Alexander 6, V91, V92.

Well, it's Thursday! As you can see from the title above, I'm putting 2 verses today since I didn't post anything yesterday. I was at home and didn't go to work (Mowahaha). I had some disturbance in my sleeping schedule and stayed up all the night, and pushed myself to stay awake in the morning just to do the damn fingerprint scan and get back home to have a nap.

I've been considering more notes from Mastering Digital Panoramic Photography, by Harald Woeste, and building back more information on how to possibly fix some of my bad panoramas. I've also tried the Kolor Autopano software; it is one of the softwares recommended by Harald as well. A first trial for this software sounds good and it works with HDR images in OpenEXR format, but I couldn't find any controls to raise or lower down the exposure value for the stitched result. Could it be hidden? I digged the menues but no use. These controls are important for me since I need to see the details, because an HDR image usually looks pale and dark in the default setting of -/+ 0 EV. I've tried the software on my Office panorama, but the results were hideous a bit, but this is not a sign to be able to judge the software yet. The shoot is bad already with me moving objects in the scene. Got to try it on something more standard. It is noteworthy to say that Autopano got a plugin that works with PTGui to help on specificying control points only, but it doesn't work with HDR images, and only with 16-bit and below images.

 The Office (partial)

Now, there is one thing I've noticed while working again with PTGui on this office panorama, and I really don't know is it a problem with the file format, or with PTGui itself, but I do think it is something has to do with the format of the files. Anyway, the problem goes like this:
I was trying to stitch the panorama without the slides where my body is in, and then I would stitch another panorama of the slices where my body is in (3 slides total). I tried that once already but it didn't work out well. Among the problems that I had with blending in the 3 slides with the rest of the panorama, was actually a problem of the black background. When I saved this second panorama with only 3 slides as EXR, the background was black with many strips of various colors, like a TV noise. This time, I tried it out saving the files as HDR (Radiance) format, and the background was compeletely black and so easy to remove! I'm wondering what's behind all of this?

Beside working on these things I think I've forgot to post some of the single images that I've did before on that day, after taking the panoramas.

I do prefer the bottom one over the first actually, and it was taken with a 15mm fisheye lens. I worked hard on many adjustment layers to emphasize the blue sky effect. In these situation it would be a good idea to work with ND filters to reduce the intensity of the sun a bit, but it was a bad idea to work with a tungsten white-balance. I had to adjust the white balance after downloading the images to the PC. However, the white balance later on, after adjustments, had a little effect on the workflow, because after all, I tried my best to merge hot and cold colors altogether here and make a contrast and some opposition. The halo that resulted from the tone-mapping was not something I did like but I didn't want to touch it as well or everything would be messed up again. The thing I like about the first image, however, is the tiny clouds passing through the sky. The first image was taken with a 18-55mm lens @55mm, if I remember correctly. I'm not sure!

I was sort of able to break the spell today and finally got my pen to work a little bit. Not something I would say it's big, but at least it something! I called it "One Lucky Day."  It is something bursting out of my mind, after some events that I deemed unlucky or simply, dull, making my life sometimes without a meaning...

__________

2161. then after the passage over the Avvátallán under him
2162. Alexander saw something like ants on the grounds
2163. the ground was greenish like farms were down there
2164. and Alexander asked: what are those? ants?
2165. the voice of Aramramátáníth appeared with laughter
2166. and this she said to Alexander: no hero, they are beasts,
2167. these are the Jawga Majawga of this world
2168. Alexander got shaken and shocked for the name
2169. and he thought he will never see such creatures
2170. then Aramramátáníth continued: do not worry O hero,
2171. they do not eat the flesh and drink blood like you've seen,
2172. but they eat the pasture and the grass on the lands,
2173. but they are causing problems for farmers and shepherds,
2174. maybe you can stop them O hero like you did in Daynur?
2175. but Alexander disliked the idea in that moment
2176. then he remembered his history of bravery in Daynur
2177. and this he said: but how shall I do that without men?
2178. Aramramátáníth said: I shall try to gather the men for you,
2179. it is one final task for you just before you meet the Hermit,
2180. I shall appreciate your help O hero of Caqobia,
2181. I have no control over these beasts, nor I can kill them,
2182. if you happen to block their way to go in between the valleys,
2183. the soldiers of nature shall I make under your feet
2184. but Alexander kept silent to think about the matter deeply

