Djinn…

Officially winter! We already got some rains here and I'm trying to enjoy as much as I can out of it because I know in some months from now, it will be so damn dry and "cooking".
Anyway, I didn't post anything here for about 2 weeks (or 3? I didn't count!) for some... legitimate reasons I'd say: A new panorama!

Djinn

Just before I get into the story, I'd like to explain the word Djinn to those who don't know it or never heard of it. Djinn (Arabic: جِن) according to the Islamic literature and belief, are creatures created even before the creation of Adam and Eve and they inhabit and dwell Earth and even space. They are created of fire and unseen by humans (except to few, saying that from experience). So, in some sense they are equivalent to what the Westerners would call Demons. Also, they can be either good or bad, they have different faiths and beliefs, as well as living in tribes and social classes of their own, just like humans.
So, I hope this introduction fascinated you a bit to read on, as I think the technical stuff coming along this post might be a bit boring! Since I didn't touch my panorama gear for quite some time now (mainly because I didn't travel nor I'm part of any group that does activities here and there). Thus, I had to look for alternatives; Ideas, mainly to be done in my periphery: Car, home, work... etc. It took the idea some time to "cook" in my head and I was kind of slow and sluggish in preparing my gear (typical), and the target was one of the rooms in my house where typically guests use, in case we get to have any sleeping over.
Now, the keywords for the work or the general idea revolves around: Magic, black, dark aspect or darkness, and maybe a touch of some horror and fear? Since I don't have models (as usual) I had to think about it thoroughly because the task is not easy here as the idea started to take shape in my head. I will be shooting myself, in various locations within the room, while it is dark and definitely needs a somewhat longer exposure (not good for stable poses!). Anyway, things (unwillingly) went on two trials and for this reason I didn't post last week, because the plan was to have this material ready by then but, unfortunately, the first trial failed drastically and I had to re-do the whole work in a different manner and a different setting.

جِنْ (Djinn)
Click to enlarge

Voigtländer Color Skopar 20mm f/3.5

Lumicon H-Alpha (Night Sky) filter.

Try #1: The first try was done  with my modified Canon EOS 7D and Voigtländer 20mm lens, fitted with the Night Sky filter (i.e. H-alpha filter) which is, partially, an infrared filter actually, allowing a band of Reds. I've tested this filter against my B+W 092 Infrared (threshold: 650nm~690nm) filter and compared the results (in-camera, using Custom WB). Comparing the blue tones specifically, I've decided to go with the Night Sky filter instead, this is beside providing a tiny bit of shorter exposure time. Working with 20mm instead of my usual Canon EF 15mm fisheye lens meant, of course, shooting more slides or angles, and that means forgetting about doing any HDR work here because the load would be simply RIDICULOUS. Now, using 20mm introduced another problem here is the need to change the usual orientation while shooting. So, instead of starting at 0^o for the tilt, I've actually used -15^o instead. This is just to include the whole stool with my body in the separate shots that I would need to do later to merge with the panorama while stitching (having myself in two shots to be stitched together is next to impossible; It must be one shot including my whole body). Another problem is the misalignment of many slides, and the empty spaces that added to the chaos (the computer was unable to connect these slides nor I was able to do so manually because of the featureless spaces). After 2 weeks, or so, of working on stitching this panorama, I've realized that this thing is beyond repair and I must re-do the whole thing, and probably drop out some of my requirements for this panorama, like using an infrared filter, and just shoot in the usual manner.

Canon EF 15mm f/2.8 fisheye

Try #2: So, after the failed attempt, I've switched back to my 15mm lens and this time I thought of some trick to compensate for these empty spaces; I've simply stuck some electric tape on various sections of the wall just to aid the computer later on to stitch these images - and just to show you my luck, the idea did work really but the tape was some bad quality and almost fell down, so I had to work fast! Anyway, testing the White Balance before the shoot, I've realized that this is almost equivalent to infrared shooting with my modified Canon EOS 7D, because the room is dark and the major light source is to be from the candles (which issue infrared of course). I banged my head at that moment; How come I didn't think of this before instead of all the hassle with my first trial?! Of course there should be remnants of the visible spectrum but that was not a problem specially after calibrating the white balance in-camera. The scene already turned to be an infrared-like. With this, it was like shooting a normal panorama and I had the power to do bracketing for HDR merging and tone-mapping, which I did. *sigh* Just like the old days!

Process: Processing the images was typical: Load the files, run Photomatix to merge the brackets, and then start with the stitch. It was essential here to calibrate the white balace in-camera before the shoot, otherwise the HDR merging and adjusting the colors would have turned to be a "wedding party of wild elephants" - Sorry, the best I could find to express my thoughts here.
However, while merging the bracketed images to create HDR slides as usual, I've made a mistake which I didn't discover until I tried to stitch the panorama for the first time. The mistake was enabling the Remove Ghosting with Detection level set to High. I'm not sure what I was thinking but in a nutshell, the computer created a movement where there were none in fact, and that PRODUCED ghosting! So, the situation was like the old advice of turning off the image stabilization on your lens when your camera is actually stable on a tripod because that would trick the lens and creates a movement. This is exactly what happened, but digitally this time. So, I had to re-merge the bracketed image in Photomatix again and this time putting the detection level on Normal. I've activated this option in the first place just "in case," specially that we have candles here and there might be moving shadows that would make the stitching harder a bit.
That was concerning the merging process but there was still a side work that had to be done and that is preparing those slides of me (specially those involving my reflection in the mirror) but no need to go on with this - it was just a simple masking process. But all had to be done in HDR mode of course with HDR slides.

Effects of using High detection level for ghosting removal on Photomatix.
Click to enlarge

One slide with tape cuts.
Click to enlarge

Stitching: As for the stitching process, it was typical to try to stitch the HDR slides first right away, but as usual, it failed. I remember in old times, this didn't happen much. Anyway, what can I say here; The image was indeed dark and I've intended for it to be so. Thus, I followed the typical procedure of tone-mapping the HDR slides using Photomatix again, and trying to get the best details from each slide. Of course the process is automated; I just pick the darkest slide possible to work with and save the settings then apply that to all. From these tone-mapped images I would create a model, and base the stitching of the HDR slides on this model. Lot of details here, but anyway the thing was not out of troubles, as usual. The tape trick did work to some extent but still needed some help or let's say a "push" from my side so I had to add some manual control points to match between the slides. Actually this problem happens all the time with or without sharp details between the slides for various reasons. All these tapes on the wall would be cloned out of course when the panorama is stitched completely. The final stitched panorama still had some stitching errors which I couldn't fix before stitching so working on that in Photoshop was inevitable. The thing is that I have to do these fixes every single time I create a new projection out of the same panorama; So, it will be such a slow process after all.

