I'm a Singapore event photographer; specializing in corporate events, weddings and birthday parties.

2011-12-09

Christmas Decorations, Mandarin Gallery


The red lanterns are the Christmas decorations. They are LED lights that change color. I waited for the colors to cycle through one complete sequence, and decided that red was the best. I also took a few "safety" shots of the other colors just in case.

This side of Orchard Road (Ngee Ann City, etc.) is more fun to walk along (and take photos) because the pedestrian walkway is wider, compared to the other (Lucky Plaza, etc.) side. 
  • Nikon D7000, 18-105mm f3.5-5.6
  • At 18mm, f4, ISO 400, 1/60 seconds
  • Manual exposure, center-weighted metering, sunlight (neutral) white balance
  • Picasa: Auto contrast, fill light, straighten, crop

The critical element in the photo is the red lanterns. So I exposed the photo for them, made them glow but not so much that the color was washed out.

This made the floor unattractively dark, so I increased the fill light later with Picasa on my PC. Fill light works great most of the time because it adjusts the mid brightness areas, but doesn't affect the very dark or very bright areas much; unlike the brightness or contrast adjustment in simpler photo editors.