PIK March 2014 Issue #6

P I K

P H O T O G R A P H E R S

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March 2014

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[ PIK ] PHOTOGRAPHERS IN KOREA | ISSUE 6 , MARCH 2014

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There is a piece of us in every photograph we take: our hearts, our souls.

For the March cover we decided on a wonderful photograph by Andrew Faulk. We wanted to express the feeling of upcoming Spring: happiness and a sense of accomplishment. We beat the cold. The photographs we have selected for this issue truly speak to the heart of photography. They’re full of personal expressions: the driving force behind every photographer to pick up a camera and push that button. There is a piece of us in every photograph we take: our hearts, our souls.

Frame, focus and we share it.

Joe Wabe

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ISSUE

CONTRIBUTERS JOE WABE

founder, design & art director

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LORRYN SMIT chief editor

JORDAN VANHARTINGSVELDT press sub-editor

RELJA KOJIC

photograpy columnist contributer

YEOUL PARK translator

JOHN STEELE

photography editor & consultant

cover by Andy Faulk

p h o t o g r a p h e r s i n k o r e a . c o m

[ PIK ] PHOTOGRAPHERS IN KOREA | ISSUE 6 , MARCH 2014

[17 Joseph Jung USA/KOREA

[22 Ana Fernandez SPAIN

[ 28 Jaypee Capiral PHILIPPINES 6

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John Steele USA

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p h o t o g r a p h e r s i n k o r e a . c o m

[ PIK ] PHOTOGRAPHERS IN KOREA | ISSUE 6 , MARCH 2014

March 1~29. Cafe Gallery Salve , Busan

Memories of Korea

Photo Exhibit

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During the month of March, Cafe Gallery Salve in Busan will host the Memories of Korea Photo Exhibit.

Thirty images of Korea will be on display, each by a different photographers.

The photos include a patchwork of styles: landscape, cityscape, portrait, HDR, B&W, street, and fine art. Locations of the photos span the peninsula, from the island shores of Jeju, to the alleyways of Seoul, and everywhere in between. The photographers themselves come from over 10 different countries.

The Busan Lightstalkers is a photo club based in Busan with members from all over Korea. It was founded in 2012 and is open to everyone.

Exhibitor Bios: http://busanlightstalkers.tumblr.com/ On Facebook: https://www.facebook. com/groups/BusanLightstalkers/

(Kyungsung University Stn. Exit 1, about two blocks away T: 051-622-3181) Time: Monday – Sunday (closed first Sunday in March) [ PIK ] PHOTOGRAPHERS IN KOREA | ISSUE 6 , MARCH 2014

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Digital Fine Art Printing Dylan Goldby

Why Print?

As photographers in the digital age, many of us make many thousands of images every year. We spend a lot of time sorting, key wording, editing, retouching, uploading, sharing, tagging, and any number of other activities related to the digital workflow. It’s never ending. According to Facebook, upwards of 200,000 photos are uploaded to its servers every MINUTE. We consume more photographs than we ever have before, in a more efficient manner. But how often do we slow down and take our time to look at a photograph? And I don’t mean zoom into 100% and pick out lens faults or look for dust spots. What I mean is appreciate the final product that is a photograph. That’s the topic for today, making ink-jet fine art prints to appreciate a finished product.

Prerequisites There are a few things you’ll need to make a fine art digital print.

The first is obviously a photograph.

This could be a film scan or a digital capture. It should be a completed digital edit, sharpened and corrected for screen. But, pay careful attention to your histogram. Monitor brightness [ PIK ] PHOTOGRAPHERS IN KOREA | ISSUE 6 , MARCH 2014

vary greatly. It will also need to be of adequate resolution. I recommend at least 200dpi for most fine art papers. So if you want to make a 30x20 inch print, you’ll need 30”x200dpi, or 6,000 pixels on the long edge, and 4,000 on the short edge.

The second is a calibrated monitor.

