Fashion and Accessries Shoot

This is by far the most stressful photo shoot I've organised so far.  It was shot at the end of last year, but I just got round to write about it.  I wanted to collaborate with more people and produce a more unique look.  I assembled a team together with two designers, models, MUA and hair stylist.

Everything just came together without any problem until one week before the shoot.  Then one of the models had to cancel because she has to go to hospital for an operation.  Not a problem I thought and a casting was sent out and very quickly a great model came on board had to drop out, all within a couple of days!

In the end I had two models coming to this shoot, which was lucky as one of them could not make it on the day!  It just shows how reliant the photographers are on models.  No model, no shoot.  Even though it is stressful, I am enjoying it and appreciate the finished photos even more.

We had very little time to shoot the images I wanted by the time I started shooting, but I got the shots I wanted in the end.  Very happy with the work everyone put in.

Here are a few behind the scene photos from the shoot. 

Photographer: Yat Tang
Model: Mel GdeLanglade
Makeup Jane Crowhurst
Hair Stylist: Xenia Hair
Clothing: Sarmite Ostanevica
Accessories: Timea Talian Designs
Assistant: Marta Deutsch

London Apartment with Charlotte

After travelling for two months, it was good to get back shooting again.  The shoot with the lovely Charlotte was organised during my travel.  I had the pleasure of shooting with her a few times before.  The theme was boudoir and lingerie.  We started the shoot with a fashion images with a few different outfits.  I could not help with playing with gel.  I used red gel with these couple of images.

The apartment has a opaque glass brick dividing wall.  Once I saw that, I knew I was going to back light the wall with colour gel and it will look amazing.  All I had to do was to choose the colour.  This time I used green and I really like the effect of the green back light.  In post, I increased the saturation of the colour green to add more impact.

At the beginning Charlotte was only wearing her lingerie, which looks great, but maybe just too revealing.  she had a cardigan with her which completed the look and I think it is much better.

We then moved into the bedroom to take some boudoir images.  When you have a great model with lovely figure, it is hard to take a bad image.  Charlotte was a pleasure to work with and I thoroughly enjoyed the shoot.  We did not have a MUA for this shoot, but Charlotte did wonder with her makeup and hair to make them fresh and different for every set.

When I plan a photo shoot, I always do research and have a good idea of the type of images and what they will look like before hand.  The images I got from this shoot are far better than I have planned.


Model: Charlotte Molly Louise
Photos: Yat Tang

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Quick Portrait Sessions

In the last couple of months, I’ve been very busy in my personal life and business.  It resulted in me traveling around the work non-stop with only one week spent at home.  It was very difficult for me to organise any meaningful photo shoots.  One thing that is lacking in my portfolio are natural looking portraits.  To kill two birds with one stone I placed a casting call on Model Mayhem for models who wants portraits images.  The idea is to bring the minimum gear and only post process in Lightroom and no Photoshop.

The first shoot was with Joana from Lisbon Portugual.  She is an actress who happens to be in London for an acting workshop.  She replied to my casting call and we met up in a park in Holborn London.

I was also able to arrange another portrait sessions with Angela, a dancer who wants more up to date images for her dance portfolio.  We met up at Greenwich Park to take these photos.

At one point we did get some questions asked from security around Greenwich, but we did enough to convince them it was not a commercial shoot and he left us alone.

I really like the results I got from these two quick shoots and would like to do it more.  It just shows you do not need a lot of equipment to get great results.  All the photos were taken with my Canon 50mm F1.8 lens with a single bare flash.  Only Lightroom was used on raw files.

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London Fashion Weekend - Canon DSLR Vs Olympus MFT

I shot at The London Fashion Weekend today.  After the positive result I got from The Redbull Soapbox Race, I was keen to test out the continues focus performance of my Olympus E-PM2 again.  This time I borrowed a Panasonic 35-100mm F2.8 lens for the fashion show.  As a comparison, I wanted to compare it to my Canon EOS 650D with the 24-105mm F4 IS.

Olympus E-PM2 with Panasonic 35-100mm F2.8

By shooting with both camera setup.  I can say the continues performance of the 650D with optical viewfinder is just superior to the Olympus E-PM2 with VF3 view finder.  It is not all bad, but the the C-AF+TR (continuous + Tracking) gets it wrong about 30% of the time while the Canon 650D hardly got the focus wrong.  Also the frame rate for the E-PM2 to continue to AF is very slow.  It is suppose to 5FPS, it was significantly slower, more like 3FPS.  If this was a paid job, I will shoot with a DSLR, no question.

Canon 650D with 24-105mm F4 IS

Light level was very consistent but not very bright, I had to shoot at 1/400s, F4 at ISO 800.  Colour temperature was about 4400K, very close to florescent.

