HARI Raya is nearing, and one of the things that people normally love to do is taking Raya photos to celebrate the festivity.
However, in this social media era, having photos with a 'wow' factor will give yiu more likes and comments.
We talked to four social media influencers and photograpgers/videographers on taking memorable and impactful Raya photos.
Choosing the best settings
For lifestyle photographer Zarnizar, choosing a setting that reflects the festive atmosphere of Hari Raya is key.
"Decorate your home or venue with traditional Malay ornaments such as ketupat, lights, Sampul Raya, Kain Batik , Raya Greeting cards," he said.
Besides that, he suggests wearing traditional Malay attire like baju kurung or baju melayu.
"It adds an ethnic touch to your photos, and the vibrant colours of traditional clothing are visually appealing," he added.
Meanwhile, lighting can also significantly impact the mood and ambiance of your photos.
In this case, Zarnizar recommends use natural lighting during the daytime.
"You can be creative by playing with shadows under shading tree too. It's fun if we can create flat lay of Hari Raya dishes under a tree," he said.
Having props that symbolise Hari Raya, such as traditional Malay dishes with antics grandma plates collections, ketupat, or any other festive decorations would also help.
When it comes to posing, Zarnizar said, "Experiment with different poses and angles to make your photos more visually interesting. Encourage your subjects ( family members and friends ) to interact with one another or engage in activities related to Hari Raya."
"Capture the emotions of the moment. Candid shots that capture genuine expressions of happiness, laughter, and joy are often more memorable than staged or posed photos," he added.
"Lastly, use iPhone's native camera editing tools to enhance your photos. Adjust the brightness, contrast, and colours to create a cohesive look and feel," he said.
Zarnizar uses an iPhone 14 to capture the shots. "With the new iPhone 14, Apple continues to improve the camera quality, providing more megapixels, better sensors, and lenses, which can help produce sharper and more detailed images," he said.
"The iPhone camera software includes advanced image processing capabilities that can help enhance and refine the photos, making them look more vibrant, clear, and visually appealing," he added.
The best camera is the one in your hand
As cliche as it sounds, 'The best camera is the one that's with you' be it a DSLR camera or a smartphone, said photojournalist Annice Lyn.
"It is a tool for us to document our daily lives, to express ourselves, to be inspired, regardless of everyone's level of photography knowledge, that you can capture moments and share them with our friends, families, loved ones, or the world at the press of a button," she said.
"As a professional photojournalist, my thoughts on using smartphones for creating quality photos come when there are days I wanted to be more laid back, but still, keep the spark of creating beautiful imagery and capturing decisive moments," she added.
For Lyn, being able to connect with her subject is important.
"A personal approach has always been the key for me to ease those whom I'm photographing and evoke their emotions for a moment in time to be captured," she said.
"Hari Raya or any celebration in Malaysia enables us to come together to reunite and immortalise the joyous moment during this festive season. I've embraced features such as the Ultra Wide camera of the iPhone 14 for a holistic approach, indoor portrait mode shoots to be more intimate with my subject, and getting creative with creating a collage with Freeform on iOS from the visuals taken to personalise fun greetings e-cards for friends and family," she added.
Every photographer has his or her own style when it comes to creating photos, and for Lyn, it's by creating a series.
"I love photographing by creating a series. Often I will go with the simple 5W 1H (Who, What, When, Where, Why & How) there are key elements to be included in the visuals taken," she explained.
Include more than just human subjects
YouTuber Jason Goh said when taking Hari Raya moments, we should include more than just human subjects, where decorations, ambience and the mood should be included as well.
"In order to capture these, we can utilise Portrait mode to bring focus to subjects that matter to each scene. From human faces, to hand gestures, to Raya items like ketupat. To capture ambience, it's best to use the ultra wide lens which can include a wider area to show the audience how the space look and how the humans interact with their surroundings," he said.
When asked whether he prefers staged or candid shots, he Goh said both are equally important and he usually does both.
"Candid shots are great to bring out the natural emotion and expression of human subjects. Planned ones are more proper for sharing amongst family members like group photos, or of someone performing a certain action," he said.
Lighting is also important for him when creating his images.
"Lighting is important. If there is no access to lighting, we can always get subjects to pose by the window or even outdoor. With enough lighting, photos are sharp. Then, to focus on subjects, we can utilise Portrait mode to blur the background and it's easy to edit the level of blur while taking or after taking the photos," he said.
Goh, who also uses iPhone 14, said the device does amazingly well when it comes to videography.
"It is very stable, which is perfect for people who are afraid that their footage is going to be shaky. The ultra wide lens stabilises video even more. Colours are very natural and it also has very good HDR which brings up the shadows just in case our subjects are backlit. Cinematic mode now supports 4K resolution. Hence all cinematic scenes are super high res and clear now. I love shooting my clips in 24p to bring out that Hollywood film look," he added.
Use environmental elements
Singapore-based content creator YK Lee feels using environmental elements like the food, and all the items that are often used for Hari Raya would be the best ingredients for great photos.
"It gets creative juices flowing, bonds friends and family to find interesting elements to create something more unique," he said.
For his shots, he made use of a lot of quick transition techniques, and most of them are incorporating subjects and surrounding environment elements. This helps to eliminate props and just enjoying the process of shooting just with the iPhone.
"I don't really have a concrete plan at the start, it's more so to find what works in between transitions, edit quickly on clips to test it out and see how the flow is," he said.
Lee said using smartphones helps users prevent the hassle of knowing what detailed settings and modes to shoot.
"We just have to focus on the fundamentals - which is the composition and storytelling. I believe that is one of the more important core elements to elevating the quality of the images," he said.
"I do a lot of tutorials on TikTok and Instagram with the iPhone, and deliberately choosing iPhone because it's what people have in their pockets, making it the most accessible tool and guiding people how to unleash the best out of it. It helps me in my long term goal, to educate and teach photography," he added.
"My favourite camera feature is the action mode, the stabilisation is insane and eliminates any form of gimbal usage and you can afford to make slight shakes, you'll still be just fine. You have to try it to see it for yourself," he said.
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