Penang travel! Captivated by the sunset street vibe here, so healing
Capturing the colors of Studio Ghibli animations on the streets of Penang can be approached through light and shadow, scenes, composition, and other aspects. Here are the specific techniques:
1. Seize the golden shooting period
• Soft light in early morning/evening: Studio Ghibli animations often use soft light and shadow to create a dreamy feel. It is recommended to shoot within 1 hour after sunrise (7:00-8:00) or 2 hours before sunset (17:00-18:00). At this time, the sunlight slants, and the streets are dyed warm yellow or pink-purple tones. For example, the shophouses in George Town show a soft orange-red under the sunset, similar to the street scenes in "Spirited Away."
• Atmosphere on cloudy/rainy days: The diffuse light on cloudy days can make colors more saturated (such as the bright murals on Mural Street). Wet streets after rain reflect building colors, combined with puddle reflections, making it easy to capture the fresh and moist texture seen in "My Neighbor Totoro."
2. Make good use of color contrast and matching
• High saturation contrasting color scenes: Look for brightly colored elements on Penang streets, such as the blue-purple walls on Mural Street, the yellow vintage car mural, or the mint green shophouses with rose-red doors and windows on Lebuh Keng Kwee. Use the "vivid mode" on your phone/camera to enhance colors, mimicking the exaggerated yet harmonious color schemes in animations.
• Natural colors echoing architectural colors: For example, at Penang Hill, use the lush green of the tropical rainforest as a background, paired with the orange funicular train or red rooftops, creating a contrast between natural and artificial colors, similar to the fantasy scenes in "Howl's Moving Castle." At Clan Jetties, use the blue seawater and brown wooden houses to form a warm-cool contrast, highlighting the depth of the image.
3. Composition techniques: creating an animated story feel
• Low-angle upward shots: Use the sky as a background to shoot the pointed tops and colorful windows of shophouses, or have people stand at the end of the street. Shooting upward elongates building lines, creating the spacious feeling of "Castle in the Sky." For example, on Lorong Love, shoot the white shophouse arcades from a low angle, with sunlight streaming through the columns to form light beams, adding depth to the image.
• Framing composition: Shoot street scenes through windows, arches, or tree shadows. For instance, shoot the courtyard through the carved window frames of the Khoo Kongsi Museum, or frame pedestrians within the colorful door frames of Love Lane, making the image feel like an animation storyboard full of stories.
• Negative space and foreground blur: Leave large areas of sky or wall when shooting, such as using the colorful walls of George Town as a background, placing the subject on one side of the frame and leaving the other side blank. Pair this with blurred foreground flowers and plants (like the petals of the trumpet trees on Penang’s Sakura Street) to mimic the tranquil "empty shots" in animations.
4. Interaction between people and scenes: restoring the animation atmosphere
• Dynamic capture: Let models run, wave, or walk under the shophouse arcades with umbrellas, capturing natural movements. For example, shoot people chasing waves on Batu Ferringhi Beach with low-angle shots to create the sense of freedom from "Ponyo."
• Props enhancement: Bring transparent umbrellas, rattan bags, vintage cameras, and other props to interact with the "Cycling Child" mural on Mural Street, or use a cup of coffee as the foreground in a café at Penang Hill to add a sense of life to the image.
5. Post-processing color grading: enhancing the animation texture
• Filter recommendations: Use mobile apps (such as VSCO, Xingtu) to add "Japanese fresh" or "film" filters (like VSCO’s C8 or Xingtu’s "Xiao Kenting"), reduce contrast, increase saturation and color temperature, making colors closer to the bright style of animations.
• Detail adjustments: Slightly increase the blue-purple tones in highlights (to simulate the sky in animations), add cyan-green to shadows (to enhance naturalness), and fine-tune sharpness to make building lines clearer and avoid blurriness.
6. Tips for avoiding crowded spots in niche scenes
• Avoid crowds: Popular spots like George Town’s Mural Street and Penang Hill are best visited early in the morning to avoid tourists appearing in the frame and ruining the purity of the image.
• Utilize corners: For example, the gaps between wooden houses at Clan Jetties or the weathered walls of old streets. These inconspicuous details have the nostalgic texture of "old times" often seen in animations.