Finale

Well, this was the "short" story of this panorama, and I'm still having some more ideas at the back of my head, cooking and waiting to be served when I get the power and time. Beside that though, I'm still working on other projections of this same panorama here. I didn't want to put all the eggs in one basket so I might post about these in 2 weeks time from now; If they are ready though.
Now, it is time to think about some other panorama to do, beside the other ideas at the back of my head of course. The past few weeks were kind of hard, mentally. I was literally waiting for weekends just to sleep as much as I can (and even skipping my socializing with the family around some games like I used to every weekend). I'm trying to re-discover myself here, in some ways, but seems the process is taking longer than I participated. There is a talk about change in the horizon, things going to be better, the hardships years are over... yet I don't really see any of that in the horizon from my side. The travel that I've participated for 4 or 5 years now is still an idea that I could not make a reality. Would it be soon? We'll see. I'm planning for a little vacation by the first week of the new year, but I'm still not sure if I would be able to because I need to make sure that I won't be needed in my workplace. Boy, I'm going to sleep for real, and who knows, I might head out to shoot at night like I used to in the past years…

InfraVideo…

After having a vacation from almost everything for one week, I think it is time to pin down this blog, even though it is hard for me because things had been drastic a bit lately and my mood is in great swing lately. However, I'm trying to work on some stuff and I will try to post about some of my thoughts here. I wasn't going to type it but it is due after leaving it for a week!

Meanwhile I'm working on various things, mainly videos. It's just getting interesting with me exploring various filters and recording videos from my car as I used to do in the old days (with my small car back then). I'm working on that slowly and I've learned bits of videography already, but sure not like a professional anyway; I still don't have a shotgun mic even! But before delving into these videos, I've prepared a video some time ago for a hypercube (a.k.a. tesseract, 4D Cube) toy which I've created using playing straws.

The object is made by interlacing 2 cubes of straws and then connecting the corners, which was not to be done without bending the straws making what it looked like circles when viewed from the sides. I've created another model but it was not successful like this unfortunately, where 2 cubes are fit one inside the other, but again because of the bending in connectors between corners, the view was not "organized" so to say. Meanwhile, I'm trying to build a model of a hypercube using wooden pieces and some kind of glue (tried Tack-It already but didn't work properly). I'm planning to use such models for future photographic missions if possible. I might find inspiration there.

On the other hand, I got back to my habit of doing videos while driving but this time using filters to see the general look. surprisingly, fitting the tripod inside my Pajero is harder than fitting it into my small Seat before, probably because of the differences in design. My first trial was with B+W 092 infrared filter which has a threshold of about 650nm (or it might be 700nm). Such filter is supposed to let some color in when processing the images.

I'm showing here the video without audio track (meh, useless!). Luckily, the camera didn't flip with the tripod inside the car as I was roaming around. Hope you enjoy the marvelous views of how cars and trucks act like marbles thrown randomly on the floor! One of the concepts I've learned online about videography is that you must keep things in manual (to be more professional). However, in this video above, I've let things be automatic. I've used Voigtländer 20mm lens here which is semi-manual, thus I'm not sure if the aperture did change during the recording. Anyway, shutter speed and ISO are surely to be changing depending on the lighting conditions in front of the lens. I've increased the EV to +1 to be on the safe side while recording but I ended up reducing the brightness and adjusting the contrast because of that when editing the video in Photoshop (yes, Photoshop). I was dedicated though to record a video without any automated process, and I'm not sure if this rule would really be applied or could be applied to special video recording like this one under infrared filter (or UV). Anyway, I did it!

To shoot this video though, I had to change the settings for the tripod as well just because I changed the filter, since the filter is a gel filter which is placed at the back of my Canon EF 15mm fisheye lens, and thus I had to re-fold the tripod in such a way to get the camera to the front more to concentrate the view on the windshield as much as possible.
The filter in the second video is Kodak's infrared gel filter with threshold of 1000nm. You might notice how it looks more like a night vision video clip, but it was really shot in morning time. In this video, I've used complete manual settings and I had to make a compromise. The smaller version of the video here might look "clear" somehow and smooth, but the original had a significant noise level apparent while watching, since I was using ISO 4000. I had to reduce the f-number down to f/5.6 or less while fixing the shutter speed to 1/50s. I wanted to shoot at f/8 or f/11 to ensure the depth of field but that was out of question. The shutter speed here is related to the FPS rate which I've picked at 24fps, and according to some rules of thumb from the literature around the internet, the shutter speed should be equal to: 1/(2 x fps). But this point is actually sparking my interest and I want to try slower shutter speeds if possible to see how the video would look! However, probably these rules of thumb in the literature are more confined to normal video shooting and not for such conditions with special filters applied! There are a number of points I've noticed in this video though which I didn't really see in the previous video shot with B+W 092 infrared filter of 650nm threshold:

• Some trees are bright and some are dark, so I think some plants were reflecting IR indeed and some were absorbing IR, the despite the general lack of sunshine!
• Some car lights (brakes or signaling) were brighter than they are in reality! While some signaling from some cars didn't show up in the recording at all! I think this is related to the IR issued in each bulb type, maybe?

Away from the noise level which is somewhat annoying for me, I think the results were fascinating actually; to see a real difference in the light levels and light receptions between a video in IR and reality!
In the process, I've realized that whatever color space the camera is set to, the video is in fact recorded in sRGB. When loaded into Photoshop, it will adapt to the default working color space of Photoshop (which I set to ProPhoto) but the rendering of the video would not be "fit" if I can call it so. The colors would be so saturated and working around that is a tedious task (if it can be fixed anyway), and thus working with infrared videos I have the habit now to convert everything to sRGB first. The vivacity of the colors are not pretty much required anyway as much as it is so when working with HDR slides and tone-mapping in regular images, as I usually do!

