^Sea View: A view to the west side of the Victoria Harbour of Hong Kong. The exposure is down three to four stops.
Inspired by Leo Wong for his Chinese-painting-style photographs, I have been reading some literature on the subject and practised a bit.
To give a photo a watercolour or Chinese-ink effect, there are some tricks which are intuitive to anyone with a camera, with or without manual controls. The following photo was taken with a CX1
^Melancholy: A lone lamp post standing aloof between the setting sun and some wild grasses
One prominent characteristic of such paintings is the melange of colours in some degree.
To give this feeling to a photo, the photographer has to find a way to somehow cut down the contrast.
So the best time to shoot these photos are on an overcast day and/or at dusk or dawn.
^Gung-ho: Midstream goods vessels berthing and still operating at dusk
To work around an inopportune time and weather, use a filter slightly tinted in whatever colour which gives the lens a effect of a sunglasses to you. Kudos to the smallness of a serious compact, you may simply hold the camera in one hand and place a sunglasses in front of the lens with another. Otherwise, follow my suit and suit through the tinted windows in a bus, just as I did to Gung-ho.
Two other tricks also helps. First, stop down the EV. Second, defocus the scene. Check out again the second photo in this post where these two tricks were used.
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