The Twins…

The weather is getting colder and colder (and makes me happy that way despite other things in my personal life)! It is time to prepare for some morning walks if possible, so we'll see to that.
In this quick post, I'm keeping up with the trend of macro shots, but this time, I'm going "extreme" macro, as at this point, I've tried to shoot at 5X, but this time, indoors. I hope the bougainvillea in the yard forgives me picking up one of her blooms!

Twins

Well, for this post, I will start with the "second" experiment and then go to the "first" because the second experiment gives a general outlook at what has been shot in the first experiment; Does that make sense? Hope so.
The story here began with picking another flower from one of the bougainvillea we have in the yard (hope they forgive me for that!) and started to shoot it indoors. This time, though, and unlike the flower in the previous post, the little white blooms of the bougainvillea were wide open, so I thought it is a good target. Since I need stability, I had to pick it and do my work inside.

雙胞胎
(the twins)

As I said, I will show those shot in the second trial before the first. Here, The Twins was shot using extension tubes (36mm) along with 50mm lens (typical). The image here was made soft on purpose (using the Clarity in ACR) and more softness was added later in the post-processing phase in Photoshop. Shooting at slightly different displacements made it also possible to create a 3D anaglyph!

The Twins (3D)

You might notice a horizontal flipping here between the normal and the 3D versions. Well, the 3D version is the original orientation. For some reason, I've felt that flipping the normal one was proper and going smoothly from right-to-left (maybe because this is how I read even though I'm reading English text more than I do with Arabic actually). Anyway, it just felt more normal that way for some reason!

So, at this point, this little experiment finished, but as i said, this is the second one and I will go through the first experiment now. I've actually made some artistic version(s) of this shot but I don't think I'll bother much about them for now.

Extreme

The first experiment, and the one for which I've actually picked this (poor) flower, is to do an extreme macro shoot, using focus stacking methods, to go deep into the flowers. Anyway, I have to say this now, I'm quite disappointed for the final results after all, but since it is a work that I've done and spent quite some time with, I guess it is worth of posting here. 

BouganBloom

Artistically, I don't think it is much to consider. Challenge-wise? Too much to bear with! Despite my initial plans to go at 5X, but I've pulled it back (for details sake and to have it slow this time) and shot the whole thing at 3.2X, and stacking about 211 shots (yes, two hundred and eleven). Despite this, there was still some gaps or artifacts when the stack was merged. I've actually tried many methods for stacking using other programs (e.g. EnfuseGUI) but all my trials failed in having a proper stacking blend. Maybe the best I could do in some of these programs is to align the images. The problem with Photoshop here is the consumption of memory in the process (same thing with panorama stitching). It made me doubt the process of shooting the stack and actually I've decided to get a new rail, which turned out later it's not the best option, but this is a story for another time for now (and I might do a review post and a comparison to my old rail), as I got that rail after all of the fuss done here. So, in a nutshell, I had to go back to the ol' Photoshop to do the stacking and the blending for this stack and you might notice that BouganBloom is cropped out of the 3:2 ratio, as I had to do it that way to keep artifacts or points that didn't blend properly out of the image but the blend is still not quite that good in general. Many of the details in BouganBloom were kind of "extracted" by excessive sharpening. Maybe new editions of Photoshop did fix all of these issues? Maybe it consumes lesser memory than my older version here? I'm really not sure about it, since I've never used one. 

Anyway, at this level, my work was done with this poor bloom, which actually had to be done quickly since the whole bloom withered and "melted" down few hours later and wasn't suitable to be shot further. I'm still planning to shoot some stacking in the future (specially at 5X which was supposed to be done here) but I'm still on the look for some good target to do so. The new rail kind of disappointed me but anyway it was comparatively cheaper and maybe it has other uses; Not all wasted I guess.

Finale

In the past few days I've spent a considerable time preparing for a special post about the Arabic Language day (December 18ᵗʰ), and actually ended up 9 of them so far, but I don't think I will be posting them here. They are, however, available on Instagram. The link leads to the English post, but it is available in other languages as well (Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Irish, Turkish, Farsi, and Greek), and I've tried my best to get over the randomness or faulty translations provided by Google Translate. Anyway, maybe I didn't succeed much with that, but I've tried!
The thing is that, in creating this post, I've thought quickly about doing light painting in some dark room (which I could barely make or use in the house). This actually made me think seriously about doing more light painting in the future. I had some humble trials in the past but never took it seriously. On another note, my phone does have a "light painting" mode which various options (using AI) which I've used before and it can create some interesting images indeed, but it lacks the flexibility in other things (mainly focusing and shooting in RAW for this purpose), yet it can come in handy at some point too, but my focus for now is using the DSLR to do the work. Not sure where I'm going with this though and I don't have quite have a specific target but we'll see if creativity kicks in (or something kicks me in).

