Loke Thye Kee at Night

Final shot of Loke Thye Kee at night (2 November 2012)


The recently restored historic restaurant building, Loke Thye Kee, looks resplendent when night falls. Every evening all the lights would be lit up, making the building look like a wedding cake.

I look the following shots with a tripod using time exposure. My ISO is set to 200, the f-stop ranges from f/11 to f/22 while the shutter speed ranges from 4 to 15 seconds. The focal length is between 10-22 mm. Apart from the motion blur, I prefer the color of my photos to be as natural as possible - I am a documentative photographer rather than an artistic photographer.

Loke Thye Kee side view, evening shot (2 November 2012)


Sidewalk in front of Loke Thye Kee (2 November 2012)


Loke Thye Kee at night (2 November 2012)


The presence of the street lamp right in front of Loke Thye Kee creates a challenge in getting the exposure right without excessive burn-out.

Front view of Loke Thye Kee (2 November 2012)


You cannot imagine how tough it is to get the above photograph, where Burmah Road looks almost empty. That's because it's a very busy street, so there is always traffic passing through that interferes with the overall exposure. A bit of motion blur is fine, but when motion blur is excessive, it interferes with the shot.

Loke Thye Kee, as seen from Burmah Road (2 November 2012)


This is what I'm talking about (above shot), when there's too much traffic in the shot. Here, I just got tired of waiting and decided to take the shot anyway.

When shooting roads at night, it's nicer to get the vehicles moving away (below shot), when you get streaks of light in red, rather than white (if it's from the front). I like this shot. It could probably have been improved further if I use an even lower shutter speed with smaller aperture. And if only I could more that lamp post away, I would!

Loke Thye Kee at night, as seen from Khoo Sian Ewe Road (2 November 2012)

See Also ...

List of Historic Buildings in Penang and Historic Buildings in Malaysia