With these techniques, you can capture the true colors of Penang’s streets while giving your photos the dreamy feel of Studio Ghibli animations, filling them with a healing fairy tale atmosphere~
The style of Hayao Miyazaki's paintings. You need to queue up for about two hours for the small train. You enter in batches and reach the top of the mountain. You can overlook the pier. There is a restaurant on the top of the mountain with beautiful prices. Drink some beer or coffee and enjoy the breeze. It is very comfortable. Hinduism, Islam, and Catholicism gather together in harmony.
Malaysia🇲🇾Penang【Penang Hill】 Penang Hill Standing on the top of Penang Hill, you can overlook the entire George Town and the cities on the Malay Peninsula across the strait! Riding the cable car on Penang Hill reminds me of the cable car on Hong Kong's Tin Ping Shan. They are basically the same. The only difference may be that this one is newer and the other one is already old. Address: Stesen Bukit Bendera Pulau Pinang, the ticket office of the cable car station at the foot of Penang Hill Transportation: Bus No. 201, No. 204, No. 502 can get there. Tickets: Tickets, which are also cable car tickets, are 30 Malaysian ringgits round trip (50 ¥) Time: 6:30-23:00 ⚠️Be sure to buy fast track tickets on holidays, otherwise you will have to queue for several hours
A great place, a real version of The Wizard of Oz, you can hear the birds and insects chirping in nature, and you can also see monkeys and squirrels up close. Ctrip tickets are cheaper than the official ones, highly recommended.
Taking a bus from the Jetty Bas Terminal to the tourist gathering place at the foot of the mountain, and buying tickets directly at the window to take the cable car up the mountain is the most convenient way to travel, which helps me save a lot of time climbing. There are ice creams for sale on the mountain, as well as restaurants, amusement parks and many observation decks. Standing on the top of the mountain, you can enjoy the charming natural scenery and overlook the Georgetown Port Terminal, Penang Bridge and urban construction. Penang Hill (Malay Bukit Bendera; Penang Chinese call it Penang Hill; English Penang Hill means Penang Hill) is located in the central and northern part of Penang, with the main peak at an altitude of 821 meters. During the British rule, many senior officials lived here. Soldiers at the foot of the mountain used flags to convey important messages and called this mountain The flag-raising mountain, which is the origin of the name of Penang Hill. Taking a cable car up and down the mountain is a common way to travel. The first cable car was officially launched in 1923 and lasted until 1977. Later, a new cable car was introduced from Switzerland and was used from 1977 to 2010. The new cable car currently in use was officially put into service in May 2011. It can reach a speed of 10 kilometers per hour and can reach the top of the mountain in as fast as 4 minutes. In September 2021, Penang Hill in Penang, Malaysia was listed as a biological park reserve by UNESCO, becoming the third area in the country to receive this honor.
The scenery is beautiful. It's amazing. We went there on Sunday. Maybe there were a lot of people. We waited in line for an hour to get tickets for the train. After a few minutes, we reached the top of the mountain. The monkeys were not afraid of people at all. On the top of the mountain, we saw the scenery of Penang, clouds, green plants and forgot to return!!!!
The ticket costs 30 Malaysian ringgits, which includes the train ride. Everyone will take a photo of you once you enter. Inside is the station. There is a map at the waiting area to tell you how long you will have to walk if you don't take the bus and how many stations the bus will stop at. Don't get off the bus too early or you will walk to death. Go to the top to see the panoramic view of Penang (it is recommended to go up after 5 o'clock so that you can see the day and night views). However, the environment is quite good except for those who want to take a detailed tour.
The highest peak of Penang Island, more than 800 meters above sea level, has the earliest cable railway system made in Switzerland in Asia. It is similar to a mountain climbing train, and the speed of the small train is fairly fast. So it's easy to go up and down the mountain. During the day, you can overlook the city of Penang. When the lights come up, they are like stars. The breeze is gentle and comfortable.
Penang Hill is also known as Penang Hill. The air on the mountain is fresh and you can see the beautiful scenery of Penang from afar when the weather is fine. Penang Hill has the earliest Swiss-made cable railway system in Asia, plus a small cable car system; you can choose to take the cable car up the mountain, or you can take a taxi directly to the halfway point, where the giant Buddha statue of Kek Lok Si Temple is located; it is said that this giant Buddha statue is the largest in Southeast Asia.