Finale

I'm passing through some weird timing here as I'm slowing down the pace of my work with the camera (excluding the videos). I had to withdraw from the project of April within the group. After getting sick and getting slow recovery (some coughing remain though) my body and mind are not functioning well together. Despite the relative easiness or commonality of the topic for April's project (shadows and reflections), yet my mind could not come up with a good idea to perform or try.
with Ramadhan getting closer, it seems more likely I'm going to sacrifice some days from my leaves balance, and take a leave during the month or most of it after experiencing it last year with summer semester rolling in and record heat struck back then. I'm not ready to experience this at all. I'm not sure that I will be able to travel anyway but I was hoping for to more days in my balance instead of spending some right now. I have to pick the starting and ending dates still which I cannot decide and settle with yet.
I'm feeling detached, and working on detaching myself further in fact. I need to get back to my activity before. I think being a member in a group is slowing me down for the time being. When I see the number of experiments with my camera in the years before and after joining the group, I clearly see that I had more experimental work done before. Not to say they are good pictures, but I used to work, and work... I was in mood to work with my camera, as well as other projects, like my Ayvarith and other conlangs. As I'm reading more books about Arabic phonology and language to get more educated about my own native tongue, I get even more eager to work with conlangs, but yet I have to find the time for them…

Quickie Testing…

This is a quick wrap as I couldn't do much with my camera or anything else, for many reasons. Anyway, I was capable to do one or two tests with my gear, so I decided to put them up here for this week.
I was waiting for a good opportunity to test Voigtländer 20mm lens for panoramas, but time didn't help me out and couldn't really search for a good location to work in. Thus, I've decided to test the panorama in a simple procedure in the guest room at home (which has been recently my operation room!).

Screen capture for the stitched panorama

I have made specific points here, and there are some advantages and disadvantages as it seems. I'll try to list them here in points:

1. The panorama is a simple 360^o, thus it might not be quite accurate for judgement but it gave good indicator I believe.
2. There was no need to adjust or re-calibrate the VR-head to do this panorama, which is a good point!
3. However, there was a need to adjust the rotation amount, to 24^o instead of 30^o. That means a single full rotation will take 15 shots instead of 12 as I used to have it. 
4. Consequently, for the change of the field of view and the change in the angle of rotation per one shot, the total amount of shots to complete one spherical panorama will be: 15x5 (excluding zenith and nadir points) = 75 shots, compared to 36 shots with Canon EF 15mm fisheye lens. Needless to say, these numbers are multiplied by 3 in case of HDR.

For these points, the procedure includes good and bad points. It is good that I don't have to re-calibrate, but it is bad that I need to change the angles of rotation which will increase the number of shots (and working time) significantly. Thinking about it now, it seems that using the Voigtländer 20mm lens would be significant for panoramas only when the matter comes to using UV-pass filter; simply because I have no UV-pass gel filter to fit my Canon 15mm fisheye lens. The matter of infrared is also a fluctuating one, since I do have 2 infrared filters: one fits Canon 15mm fisheye (gel), and one to fit Voigtländer 20mm (circular), and each one has a specific threshold.
Coming to mention IR filters, I was yet to do another check with my converted camera. I had the chance to pick my gear to work, and voila, when I decided to do that, the sun got blocked out with some clouds. However, it wasn't a big problem, except for the UV photography; just a bit.

UV-Star
Canon EF 100mm macro, f/10, ¼ sec, ISO200.

Ultraviolet photography proved more problematic than I thought, unlike IR photography. However, shooting with a converted camera make it a lot easier. As it can be seen above in UV-Star, the exposure is merely 1/4 of a second, which is quite "long" in terms of handheld shots (I was using a tripod here). That is with rising ISO to 200. On a regular camera, the exposure time could easily be 5 minutes with ISO as high as 800. Anyway, other shots taken that day with UV-pass filter were shaky because of the breeze shaking the stems. One of the problems that one might face when doing UV photography is the fact that some lenses (if not most) are sprayed with a specific coating to reduce UV in order to enhance the image quality; a good feature gone bad! Anyway, I believe with a good sun, the exposure could easily be faster than just 1/4 second at the same ISO. The matter of UV photography is expandable further if we were to discuss artificial lighting and strobes, but let's not come to that right now!

InfraBlossom
Canon EF 100mm macro, f/9, 30^-1sec, ISO100.

Later, I decided to try my B+W IR filter, which has a threshold of 650nm. This threshold means it is considerably a weak filter in terms of IR range, since it allowed some Red spectrum to pass as well. However, on a regular camera with the settings mentioned for InfraBlossom, the exposure time could easily be up to 1 minute if not more. Checking how InfraBlossom processing turned, it seems that such filter is exactly what one would need to do portraiture in infrared photography in general. Anyway, I can't have a final say until I get to test my other infrared filter; a gel filter from Kodak with threshold of 1000nm. This filter is so opaque and on a regular camera and a sunny day, a single exposure under ISO100 can easily reach 10 minutes in time.

InfraMore
Almost under the same conditions as InfraBlossom, but with f/8, the exposure for this shot was 9 minutes, on a regular camera and a sunny day. In comparison, InfraBlossom, would have been taken in 10 minutes at f/9 and a sunny day on a regular camera, when using the same gel infrared filter.

Anyway, I still need to test the gel filter (of 1000nm threshold) on my converted camera. Unfortunately, the only way to do this is with my Canon 15mm fisheye (or Rokinon 8mm fisheye with some improvising). The test is required for my eyes to see for myself the difference in color rendering and processing between 650nm and 1000nm thresholds. On regular cameras, the comparison is already made: with 650nm filter, the image after processing can regain close colors to reality, while with 1000nm filter, the image after processing can be quite bluish after processing.

Finale

This is it for now, and I still have some more going on in the current time. Preparations and events that I'm planning to role in, despite my decision previously of being dormant and have some breath. Yet, the group's activity can be quite pressing. 
On the list is testing a real full panorama using UV filter on Voigtländer 20mm, and in a sunny day. Not sure where the location should be, but most probably it would be at work if I can spare some time.
My schedules and sleeping patters are on shift now that I'm starting to fast, and probably it won't be long till I have to stop the fast for the month of Rajab. But it is a good try, and a money savior! However, my tiresome body wouldn't allow me to do much during the day and it would be late at night (after the nap) to work with such projects. Anyway, I'm going to try further, as much as I can.

