I went out with the camera over to Dubai Mall with deliberate intent to find something Uniform to shoot.
Sweeties
Nikon D300sNikkor 18-200 @ 80mm
F/5 1/30s
ISO 1000 (ISO Auto)
Mindful of the Tripod Police and their ilk, this close-up took some timing. I had to wait until all the security guards had turned away from the uniform colours of M&Ms. The shot is tweaked slightly in Photoshop to remove converging verticals.
Sweet Security
Nikon D300sNikkor 18-200 @ 120mm
F5.3 1/30s
ISO 1000 (ISO Auto)
This is one of the many security guards. It's a worrying trait: a shop that sells multi-coloured sugary happiness needs high-profile security to ensure that nobody takes any photographs of the merchandise. I don't really understand it either, but here we are, with a uniform standing in front of columns of uniform sweets.
Photographically, this was tricky. It was shot from some distance away, and the guard is lit from behind. There's no opportunity to use flash at that sort of distance, and getting the guard correctly exposed blows out the background colours. So I got the best compromise I could and then selectively boosted the guard's brightness in Photoshop post-processing.
As with the other shot from the confectionery store, I set the camera on ISO-Auto with 1/30s as the minimum shutter speed, and used aperture priority. It's a useful trick where tripods are forbidden and there's not much light. The camera jacks up the film speed until 1/30s is possible.
Shabab
Nikon D300sNikkor 18-200 @ 29mm
F/4 1/50s
ISO 200
Two groups of young gentlemen, all wearing the same attire. It was going to be these or else a group of hoodies, but the latter is Not Coming In DubaiTM this time of year. Luckily, not a baseball cap in sight. Shabab, incidentally, is Arabic for Boyz or possibly Yoofs.
As with other shots taken in the mall, I had to be quick off the mark, so composition was adjusted afterwards in post-processing.
Frangipani
Nikon D300sSigma 50mm macro
F/3.2 1/250s
ISO 200
Do you like the uniform flowers? They do smell nice too. This was just an excuse to get out the Nifty Fifty and play with the macro. I shot this one late afternoon in the hope of getting some reasonable shadows, and cropped it close in the camera.
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Very brave sir, I was thinking about guards in uniforms etc but didn’t feel like getting nicked !
ReplyDeleteSweeties.
I'd have been tempted to go even more abstract and loose the top inch. However nice pattern and texture.
I've done the same with M&M's but did it at home so got to eat them afterwards.
Sweet Security.
Nice composition but not sure on the WB a bit warm for me, particularly in his white shirt, but a good sneaky moment.
Maybe crop the shutter rail on the far left out.
Shabab.
Thought about doing something similar but with their white landcruisers.
Frangipani.
Nice, the shadows work well adding some real shape to the flowers. Good choice on time of day.
Cheers,
Richard B.
The guard's shirt is actually a blue-grey, not even slightly white. The pic does indeed look like the white balance is off, but the sweet shop is actually full of warm colours from the light itself plus reflected reds. Tweaking WB cooler makes the merchandise look extremely unappetising!
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