On the mental plane, every day seems to be an occasion to hit a new low. In the past few days I've come into almost complete isolation (even online). I had the urge to talk, but there was none to talk to, literally. Gone are the days of those chatting programs that offer random people to chat with. I miss these old days, they definitely filled such a gap in my social life (which barely exists). Having a random chat like now on social media would sound more like stalking.  Nevertheless, I have to keep this isolation for the time being because I need to sustain some mental peace and health away from the family. They say to surround yourself with good vibes and positive people, and I just can't stop wondering how this is possible at all? I can't find it, I can't reach it, and I don't even know where it lies. All I know is that I just wish I had my own place, somewhere far, far away…

Sisters…

I'm posting this late, I know. But things were forced upon me actually. I've tried to finish it for Thursday but I was struck with some ailment (stomach bug probably) that kept me awry and exhausted (more than before) most of the time. Luckily though it all happened after I've already finished my post for my Arabic blog (phew!). Anyway, as I've mentioned in the previous posts, I've been working on some macro trials lately and I've already posted some pictures previously, so this one is actually a continuation of this trend.

Sisters

After trying to shoot some macro outside in the open, and without a speedlite even, I've decided to take a step further and actually do it indoors. One of the reasons that I don't like doing macro indoors, specifically with plants, is that I would most likely need to chop or pick something to work with indoors. These pots are quite heavy and dirty so picking them inside is not an option at all! However, for art's sake, I've decided to break "some" of my principles this time…

粉红手指
(the pink finger)

So, for starters, the first question to answer was: How am I going to let he flower stand. The bougainvillea flower is quite small and the inner parts are, of course, even smaller. The solution came about in the end with (drums): … a can of PRINGLES! Yes.
Unfortunately, I didn't shoot the setting as i would do usually (with phone) as i work in a hurry a bit because with such flowers, I guess things would go pale quickly and I have to do whatever I can, racing time. I've just pierced a hole into the plastic cover of the can and let the stem of the flower go through it and that's it! 

Details Oriented

In this trial, as far as i remember, my trials to shoot at 5X ratio (or 5:1), using reversed Voitgländer 20mm lens and some extension tubes, all failed. Naturally, since I wasn't using a rail yet at this point. So, the rest of the shoot proceeded with extension tubes and my trusted Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM lens. Since the shooting is indoors (which actually is still slightly shaky because of the AC breeze!) but I was a bit free to shoot in HDR, without a speedlite of course. Both, The Pink Finger and Details Oriented are shot in HDR, but each has a different story, since each was shot in a different extension tube. Shooting objects or scenes in HDR gives a wide variety of choices for creativity that might follow up at a later time even. Here, The Pink Finger was shot using 36mm extension tube and when tone-mapped from HDR, I've tried to make it as normal as possible with a catch of rim light. Meanwhile, Details Oriented was actually a test shot and I didn't quite intend to put it up because it was shot with 20mm extension tube and contained a lot of background elements that were distracting. Later on (weeks after the fact) I've decided to do the HDR for this shot, and crop it tight, and work on suppressing the background as much as possible. I was able to make it pitch black but then I've realized that it might not quite normal that way so I've put down the opacity a bit. When tone-mapped, I've tried to add details via tone-mapping as much as possible (hence the title). Sharpening in the post-processing phase added even more structure to the whole image here. I'm still considering visiting these images now and then and see if I can do more HDR tone-mapping work differently to have different results.

三姐妹 (一)
(three sisters 1)

Then comes the part where I stopped using HDR bracketing and started to work with the speedlite to have more of a dramatic look. At this level I've returned back to using the 36mm extension tube and tried to get around the flower to find a special angle of some sort. The result was a series of 3 shots, of the same scene, but with change in the light directions. I've called it the Three Sisters after the three stems (or stamens) at the center.