Staidéar…

Two weeks with barely anything to write about. I was busy with many things, starting from games that I MUST play to lens testing that I MUST work on. I tried to prepare also for writing an Arabic article about lens testing for my other blog, but unfortunately things were not done in time. Thus, all is delayed.
They were stressful 2 weeks in fact, with contests and photos and home issues. I feel drained already and not sure how I'm going on with my everyday life. Anyway, I've finally made a lens test, which I cannot say it is a perfect one but I tried hard at least. My main aim was to test and compare between 2 lenses, the almost-new to my collection, Voigtländer 20mm f/3.5 lens, and my old (trusted for panoramas) Canon EF 15mm f/2.8 fisheye lens. However, I've completed my tests as much as possible with most of the prime lenses I have: 8mm, 50mm, and 100mm. These tests are not the end of the story as I have to do more with the former two to check out further, mainly, the possibility of doing a panorama without doing further calibration for the VR-head (which is calibrated specifically for Canon EOS 7D + Canon EF 15mm f/2.8 fisheye lens).

For the following tests, I've used a simple chart provided in B&H website. However, I'm not sure how to extract more information from these charts but they were enough for my uses right now, like checking for chromatic aberrations and for the "sweet spot" in apertures range, and probably I would check out for any possibilities to measure the amount of distortion and correction needed (using DxO; but I doubt it's possible). Checking for vignetting is also possible as explained in the main text, but seems all my tests were prone to some error of some kind, and hence testing for vignetting is not assured. Mainly, it was lit from one side (and I preferred working in daytime since the sun beams seep through the door at this time and the exposure times are shortened significantly). According to the text, the chart must be printed on glossy paper (probably for increasing contrast), and that proved problematic with my lighting conditions as there were several harsh reflections off the chart and using speedlites was out of question (would complicate things further). However, the majority of the images taken seem to have proper balanced lighting anyway (with exception to the Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens).

The chart in use. I've printed it on A0 size, even though according to the text it is printed on a smaller size. Both sizes, however, are smaller than the real image size (when printed as it is that is).

Voigtländer 20mm f/3.5

Source: B&H

 The lens is not a fisheye lens, thus it has a rectified perspective (though not absolutely flat). The only wide angle lens I have which gives such a perspective is the very old and out-of-date kit lens, Canon EF-S 18-55mm. The lens is semi-manual, if I can call it so; meaning it is generally manual with no Auto-focus function, but it does apply some communication with the camera. One can simply turn the focusing ring slowly while pressing the shutter button half way and wait for the beep to confirm the focus. However, I've realized that it is a good practice to re-check the LiveView for the sharpness of the lines and fine-tune the focus.
To make things systematic a bit, I've divided my work to two parts: inspecting the center circle for maximum sharpness and best setting chromatic aberrations (mostly it is the same as the aperture of the sharpest image), and the second part is to do the same with the corners. Most of the time, the aperture that provides the sharpest image at the center does so as well to the corners; at least in my case here, but I don't think this is a general rule. More complicated charts (look for ISO 12233) would provide more information, specifically on the resolution power of the lens. Not sure this is possible in the chart above. In the following strip, the change in sharpness of the center circle is shown with varying the aperture. The view is supposed to be an original 100% crop, so please allow some time to load. I was mainly interested in the very central point of the circle where all these triangles meet:

Click the image for a high resolution version

Well, now to results! Upon inspecting the center of the chart, it looks that the range between f/7.1 and f/10 got the sharpest lines (that is, it is the "sweet spot"). Most probably f/8 would be the best, but since the lowest f-number here is f/3.5, I was going in full stops from that point up to f/22, and thus shots were made at f/7.1 and f/10 (instead of the more typical stops of f/8 and f/11). The amount of chromatic aberrations at the center are more or less linked to the same range of apertures. The chromatic aberrations are there at all apertures, but they "look" lesser at this range of apertures.

As for the corners, the results are around the same in fact. Checking the corners is essential since in optical design, the majority of calculations and considerations are done about the center region of the lens mostly, and hence checking the center of the chart and the corners for comparison is a must. However, with this lens I didn't find much difference in the values of sharpness.

Canon EF 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye

Source: The Digital Picture

This is my usual and typical lens for panoramas and I rarely do use it in any other situations, for when I need a really wide angle, I would then switch to my humble Rokinon. This said, it doesn't mean I wouldn't pick it for specific situations anyway. This lens is stopped and not issued anymore from Canon which somehow put me in some troubles now and then when I try to find some specific information about it. Anyway it is still the darling which I prefer for panoramas (and the VR-head is calibrated according to its combination with Canon EOS 7D). The lens has a slot at the back for gel filters. Unlike the Voigtländer lens, it does support AF function, even though it has a slow mechanism. Anyway, with a wide angle, why the hurry! Of course as a fisheye lens, the distortion is, normally, not rectified. This of course makes it a challenge to fit the chart into the view, thus portions of the wall were included in the shots. In the same manner like the previous lens, I've focused automatically, then manually to check the sharpness, and then took shots at full stops of aperture (starting from f/2.8 and ending with f/22).

Click the image for a high resolution version

As for this center, I was fluctuating between f/8 and f/11 as the sharpest, but looking further to the center, I see that the center is less condensed with f/8, which I think it signifies that f/8 is the sweet spot for this lens. However, upon inspecting the corners, the story was a bit different, and I'm hoping that this difference is significant and not caused by a human error from my side.

Click the image for a high resolution version

Inspecting one of the corners here, I've realized that f/8 was not the sharpest but it was f/11. This means we have a difference in terms of sharpness in the various parts of the image. I think this might be considered normal since we are speaking of a fisheye lens which exhibits some distortion. But this observation is really significant when I bear in mind that I used to do panoramas all that time without realizing this fact. Could it be that such fact is the reason behind many failures of stitching in the past? Not sure…
In terms of the chromatic aberrations, it is the same all over and specially at the corners and edges, where it doesn't seem to change at all with the change in aperture; the red and cyan bands around the edges of lines are the same. The image can be sharp (visually), yet it does show aberrations.