Olympus E-PM2 with Panasonic 35-100mm F2.8

Overall, if I was to shoot another fashion show or anything that involve moving objects, Micro Four Third cameras will not be my first choice.  It is simply not consistently enough and unpredictable.  Especially if it is a paid job.  Unless Olympus and Panasonic sort out the continuous AF it will never never compete with DSLR.  I use M43 cameras because I like the small size and weight.

Canon 650D with 24-105mm F4 IS

Olympus E-PM2 with Panasonic 35-100mm F2.8

Comparing the two cameras, photo quality are very similar, and it is hard to separate them.  Canon have not produced a new sensor for the last 4 years.  Even the new 70D 20MP sensor is not much improvement to the 4 year old sensor.

Canon 650D with 24-105mm F4 IS

Canon 650D with 24-105mm F4 IS

After this event, there is no doubt the better system for continuous AF is a DSLR.  I will not use my Olympus M43 camera for any moving object.  For static objects, image quality is right there with my Canon 650D.  Shooting with two system was difficult and does not really help with such a fast pace event.  For vacations and events that do not require continuous AF I will still use my Olympus M43 camera.

Olympus E-PM2 with Panasonic 35-100mm F2.8

Canon 650D with 24-105mm F4 IS

I would like to thank WEX Photographic and Canon UK for the chance to shoot at London Fashion Weekend.  All images copyright Yat Tang.


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Travel Time Lapse Videos

I’ve been very busy traveling for my family holiday and business.  There is no time to fit in any photo shoot.  I am hoping to rectify this very soon.  While I travel, I do try to document the places I’ve been.  In the past, I would take a lot of photos and post them online.  Now I try to shoot time lapse as it is more dynamic and with social media it is easy to share.

Three places I traveled to recently are: Hong Kong for family holiday, Porto Cesareo in Southern Italy and Granada in Spain for business.  These places are just so different in terms of people, culture and environment.  Hong Kong is hot and humid and very built up and crowded.

Hong Kong 2013 from Yat Tang on Vimeo.

Porto Cesareo is hot, dusty, dry and only crowded on the beach during the day.  It is a very popular destination for Italians to go on holiday.  In the town centre, it can be difficult to get a table for the evening meal during peak times.  The Italians just love to walk around, look at people, have an ice cream or coffee after the meal.

Porto Cesareo August 2013 from Yat Tang on Vimeo.

Granada in Spain is next to the Sierra Navada mountain which has a popular ski resort in the winter.  In the summer, car companies takes over the mountain road for high altitude testing.  The city is beautiful and it is full of history.


My Two Weeks in Granada from Yat Tang on Vimeo.

I hope you enjoy watching these time lapse videos.  Any feedback are welcome.


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Epping Forest Shoot with Vanessa Sicre

Summer was late arriving in the UK and I am going way on holiday and various business trips over the summer.  This mean I will not be shooting much in August and September.  Before the trips, I wanted to do a shoot that reflects the hot summer.  Vanessa replied to my casting call I placed on purpleport.com.  I already have a good idea of what I wanted from this shoot, but Vanessa also came in with a lot of her ideas.  We did quite a bit of email communication before the shoot.  She arrived at the shoot with sample images printed out as reference.

It just shows you can never be sure of the final outcomes of the photo shoot.  While I planned a swimwear shoot, my favourite image from this shoot was a fashion image of Vanessa sitting on a large tree branch in the forest.  The branch is at head height and it was difficult for Vanessa to climb up there.  Once on the branch she had to be very careful not to fall off.  However, I was bitten by thousands of mosquitos in the forest.

We ended the shoot with a quirky image of Vanessa wearing a T shirt with a bow tie sewed on.  This was shot against a bright red metal door in bright sun light.  The contrast of the bright colour made the image pop.  Again a totally unexpected image from this shoot.

It was only a short photo shoot, but I enjoyed working with Vanessa and would like to plan something in the future with her.


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Belt Craft Studio Shoot with Alexandra

This was a shoot I did a little while ago, but only got round to write about it.  The inspiration for it same from a set of images I saw of Keira Knightley in Marie Claire magazine.  I kept a set of those images in my file for future shoots.  All I need was a location that resembles that of those photos.  When I saw photos of Belt Craft Studio, I just knew that was place.

I contacted Alexandra, a model I shot with before, because she would be perfect for this.  Fortunately, she was keen to do it as well.  Crystal Edwards completed the team to do makeup and hair.  On the day, it all come together and we got a great set of images.

This behind the scene time lapse video sums up the day shooting.


Photo Shoot at Belt Craft Studio - Behind the Scene from Yat Tang on Vimeo.

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