Fine art printing isn’t cheap, and you’ll want to minimize inconsistencies as much as possible. Using a tool such as the Spyder, you are able to ensure that the colors on your screen will match the output. If you cannot or do not want to purchase one of these, they are available for rent from slrrent.co.kr.

most of us will ever need to know about print preparation in Photoshop.

Lightroom makes this extremely easy. Select your file and click the export button. Then follow these steps in the Export Dialog.

Under File Settings, choose TIFF for your format, Profoto RGB for your Color Space, and 16bits/component as your bit depth. This will maintain as many colors and tones as possible in the file you take to the printer.

Under Image Sizing, set your dimensions to the size of the print you plan to make and the dpi to at least 200, The third is a printer profile. These preferably 300 if you have the resoare effectively the same thing as what lution in your file. Uncheck don’t enthe Spyder does for your monitor; large. This will allow Lightroom to only they’re made for printer output upsize the image if needed. and ensure that what you see is what you get. They are made per print- Under Output Sharpening, choose er, per paper, and are available from the media type you will use and your paper manufacturers for most wide- desired level of sharpening. I find that ly used printers. If you’re printing at for most images, Normal gives good home, you’ll need to install one for results. However this will depend on each paper you use. If you’re print- your file. ing at a lab and take your files in with you, they’ll set the correct profiles be- Once all this is done click export and fore printing. take your file to the lab.

Printing at a Lab

Printing at Home

So, you’ve retouched your photo to the point where you’re happy with it on screen. Now it’s time to get the file ready. From now on, I’ll be assuming you are using Lightroom 4 or 5.

If you’re planning to use Photoshop for file preparation, Martin Evening’s book Adobe Photoshop for Photographers goes into more depth than

This time, you’ll want to use the Print Module. Again, select your file and click Print in the module selector.

From here, set your paper size first, and then set up borders etc. The Lightroom YouTube channel has a great tutorial on this.

Next is setting Lightroom to give 12

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you an accurate print. Scroll down to Print Job on the right hand side of your screen. We will make our first set of adjustments here.

First, set Print to printer. Next, uncheck Draft Mode Printing; you’re doing this for real. Again, set your media type and level of sharpening.

Color Management is the most important part of this process. DO NOT allow the printer to manage colors. That’s our job. We don’t want the machine to think for us. If you have installed the profile for your paper, choose it from the list. If not, download it, install it, and restart Lightroom.

Also, between relative and perceptual, there is often very little difference.

However, I have personally found that relative is more accurate on my Epson 3880. Turn off Print Adjustment unless you’re working on a monitor that is calibrated too dark or too light.

Next, we’re going to click the Printer button at the bottom of the page and select our printer. Here is where things start to vary, from PC to Mac, and from printer to printer. This dialog will look extremely different. The key things you are looking for in the printer driver are these: • That the correct media type and size is selected • That color management is turned OFF (this means our profile in Lightroom will be used) • That we have selected Color or Black and White Once you are happy that all these settings are correct, insert a sheet of paper (print side up), take a deep breath, and click print.

Of course, each print is different, and each paper is different, but by following these steps, you will see exactly what is on your screen arrive on paper shortly after. Now it’s time to sit back and appreciate your work.

[ PIK ] PHOTOGRAPHERS IN KOREA | ISSUE 6 , MARCH 2014

[

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] minutes with Andrew Faulk

1. Why Korea?

There is a long and a short answer.

I will spare the details. When the U.S. economy crashed in 2009, my wife and I knew it was time to leave America. We always wanted to live abroad. In many ways, the U.S. economic situation some years ago was a blessing in disguise. There were new experiences, jobs, faces and foods in Korea. It seemed like it would be the perfect place for a fresh start. Neither of us had any concrete expectations which has allowed us to have a wonderful experience here.

4. Among your works, which one is your favorite?

3. Your favorite piece of gear?

you knew when you started taking photos?

While I am moving away from using it, my favorite piece of equipment is a six-inch, rectangular prism. I use it to reflect and refract light into my

While it is a clichĂŠ, I wish I had known that there is a difference between taking a photo and making a photo.

frames. Best five dollars at an educational supply or toy store you can spend. As far as real gear is concerned, I am quite fond of my Sigma, 50mm f/1.4.