Conclusions

From my humble observation, and I know I did make some mistakes in shooting the chart, but it seems that each lens has its advantage and disadvantage, specifically when compared having panorama-making in mind. For example, we can see that the Voigtländer 20mm f/3.5 lens has an almost unified focus from center to the corners when it comes to the sweet spot. On the other hand, the Canon EF 15mm f/2.8 fisheye lens does change in sharpness from center to corner; Where the center is sharpest at f/8 and the corners are sharpest at f/11. Probably we are talking here about the focus shift phenomenon, in which the focusing plane is shifted as the aperture changes and that would require a slight change in the focusing distance.
Chromatic aberrations are apparent in both lenses. However, they are typically more at the edges rather than the center. In my observations, I've noticed that despite displaying chromatic aberrations at most apertures, the distance or the width of the aberrational bands are quite thicker in Canon's lens while being thinner in Voigtländer's lens. This would supposedly mean and easy treatment (digitally) for such a problem in the future for the Voigtländer's lens more than it is for the Canon's. For a fisheye lens, though, this is quite normal I believe, as the distortion at the edges of the frame would naturally be accompanied by such aberrations in high contrast situations.
As for vignetting, my test was quite simple: increasing the contrast for the image. However, no significant vignetting occurred in any lens, at any aperture value. This is probably quite normal since my camera (Canon EOS 7D) has a cropped frame. I think vignetting would be more apparent with full-frame cameras.
One main factor (divided into small factors) which I didn't get the chance to study yet at this point, is the capability of Voigtländer's lens to be adapted for panorama work without the need for re-calibration for the VR-head. Meanwhile, the Canon EF 15 fisheye lens, with its slot at the back for gel filters, is capable of carrying my Kodak gel filter of 1000nm threshold. I can fit my other circular IR filter on the Voigtländer's lens (with some step-up ring), but the threshold is only 650nm; meaning some Red spectrum would seep through still. In both cases the art is possible. An extra point for Voigtländer's lens is the fact that I do own also a UV-pass filter which I can fit it to this lens and do panoramas in UV for the first time (and yet I don't have a UV gel filter). All that work with filters is planned to be with my new converted camera of course (also Canon EOS 7D) and not the regular camera anymore. Another advantage for Canon's which must be pinned out, is the fact that it has a "red dot" to define the focus under infrared influence; Something that Voigtländer's lacks. The critical factor here is finding the no-parallax point for the Voigtländer's lens and see if re-calibration is needed or not. If a re-calibration is due, probably it won't be worth it, but I'll try.
Doing this does encourage me somehow to print the more elaborate and complicated ISO 12233 chart, with which I can do measurement for the resolution power of the lens (in simple terms, it is the power of the lens to differentiate between two closely-spaced lines).  But I don't think this idea will be applicable in the near future.

Finale

Even though I'm having my break from the camera yet I'm working still with the camera(s). Ironic, isn't it? I wish if I can even work further with other projects floating around like the the Geltani, but I'm trying hard to concentrate on one thing at a time. Though I was planning for a long break somewhat, yet it seems I'm much obliged to join the group in another "adventure" for shooting theater performances. This made me think as it would be a good chance to put my converted camera into practice and see how it would act in a dark atmosphere like the one usually offered by theater performances.
This busy schedule after all does not provide a protection from harsh mood swings now and then or simply rolling back with flashes of memories with a simple trigger; could be as silly as a sign on the road. Anyway, now I will be busy writing some articles for the group, and also writing an Arabic illustration for how to test lenses for my other blog, and till then, I'm not sure I would be able to post here soon…

Checkmate!

Still going on with the chess board experiment after borrowing the board for a second time from my friend. This comes after a sorting session which we had a week ago. The leader liked the concept but suggested that the knight should be larger and, in other words, the board be turned into a landscape-like setting by the usage of wide angle lenses. Unfortunately, things didn't go as I hoped.
I didn't have much options in my hands, but to use my Canon EF 15mm fisheye lens, for a number of reasons:

1. On my cropped-frame camera, this provides a suitable wide angle without going extreme, like the Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens.
2. Using flashes might produce some artifacts on Rokinon's 8mm fisheye lens. 
3. Minimum focusing distance is 20cm (7.87in) for the 15mm lens, but it's 30cm or more for Rokinon's 8mm fisheye lens.
4. Seeking clarity, the old kit lens 18-55mm is automatically dropped out of consideration, adding to that it has no scale for focusing.

Anyway, after all these points, the common problem was and will ever be, getting closer and creating the optical illusion I was seeking. Extension tubes, with a minimum of 12mm, was quite problematic and I had to keep the knight almost touching the front of the lens (literally). After all, I've cancelled the idea of extension tubes and decided to work with the lens solely. However, another problem arose here: too much unwanted details in the scene because of the wide field of view. Solution: crop. Then another problem arose: the final image size won't make it even to stock images websites. Solution? Well, Super-resolution (SR).

Last One Standing II
Canon EF 15mm fisheye, f/6.3, 1000^-1sec, ISO100.

The technique of "SR" is something I've read about long time ago and I didn't apply it much to my work, simply to the fact that I do work with panoramas most of the time; images are already super in resolution! Anyway, it was a good chance here to apply the concept again since I'm going to crop the final image. I won't go into details here, but the process is simply done using some software and a number of shots for the same scene. Shots are merged then and a higher resolution is produced. The final output can be 3 times the original resolution of the image out of the camera. Anyway, despite the final output here, the composition itself wasn't to my liking after all.
Still trying to figure out a specific trick, I even tried to do a "macro panorama," if I can call it so. In other words, I tried to do a panorama for the set using a macro lens (Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 macro). However, this method proved to be a failure because of the parallax error, beside the fact it didn't really achieve the perspective needed. After all, I had to just abandon the idea for the time being as I realized the fact that it cannot be done with the collection of lenses I have right now. Instead, I made another idea, which I've entitled: Nobles.

Nobles
Canon EF 15mm fisheye, f/22, 250^-1sec, ISO100.

The idea of this setting is, supposedly, a revelation of how a community works: nobles standing, and the rest of the pawns falling. Well, I'm not quite sure how would a chess game work, but I think it depends highly on the same concept of sacrificing the low rank to save the high one. I tried to keep the setting random and not organized, but unfortunately, it seems I was mistaken with this decision; as the board looks clogged and probably featureless. To snap this shot, I've used the 15mm fisheye lens again and raised it (with a downward tilt) behind the black pawns. The aperture had to be maximum here to ensure the sharpness of the whole set (and this is how the concept of landscapes work); yet despite all of that, the far pawns came out out of focus a bit. I think the focusing point was a mistake too. After doing the SR technique, again, I've worked on some aspects as well, like applying"fake HDR" technique to make the scene more vibrant. Ah well, something to be over with, as I have more projects to look after. I will come to those later.

