Ming Thein | Photographer

Photoessay: Urban jungle, Tokyo

May 1, 2016 by Ming Thein

One of the things that I think strikes every visitor to Tokyo is the sheer density of the place: no space is wasted, and every single available nook and cranny fully utilised – and then some. I find this makes for a very chaotic appearance on the surface – and of course a huge number of quasi-abstract photographic opportunities – but with a little more contemplation some underlying semblance of order begins to poke through – you can almost see what they were thinking when they built bits of the city.

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Filed Under: On Photography Tagged With: japan, ming, ming thein, mingthein.com, photoessay, photography, thein, tokyo, urban jungle

Mid term assessment of Hasselblad H lenses (UPDATED 29/5)

April 29, 2016 by Ming Thein

Having used the H5D-50c and a good number of lenses for a while now, I wanted to round off the post from a couple of days ago (which was my mid term assessment of the camera) with some more detailed comments on the lenses – especially since practical reviews of these things are not common, and I’ve been receiving a lot of email of late. This is understandable, since medium format glass is both a serious and not so liquid – at least compared to 35mm – investment and therefore not the kind of thing you want to make a mistake buying. For those who don’t know, Hasselblad H lenses are built by Fujinon in Japan. The good news is that what I’ve used is pretty much excellent across the board – there are some exceptions, but few. I’ve also added some rough numerical scores, relative to other lenses available at the time of writing. I’ve also updated the Camerapedia, too.

I know this post is probably for a very small audience, but why not read on and live vicariously…

ShootSIN forum this weekend, 29-30 April!

April 27, 2016 by Ming Thein

shootSIN_skyline-1000

If you happen to be in Singapore this weekend (well Friday 29 and Saturday 30 specifically), ShootSIN is an event by Hasselblad and Broncolor with a number of sessions hosted by top pro photographers from the region and internationally including Karl Taylor, Sails Chong, Kevin Then and Jewel Ling. It will also be the official launch for the H6D, and I’m told there will be demo cameras. There will also be live shoot sessions with Hasselblad cameras and Broncolor lighting. My session will be on Saturday afternoon – please come along and say hi if you’re in town, and I’ll of course be happy to field any questions you might have on medium format, Hasselblad or photography in general. 🙂 MT

Location: *SCAPE, Singapore.
Date: 29-30 April 2016

Click here for more information.

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Masterclass Singapore (July 2016) and Prague (September 2016) are open for booking. Please click the links for details and to book.

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More info on Hasselblad cameras and lenses can be found here.

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Visit the Teaching Store to up your photographic game – including workshop and Photoshop Workflow videos and the customized Email School of Photography. You can also support the site by purchasing from B&H and Amazon – thanks!

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Filed Under: hasselblad Tagged With: 2016, event, forum, hasselblad, ming, ming thein, mingthein.com, shootsin, thein

Mid term review: The Hasselblad H5D-50c and CFV-50c

April 25, 2016 by Ming Thein

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H5D-50c with HC 3.5/50 II; 501CM with 4/50 CF T* FLE, HC1 prism and custom grip. The design lineage between the V and H cameras is very clear in this configuration…

Today’s report is a twofer, for the simple reason that both cameras share the same electronics and imaging pipeline: the backs are effectively the same apart from a power button and battery holder, plus some communication points with the camera body in the case of the H mount version. For all intents and purposes, image quality and performance are identical. I’ve owned the CFV-50c since early December 2015, and have had a H5D-50c firstly as a loaner in January and then from February onwards as part of the Hasselblad Ambassador program. I’m going on six months and norhtof 12,000 frames with Hasselblad medium format as my primary system, which makes now a good time to pause and see if I made the right choice. This will be a calmer analysis in the same vein as my long term reports on the D700, D800E, D810, 645Z and 5DSR. Since switching, I can count the number of occasions I shot with my other cameras on the fingers of one hand; I have to make sure my batteries are still charged before taking them out – which is something that has never previously happened. I suppose this is a good sign…read on if you wish to put your wallet at risk.

In the interests of full disclosure, I am a Hasselblad Ambassador, so my objectivity may be in question. But I do have a significant amount of skin in the game, too – all of the V system (including CFV) was acquired prior to my appointment, and good chunk of the H system was purchased by me at retail.

