Thursday, June 28, 2012

Rover...

A quiet week of some sort. I'm adapting the habit of bringing my camera to my work place as much as possible, everyday, whenever possible, because there are chances that might occur at any moment. More to come about this later.
I've finally managed to upload the most recent recordings and the vocalizing work with chapter 6 of Alexander's story is going on again. The problem was simple, and now I feel really dumb for not noticing it in the first place. The Google Sites account I used to upload to was simply full, and I needed to find another place. However, I've made another account and the recordings are up again from 1417 to 2016. There are moments when I just decide to stop recording for one day, simply because I'm so tired to read correctly and the whole process becomes a headache!

The form for the Job Request is ready I guess and now I'm supposed to move on and contact potential customers, specially those who did not reply. It is majorly a marketing campaign.







In the meantime, I'm educating myself more in the fields of exposure control and flash photography. I'm preparing for some new order of books and tools to be ordered soon, I hope. I've already ordered some items and books, but it will take some long time to arrive to me since I didn't use any speed mail options.

IndiPRO portable monitor
Source: B&H
Maybe one of the most important items for me right now is the portable monitor (left) along with this order. Compared to other portable monitors, like Sony's for example, this portable monitor is not much with options. However, it works with LP-E6 batteries; same as those used in Canon 7D. For this reason, I've placed an order for one extra battery as well (since it's not included). It would be beneficial as an extra battery for the camera when needed too!
This monitor will be useful when I need to take shots in critical angles with me having to bend my back severely. Back issues are a reality with a man in my age (yes, 32 is old).
Along with this monitor it occurred to me to check on something, and I'm not sure I would be able to use it, but I won't know till I try myself.

Rosco Polarizing #7300 Filter
Source: B&H
 Searching for some way to polarize the light and reduce reflections with my Canon 15mm fisheye lens, I though I might find some kind of gel filters to be fit into the rear side of the lens, like I previously ordered some ND filters gel sheet to be cut and made ready to be used with the lens. However, Rosco Polarizing Filter seems to be used mainly with light sources, but I'm interested in experimenting with this kind of sheet and whether I can cut it into pieces and fit it in the rear end of the fisheye lens. All of this was sparked by a friend who needed my help to order a specific polarizing disk for one of his own lenses. The sheet is relatively large (17x20" ~ 42.5x50cm) and might be useful in many situations, if it is to be cut into various sizes.

Camera Rover:


It was somehow a status of hiatus and unsettling mind along this week. As I've mentioned before, I'm taking my camera to my work as much as I can, and I try to take it out in regular outings as much as possible. I'm trying to capture an inspiration at the slightest chance or hope in the air. This triggers for more abstractive work.
Maybe one of the first trials to increase my understanding for the light and shadows and how they work together was my trial with the camera's flash in broad daylight.

Botanical Arc
Rokinon 8mm fisheye; DxO-corrected.

As I made few test shots for the arc, I've noticed the hard shadows in the lower part of the arc, so I've simple turned on the on camera flash (which I couldn't control because the lens was completely manual and no support for TTL) and just made the shot. Few adjustments were added then by DxO and the distortion was corrected slightly and the whole image was cropped. It's not much of an art work, as much as it is one experiment I loved to do. However, this little experiment was done without any thought to the light level of the flash or any measurements. The same scene was tried for 3D anaglyph too, but didn't work out well.
Also, around my work place, in those moments when boredom just crashes my mind (and there are a lot of them), the camera, then, would help me out in getting back to reality or at least jump from one dimension in my imagination or daydreaming to another. Some weird ideas can occur in weird places, like the bathroom.

Mönster (Patterns)

Even though this place is visited daily, there are only specific moments when everything stops and your eyes would gaze with gushing thoughts and images of ideas. I liked the geometry that I couldn't resist but to go ahead and take my camera from my office and head to the bathroom again.
Despite its simplicity, the shot was not easily done and I had to shoot many times (handheld). After going back home I've I've sorted the images out and with the help of DxO I've picked the best and enhanced its highlights and its distortion as well to make it as straight as possible. Simple patterns like that and such abstract art got its own people I believe. The least to do is to print it out on A3 paper and frame it with a simple plastic frame and hang it in the office to disturb the routine of the office or cubicles work humdrum. 

