In my last blog post about Pudu, I ended the post by saying the night wasn't quite over yet, hence proceeding to do some street photography after with my friends Robin and Ben. For most of the year, I had been shooting in daylight, and I missed the opportunity for night street photography.
As someone who primarily shoots in low light, mainly stage performances, I'm more attuned to night shooting than I am with daytime shooting. However, I had largely avoided night shooting over most of 2020-201 because with the pandemic, things tended to shut down past 9pm. While that itself led to some interesting photo opportunities, even public transportation was affected, and I generally didn't want to be out too late downtown as I still had a long walk home after.
With that being said, I was feeling the urge to at least give the Panasonic GM5 some proper use at night. I had taken some night shots with it in the past, but never with the deliberate intent for night shooting. As the GM5 is an ideal travel camera, I'd want to know how it fares for night shooting without a tripod..
Moreover, I had also recently bought myself the Olympus Zuiko 25mm f1.8 lens when it was on sale at an irresistible price. The 25mm f1.8 was my personal favourite Olympus lens for non-professional shooting, so I was very eager to shoot with it again. In my post about the Ricoh GR III, I had stated that 28mm is my personal favourite walkabout focal length for general use. 50mm on the other hand, is an integral and indispensable focal length for my gig shooting, so there can never be too much practice shooting at this length.
The GM5 with the Olympus Zuiko 25mm f1.8 is a genuinely svelte package, even if this photo doesn't adequately convey it.
Here's something to compare just how tiny the GM5 is with my other cameras, a Canon 200D with 24mm f2.8 EF-S and Nikon D750 with 50mm f1.8D. My D750 is already the smallest full-frame DLSR available while the 200D is one of the the smallest APS-C DSLRs. The GM5 is positively dwarfed by both, and I included the model (which was about the size of a Lego figure) for scaling purposes.
Hitting the streets of KL
But enough technical stuff already. This post isn't a review of the Olympus, but rather an exploration of street photography at night in downtown Kuala Lumpur. Hence following my dinner, it was time to step out to the streets and put the Olympus to good use.
Robin was taking photos for his post and video about the Olympus E-M10 Mark IIIS as well, so you'll find some overlaps between the photos in both posts. With that out of the way, let's get started then!
Taking a slight detour to talk about curation, I actually took another similar shot in portrait orientation. I rather liked it, but it also lost a lot of the shop's details in the periphery. Here it is:
I generally don't put repeating shots back to back as it's very bad practice from a curatorial standpoint. However, I also want this blog to be more focused towards ideas, techniques and concepts over gear.
These two photo comparisons are essentially an exploration of why one photo works better than the other despite being fairly similar. While I liked the framing of the portrait shot better in conveying a sort of resonance and closeness with the scene, I also felt the actual moment itself was better in the landscape photo. If I wasn't using this for comparison purposes and was going instead for a tighter narrative, the portrait would have been omitted entirely from this post.
I originally shot this photo in colour, but already with an intention of turning it black and white. It was a quiet and still night, and when I saw these Japanese lantern themed lights, it felt like a reflection of the calm I was feeling.
Again, when I was taking this photo, it was with the intent of turning it monochrome to bring out the lines and shapes. As I was shooting at ground level, it was impossible to get both buildings perfectly level. I knew I needed to use Lightroom's perspective correction, so this photo was taken with that stretching in mind.
A 50mm equivalent lens is versatile. Up close, it works well for portraiture or shooting details, but you can also hang back to shoot fairly wide scenes. With it being neither too wide or telephoto, I personally find it's a great focal length to develop spatial awareness. It's a great exercise is observation, understanding your equipment, then composing something that works from where you are. Or recognising when you're simply the wrong distance away and either step back or get in close to get your shot.
Imbi is a rich and vibrant place for night shooting, and now one of my favourite spots to shoot. Just about 10 minutes' walk from the central Bukit Bintang shopping district, Imbi is home to many migrant workers working in Bukit Bintang.
As with Pudu, Imbi is a great place to get slice of life images that represent the people who live and work there, as well as visitors to its many eateries.
Switching over to 28mm equivalent
From this point, I switch to the Panasonic 14mm pancake instead, as I wanted to capture wider scenes for a more encompassing narrative.
Right across the Hokkien noodles are the famous Imbi Road hawker stalls. Originally slated for eviction in October 2020 to make way for the development just down the road, I was very happy to find the stalls still around. I certainly hope they're there to stay, as I rather enjoyed eating there. This scene was taken over two separate trips, a week apart from each other.
After which, I check out the shops in the vicinity of Imbi.
And that's it for photos for this post. I had originally planned for at least another night or two of shooting to have a wider selection of photos for this post, but with all of Malaysia in full lockdown, it's rather egregious and irresponsible to go out needlessly when Covid-19 cases are at an all-time high.
Takeaways
The GM5 was adequate for night street shooting, but it does have some limitations. The lack of in-lens or in-body image stabilization meant I needed to shoot typically at ISO 1600 or higher. This is also partly due to the Panasonic's electronic viewfinder or rear LCD screen slowing down in low light, and I had to bump up the ISO to keep image lag manageable. While ISO 1600 is perfectly fine on the GM5, I did have some flexibility with my Fujifilm X20's considerably brighter f2.0 lens at the 28mm end and lens stabilization that allowed me keep the ISO 1-2 stops lower.
Either way, I had a great time night shooting and testing both the Panasonic GM5's low light capabilities, and giving my new Olympus 25mm lens a spin. I certainly hope to do more of it when the lockdown lifts.
Comments