三姐妹 (二)
(three sisters 2)

三姐妹 (三)
(three sisters 3)

Interestingly, out of these three, the first and the last had greater number of likes (specially the first) than the second. I'm guessing because there is some element of darkness and contrast in them more than the bright second version in the series. Worth noting here also that shots were taken at f/22 (maximum) and yet the petal in at the center in the background is slightly out of focus (as I've set the focus on the front stamen mainly). In the macro world, this is normal, and this is why focus stacking is used even with large f-numbers such as f/11 or f/16. These two values are advisable usually rather than using the max of f/22 because most lenses got their "sweet spot" for the sharpest image and least diffraction or chromatic aberration around these values, and as it can be seen, the depth of field is considerably shallow even at f/22. At this point, I didn't care about these elements at the back but my main interest was the stamen at the front, but if I was to take everything into focus, then I'd definitely need to do focus stacking (which I've tried later but that's for another post to come, hopefully).

At this point, I've finished the "experiment" but there had been other trials with this set, like shooting at 3.2X or even 5X but I'd call them a fail really, so no need to post them now. On the other hand, I think I will still check this folder to re-check the images (specially test shots) to see if they have some potential, and also to re-work the HDR brackets I've shot already and tone-map them in different ways, if possible.

Finale

At this level, I'm trying hard to push my creative juices forward a bit. Ironically, though I want to focus on using my DSLR, I often find myself switching to my phone because it is in my hand most of the time right now (starting with this habit around the time of doing my retirement procedures). I've also remembered a project or two that I was supposed to do and finish in 2021 and totally forgot about them. Let's see if I can just put my mind (and mood) into these things and finish them for good! Meanwhile, I also need to think of something to do for the Arabic Language Day on December 18ᵗʰ.

My physical health is recovering a bit right now after rounds of bloating and diarrhea, topping that with a tearing mental stress caused mainly by the people in this house. I think it is time for me to give up hope in fixing things here and talk about things are go wrong in this house; It's fruitless, and putting more stress on my back and unnecessarily causing more mental ailments, more than what I do have to deal with already. I guess this calls for more isolation in my room and to learn how to not give a damn, even when this house collapses altogether. Not sure where I'm heading to, but I do need a long rest, for sure… and a "home".

Stacked…

It's a slowing down time, and summer is hovering heavily with its beginning here. Air breezes are slow and barely enough to breathe here, with waves of dust suspended in the air. I miss winter already. I didn't do much photography lately but few video shooting, again, as I'm waiting to settle down with a topic for the project of the month of May. We'll see what that would be. I had some work with macro shooting too as I was trying my old rail to do some focus stacking, which I have to say from now, it was a fail for many factors. However, I got still some nice out come as well.

VaVaVoom...

Let's head first to the video. In my last post in this blog I've posted mainly 2 infrared videos done as I was driving. It was about time, however, to do the same while using my B+W 403 Black UV-Pass filter. I didn't want to use the old and cumbersome 18-55mm kit lens which fits this filter perfectly and I didn't have any wide angle lens better than my Voigtländer 20mm semi-manual lens, which has a diameter of 52mm, and thus a step-up ring is needed.

Without going into details here with the settings I've been using (basically automated), you might have noticed vignetting around the corners. I need to do a thorough check up and comparison with my other B+W 092 infrared filter and Voigtländer 20mm lens, as it seems that vignetting happens only with this lens, for which I use a step-up ring to fit those circular filters (all of them are 58mm in diameter while Voigtländer 20mm is 52mm). If vignetting appears with both filters then, of course, it has to be the step-up ring, but if not, then it has to be the filter itself and its nature and make. However, in regular single shots, fixing the vignetting is quite easy but with a video clip, I'm still not sure about my capabilities in that venue. 

Sigma 12-24mm for Canon.

I thought I was over with videos until I've noticed that some of the infrared images online are actually, and most likely, images taken with a converted camera but without any filter, which produced a strange hue of colors because of the full spectrum involved (specially when the sun is shining), and then colors would be converted (sometimes) and the resultant image is something "fantastical," so to say. This is what I planned to do then specially after acquiring a new lens (but an old one) from a friend who converted to Nikon. The lens is Sigma 12-24mm. It is a big and a bulky lens but the range of zooming here is quite useful for me specially for recording a video inside the car, and with the absence of any 18-55mm kit lens in my collection (it's there, but it's old and hardly used).

Again, sorry, I have to remove the audio here (for your own safety trust me). I was lucky and unlucky in the beginning of this video as you can see: I was trapped between my brother's car (which is red but turned blue with channel swapping) and our neighbor's car on the right, yet it was a good chance for some interesting footage! Anyhow, I think I'm going to like this new old-lens. There are some problems though which I'm hoping to find a solution for later:

Rokinon 800mm f/8.0 Mirror Lens

• The lens with its case is too large for my camera bag, even if the case is to be removed.
• The lens front is fisheye-like, meaning no filters can fit. But there is a special hood to cover the front of the lens and provide a base to attach filters, yet it can hardly be used for now since it's 82mm in diameter.
• The rear of the lens is large as well and it might be hard to stabilize any gel filters at the back.

