Hong Kong Pictures | October 7, 2004

I really enjoyed my recent trip to Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing, taking around 12 rolls of film (mostly Fuji Velvia ) on the 2 week trip. Using film can be pretty expensive and this trip cost me over £150 in film stock and processing alone. Quite a few people have said this would be an excellent reason to go digital, however I really love the clarity and colour saturation you get from transparencies.

I wanted to get the photos up as soon as possible, along with a trip report. However it took a week for the slides to get developed (another plus for digital) and I've just moved flats which put a bit of a spanner in the works. However I was up till 2am last night bashing the first set of images and have uploaded some of the best to my photo gallary. I've also added some of the ones that didn't quite make it here and hope you enjoy them.

While I was very happy with the pics, I was less than happy how they scanned. I've got quite a cheap scanner and It's just not done the images justice. I've tweaked the curves to get them as close in colour and saturation as possible, but they have lost a degree of detail in the shadows and there seem to be quite a bit of noise. Apart from tweaking the curves to repair the dodgy scanning, I've not done any other manipulation to these images.

Flowers in the flower market.

The peak tram.

The view from Victoria Peak

Hong Kong skyline at night.

Posted at October 7, 2004 9:36 AM

Comments

Joen said on October 7, 2004 10:31 AM

Beautiful!

I love the combination of orange / reds vs. the cold turquoise’ish colours, especially of the birdcages. I must ask again, however — the orange sky above the train, did you further saturate / colorize this in Photoshop, or was it like that from the start?

Dave Marks said on October 7, 2004 11:21 AM

Beautiful Photos! I just had to go through every location!

I especially love the row of birdcages, and the train above.

I wish i could take photos like this!

Adam said on October 7, 2004 12:10 PM

They are great photos’ I’d lvoe to see larger versions although that orange just looks too vivid. It’s an incredible picture and reminds me of my time in Hong Kong.

Although I never quite got that view

Andy Budd said on October 7, 2004 1:03 PM

Thanks folks. Glad you like the pics. The photo of the peak tram was taken using a graduated tobacco coloured filter to disguise the fact that sky was pretty grey and dull that day. It also gives an interesting, polluted look, although I think it’s far too strong, so will probably use a lighter coloured filter with a softer graduation in future.

Michael Simmons said on October 7, 2004 2:39 PM

Wow, these pictures are amazing. Great job. I especially enjoy the Tram picture as well.

Cameron Moll said on October 7, 2004 3:04 PM

Tell me you doctored the sky in Photoshop (train pic). That’s incredible.

Steven Smith said on October 7, 2004 3:12 PM

The photo of the tram below that orange sky is mesmerizing! Surely you tweaked that digitally…I didn’t know such a beautiful sunset (?) was possible.

Looking forward to the seeing the rest.

Andy Budd said on October 7, 2004 3:28 PM

Thanks for all the comments about the tram pic, but you probably should have read my previous comment about using a graduated tobacco filter.

J. J. said on October 7, 2004 4:40 PM

It is indeed a shame that people didn’t pay attention to your remarks about the orange sky. Nonetheless, I feel the need to concur with everyone that your photos look fabulous; but yeah, to save the hassle of scanning, I would suggest the investment of a decent digital cam. Makes my life very easy to copy the files over and load it right up to my implementation of Gallery . I’ll have to remember to check out the rest of your photos when I get a chance!

Christian Watson said on October 7, 2004 8:52 PM

Nice photos, and a great trip down memory lane for me (I was there in ‘93).

I’ve used a graduated tobacco filter in the past and came to the same conclusion as you - it’s a bit too strong and artifical looking.

HK is great for night photos, especially at Christmas time when the buildings are lit up with 20+ storey Christmas trees and such, all done in lights - it’s very impressive!

Luke Moulton said on October 7, 2004 10:54 PM

Fantastic Andy! I’ve been looking back through all my transparencies and tend to agree that you don’t get the same colour saturation with digital. What do you use to scan your trannies in with?

kevinn said on October 8, 2004 4:29 AM

Nice photos! You made me miss HK! :D

Patrick Cote said on October 8, 2004 6:23 PM

Great photos. Love the tram pic like everyone else.

I’m also glad to hear that you haven’t gone digital. God it’s boring! I shoot medium format and even the top end of 35mm digital cameras can’t even come close. You just can’t capture the feel, using digital, that the wide range of available film emulsions can give you.

Veerle Pieters said on October 8, 2004 6:28 PM

Hi Andy, great pictures! I always love to dig into galleries of photos. Mine are always close to home, nothing compared to yours. Guess I’m less adventurous as you are. I see on the map that all the destinations are on the East side of the globe, more oriental. Is that a coincidence?

Andy Budd said on October 9, 2004 3:27 PM

I love travelling in Asia. Most of my more recent trips have been short 2-4 week affairs, but after university I spent around 3 years travelling around places like India and Nepal and working as a dive instructor in Thailand and Indonesia.

I’ve also travelled a little in North Africa, to places like Egypt and Morocco, but wasn’t so into my photography then.

However I’d love to spend some time in Central/South America and I’ve always wanted to go to the Pacific. Especially Micronesia. Oh, and my all time “want to go and see before I die” destination has to be Papua NewGuinea. The diving sounds awesome and it’s still a real frontier type place.