BLOG ON 34 - Grant Corban Photography Sdn Bhd

12 November 2023

Prince Andrew the Duke of York at the Mandarin Oriental, Kuala Lumpur

His Royal Highness Prince Andrew the Duke of York is visiting Malaysia currently and carrying out many of the diplomatic functions he does on a regular basis. This visit to Malaysia has a very heavy schedule and included visiting the war graves of troops who fought and died in the defense of Malaya. Monday evening he was scheduled to be the at the Mandarin Oriental hotel, in the heart of Kuala Lumpur to address the Alumni of the University of Huddersfield. The event was hosted by the British Malaysian Chamber of Commerce and I was asked to be the photographer to cover the event. Below are some of the images from the event.

Prince Andrew going through the University of Huddersfield promotional material

The Brexit vote happened only last week so people were very keen to hear what the Prince had to say.

Prince Andrew talking about the needs for closer ties with Malaysia

Prince Andrew gave a good case for Malaysian students to study in the University of Huddersfield.

Prince Andrew also encouraged the Alumni to keep their ties with the University of Huddersfield active.

Alumni were very keen to meet the Prince after the meeting

Prince Andrew sharing thoughts with one of the attendees

11 November 2023

The Beautiful Kiran Jassal, Miss Universe Malaysia 2016

The lovely Kiran Jassal, Miss Universe Malaysia 2016 graced my studio a few days ago and I decided I would be remiss not to post about it. She does a lot of Miss Universe related activity and photo shoots are part of this. Her entourage came in and once she was ready we proceeded to do several costumes including swim suits and gowns. I will post up a few of the photos below.

BTW Please use the hash tags below to follow her. All the best at the big competition!

#KiranJassal
#MissUniverseMalaysia
#MissUniverseMalaysia2016

Lastly: If you do follow my site, DO come back again soon or follow me on Facebook (search for “grant corban”). I have an exciting post coming up in a few weeks with photos from this session and a few others that I can’t post now. Yes…a bit mysterious but I am sworn to secrecy about something coming up.

Kiran Jassal, Miss Universe Malaysia 2016

11 November 2023

Interior Design Photography taken with the Fujifilm X-T1 and 10-24mm

interior design photography kuala lumpur

Recently I was asked to do an interior design shoot for a show home that is going to be featured in a European home style magazine. I brought along a full frame DSLR mounted on a tripod with the intention of shooting tethered composites using multi-flash. However as the shoot developed, and due to both time and constraints on positioning of the camera I reached into my bag and pulled out my trusty Fuji-film X-T1 and mounted the the very handy 10mm-24mm F4 lens. This lens gives a ultra wide angle view and benefits in being a rectilinear design, so the straight lines stay as straight lines. The photos below were all shot at F8 which gave good depth of field, great sharpness and lack of chromatic aberrations that can start coming in at F11 or higher.

I have been employed by many realtors as well as interior designers to showcase properties and real estate. This also includes 360 degree virtual tours. These really give them a leg up in their very competitive industry.

Drop me a line if interested.

Tethered DSLR composite photo using multi flash.

Fujifilm X-T1 and 10-24mm at F8

11 November 2023

Emma and Aidans Wedding at the Hilton Hotel in Auckland New Zealand

Wedding at Hilton Auckland Emma and Aiden

Emma and Aidans wedding was held on a glorious summers day at the Hilton Hotel situated on Princes wharf in Auckland, New Zealand. Auckland is my home town and it was certainly a treat to head down there with my shooting partner Pacino Wong so we could capture this really spectacular wedding. The gown was beautiful and the pastel colours of the bridesmaids dresses was really pretty. Aiden and the lads really looked smart too. Hope you enjoy it. And if you are in Auckland planning a wedding, drop me a line. We would be happy to cover your day!

11 November 2023

Nikon 200mm F2.0 VR Bokeh Balls compared to Canons 70-200 VR2 and Fujis X-T1 with 56mm and 90mm

While I have the Nikon 200mm F2.0 VR I wanted to do a quick test to compare the bokeh of the portrait lenses I have on hand. These are the Canon 70-200 F2.8 VR2, arguably the best 70-200mm F2.8 in the market, along with the Fuji 56mm F1.2 and 90mm F2. Until recently I had the Canon 85mm 1.2 and the Canon 135mm F2.0. I have sold both with no regrets. The 135mm F2.0 was redundant since I prefer the look of the 200mm end of the 70-200mm F2.8 which has stabilisation thrown in as well. And the 85mm F1.2….since its release in 2006 I have owned 3, and sold them all. It’s a lens I have always wanted to like but the sluggish AF and number of missed focus photos while shooting at 1.2 has finally tainted any love I felt for it. When it nails AF its wonderful, but when it doesn’t clients blame you. I shoot for a living, so happy clients are my priority and any gear not making money gets sold. An 85mm F1.8 or 1.4 is a faster focusing, easier handling and all around more useful lens. I am kicking myself now as I had an 85mm 1.8G handy and completely forgot to shoot with it…duh!?!

Testing methodology needed to be something typical of what I would encounter in real life. I decided to photograph Santa since contacting a model in the middle of the night was not an option. And after all I want you to look at the lights on my Christmas tree and compare them shot for shot, while I kept Santa at roughly the same size in the frame. Working distances varied with the shorter lenses however both the Canon 70-200 and the 200 F2.0 VR were mounted by their tripod foot on the same tripod which was not moved. The shorter Fuji lenses were shot at a closer distance, which is what I would do had I been shooting a person.

Cameras were the D750, 5Dmk3 and X-T1. They are ranked here in order of autofocus speed. The X-T1 struggling to focus at anything close to the other 2. Apertures were set at the maximum. White balance was set to auto on all cameras but in post processing I set them all to the same white balance as the cameras were all different.

Enjoy

Canon 70-200 ISO4,000 1/60sec at F2.8

Nikon 200 F2.0 ISO6,400 at 1/160sec & F2.0

Fuji X-T1 56mm F1.2R ISO1,600 1/80sec at F1.2

Fuji X-T1 90mm F2.0R ISO5,000 1/80sec at F1.2