Photoessay: melancholy and longing in Hanoi

April 23, 2016 by Ming Thein

Words and thoughts flow from left to right, at least for those who think and read and write in western languages – a glance to the left in an image is an acknowledgement of origin, or perhaps one of longing depending on the expression of the protagonist. In the east, it might be interpreted as looking ahead in anticipation; except the expressions say otherwise. I have no idea why so many of my images from the Hanoi Cinematic Masterclass were of people looking melancholy and to the left, but there you go – perhaps there was something missing, or perhaps it was my subconscious curating something I wasn’t aware of at the time. MT

This set was shot with various equipment including an E-M5 II, 5DSR, Zeiss Otus 85, Zeiss Otus 55 and Contax Zeiss 100-300 using the Cinematic technique in Outstanding Images Ep.4 and processed with Outstanding Images Ep.5. You can also look over my shoulder at the underlying postprocessing in the Weekly Photoshop Workflow series. [Read more…]

Filed Under: On Photography Tagged With: cinematic, hanoi, melancholy, ming, ming thein, mingthein.com, photoessay, photography, thein

Tension and balance

April 21, 2016 by Ming Thein

Two of the most common words I hear used when describing images are ‘tension’ and ‘balance’. I’ve got a good idea what the latter means, and how to translate it into an image – but the former is much more nebulous. A brief look around online also showed that they’re both not that well understood, or badly defined, too. At the risk of putting my neck on the block, I’m throwing my contribution into the ring, too. Feel free to add your thoughts in the comment section…

Photoessay: Waking Coonoor

April 19, 2016 by Ming Thein

Half an hour before we were to meet our contact from the wildlife preservation department, we arrived in Coonoor, the Nilgris range, India, to find the town sleepy and barely stirring. Sunlight was just hitting the very tops of the highest buildings upslope, and the few residents stirring were dragging their feet – a massive contrast to the scene a couple of hours later, which was so different you could not imagine the place empty. As we did a quick walk through, I felt like I was observing the aftermath of the night before…a sort of crime scene worker, if you will. What follows is from the body of evidence, filed under ‘environmental context’. MT

This series was shot with a Leica Q, and post processed with PS Workflow II.

Photographic étiquette, part two

April 17, 2016 by Ming Thein

Following the lighter post on the topic, I felt it’s probably a good idea to discuss some of the more serious grey areas as a photographer; especially when it comes to photographing people, locations or property that might well be private. In general, in most countries, if you can see it from a public location, photographing something is fair game. However, there are exceptions and degrees: anything with security or government links is probably a bad idea. Getting too close to anything without permission is probably also a bad idea. Crossing lines – even if they’re arbitrary – is potentially a bad idea, and might land you in more trouble than the shot is worth. Bearing these things in mind, I’ve generally managed to stay off toes and still get the images I want…

Two places available for The Email School of Photography

April 15, 2016 by Ming Thein

My Email School of Photography program is a personally tailored course to take your image making skills to the next level – regardless of your skill level. I’ve had approximately 210 students in total and about 40 who are still currently at various stages of completion. Many of my students go on to join me for workshops or Masterclasses, and vice versa – a workshop is a great way to accelerate what you’ve learned in the Email School (Program B, after which we switch to Program A), and the Email School (Program A) is a great way to continue the learning post-workshop especially for topics that might require a bit more contemplation and iteration.

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Filed Under: Teaching Tagged With: email school, ming, ming thein, mingthein.com, teaching, thein

The what-if game

April 13, 2016 by Ming Thein

In workshops and correspondence with readers over the past six months or so, there’s been a lot of discussion around what constitutes an exceptional image – the kind of thing which (at very least) you remember for the rest of your photographic career, and preferably more than that. It’s the sort of image that stands out as being exceptional by virtue of a combination of things – aesthetics, clarity of idea, and to my mind the ‘just-so-ness’ of every single element in the frame – both subject and background. And this of course assumes suitability of technical execution to the subject matter at hand; sophisticated enough to look deliberate and suit the mood/style/idea, but not over the top for the sake of it. We’ve discussed this before, of course – in the thoughts around the idea of a ‘5’. But I think I may have nailed down one very important element of the undefinable. Or if not that, at very least a technique.

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