Here We Go...

They are here finally. Signed, sealed and... framed. Soon to be delivered hopefully. It did cost me a fortune somehow but I have some hopes on selling those and gain some profit to cover up for my losses in February so far (specially after paying up the bills for electricity and water).

Signed, sealed, framed.

However, the experience here in taking this picture was something I wanted to do long time ago. Funny though that I had to fix my camera with the flash unit attached to it, by my spiderpod (or gorilla pod as some call it I think) and all is wrapped on a toy car. The flash was pointed upward to bounce of the ceiling even though the ceiling is not close so much, but the illumination was fair I'd say. For an experiment like this I didn't think of doing HDR out of the situation. Too bad I didn't think of taking a picture of the set!
The experience is new to me but the idea is old in fact. I always wanted to do such a panorama where the image can be kept flat instead of being wrapped, and that implies that I can't use the VR-head and rotate the camera on location, but I have to move the camera in a straight line as much as possible in order to keep the perspective, and the blend should be then some sort of a collage for all the images.

In Photoshop there is definitely a "collage" blend, but of course the Photoshop era was long gone. I had to sort things out with a baby called PTGui. However, using PTGui with complete manual control, means there are things to be done, unlike the totally automatic and relatively easy processing in Photoshop.

On another note, I've dug up some old photos that I didn't touch or process before. Or should I say panoramas that I didn't stitch before.
Because of my search for some material to add on the list and prepare a catalog for some prints-to-be, I've began sweeping through some of the old pictures and folders, and of course I had to stop by 2010's Ireland's collection. There, I've discovered one small panorama that I didn't touch and post before, but I've prepared the HDR slides already!

Once Upon A Gothic

Maybe one of the reasons that made me look away from this image is the fact that there are some people in the image and usually stock sites don't like images in that way (or let's say they ask you to put on a model release for each person in the image sometimes!). Anyway, things have changed as it seems. Looking back at this image and looking at my workflow now it is amazing how many things have changed about my considerations and techniques.
The HDR slides for this small panorama were taken on tripod without VR-head. Generally, a small panorama like this (4 slides) might not cause much of a headache in stitching. However, the bracketing for HDR was done in -3,0,+3 sequence, and THAT proved to be a problem. Back then, I thought such EV level is something good to include extremes of highlights and shades, but judging from my position now, I think -2,0,+2 is enough (and even this might cause some problems at certain atmospheres). I think now it is the time to use metering from the camera to decide on a proper range of EVs, specially before working with a full panorama.
In case you are wondering about the title, this is because I think the architectural style here is Gothic; elongated windows and sharp tops. They say the medieval architecture in Ireland was greatly influenced with this Gothic style and some argue as well that it was brought to the island from southern France in that specific era.

I'm in a rush now to do many things before the time of the expo comes; a catalog, and even a website. For this rush, my recordings for Alexander's story - 6th chapter, and also working on my Geltani project, all are on hold for the time being. All what I'm hoping for is to cover up for some of the expenditures I had to bear this month, by selling some of these prints for real. I've wiped out all my salary already and no way to save anything now...