The Photographer's Suitcase: What you should have in your wardrobe

Here's a quick blogpost for Malaysian Photographers.

Nobody has really said it formally, but dress codes can be tricky. Nevertheless, here are some wardrobe list that I think any photographer, especially in Malaysia should have in their suitcase. Hope this helps.

I understand that everyone is unique and there's a wide range of the type of photography work is around. This is not a compulsory dress code, but I think it's essential for every photographer to have at least one of these wardrobe suggestions in their collection.

The concept of a photographer's wardrobe is to create as little attention to ourselves as possible. In other words, try to dress so that you can blend-in with the crowd and be invisible. This will allow us to take the attention away from us and actually focus on getting our shots.

These are some basic suggestions, based on what I do have, and usually wear on a shoot, meeting, or presentation. It works well for me.

For female photographers, the concept is the same, dress to create less attention to yourself.

Keywords to note when it comes to dressing for a shoot:

• Invisible
• Less attention
• Sharp
• Clean
• Neat
• Smart
• Professional
• Comfortable

For formal events, dinners, launches.

Combo 1: General corporate events

1. Black shirt, long sleeve
2. Black trousers
3. Black (polishable) shoes

Combo 2: Suits

1. Black suit (with black trousers)
2. White shirt
3. Tie of your choice (possibly that doesn't attract attention: plain coloured, grey, dark blue or black)

For Royal occasions, Malay weddings

1. Black baju Melayu with complete buttons
2. Black songkok
3. Black and gold sampin
4. Black (polishable) shoes

Casual work, for commercial, on-location

1. Jeans (either black or blue), but not worn out or seasoned. You wanna look sharp.
2. Cargo pants or Khaki pants
3. Khaki shorts for sports events
4. Black plain collared T-shirt
5. White plain collared T-shirt
6. Black plain round neck T-shirt
7. White plain round neck T-shirt
8. Grey plain round neck T-shirt
9. Black shirt, short sleeve
10. Any comfortable sneakers

What do you think?

Canon 6D's dynamic range

If you haven't tried out the Canon 6D, I highly recommend it for two reasons:

1. Very good high ISO performance (I'll post some samples of an event I shot in very little light)
2. High dynamic range (as illustrated).

This is an image I shot in an Indian temple in Kuala Lumpur, around 10am. The sun was up and bright, which created a very high contrast from the shaded area of the temple interior and the outside compound.

If you notice the RAW photo on the left, the difference between the shadows and highlights would be well of between 8 to 10-stops. 

On the right is the image processed in Adobe Lightroom 4 where the shadows and highlights are rescued. Other technical aspects aside, I'm super astonished with the amount of information that was captured even in the shadows area and not to mention the highlights. Places where I thought contains no information, such as the distant high-rise apartments, actually exist in the RAW file!

If you haven't tried out this camera, I suggest you give it a go. I know I'm very happy with it.

Cheers!

*Click the image below for bigger image.

Here's another sample:

Tearsheet: Advertising+Marketing, March 2013

Made the cover again. This time featuring Fabio Fontainha, consumers markets head for Citibank Malaysia. Art Direction by Khairul Hasbullah.