http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk 57
The book TO:KY:OO, by
Liam Wong, is published
by Thames & Hudson
ISBN 9780500296271,
with an RRP of £24.95.
To nd out more go to
http://www.thamesand
hudson.com.someone walking past a scene. I put
gels on the flashes and mix them up,
say like a red or a blue, because I’m
going to introduce light that wasn’t
there in a scene.’
Post-production process
Wong’s TO:KY:OO book also reveals
some of his approaches to editing his
images and he tells AP, ‘I want
someone to think of my work as
having a visual identity. When I
started post-processing I would
change the tints; almost like playing
with white balance. Nowadays I try
and capture something cool inside
the camera so I play with my white
balance a lot [in-camera].’
He adds, ‘When I have my raw
image, I usually play with the curves,
sharpness and clarity but it’s trying
to find a balance in colour. That
comes from my inspirations – like
Syd Mead – and understanding
which complementary colours that
just work together also helps. The
shot has to have something
interesting in terms of the content
and the way it’s composed before I
even think about the colour.’
He continues, ‘I use Photoshop
and Camera Raw. I always
underexpose by a stop, so that you
can bring that stuff back. That’s
going to allow you to have a little bit
more to play with and to get away
with a little bit more and you’re not
going to have as much noise.
Nowadays my raw images are pretty
close to what I’ve been posting.
Other times I will shift the colour
spectrum just to have a different feel.
I got good at editing to a point
where I can see a colour and knowhow I can correct and fine-tune
those individual colours. It’s not very
hard but I think if you learn it then
you get quite far.’Summing up
With an Instagram following
currently standing at over 200,000,
and film and book projects in the
pipeline I ask Wong to sum up his
current book. He replies, ‘Tokyo, rain
and neons, basically (laughs). All of
the work that’s in it is from three
years of being a photographer and
that means a lot to me. Tokyo has
pretty much changed my life and it’s
perhaps a weird thing for a city to be
able to do that, but the number of
opportunities and people I met while
I was there, was a huge deal. It’s like
a love letter to the city because
it inspired me so much.’‘Kimono Glitch’
/01:51:19