The downside with shooting without one is that framing is never absolutely perfect. The trade off is, I get to shoot faster. Guess I can live with that.

Cropped off the right a bit to make the picture perfectly symmetrical.

Then we burned (or darkened) and dodged (lightened). Our eyes are always drawn to the brightest spot in a picture. By burning of the surrounding, I make the lady with clasped hands a stronger subject. Then I lightened her further, bringing out details of her face and hands a bit more.

A layer of texture, a dirty wall, followed. It gave an archaic feel, like a scene captured two hundred years ago. Love the earth tone too! I am using Marcus Bell’s Texture + which comes with over 60 different textures.

Now, I selectively removed the texture from the face of and body of the lady. Otherwise the texture would detract from the image. Just add a mask in the texture layer and selectively paint the area away.

Notice how the greens behind the wall were really vibrant? Decided to tone it down slightly by desaturating it. Again, it is done selectively with a masked layer. Then I apply a touch of DQ Vintage, one of the Photoshop actions that come with the DQ Quikeys. As a final touch we dodged the pillars to open up the shadows area slightly. Voila!

I must stress that how we finish or process a picture is entirely a subjective. Very much like cooking, how much salt, pepper, seasoning, herbs we put into the mix is down to our experience, style and preference. How I did it was my style & preference. You would have your own.

Next post, I’ll talk about how I printed this fine art piece on Epson Stylus Pro 4800.

Talk to me folks…is stuff like this helpful to your photography? What else do you wanna see shared here?

Receiving the Wedding & Portrait Photographers International’s (WPPI) Grand Award for International Portrait Print of the Year three weeks ago in Las Vegas was the biggest recognition I’ve received in my five-year career as a wedding photographer. It was a proud moment for everyone of us at Louis Pang Studio. I would like to share with my faithful readers here how the image was done.

Jasmine and I were on a four-day trip to Hanoi. Beside doing some sightseeing, I wanted to do a personal shoot in this historic city, capital of a former French colony. The problem was I knew nobody there!

From my appeals on Twitter and Facebook, I got a contact in Hanoi, who eventually hooked us up with a local model, makeup artist and several fashion designers. Ok, we have a fashion shoot in Hanoi! Of the many places that we recceed, the Temple of Literature appealed to us the most. So we allocated a large chunk of the five hours to this location.

Often, we forget how much determination and extra efforts go behind a picture, especially for this one. It required several overseas calls, tweets, Facebook appeals and finally two days of meeting some local contacts in Hanoi to put the shoot together. All these have to be done before I click a single shutter in a beautiful location. So before I can dream of adding some great work into my portfolio or winning a big accolade, lots of hard work comes first.

I do not think of myself as the most brilliant photographer, but I do credit myself for being one of the most determined and stubborn shooters. I do not take “no” for an answer.

This picture was taken in the inner courts of the Temple of Literature, the imminent university of this region 400 years ago. Hundreds of students would go through state examinations each year which would determine their destiny. Those who passed the exams would be granted lucrative and prestigious government positions. At the inner courts students were supposed to fine inner peace and and pray for themselves. With so much riding on the examinations, I could understand why they needed peace.

Right between two rolls of building, I find this spot. I love the simplicity and symmetry. With the model wearing traditional Vietnamese outfit and flat shoes, I decided to get her in a meditative posture to reflect the peace and serenity that this place exudes. Her pose fits into the environment and the context/story I am trying to tell.

Remember that a location is the backdrop on which we paint a picture. The styling (her makeup, outfit, hairstyle) and posing must come together with the backdrop to tell a believable and coherent story. Here, the story is a young Asian lady meditating in a temple. Every element within this picture points to this story. The lady remains the strongest draw in the picture, while the location, buildings, posing and styling support the story, not detract from it. So often I have seen how photographers, completely overwhelmed by an exotic location, allows the location to overpower an image.

This picture was made with a 70-200mm lens at f/2.8. When working with a large aperture of f/2.8 or larger, I use the selective focusing points rather than focus and recomposing. At f/2.8 focus and recompose may cause the picture to be our of focus because the focal plane had been shifted. Always make sure the eyes are in focus. In my next post, I will talk about how I finished the image in Photoshop and made the print on my Epson Stylus Pro 4800, on which I had made a record eight WPPI award-winning pictures in three years.

Speaking of equipment, PC Fair is coming to Penang (at PISA 9-11 April) and Kuala Lumpur (at KL Convention Center, 16-18 April). It is probably a good time to pick up some photographic equipment at reduced prices.