It's not all about my work place however. Strolling outside had its own benefits too, even though now it's summer and the beach area is not hospitable for my needs as it is in winter. The temperature would simply reach around 38oC by 6:00 a.m.!
The funny thing is that, I was on a hunt for some scenery that would produce some good 3D effect like the 3D Gazebo that I've done last week. Ironically, none of the shots did work, but on the other hand, I've discovered a place on the beach that I might consider for another visit at night, if possible, and do some long exposures there. Also, I've caught two images, that with some twisting, did produce some abstract (if I can call them so) with a philosophical blend in them.

Einsam (Lonely)

Waiting The World

In Einsam, beside emphasizing the color of the sand, I had to clone the uppermost portion of the image to hide the water line. There was cropping as a consequent for adjusting the horizon line and make it straight. I took the picture from above (something like a watching post) and the umbrella was lying in a diagonal line with respect to my vision.
Waiting for the World, however, was another story (and it was shot first before Einsam). I've cropped the image here to remove the horizon line and give a sense of infinity, and also cropped from the lower edge to let the shore line cut through into the corner. Call it Perfectionism if you like, but I did hate leaving the line of the shore hitting on the right side freely!

The chain of thoughts did not stop here anyway and accompanied me home, with some trials on a burnt out bulb. Taken from my car couple of weeks ago, I've stored this bulb specifically for this experiment. Though I've forgot about it a little, but it just came in time.

Colorful Bulb
Tamron 70-300mm

The bulb had a black patch, and I was thinking already of doing HDR to eliminate this problem. To add some twist, I've decided to do the HDR by bracketing the Flash pulses instead of the Exposure brackets in the camera itself. Placing the bulb in front of a printed paper used for making noise profiles for Noise Ninja added even more glamor to the image I believe.
Maybe it was a mistake to point the flash from the camera directly into the bulb without bouncing it upon some surface, but this might be debatable. The noise level was relatively easy to remove except of some areas that a Median trick would do.
In Photoshop, many, many, adjustment layers were added to increase the contrast and pronounce the bulb more (specially its edges) and fix the color cast little bit. It would have been done more easily if I did take a picture of my Kodak card and simply point the Black eyedropper into the black patch of the card.

QTVR

I've decided to go back to some of the images taken back from Failaka back in March. I've tried my best again with the Ikaros Hotel panorama, and this time with single images and not HDR, yet my trials were a failure again. Seems the critical point which ruined the whole thing is the fact that it was a windy morning and the shades covering the main yard (where I took the panorama) were shaking already and causing much of the fuss and the non-alignment problem in the panorama as a whole.
However, this was not the issue for now. I've remembered one panorama that I've stitched only in one format; which was then called the Planeta Herba.

Planeta Herba

This panorama specifically is semi-full spherical; with exclusion to the zenith and the nadir shots. In fact, and because of the blue sky, the zenith shot is not necessary I believe and could be fabricated easily I presume. The nadir shot was not a big deal too because there is sand only and it is easy to clone out. However, the shadows of the tripod and the camera (ad mine at some points) needed some work to be cloned out.
The panorama was stitched again but in flat format in order to make a QTVR. A simple QTVR.

Θάμνοι του Ίκαρου (Bushes of Ikaros)

The noise level did persist and nothing was all easy to clean, beside some burnt edges. All of these details are apparent of course in the original file, but printing the image itself has the final word when it comes to the noise level and other artifacts.
When it comes to the QTVR, I've been putting some of my Prefectionism, if I should say. It is indeed nice to have a full spherical space to look at in all directions and feel free, but also I'm trying to put down my expectations and also be realistic. In this QTVR, the space is almost fully spherical, with only zenith and nadir missing:





Again, the window was made small for quality reasons. The original file (which sizes up to 130MB) is clearer. Maybe it is a change in my own psychology or something; I just don't know. I think there are lot of things I need to give up in this life just to be going on. I hate it when I'm forced to, but what difference does it make? Annoyance is available in either case: whether you put down your expectations, or not.

The world is becoming a scary, and a silly, place to live...




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