It would be hard to choose a favorite out of my small but growing body of work. I get excited about new projects and have little love affairs with each image I produce. Though, I always come back to my travel work.

2. Whose work has influenced When looking at my own shots, it is you the most? hard for me to be objective when separating technically good photographs I enjoy the work of Tyler Shields. from the ones that I connect with on He can shoot anything well. Locally, a personal level.

Dylan Goldby has been very influencial.

5. What is the one thing you wish

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[ PIK ] PHOTOGRAPHERS IN KOREA | ISSUE 6 , MARCH 2014

[ Joseph Jung ]

My name is Joseph Jung and I’m a Korean American from New York City. Photography has always been a passion of mine, but unfortunately, it was impossible to work on my craft while working crushing 12-hour workdays at a menial 9 to 9.

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Abandoned Korea

[ PIK ] PHOTOGRAPHERS IN KOREA | ISSUE 6 , MARCH 2014

and began photographing various abandoned schools around me. It wasn’t until a year later when I went up to Seoul for a job interview that The main kind of photography I do I got a chance to meet up with him, is called “urbex,” which is short for and he was kind enough to show me urban exploration. As Wikipedia de- around an abandoned neighborhood, fines it, urbex is the “exploration of which was slowly being torn down. man made structures usually abandoned ruins or unusual components The urbex community here is pretty of the man-made environment.” I small as it’s only foreigners who are started exploring NYC around 2009 doing it really. I could be wrong, but I by tagging along with other explor- don’t know of any other ethnic Koreers into underground tunnels, aban- an who practice urbex here. I’ve run doned hospitals, and decommis- into several Korean photographers sioned army missile bases. People at a few places, but it’s usually a oneexplore and photograph these places time thing for them. As one can exfor a variety of reasons, but for me, pect, the local population generally it’s the thrill of being able to see and frowns upon urbex. experience something many people In terms of the kinds of abandoned go through great lengths to avoid. places that one could find here, When I came to Korea, I reached out schools are a big one. Especially out to an established explorer who also in the countryside, many of the parhappens to be a moderator of a glob- ents out there are farmers or fisheral urbex network. At the time I lived men, and they really push the chilon a pretty remote island out in the dren to study so that they can move countryside so I did my own research to the big cities. So as you can expect, I needed to get out so I made my escape to Korea in 2011 and have made my home here ever since.

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as more and more families move to the cities, there’s less students around to keep these schools open.

Besides schools, I’ve been able to explore drains, hospitals, amusement parks, ski resorts, neighborhoods, factories, and army bunkers. Next on my list right now is an abandoned movie set as well as an outdoor swimming pool complex up in the mountains.

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abandonedkorea.com [ PIK ] PHOTOGRAPHERS IN KOREA | ISSUE 6 , MARCH 2014

[ Ana Fernandez ]

Honestly, it wasn’t love at first sight. I wasn’t interested about photography at all when I got my first camera. I never knew I’d spend so many hours with a camera years later.

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#gotstreetstyle

[ PIK ] PHOTOGRAPHERS IN KOREA | ISSUE 6 , MARCH 2014

I got my first, a simple and cheap film camera, when I was 13 years old as a present. The first time I used it was on an field trip with my class. When I think about it now, while everybody was busy taking funny pictures of each other, I was wandering in the forest looking for something interesting that deserved to be in a picture, something different.

All I wanted was to show that place to my parents, to make them feel that they were there too. This was the driving force behind my photography. Later on as I travelled more, I wanted to make more people feel like they were travelling with me. I started to share my pictures, tried to show how cities like New York or Sidi Bou Said look.

As a journalist I can’t help but try do that, to let people know about things, even tell stories; and maybe that was what I was trying to do from the beginning. Luckily, thanks to photography that can be done faster than using words. Or even better using both. That’s how my hobby and career melted together, and that’s what I do for a Spanish journal now.