Nevertheless, I still think this old lens will be of great use in the future. If only I can find a proper place to store it. This brings me memories of my Rokinon 800mm mirror lens which I didn't use much as well and I have to see about using this lens as well and getting active with it too! As you can see from the video above, the colors are pretty close to, for example, many portraiture shots that are said to be taken in infrared. This makes me think that many of these infrared shots are actually, simply, taken with a converted camera without an infrared filter. I've seen some pretty colored infrared shots that are said to be taken with Hoya infrared filters, with threshold of 720nm; Yet, I don't understand the vibrant colors which I don't even get with my B+W 092 infrared filter of 650nm in threshold. This needs more research!

Minute

Min-Yoot; to be precise about the pronunciation. Along with my videos, I've taken my chances to work with my old macro-rail for a while, as some tiny plants are blooming at home and I didn't want to lose this "rare" chance without documenting some of them. Got to say that the aroma that spread around the place in the early morning hours is just refreshing (despite the bad weather of dust and humidity sometimes).

Beauty Explosion
Canon EF 50mm + 56mm ET, f/11, 10^-1sec, ISO250.
Focus Stack

I have to say though that all my trials with the rail were a chain of failures. Yet, some people liked some shots despite the errors like Beauty Explosion, which was shot indoors (after moving the pot inside). Yet, I made a mistake for not using higher f-number. Despite being inside, the branch was still shaking because of the slight breeze from the AC! This was so obvious even with 1.12X magnification, so I can't imagine what kind of shake I would be witnessing if I went over this ratio of magnification even! The 20mm and 36mm extension tubes would be used for every railing experiment still. It can be noticed in Beauty Explosion how some areas are smudges; those are specifically some merging errors probably cause of the little shake of the branch and changing the position and also there might be some missing millimeters along the way as I was rotating the knobs of the rail (making more than 20 shots along the way). The colors here are, of course, a result of swapping Red and Blue (the shoot was done using my converted Canon EOS 7D but without any filters).

SpectraOnion
Canon EF 50mm + 12mm ET, f/22, 30^-1sec, ISO100.

Away from that plant, outside under the blazing sun, I got some memories back of me doing some of my first 3D with onion blooms, and we have it again! I didn't want to skip the chance so I tried my luck with it, this time with my converted camera. In SpectraOnion, I've the 12mm extension tube just to get closer to the bloom, as the 50mm lens has a minimum focusing distance of 45cm, and I needed to get closer than this distance. My aim wasn't really going into the field of macro here, yet I got a nice close up, despite the back-breaking situation (very low) and the blazing sun. Of course,  I didn't forget to aim for a 3D rendition so I've taken several shots by nudging the whole tripod to the left gently.

SpectraOnion (3D)

I've examined doing the 3D anaglyph on both, colored and B&W versions and, despite the distractions with the colored version, it seems that it stands out more than the B&W version. Not sure why, but it is kind of weird to see such thing with my own eyes, because it is believed, typically, that B&W images are better for anaglyph rendering to reduce the color distractions in general! Anyway, it looks fine to me specially at the base of the little stems as they stand out when viewed with anaglyph glasses. Moreover, I had a go with swapping the channels as usual with such images specifically.

SpectraOnion (Red-Blue channel swap)

Being beautiful as well, but not favored over the original by some, probably because the original has a strong color contrast between yellows and blues (the two are opposites on the circle of colors). However, another trial took place and this time I've done it outside (for the same plant) in a somewhat quite evening with barely some breeze. The light outside was strong so I was relying a bit on the fast shutter to stabilize the image with the same settings for the previous experiment: 50mm lens and 20+36mm tubes.

Stacked Bloom
Canon EF 50mm + 56mm ET, f/22, 5^-1sec, ISO400.

As it can be seen, I was wrong. Though I increased the depth to f/22 but the shutter slowed down significantly. For this reason, I had to time my shooting, holding the remote in one hand and trying to block the air current with the other, and shooting only when I feel the branch was stable enough. The ISO had to be raised significantly which meant more noise. However, I can say that the range of proper merging here is better than my first trial despite the fact that I was doing it outside in the fresh air. Here in Stacked Bloom we see that it's all blue after channel swapping unlike the very first trial, Beauty Explosion. This is probably related to the change in IR levels from indoors to outdoors (outdoors being more, naturally).