Toys

After the recent workshop I had about high-speed photography, I've decided to go further with my flashguns and I got myself a power source: Nissin PS-8. Probably I did mention this fact in a previous post? Or was it my Arabic blog? Anyway…

Source: B&H

As can be seen, this power supply can feed 2 flashguns at a time which is beneficial since I had 2 flashguns: 580EX II and 430EX II. Unfortunately, it comes with only one power cable and I had to find a second one. After roaming all around the known shops for such accessories, I couldn't find it. Thus, I've decided to place an order this time and order some "toys!" Along with this cable I need, I've ordered extra cables for a friend who has a different model of Nissin power pack. I got to say, those are not cheap!
Since I'm placing an order, I had to add more items to make it worthy the shipping price I'm paying here. It's like hell now too with oil prices going down (ironic eh?).

Source: B&H

 My most previous toy in this package is something I really need in a long time now. A wide angle lens (but not a fisheye type), and preferable with some good quality! And I decided to go for it right now with Voigtlander Color-Skopar 20mm f/3.5 SL II N Aspherical Lens. The brand, Voigtländer, has a long history in optics and probably it comes second behind the well known Zeiss. I needed this lens specially with the absence of a proper focal length among my lenses in that range, while the old kit lens is no good anymore for a serious work! Would it be suitable to do a panorama? Who knows! The lens is manual in design but with autofocus capabilities which I didn't quite understand in the specs - but probably it is meant that when pressing the shutter button half way, the camera, and through the lens, would give a beep if the image is focused properly. I would love to try this lens with extension tubes as well, specially that according to the specs, the design of this lens is made compact. My hand is already itchy to use it!

Source: B&H

Along with the Voigländer lens, I've decided to cover myself and ordered a step-up ring with it, i.e. a ring that enables a larger filters to fit a lens with smaller thread (smaller front that is). Voigtländer 20mm lens here has a thread of 52mm and most of my filters are in 58mm format. Not ready to buy all the filters all over again and just for a single lens! Well, I'm planning to increase the arsenal of prime lenses in the future but not yet in urgent need for that.

Source: B&H

My last toy was actually from a local store and not ordered from outside. Not only it is discontinued, but I'm also in a hurry to get it to do some of my experiments with my camera. It is Canon's Speedlite 580EX II. For some time I was thinking seriously of getting something cheap like a Yongnuo flash, which many professionals use as well (the important thing is how to use the light). However, from a quick overlook, I've realized that most of those do work by radio wave in wireless format and not optically. Canon's latest addition, the 600 EX-RT, is a powerful tool and addition, yet unfortunately it could deem the usage of my two other flash units dormant and useless. In a lucky gesture, a local Canon store found the last piece in stores of this flash unit (but unfortunately, no discounts since they realized how much I need it!). Nevertheless, I'm happy with the new addition (and the new power at hand). However, this is not the end after all, and more light sources can be good as well!
There had been some other orders from Amazon, like a set of 100 pair of anaglyph glasses and a new book, but I guess I'll keep it for later.

Projects

As for my on-going projects (that is those related with my camera and not my poor conlang Geltani), I do have a list of things to do and I'm trying my best to concentrate on some of the themes listed in the upcoming Trierenberg Super Circuit; mainly the themes of Selfie and Red. I have some problems concerning the two themes. As for the selfie theme, I'm planning to do a high-key (and I have to learn it the hard way) and it must be done in front of a mirror. The problem arises when it comes to a proper location and a proper mirror. With three flashguns now, probably lighting for a high-key won't be a problem (if the room is small enough). The other theme, Red, is mysterious to me as I'm not sure what to do here. Probably the whole thing would end up with a gel filter on one of the flashes and THAT is something I'm trying to avoid, simply because it is just a cliché and not innovative much. Anyway, probably I have to sort myself to this idea at the end if I couldn't come up with something. I do have some old images that might fit such a theme, but I'm trying my best to create something new.

Finale

I'll be busy this coming week as I've started a workshop for Abstract photography, and directly after that another workshop will kick in: Philosophy of Colors. Meanwhile, I'm trying to do my own projects with my camera and even though I'm not working on my Geltani conlang but the thoughts are visiting now and then without being penned down. Add to that some obligations (mainly to my group) and you will have at the end a mesh grid of a mind. With all this mess and fuss, I'm still not finding this is enough to stop looking back or remember my pains; they just keep getting in whether I like it or not, whether I'm busy or not. They do have some way deep inside within me.
My health is getting better now after the latest visit to the doctors and doing allergy tests and all. Thank God! Finally, something good to contemplate over. I'm going to post this, and get ready for my busy weekend to come… let's just hope by next week I'll be having some good results…

Kämpfe der Maschinen...

And I thought this week I will have a nice vacation for 3 days for the National Day celebrations. I was wrong; dead wrong. Honestly, I had some plans for my own in this holiday - I wanted to clean my room which is now a real mess; a REAL mess.
However, my plans got altered severely and I had to go after some tasks for the group as Mawahb 3 expo is approaching in March and there are lot of things to do yet. I'm praying things go well with this expo; we've put a heavy load of effort on it, beside so much stress to be coping with - beside grumpy members to go along with (or to quit working with).

Re-Visited:

In the mess and the fuss I was trying to work a bit more on my previous arsenal of images that I've taken and didn't touch, but also I had some unfinished story with some panoramas.

Esfera Andaluza

And back to the Arab Organizations Headquarter (AOH) where I worked on more panoramas. It seems that it is just my luck that I can't be situated under the center of the ceiling every time I head for a panorama, and in our case in AOH, it is because of the fountain. However, it seems that Esfera Andaluza with its circular projection, is visually almost at the center; but it needs a keen eye to notice the nudge off the center a bit.