If I can choose my favorite place to shoot, it would be markets. There’s

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their fashion style plus my photography became one.

I really like street photography, and in those places everything catches my eye.

I guess I still look around searching for something interesting as I did many years ago. And I feel a thrill when I find it.

I must admit not everything is perfect in this industry. Some things are really hard for me. One is the pressure of being the official photographer of every event, second is carrying a huge camera with you because you don’t want to miss anything and thirdly: I hate not having pictures of me! All right, it’s not that bad, maybe just a photographer’s destiny isn’t it?

I was and still am showing the places I visit, the people I meet and the food that I eat. But the main reason of photography has evolved: to keep memories. The brain’s memory doesn’t always work as it should, but photographs keep our memories documented. And that’s a good thing, to look back, and remember good moments. I’m sure if I take a look at those photographs of the forest, I will be reminded of the joy I felt playing with my first camera.

I keep my work photos separate from the photos I take on my own time. For most of the places I’m sent to, I am ex-

[ PIK ] PHOTOGRAPHERS IN KOREA | ISSUE 6 , MARCH 2014

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pected to show up at a location and take photos on a really tight schedule.

This means I don’t have a lot of time to compose my shots or change lenses. This is why 98% of my best photos were taken outside of work. Moreover, knowing that I’m taking the photos for my own satisfaction – and not for my job – makes it more enjoyable. I’m still learning as I go. But, for the time being, I’m happy shooting just for the love of it.

[ PIK ] PHOTOGRAPHERS IN KOREA | ISSUE 6 , MARCH 2014

[ Jaypee Capiral]

in search of a masterpiece

My name is Jaypee Capiral and I come from the Philippines.

I would say luck coupled with strong determination are what brought me here to South Korea in 2011.

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A little over two years ago, I decided to pursue photography as a hobby. It all started when I first saw my friends using a bulky camera: the DSLR. When they saw that I am interested in photography, they allowed me to practice using their camera, as I didn’t have one.

From then on, I enjoyed doing the work so I was convinced to buy my own. I tried to explore the beauty of photography until I found enjoyment in it.

I didn’t have enough technical knowhow in the basics of photography. I sought out for help and joined the Filipino Photography Club known as JPEG and the FILIPOS. I learned a lot from these two clubs. However, I knew there’s more to be learned about photography so I started attending workshops and photo-shoot sessions.

I started out shooting landscapes and still life. I then moved on to shooting portraits. Here I found my sweet spot plus I am able to meet other peo-

[ PIK ] PHOTOGRAPHERS IN KOREA | ISSUE 6 , MARCH 2014

ple, which has expanded my circle of friends.

Photography has evolved into my passion. As such, I have to improve my craft. So aside from attending workshops, I also read books and websites that offer free information about portrait photography like 121clicks.com. I also spend time viewing photographs from famous photographers. All these things have inspired me to do better.

As a result, with constant practice and application of all the teachings from various sources, I can comfortably say I am already equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills of a good photographer. In fact, I evolved into a specific style of washed-out, over-exposed, and vintage-looking photographs as well as black and white. When doing photo-shoots, it is imperative to me to always look for leading lines, patterns and interesting backgrounds for the subject to make my work a masterpiece.

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[ John Steele]

This winter I decided to continue developing my photography skills and travel around Korea to see many beautiful places that I hadn’t visited before

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Winter of Photography

[ PIK ] PHOTOGRAPHERS IN KOREA | ISSUE 6 , MARCH 2014

I am very fortunate to have a job, teaching at Chung-ang University in Seoul, which allows me ample time during vacations to do so. After taking several short one to two day photography trips not far from Seoul, I got the urge to get on the road to see what I could see.

On the first trip, I headed south to Damyang, Yeosu, Namhae, Hadong, Jianjae (part of Mt. Jiri), and Jeonju, and I will highlight a few of those places. When I go on this kind of extended trip, I tend not to plan out the entire schedule in detail. I do make a list of places that are good for sunrise, afternoon, and sunset shoots in the general area. But once I set out I go where the weather and my heart, and sometimes dog, tell me to go.