Crystal Bloom
Canon EF 50mm + 56mm ET, f/16, 10sec, ISO100.

In my final trial, Crystal Bloom, I've decided to cut a portion of the branch and it take it inside then stabilize it further by holding it with a paper binder. The length was small so AC air breeze wouldn't have an effect on it, which encouraged me to go mad with the exposure! At that moment I've remembered my problems with my Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 macro lens, and thus decided to work with f/16 instead of f/22, as I thought it might be a factor playing in the mishaps with merging the focus stack. In average, the exposure for each shot in the stack was between 8 seconds to 10 seconds and the total was about 40 shots. Tried to be precise as much as possible with the rail this time and moved 1mm between each shot and the other. However, in merging the focus stack, things went OK except at some portions close to the edges away from the center of the image. This leads to me think that what is happening here is a change in the virtual size of the image beside the change in the focused area, and for this reason the stacking doesn't go well. There is, of course, some room for human error, always. Also, it might just be that using many extension tubes like that doesn't go well with the rail method? Not sure. Too bad I didn't think of doing reversing lens back then since I have the proper gear for that. According to calculations (which I hope are right!) if I'm to use Voigtländer 20mm lens in reverse, the magnification power is supposed to be about 2.5X. The question remains though about how practical the focusing distance would be (it is REALLY close already with extension tubes and 50mm at 1.12X magnification!). Seems we'll have another round with that. I didn't forget as well to render a 3D out of these images!

Crystal Bloom (3D)

Finale

This was a... brief (?) about what was going on with my life lately. Excluding the ups and downs and the mood swings. There was a bubble of eagerness to write a poem with all that mix of feelings inside me, yet I couldn't find the power nor the mental order to pin it down. I think my dreams of seeing Morocco must be kept for some other time. I've signed in for a leave for the whole month of Ramadhan and it will start by May 28^th and will end by June 22^nd. Thus, I'm not sure if there is any chance for a vacation this year either. All what is left for me here, I presume, is the company of my own thoughts, and projects…

Unprecedented…

Two weeks of upheaval with sickness. Respiratory system infection, and then Conjunctivitis; I was surprised to know that the two are actually connected, as mention in this article. The bright side of the story is a 3 days of medical leave from work, connected to weekend. Not bad. My health still shaky with the tearful cough, but it is the usual story I believe. Coughing always lasts for some days if not months after treatment. I'm not having any medications to treat all of that, just some eye drops and cream for conjunctivitis.

With conjunctivitis. It was redder than this!

With this, and with the closure of Winter's end, seems that my plans to go out at night are somewhat, or completely, diminished. It is clear that my health and immune system is not what it used to be. However, I got myself little boots just in case I need to get a bit deeper into the shore. With this temperature it might not be a good idea to do long exposures here for the level of noise will be something unprecedented, but with more technical knowledge that I've gained along the years, hopefully I'll manage, in case that happens.

Infrolling

Because of the lack of opportunities to go outside at night, I've decided to work more on some infrared shots indoors or in the yard. Some simple experiment. Experiments like this refresh my mind a bit and breaks my idleness with the camera. Thus, I don't necessarily have a goal of achieving a good shot in my mind.

InfraPetals
Canon EF 50mm + 56mm ET, f/16, 4m20s, ISO100.

My first (and second trials) last week were with some small blooms in the yard. Despite the lack of breeze back then, but the shots were not sharp enough, and probably it is for the fact that I didn't adjust the focus (after focusing without the IR filter) to fit the IR range. The Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 lens has a marker for infrared re-focusing, even though, to me, it looks useless - because the distance ring is not marked thoroughly but only at specific distances. Thus, sometimes, you must use intuition and approximation in moving the focusing distance over the red dot for IR focusing.

InfraQuad
Canon EF 50mm + 36mm ET, f/20, 4m20s, ISO100.

The second trial that day wasn't any better. Anyway, I'm not planning to upload those to stock websites (or might try to do so into specific ones). The problem with this quadratic bloom is the way it should be cropped to be enhanced. In fact, I've never got myself satisfied with it, but I tried to remove some of the excess lines.
That was a simple trial outdoors. However, the real work was later done indoors when I noticed a vase with withered flowers and roses. It was made ready to disposal so I picked the vase to my room and made a simple setting. Probably the hardest part is moving around with the Speedlite without fixing it on a stand. The space in my room is not suitable anymore, and spaces around this house were taken. Anyway, work started and first it was by using two Speedlites.