2185. Alexander memorized all of the moments of horror
2186. how his men died out and some of them were eaten
2187. although these beasts eat the grass only as they say
2188. but their name brings the fear into the hearts of brave ones
2189. and he gazed into the ground and forgot his fears of heights
2190. then this he said: yes, I will, bring me the men and put me down
2191. it was not easy for Alexander to refuse the request
2192. it is a matter of glory and bravery, shame and dishonor
2193. then Alexander was lowered down to the ground on a hill
2194. with his Cadid in a chain which he held in his hand
2195. Aramramátáníth then said: wait here O hero,
2196. I shall gather the farmers from the farms around you,
2197. you stay here until I come back, and do not get closer to them
2198. then Alexander replied: sure I will not! you go and I'll be here,
2199. I need some time to think of a way to do this matter
2200. Aramramátáníth then moved like the breeze over the meadows
2201. and made a blowing sound like the air into a sail
2202. then her sound disappeared slowly in the horizon
2203. and far away she moved, through the valleys
2204. while Alexander sat down with his Cadid on the grass
2205. he gave his Cadid some food from his bag
2206. but he did not feel like eating, and his mind was busy
2207. and his gaze expanded to the greenish horizons
2208. until he finally thought of some idea that might work

Alexander 3, V6. Last.

Spending some time still working on ONE exr file that exhausted my PC completely! I've been working on ths image for 2 or 3 days now. Unfortunately I had to reduce the size into 50% (and that is from ~20,000 pixels to something around 10,000 pixels. Width and Height).
You might think it is still big or something but I was really ambitious for that large file. One major problem now is to cover the hole in the middle with a grass-like pattern. I tried to do that in the HDR status but seems this is unfesable for the time being and I might have to tone-map it down. As for the time being I've been fixing the exposures in certain areas of the image since the castle field image was taken in a sunny day. By the way the "regular" image can be found still in my profile in Canstockphoto. My work with other photos (and scans of some pictures taken back in 1996 from Iran) is almost paralyzed until I finish this one particular photo.

__________
121. Ishkán, Chirán and Keríhom
122. three generals with mighty swords
123. these will surround the Bulughmans
124. and be their defence in war time
125. and so on with the bless they went on
126. workers extracted the ores from the land
127. and a dam was made over the valley
128. and when Jawgá Majawgá felt it
129. they attacked worse than the beasts of the deserts
130. and the men of Alexander suffered severely
131. for the beasts did not spare their bodies
132. and the archers pointed to their eyes
133. for it was the only way to astray them
134. and the men of Galgalom assaulted heavily
135. deep into the valley of Malúnet, the damned
136. they perished but with victory and honour
137. and Galgalom lost limbs until he died
138. and then the dam was ended in a hurry
139. stretching from the two mountain tops
140. blocking the way and harder than rocks
141. all men then retreated behind the dam
142. and dug the graves for their friends and mates
143. and the black banners were raised high
144. for those who had no apparent grave

New Mistake...

 Not a pleasant beginning for the first day of work in the new year, and a not so special new year's eve as usual (well, it should be normal by now). In fact, this feeling was accompanying me all along since yesterday or the day before... a feeling of emptiness and carelessness for everything in this life and all what surrounds me. Feels like hating everyone, and caring for no one, and the pressure with the early hours of the morning today was not helping either.
Canstockphoto seem to be encouraging me to submit more of my doodles! That's a happy bit in my life!


The day went on without progressing much in fact. I went to Canon workshop to pick up my camera and it was still not finished and then went on to the DHL facility to collect my money back after the destruction of my shipment in Ireland before it could reach the owner of The Waterfront, and yet, I couldn't get any money about this because they did not have the cash at present and the guy said he will call me (maybe this afternoon) to go and pick up the money. I hate this. At least, I paid for a US mailbox (in Ohio as he said) and it might be active soon enough. I've made a wishlist already in BH website. The total amount for my wishlist exceeds $600, that's around 200 K.D. maybe. Ah yes, and the other good thing I did today was to drop some of my purchase back home, so I don't have to carry lot of stuff when I'm going out of my work place. But all of that really isn't worthy for all that traffic jam and the craziness that I faced in the roads today, going out fomr my work place or going here and therThe e or coming back to my work place... it was all the same.


I discovered another mistake in the line numbering... jumping from #2485 to #2489, missing 4 lines. I have to count the "net" number of lines, I really did miss around and lost the count of the lines. I think Word and other word-processing programs are able to do so! There is no way to count that myself!
Despite the tiresome roaming of the roads from the morning, I managed to translate on verse before I set off, and some 2 verses (or were they 3?) after arriving. The amount is increasing easily since the control over the words in memory is great, till now. The final stop is line #2496.

At the current time I'm working on looking for a suitable EXR viewer (and there are some of them out there) to view the HDR pictures saved in OpenEXR format, but it would be nice if the program supported HDR and EXR formats, and yet be light for the memory. Unfortunately, my default viewer, ACDsee, does not support the 32-bit images even in the newer versions. Thus, I have to look for some program that becomes sort of a swiss-knife for wide range of formats. Otherwise, I'm going to need the Photoshop every time I want to view one of those 32-bit images... and Photoshop is no little baby!