Cosmic, Funky Pictures

So on April Fool’s Eve 2006, I went to Little Havana, Changkat Bukit Bintang, for LiveHouse presents Cosmic Funk Express.


I invited my friend, who brought his friend (romantically depicted here), and I played with his friend for the night. It was a Canon EOS 350D with an EF-S 17-85mm, F4-5.6 lens. Suuuhweeet. The place also had excellent hawaiian pizza with great stretchy servings of cheese.


The 17-85 zoom lens inspired me, what with the darkness, to use a slow shutter speed with flash. Guess which ones came from the 350D, and which came from my teeny Canon Powershot A520!


Then, there was also flashing, then quickly moving to expose on the rest of the frame.


I think these trippy effects are best used to define the music of Cosmic Funk Express.


Zack taps with two guitars, so I doubled him.


Exact speeds vary based on intensity of flash, but it works best when the subject is brighter than the background.


Izwin sings L.O.V.E. and some contemporary classics in the second half.


Zack plays Tiesto… on piano. He also played the Doraemon theme song.


Alda feels left out, so I give his bass green rays of envy. I reckon that there was a strong green light on him after zooming out, to create this effect.


Alex sends out drummer-tentacle hooks. The band then plays the strangely familiar, secret bonus song which they never wrote.


Whoa. Did we really just play that?


My friend suggested I look for the black and white option, and I found a way to bump up the contrast and sharpness for this. It looks like he got poked in the back.


Yes, that is a hairband on his guitar neck, not a guitar capo. (To mute open strings and ease guitar tapping.) Yes, I wear a guitar capo on my hair, not a hairband.

One more! Two more! Jimi Hendrix!

I figured, Alda deserved a vocal break, so I requested for Eric Johnson – Cliffs Of Dover, a guitar shredders’ anthem. Yup, you’d hear the main riff being ripped off in KC & Jojo – All My Life!

What did I think of the 350D pictures? I used ISO1600 all the time, with shutter speeds faster than 1/20 seconds, if I was not using the slow shutter flash effect. The F4-5.6 could be limiting, and the lens was already expensive as it was. The pictures did have noise, but NeatImage, a noise reduction software, practically wiped it out (in comparison to any digital camera, where the noise is removed but still leave behind blotches of color.)

As for how I did the zoom-slow-flash thing, you need a manual zoom lens (not the motorized one like in the Canon Powershot Pro1). Set a slow shutter speed, maybe 1/4 seconds. Press the shutter and rotate zoom ring at the same time. The faster you do it, the more distinct the two pictures.

As for how I did it with the A520… well, I moved my camera nearer or further by extending my hands to get the zoom effect. 😛

10 thoughts on “Cosmic, Funky Pictures

  1. Syakirk Khalid Post author

    Haha, the rubber band cheat is sneaky, too bad it is too easy to spot; you lose cool points using that meh. Using a capo to mute the strings make it less obvious. 😀

    Reply
  2. Syakir Khalid Post author

    Oops, right hairband. A wordo on my part, which is much worse than a typo of my own name. BTW, with the right amount of pressure and a good capo, a pull off to an open string won’t ring out!

    Reply
  3. Albert Ng Post author

    alda: It is copyrighted, at the bottom; as long as I say it’s copyrighted, it is, right? Anyway, I don’t like watermarks.

    Lyne: He is also in Naked Breed, Soft Touch and Indka. I don’t know what other bands he is in.

    Reply
  4. alda Post author

    Syakirk Khalid? i once used a BIG very girly rubber band as a mute! people thought it was the coolest thing yet gayest thing every! but at least people remembered! haha

    thanks albert! took a few, you should Copyright your photos, =)

    Reply
  5. Syakir Khalid Post author

    alda: Haha, I use a sarong to clean my guitar strings and expectedly, the comments I get from people are hilarious. Yeah, being remembered is the main goal… which means playing butt naked will do the trick. Haha

    *Syakir btw, I typoed my own name. How wack is that?

    Reply

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