Damyang was a place that I had in mind for a while. If you are interest36

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ed in nature photography, especially trees, Damyang is a place that I recommend. In Damyang I stopped by Meta-sequoia road to shoot the impressive trees and then Juknokwon ( 죽녹원), a sprawling, vibrant bamboo forest.

After spending the entire day in Damyang, I continued down to Yeosu, located on the southern coast of mainland Korea. In Yeosu, I went to Mooseoulmok Beach (무슬목 해 변), which is a great place for shooting morning twilight and sunrise seascapes. I was very excited when I researched this place as it seemed ideal for long exposure photography, which I love. Because it was my first time shooting at this location, I got there very early in the morning to scout various compositions to be ready for the twilight. This turned out to be a good idea as there were several elements to work with – the stones and pebbles in the foreground, the breathtaking sea and the textured sky that was forming. For those who love sunrise seascapes, I would definitely add this location to your list. I spent the next couple of days driving around the southern coast and taking in some beautiful sights. The weather wasn’t really cooperating, which happens often, so I didn’t get many shots.

I then decided to head north to Mt. Jiri (Jirisan, 지리산), for a little night shooting. There is one section of the mountain called Jianjae that has an almost 2 kilometer stretch of double S-line road that winds up and down the mountain. It is a fantastic place

for night landscapes, as you can catch the light trails of the cars going up and down. There were 2 issues that I didn’t really consider before going to this location. First, it was a winter weeknight, so there wasn’t really much traffic on the mountain. Also, being winter, the roads were quite slick, so the customers that did come and go were going slower than they typically would. Well, after taking several test shots to get the time and exposure right, I was able to come away with 2 shots, one coming up with the white headlights and one going down with the red taillights of the car. Both of these are single vehicle shots, with an exposure time of about 2 minutes each.

After Jianjae, I returned to Seoul for a couple of days to clean my clothes and gear. But I had to get back out to where the snow was. A week or so prior the east coast of Korea got about 40 centimeters of snow, and I really wanted to see and shoot some of that. After resting for a couple of days, I packed my car and drove out to Daegwallyung (대관령) where the famous sheep farm is located. The thick blanket of snow on the gentle sloping hills of the farm provided an excellent backdrop for some stunning scenery and photography, all I had to do was get there and snap the pictures. The pictures that show heavy snow in this article are from there.

Next and final stop – the east sea of Korea, Donghae. Chuam Beach in Donghae, similar to Mooseoulmok

Beach in Yeosu, is a fantastic spot to shoot the morning twilight and sunrise. There are numerous compositions to photograph the twilight period, in fact one of my favorite shots of the winter came during this time. Then when the sun is about to rise over the horizon, there is an observatory area on a small hill where you can catch the sun coming up over the Chotdae Bawee (Candlestick Rock).

Quite a stunning and memorable scene and another that you might want to add to your sunrise list.

After sunrise, the next hour or so is great for shooting down on the beach area as the seagulls come out and action shots are there to be made.

All in all it was a very adventurous winter with some successes and some failures. I think I learned very much and continued my development as a photographer, and I definitely saw some gorgeous places around Korea. Now as the weather is starting to get warmer, I am compiling a new list of places to go and shoot!

[ PIK ] PHOTOGRAPHERS IN KOREA | ISSUE 6 , MARCH 2014

[ Application Review

Photoshop Express brings you to an image upload page with three options: Open from Adobe Revel, Take a Picture, and Open from Gallery. For my example, I’ll be opening from my personal gallery (read: smartphone snapshots). Bear in mind that you can upload DSLR images to your device via compatible transfer cords, but image quality is limited to jpeg as smartphones and tablets may not recognize RAW files.

Once you have a file open, you will see toolbars along the top and bottom of the image. The top contains undo, fast PP, save, and share options, whereas the bottom gives way to the more involved tools like cropping, exposure, etc.

