Today it is with great pleasure that we invite Daniel K Cheong to share his insights and a lifetime of experience regarding night and cityscape photography.
Let’s find out a little bit more about Daniel K Cheong Photography though the interview.
NiSi : Firstly let’s know about NiSi ambassador Daniel K Cheong
D: I am 55 years old, I was born in Mauritius, I am from Chinese descent, and French/Mauritian by nationality. I have a Master Degree in Computer Science, and worked for over 27 years in the mobile phone high-tech industry. I have lived and worked in France, USA, Japan, Singapore. I moved to Dubai in 2008, and 2 years ago I decided to become a full-time photographer.
with NiSi IR ND 1000
NiSi: How you explain the phrase on your website: ‘Straight out of the camera’ is a concept which I am not familiar with. I don’t pretend to show reality, but an idealized version of it “
D: My concept of photography is to capture an ordinary landscape or cityscape, and make it look better than reality. To achieve this, I used several methods for shooting and also in post processing. For the shooting, I will mostly use ND filters to slow down the shutter speed, and therefore get those nice long exposure effects in the sky or in the water. And when it comes to post processing, I use a process called Digital Blending which involves manually combining multiple exposures in Photoshop.
With NiSi Natural Night Filter
NiSi: As we all know your are a professional who truly excels in the genre of night photography. Would you care to share some tips with us ?
D:Timing is essential. You need to shoot at the right time, when the light is soft and not harsh, that would be at the golden hour, which is some time before sunset. And also a good time to shoot a cityscape is at the blue hour, which happens a few minutes after sunset, when the sky has a nice blue color. Needless to say that it is mandatory to use a tripod and a shutter remote to avoid any camera shake. A good sturdy tripod must be used too.
With NiSi IR ND 1000
With NiSi Natural Night Filter
NiSi: As a NiSi ambassador, which product would you recommend most strongly and why ?
D:For my cityscapes, I mostly use a ND filter (I like the 10-stop for daylight long exposures), CPL, and Natural Night Filter. Before knowing the Natural Night Filter, I was not a big fan of shooting cityscapes at night, because I did not like the overall colors. But when I tried the Natural Night Filter, I really love the colors it gives and since that time I find myself shooting more and more during the night, and not only at the blue hour.
NiSi: Could you please share some of your experiences and tips for using the NiSi natural night filter?
D: First I strongly recommend to always shoot in RAW format, as there are some adjustments to be done on the White Balance when you use the Natural Night filter. Also depending on the situation, there could be a slight dominant red color, which can be reduced by using HSL (Hue Saturation Lightness) in Camera RAW. So always fix the WB and HSL when you shoot with the Natural Night filter.