Sigh
Canon EF 50mm, f/8,
5s, ISO100.

It seems, as seen in Sigh, that two Speedlites were not necessary after all. The major one was that made the effect was handheld and pointed directly to the dead rose, while the other one was placed on the side and bounced off a metallic-like surface supposedly to light the front. However, this second Speedlite proved to be a major problem when it showed glare on the glass of the vase, and hence I had to spend a considerable time cloning that out in Photoshop!
Thinking about it now, I could have used the second Speedlite to light the background a bit, but unfortunately, I do not have a proper background here, and nothing was behind this vase except the mess of my room! Anyway, it was a lesson learned the hard way. Yet, Sigh gained some Likes after all for its dramatic look. I doubt it is printable or to be uploaded though for the humongous level of noise, despite the short exposure time of 5 seconds only (and both Speedlites were on full power!).

Eski Güzellik
(old beauty)
Canon EF 50mm + 20mm ET,
f/22, 40s, ISO100.

I wasn't over with this subject yet. I liked the idea of some long exposure "indoors" with this infrared filter. The lights in my room are all energy-saving CFLs and those are a bad source for infrared radiation. Thus, naturally, the exposure without any help from Speedlites is going to be a long shot! However, I tried. The estimated time was about 5 hours and 20 minutes! I did it after all in overnight; put things on and went to bed, and tried to sleep with lights on! To my surprise, the camera didn't record the time properly (probably for the unusual time period) - it was recorded was 15 seconds only! The image was bright and good but unfortunately, shaky and the noise level wasn't promising. The shake is surprising in fact, but probably the only explanation for this is the working A/C in my room which delivered gentle vibrations to the set. Anyway, decided to do it again but with a spot light bulb (which should produce quite enough brightness and infrared as well). The result, Eski Güzellik, received many likes and favors as well. It does have some abstract sense with a side of melancholy to it. Considerable work was done to crop it, and then rotate it (and flip it). For some reason which I'm not sure of, the actual positioning was not quite right for me (maybe because of my left-handedness?). I've finally settled down with the look shown here. And that was the last trial with infrared in past few weeks.

The set used for the final shot.

Finale

Well, I would have liked to talk a bit more about the panoramas that were stitched, specifically old panoramas into new suit, but probably I'll leave that for another time. As always I'm having here a time crisis and I've realized that with my systematic time-schedule to work on some of the projects, I did in fact neglect lot of things, and specifically my Geltani conlang. I'm not sure what's the solution to this so far, but I guess I have to give myself some free time first.
I guess, at least how I think it is, I've been indulging myself into projects and stuff to work on just to let myself forget many things in my life. But this is leaving me exhausted and I'm not sure if all of that is really keeping me going forward. It feels numb here. It's hard to feel something anymore...

An Loch Codlata
(the sleeping lake)

The InfraWeek...

This week been somehow a busy week with my infrared filter. After some trials that were done last week with the infrared filter, and after learning some new methods to process infrared RAW files, I've been planning for new shots and even visiting old shots for re-processing.
Before I delve deeper into this matter of the infrared venue, I do like to thank all visitors for peaking up my Flickr profile to more than 2000 hits in a single day! This is a first time to be that way. I think my own personal record was something a bit more than 1000 hits in a single day before!

Click to Enlarge

Infra

One of the main problems in processing infrared images (beside working with unconverted camera) is the fact that the white balance is limited when working in ACR, or even in Canon's DPP. Canon's DPP though was somehow a good tool before but currently and with my new acquired shots from last week, it didn't make much difference. Anyway, I've gone through some articles online and I've discovered a free software provided by Adobe, namely the DNG Profile Editor.
I won't get into the details of this tool and how to use it, but in a brief sentence, all I can say is, it makes a profile to be used in ACR, and it would maximize the range of the white balance in some way. This step alone, made me re-think about previous shots and the possibility of shedding them under a new light.

Frozen Coal
Cropped from original.

One of these old shots was a shot taken in the beginning of this year, in winter specifically, when we were still using coal trays or something like that to enjoy some traditional tea! Anyway, the shot that was taken and processed in the traditional way and even back then, swapping the channels (of Red and Blue to give an alien feeling to the image) did not yield or give much sense. Right now, though, the story is completely different and swapping the channels after fixing the white balance in the RAW file can yield a promising result. I say "can" here, so don't take it for granted!