Planeta Andalusia

However, before working on Esfera Andaluza, there was one weird aspect that I had to be over with yet: The little planet projection.
The story here is weird because the final image is not a typical little planet like I used to do with some interior panoramas. Rather, it is a mix or something in between the two levels of a planet projection and the wide view (which highly distorts the sides and pushing the center deep backward giving more depth to the image as in a fisheye lens).
When I first applied the little planet projection in PTGui, the whole image was not to mz likings for many reasons, but the main reason was the unpleasant view and stretch in the wooden decoration. For this reason I've shifted the nadir point (bottom point) by changing the pitch (i.e. the tilt of the view) nudging the center of the planet panorama off the center down a bit. In a wide-view panorama, the nadir point should be closer to the bottom edge of the image but here, the nadir point is just nudged little bit off the center. What I really like here is the wings formation for the hall in such projection. Anyway, I couldn't find a name for such projection and I'm not completely convinced it is something totally new other than the wide-view and the little planet, I've named the image after Planeta Andalusia referring back to the little planet projection fact.
Amazingly, with some work and some cloning, the nadir point that I've taken before and did not work in the original stitching process worked easily here (specially that it was taken with a great distortion). I had to do some resizing for the nadir image after the stitch was over and like working with tiles in a new building, I've fitted it there and done some cloning to the edges and also some toning to match the colors of the marble surface and lines between the nadir image and the rest of the stitched panorama. All of that process had to be done in HDR format, hence I was not able to use the Color Match command that is normally available under 16- and 8-bit formats.
I think at this point, all my extractions out of this panorama is done completely. I might visit back in case I had a new idea in mind. I've already inspected the possibilities of a tunnel view projection for this panorama but the overall look didn't sound so good I presume, so I've just skipped stitching this panorama for now. However, I might do it later just for the fun of it!

Arbeitsplatz:

Last week (or even before) I've received a request from the department upstairs in my workplace to take some pictures for the building (and I assume the images they have already were not as good). The whole story began with Kuwait University's Cultural Festival, when the director of the Biotechnology department upstairs was one of the invited guests and she noticed me in the last ceremony for the TV band.

A shot from the festival

However, I was busy a bit with the group (and still) and most of my tools (and thoughts) were scattered. I thought it is a great thing that such request came in winter. I was hoping for some clouds to come in and make my life a bit easier. However, many technical problems occurred! (typical, isn't it?).

Rokinon 8mm, f/8, 0.6sec, ISO100.

As you can see in the image above, the clouds mainly accumulate in the morning and I had some idea for doing a long exposure with such a fisheye lens to have most of the building in view with clouds passing over - but things aren't easy yet. Even though I've developed some ND gels to fit into the rear end of Rokinon's lens, the floodlights won't turn off until the sky is brighter, and probably the clouds are gone.

Rokinon with ND filter in its rear.

It was apparent that my luck was not lucky enough! I've been going to work for several days trying to capture a glimpse of the building and the clouds without floodlights AND cars, but seems the two options just can't be together. However, I kept on trying day after day trying to capture some glimpse of the building at different times and I had to give up the idea capturing some clouds formation because this might take such a long time to deliver the images to the director.

Canon EF-S 18-55mm @37mm, f/11,
25^-1sec, ISO100.

One of the shots that I really liked is the one taken from the side aiming at making the pillars and wall lines parallel vertically. However, I was hoping to take this shot with my 50mm lens to reduce the distortion as much as possible but because of thel imitations in the space (another building at my back and some obstructions) I had to get back to my old EF-S 18-55mm; the lens that I hate so well!
After taking this image (on the left), I've first processed the image with DxO to correct the slight tilt and also to fix the barrel (typical for this lens even though not noticed) and then help on making the image more parallel (forcing parallel lines). After reviewing the image in Photoshop then, I've noticed a tiny part of the metallic shade holder popping out and it kind of irritated me because everything looked perfectly parallel but this line was sticking out.

The front and the metallic shade apparent here.
Canon EF-S 18-55mm @24mm, f/8, 8^-1sec, ISO100.

Cloning out the remnants of the shade was not a good option, thus I had to spend some time copying other parts of the image and sticking them into place and smoothing out some parts to hide the edges. It was quite a piece of cake, but if only I knew that this would work out like that I wouldn't waste my time working on cloning!
The image on the right here was also a riddle to be solved because, with the help of DxO, I tried to fix the horizontal lines and make them perfectly parallel, but when this is done, the vertical lines turn non parallel. And the situation is vice versa! I couldn't settle down with one thing after all the fixes so I just watched out for the horizontal lines, I think, to make them parallel and that's it.

Canon EF-S 18-55mm @18mm, f/8, 84sec, ISO100.

Since we are at it, I've figured some experimenting with the IR filter won't be harmful, just in case this image or technique (despite being black and white) can be interesting to them. Originally, I've approached this image in different manners, in both, Photoshop and Canon's DPP, and initially I've created what it seemed to be artistically interesting photos (with red shades or with blue shades after swapping channels). However, I thought they won't be that interested in such artistic flow (specially that there is already a fisheye shot). This shot (above) was also subjected to DxO to fix certain parallel lines problems (with the usual tilt in the image because of my bad tripod!). Weirdly though, the right top corner of the building was skewed in a strange way and needed some special treatment!

Canon 15mm, f/16, ISO100.
HDR

Finally, I've decided to do a panorama outside and after the working hours. Since there are no clouds I might get out with something useful here like a high resolution panorama. The panorama is around 180^o initially, but lot of the sides was cropped. Probably the building itself occupies less than 90^o of the field view. I've done a previous panorama for the same building but it was done with a regular tripod and no VR-head and there were some stitching errors. Even though I wished for some sky here but lot of people are happy with the blue sky initially. The goal after all is just to give some printable material for the future uses; and in such cases, the bigger, the better. That way, resizing can be done with relative ease without any fear for loss of details (i.e. critical details).
The course of action was over a period of 2 days, and during that time, I was able to catch a glimpse of how spectacular my mission was:

Canon EF 50mm, f/2, 30^-1sec, ISO100.

 And yes, it was placed in front of my own workplace building. Had to crop here and there to emphasize the subject...
At the time of typing these words, the CD containing these photos is not submitted yet to the director and might not hear back from her soon. I know she's a busy person and probably won't have enough time to look at those few pictures thoroughly.

Nocturnal Nostalgia:

Nocturnal Abstract
Canon EF 50mm, f/1.4, 400^-1sec, ISO100.