Let’s say you’re on the road during an extended, multi-country trek and you snap an exceptional photo on your DSLR. And when I say exceptional, I mean it embodies the entirety of your trip – so much so that it requires an almost immediate share with your friends and family back at home. But, as a photographer, you don’t want to let an unfinished image hit public forums. It almost seems a shame that the perfect pictorial update should remain unseen for weeks, possibly months, before you’re able to get it onto post-production software.

Allow me to introduce the ingenious Photoshop Express from the masterminds at Adobe. This application provides you with a larger array of post-production tools than other mobile photo-editing kits. I’ve actually used it to trim, brighten, sharpen, and stitch photographs with admirable efficiency and surprisingly results.

The best part? This application is completely free to install.

Once the application has been downloaded and activated on your mobile device, the interface is pretty self-explanatory. Opening the program

We’ll immediately move to the bottom bar. The first tab, Looks, mostly provides the user with a series of preset filters, encompassing the large variety of temperatures, saturation levels, and exposures. As a stand-alone feature, this selection would already make for a fairly impressive photo-editing application.

It gets better, though, as the next tab allows you the freedom to freely rotate and crop the image within any one of numerous contraints (6x4, 7x5, 4x3, 10x8, and their opposites). What sets this apart from most of the other PP apps I’ve tried is the ability to straighten the image to any angle. As with Lightroom, you manipulate a slider to rotate the image.

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I was most impressed with the third tab, however, simply due to the plethora of tools necessary for proper post-production. Are you ready?

This FREE application provides you with fingertip control over Exposure, Contrast, Highlights, Shadows, Temperature, Tint, Vibrance, Clarity, and Sharpness. Sure, it may not be as powerful as Lightroom, but please remember this is an application designed specifically for mobile devices.

While definitely not a replacement for the conventional PP software found on PCs and Macs, Adobe’s Photoshop Express will absolutely serve the purpose in a pinch. I would even go as far as to say this application is a must for all travel photographers, if only to help prepare that perfect photo for public viewing.

Jordan VanHartingsveldt

[ PIK ] PHOTOGRAPHERS IN KOREA | ISSUE 6 , MARCH 2014

Pocket Light

[ Handy gear

This month I’m going to tell you about the one thing I never leave behind when I go out with my camera. Specifically, it’s called the Quark AA2 but in layman terms, it’s just an ordinary flashlight. I NEVER leave home without it.

Now that you see how serious I am about this, allow me to tell you a little more about my cameras life long partner.

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Relja Kojic

I purchased the Quark in a Mountain Co-Op Equipment store in Canada at least a year before I moved to Korea.

When I bought it, it was specifically so I could have a more rugged, compact, and powerful flashlight for a camping trip I was going on. The Quark also attracted me with its feature set. It has a great maximum power of ~300 lumens, is water-resistant, completely metal, has several lighting modes including various power levels and a built in strobe function, also it looked ridiculously sturdy. I paid $80 for it.

Which seemed like a lot of money at the time, but this flashlight has really paid for itself since.

At the time, the photographic possibilities of a flashlight crossed my mind. I had read on the Internet about light painting being used in product photography and I had already been playing with the repeating flash function on my SB-900 for a while at this point. So after the flashlight had fulfilled its use for the camping trip, I decided to stick it in my daily camera bag.

Then the time came. The time where having the flashlight seriously started paying off. Specifically, I never realized just how powerful the new wave of modern flashlights had become.

I was out with friends and lacking my SB-900 since it was at the service center, I tried using the flashlight as an off-camera light source. It turned out amazingly. The power output of modern flashlights is staggering. It’s really easy to hold the camera with one hand and with another point the flashlight at your subject for more flattering light.

The possibilities opened up for me and I was reminded of a simple fact about photography at that point.

Photographers hunt light. That’s the name of the game in photography.

You could have the most boring subject in the world, but with the right lighting you can make that subject tell several different stories in the frame. So never leave the house without a pocket full of light. Because you never know when you’ll need it. [ PIK ] PHOTOGRAPHERS IN KOREA | ISSUE 6 , MARCH 2014

INTERNATIONAL PHOTO STUDIO IN SEOUL

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