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Andrew JK Tan

iLight Singapore 2019 - Bicentennial Edition


I have captured at least 4 editions of iLight Singapore. This year's iLight is the Bicentennial Edition and the largest edition to date with 33 light installations.

The 33 installations are not only located around Marina Bay but also in Clark Quay & Fort Canning Park.

To me , this is the BEST iLight so far and the following images are my favourite installations from the perspective of appeal & photography.

The images shared are for a client so I do not have the flexibility to capture installations during the appropriate hour like the blue hour. As I have mentioned before SPEED in delivering images were the key criteria hence my decision to capture all shots HAND-HELD.

EQUIPMENT USED

1. Nikon Z 6

2. Nikkor Z 24-70mm f/4S

3. Nikkor F 14-24mm f/2.8G + FTZ Adaptor

PHOTOGRAPHY TECHNIQUES USED

1. Hand-Held Bracketing to get optimum exposure for easy post production

2. Hand-Held Bracketing to produce HDR images

3. Hand-Held Panorama

4. High ISO (800 to 12,800)

5. Fast Shutter-Speeds (1/30s to 1/200s)

6. All shots shared below were captured Hand-Held

MY FAVOURITE INSTALLATIONS

#25 Bridges of Time

A huge projection show at the River Promenade (opposite ACM) onto a water screen accompanied by swirling fountains , dramatic soundtrack , lighting and pyrotechnics. Try your hand at capturing the various scenes like the Lion (Pic below) , the clock with revolving hands (Pic above) , the DNA chain & many others.

#22 Time Rhythm

A hit with many photographers and a chance to photograph Anderson Bridge with the cityscape like never before.

#27 Run Beyond

Elgin Bridge provides the foundation for this installation. The installation is very cool but unfortunately the background is that interesting so I decided to do a 5 shots photomerge to include the iconic Singapore cityscape into the composition to balance Elgin Bridge to provide additional appeal.

#19 Oriflammes

Jubilee Bridge decorated with colorful flags produces a sight that is pretty special. I wish I had the flexibility to capture this scene during Blue Hour though.

#18 The Cat In The Garden

The ever popular Merlion with a brand new Bicentennial Edition projection.

#9 Sails Aloft

Another very cool sight which adds that unique appeal to the Marina Bay citiscape. This scene would potentially make another great Blue Hour capture.

#16 Time Traveller

Time Traveller is not an easy installation by any means to capture with minimal distortion because of it's huge scale and the lights flickering frequency.

#12 Squiggle

Located at the large open field at The Promontory , this impressive installation is one tough installation to capture because of the huge dynamic range of the overall scene.

#30 Land-Pass Bird

An installation that uses the trees that span the flight of steps up to Raffles Terrace @Fort Canning Park. Bracketing in preparation for blending during post production is definitely needed to produce images with the full dynamic range.

#31 Keys Of Light

Keys of Light is another tough to capture installation especially when the piano is included into the overall composition. You definitely should give this installation a shot if you love the challenge.

For the 2nd shot , I digitally removed the tentage as requested by the client. This would also add to the degree of difficulty.

#32 Reflecting Holons

The challenge for this installation is definitely the composition aspect.

#33 Crystallisation of Thoughts

This installation is located at Clark Quay Central. It is not a difficult installation to capture , the difficulty for me was to produce an image that resembled the artist impression. Go on a weekday after 9pm if you don't want the crowd , that's what I did to create the above capture.

#24 Where Do Stories Begin / Where Do Stories End ?

At face value , this installation does not seem interesting at all when compared to the other installations especially visually. However there is a lot of meaning to this installation especially in the location the artist chose.

I chose to frame the the bridge / installation with the bronze statues which depicts the origin and life at this river location when Singapore was founded which I thought would help supplement the many stories that originated from the mouth of Singapore River.

#1 The Time Vortex

The Time Vortex is an impressive light installation installed at the Helix Bridge. I intentionally shared the 1st image to show that the Red Helix lights were turned OFF. Permission had to be sought through the Singapore Tourism Board to make it happen per the artists' request ...... and as the 2nd pic shows , Time Vortex could make for some very cool creative images.

Well , that's it for now. I hope you like the images that I had shared above and they were appealing or piqued your interest enough to go photograph the light installations yourself.

The 14 installations shared above are my favourites but that does not mean that the remaining 17 installations are not worth the time to visit or to photograph.

iLight runs from now till the 24th of February so Go support iLight Sngapore 2019 !!

Cheers,

Andrew

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