InfraCoal

However, the coal shot was an "indoor" shot and not outside, thus I had to dig in my archive and see if there is anything like that taken with infrared. I've found one shot, for which I needed DxO to deal with its distortion and other criteria and this one, too, did a good job in swapping the channels.

Infraarbeitplatz

Despite this promising result from a previous shot, but it didn't really work out for much of the shots taken back when I just had the filter. Some of them didn't work out as before and some of them were better rather in red shade like the Ciudad en Rojo.

Ciudad en Rojo
Canon EF 18-55mm @35mm, f/8, 3.2sec, ISO100.

Anyway, after looking back at my stock of infrared shots, I've decided to increase the stock a bit more just to work with processing more images of this kind. This is my preferred method of learning (specially in Photoshop), and reading alone won't do me any good!
For this reason I've decided to take my camera to work with me and try to find something just to shoot with my infrared filter.

One of the first trials at work is a little plant which looked like a palm tree (but it's not). I leave the classification of this plant for the professionals! Anyway, it was a shot in a hurry as the background and the distance were not suitable really.

Paulo Palma
Canon EF 50mm, f/2, 1.3sec, ISO100.

Naturally, some infrared shots would turn completely or partially to black and white. I think this is the magic of infrared photography. Somehow, the result can be unpredictable. Anyway, there is a major difficulty with unconverted camera (i.e. camera with modified sensor for IR photography). As I will show later, this was a problem in some shots which required a fast shutter speed in a breezy weather. However, in Paulo Palma, the weather was relatively stable and not much of a breeze in the air, but surely had a problem framing the image while the sun striking on my neck and on the LCD! I've used a wide aperture relatively (and hence the shallow depth) just to ensure a faster shutter. Otherwise, it could have taken up to 3 or 6, or even 10 seconds for this shot.

One of the major hassles while working with IR images is the noise level even when ISO is set to the lowest. Next, comes the soft focus. These two matters makes it uneasy for me to upload such images on the web, and specifically into stock agencies. Thus, imagine when you are forced to increase the ISO under such conditions. The noise are simply "ridiculous". However, the noise can be less pronounced and just get more attention when channel swapping is formed, that is, replacing the places of the Red and the Blue channels in the RGB mode. At this point, the typical noise reduction plugins in Photoshop won't do much good, but the major trick is to play around with Hue/Saturation to twist the colors and make the noise virtually negligible. Then comes the next trick of adjusting the contrast to suppress some grain, and then we have the change in the color space by using the Assign command in Photoshop (not Convert). The Assign command, for some reason, does reduce (or maybe re-distribute?) the noise level, sometimes to a great extent. This is some of what I've learned doing long exposures last summer on the beach!

Infra Columnae
Canon EF 50mm, f/1.4, 6^-1sec, ISO200.

InfraDoor
Canon EF 18-55mm @22mm,
f/16, 8sec, ISO200.

Despite the general look of the infrared shots, which tends to be in black and white, but the fact is lot of shots I've done were low saturated and just close to the black and white level. This is done by virtue within the processing of such shots, specially via Hue/Saturation when I try to reduce the noise by such an adjustment layer. The fact is, IR photography got a potential for various aesthetic settings or processes just like, or almost like, the HDR technique. The hard part, might be, to predict the final look of the shot. With HDR and its processes, you can imagine what's the final image is on location (specially if it is some metallic surface). However, this is still not so evident for me when I work with IR. Shots like Infra Columnae and InfraDoor were so various and I didn't know whether they would be colored slightly, or I'll be needing channel swap, or simply turn everything into black and white. The main puzzle is how to settle down the white balance. Usually, I do like to set the white balance from any green surface in the image if there is any but that doesn't mean I would like it. I suppose the green surface is the first choice because the green color is in the middle of the spectrum, not sure about this theory though! InfraDoor specifically is a subject for an HDR shot and it got me back to my old habit of still life and abstracts by geometrical means, like I used to do before around my work place - anyway this might be a subject for another post some other day!

Then one day came a challenge that took me 2 days to perform. It's a small bloom that was barely 1cm (~0.394in) in height. Not only I had to get so low with the tripod, but approaching the bloom and getting closer to it was critical. The first day, I tried to get to it by the end of the day before leaving my work place but the sun was so harsh that, beside my personal troubles, the LCD was barely visible and I had nothing to cover it (things to put on my purchase list as it seems). Thus, I had to come the next day and try to get to it in the early morning time just before the sun strikes that spot specifically.