Before proceeding with the nostalgia part, I have to say that I barely found some time to work on with some of the images taken from Ahmadi around 2 weeks ago. After going over the images again probably I didn't find much, but there were some images that were saved in layered TIFF format but I didn't complete the editing process to be posted last week in this blog.
Some images were hard to be liked, but I thought maybe some cropping would do the job and change the image into something likable, like Nocturnal abstract. I've converted the image here to black and white to emphasize the looks of the light and neglect the importance of the colors (they were red, yellow and orange). I'm not sure this image would be liked by anyone but I like it after all for its simplicity of lines.

Counter Clockwise
Canon EF 15mm, f/16, 30sec, ISO100.

However, there were some images that I've neglected for some time, probably because of the pressure over me with the group's activities hovering over. One of those images was Counter Clockwise which was taken at a roundabout (before the arrival of some hooligans). I could've made the exposure longer than 30 seconds but the circumstances there made me stop at this point and I thought 30 seconds is just fair enough - all what I would have to do is time it with the arrival of some cars. Initially, I wanted to take this shot with Rokinon's 8mm fisheye lens but the view was so wide that the clock tower in the roundabout seemed so small and far away and this is exactly the opposite of what I wanted in the first place. My best choice was the 15mm lens (and better than my EF-S 18-55mm of course!).

Round Around
Canon EF 15mm, f/22, 30sec, ISO100.

Gates of Light
Tamron 70-300mm @119mm,
f/16, 30sec, ISO100.

Still with the 15mm fisheye lens when Round Around was taken and in this shot I didn't really care much about the composition as much as I cared for the simple movement of the merry-go-round. I had to crop a lot from the top to remove the black sky and I've darkened the triangular part near the top edge which so bright and shiny because of the floodlight behind me here. Not an image I would submit usually but it simply has some motion that I like. Some images however could not be fixed even after cropping hard. I like some movements in them like Round Around and Gates of Light, which stopped my cropping at a certain point because of gated lights, yet I have to say I simply like some aspects of the images and not completely like the images themselves. I think it is important to have some hope in every image you take even if you don't like or love the total aspect of the image. I've met some people so far that desire and wish to make a masterpiece of every shutter click, but this is simply not possible, and not even Ansel Adams would have dreamed of something like that! The point here, I do photography because I like it, not because I want people to be impressed with it - and when I share my images, I share my interests with the world. I'm not showing people how a good photographer I am, because simply, I'm not.

You might be wondering, where does the nostalgia part comes in. It comes from the fact that during this holiday (National Independence and liberation days), I've decided to visit the area that I've lived in for 23 years of my life. I was born and raised there and back then I've never imagined myself being out of this area. But life has its own measures and (bad and good) surprises for us. Things changed a bit since I've left this area in 2003, but the general plan and shape of the roads is mostly the same. 

Electric Sakura

Glowing Kuwait

Smiley Lighty

I won't be discussing the matters of these images and how good or bad they are (and I think most of them aren't that good), but I just wanted to say that that night sparked some memories about places that maybe I was supposed to be in till this very day if not for legal and financial problems that the family had been through. 
They told me the light decoration in the area is magnificent and they were to some extent but not as brilliant as the light decoration and miniatures in Ahmadi. Yet, I tried to enjoy my time taking some snap shots. A lot of the light decorations were raised up high and were regular in patterns making shooting them with a camera a bit of a hard task and monotonous.
I didn't write up any technical details on each image here. All what I want to do personally is just stare at these images and remember the old days. Who cares what lens I've used in these shots?

Finale:

Had been a time of stress lately. Not only for the numerous activities that I have to cope with, but also for matters of the heart - which I'm trying to have a foundation of.
In the mean time, I'm keeping some thoughts to myself after the pressure over members of the group and myself. To me, I don't care much about contests and expos (or let's say my interest is minimum), but to some other members it seems not so - specially after what seemed to them it is a harsh judgement over their images. With me, being responsible for the printing process and following-ups in this field, I've realized many hardships that members face. I have a list of points that I'm keeping for myself right now but probably would expose them at the right moment:

• Neglecting expos and contests and stop pressurizing the group's activities. If you want to bake a cake, quick baking is not the way.
• Giving a period of time for free activities for the group and not putting stress on their shoulders for some months.
• Opening up a discussion on a weekly basis for the pictures taken randomly by members every week. We have to emphasize the emotional connection to the images and not only to think in an abstract manner about beauty itself. This is not sorting out by critics, but a discussion.
• We must drop down the spirit of competition inside the members of the group; photography is a philosophy, not a fight. Won? good, lost? I'm happy about my pictures.
• A workshop to produce images would not necessarily give out the results right away. Mastering a technique after a workshop or a chain of thoughts (if the workshop is about certain field of photography) can take up to months of hard work - this is if such field is really appreciated and rises curiosity inside the photographer.
• Judgements and criticizing images should be done under the light of the available gadgets and knowledge of the photographer. A beginner photographer should not be criticized up to the same level as an advanced photographer. In Kuwait, landscape photography is a pure example of such differences in creative powers in such field of photography. It's hard to make out an astonishing image from a landscape in this country; why would I ask so much from the photographer for things out of his or her control?
• The activities should be divided in between the group members. In other words, not all (or most) group members should get involved in contests or expos, but the load should be divided and shared. Moreover, it would be better if the leader of the group picks certain members to submit some of their images for certain contests, since the leader knows better about the capabilities of certain members. I think this is far better than trying to seed ideas and waiting for the plow by all members.
• Technical advices concerning working with RAW format and color spaces is a must.

Ironically, I wish if I can make out some ideas to organize myself as I'm trying to organize some aspects of the group.

I'm not sure where am I heading, but from time to time some dreams tickle my heart and mind. Age seems to be something not to be forgotten - or not so easily I would say. Walking alone, working alone, and sleeping alone. Wondering still if my life is appreciated by anyone. In the meantime I'm digging hard and trying to grasp my poetic abilities back again. Wrote something but might keep it for the next post, next week. It was an image that inspired the whole piece, a short one though, with hardly squeezed words out of my mind. Would I be able to use photography and photos to inspire for poetry? Who knows... I need something to steam off the anger, the melancholy...

Gelb und Weiß