Truncartis Parvis
Canon EF 100 macro + ET, f/8, 30^-1sec, ISO200.

I'm putting Truncartis Parvis here for comparison with shots that were taken with infrared filter later. In Truncartis Parvis there were two main problems: first, the low light level as the sun wasn't shining on the spot (ironic), and secondly, the breeze which required faster shutter speed to stop the motion of the tiny bloom. I didn't bring my speedlite with me that day thus I had to depend on the simple flash on-camera. Because I couldn't get so close to the bloom, I had to use the macro 100mm lens with extension tubes added gradually to it. By using 12, 20, and 36 tubes gradually I was able to make some estimate about the relative size of the bloom within the frame. Truncartis Parvis (which means the small jungle by the way) was taken with all tubes (i.e. 68mm) added to the macro lens. Thus, I was trying to hit some balance between the 3 variables: ISO, speed, and aperture. I didn't like the idea of raising the ISO too high for such a "normal" shot thus I had to put down the aperture to f/8 (after trying f/16). They say in macro photography, it's better not to go below f/8. However, such balance was even harder to achieve and I had to give up with the ISO when I started taking infrared shots with that setting (remember the sun was not striking the place, yet).

Glowing Bloom (Gold)
Canon EF 100mm macro + ET, f/4, 15^-1sec, ISO1600.

As you can see above, in Glowing Boom (Gold), the shutter speed was barely acceptable amid the breezes in the weather, and this is only achieved with ISO1600 and  shallow depth of f/4 with maximum flash output. Probably it would have been an easier task if my speedlite was with me but I had to deal with the situation as it is and yet the shot was of a surrealistic approach somehow. The noise level, however, was a novel on its own right.
The shot above was done without channel swapping (and of course with some processing on the side to suppress the background noise). Hence the "(Gold)" part in the name. After Red and Blue channels swapping, it appeared as beautiful as the first as it seems...

Glowing Bloom (Blue)
Canon EF 100mm macro + ET, f/4, 15^-1sec, ISO1600.

It is amazing how the infrared filter clears off the differences in tones and colors and makes the petals as if they are made with one color (compare with the one taken without filter above). At the end and just before I take off, I've decided to do one last trial but this time with one less extension tube just to include more background into the frame. Ironically though, I've decided to crop the final image into a square to reduce the background!

Gecenin Çiçek
Canon EF 100mm macro, f/5.6, 10^-1sec, ISO1600.

That was "some" of the trials done with the infrared filter for this week, but not the end of it. I need to study the artistic chances and venues behind this filter. It is cumbersome to use it of course with an unconverted camera, yet it does help in long exposures anyway!

Conclusion

Potentially, there is so much to be done in the IR field. Something behind the typical vivid and surreal landscape shots that we usually see under this category of photography.
However, I do find myself debating myself about the aesthetic prospect of such shots. Usually, what I read in articles online about IR photography is that the grains (or noise) and the fuzzy focus is something natural and even characteristic of this type of photography. There are even some Photoshop tutorials that deal with photo manipulation; that is to edit a normal photo and make it look like it is taken under IR, and one critical step in the overall process is to add grain or noise to the whole image (beside reducing the saturation). However, do people accept that, or do agencies? I'm reluctant about uploading such images to stock agencies. I did already upload to some of them but it's just a test and I'm very doubtful about their acceptance for such shots with such high grain level. This, somehow, makes IR photography a highly fine-art branch I believe, and agencies wouldn't love this type of photography much, unless some of them do know what does it mean to take IR shots with all that noise and defocus.
The almost-random aspect of processing IR shots makes it as vivid and wild as HDRs but let's say with different tones. You can do crazy things with the HDR techniques and lot of people hate the halos produced in over-tone-mapping HDR images, and IRs also got the same potential. If you check Infra Columnae back up above again, you'd notice that the image is almost black and white except of a spot that shows clearly as green. I'm pretty sure some people won't like it that way; just a matter of how the human brain works I believe.
In the near future, however, I do need to work more with such filters specially to see how does it change the skin tones. I've done some simple trials on myself but these are not enough and I need more. First though, I have to know what kind of relation there is between studio (or let's say the speedlites) light and this kind of filters.
After all, it is just something to get my mind busy and away from my collapsible life for the time being. I do miss doing lot of things; panoramas specifically. Anyway, got to wait for winter to arrive. This summer I'm literally melting down my body, and mood...