Quickie Note…

Well, this is a quick post and I wasn't sure about typing it really but I thought maybe I should so I won't stay another week without a post.
Things had been a bit busy in my life lately, and with fatigue that leaves napping often, and let's not forget the turbulent sleeping schedule (now that I don't have any work to go to!). Anyway, I thought maybe I should post something now as I might not be able to post for 2 weeks ahead from now, since I'm planning to work a bit on a new Arabic blog post; and such posts require more time than the English ones because I usually include tutorials on how to do things and many pictures and explanations are involved.

Not much has been going on on the camera-front really but I'm trying. I've been mostly busy editing old photos merely for the sake of keeping a strike on YouPic. However, I've been also trying techniques here and there and experimenting with "artistic" ventures in Photoshop. I've also started applying some color-grading techniques to copy colors from one image to another and the results are amazing so far.

Cóipeáil

So, I've learned an old technique in copying or applying the colors of one image onto another, and it involved applying Curve adjustment layer and reversing the curve, and it's a long story. I've made an Arabic blog post about this technique. Now, however, I've learned a new method which, presumably, is easier and quicker to be done and somewhat more accurate. I won't go on with the details here, since Google or any other search engine are full of such tutorials for "copying" colors or applying colors from one image to another. Anyway, here are some results:

In the two examples above, grading was done manually by picking specific colors from one image as I deemed them bright enough to be a "highlight" or dark enough to be a "shadow" beside of course the mid-tone. The results were fine here but it was not always possible to do the manual job, depending on the complexity of the image and other factors. Anyway, I needed something more "systematic" and I've found what I need here by exploring the "Save for web" option in Photoshop, as I've learned from some tutorials online. I won't be going into details here and I'm just posting this here to show what I've been doing lately! Anyway, as for this second method, here are some results:

 

 

So, these 2 examples above were done using the "Save for Web" feature in Photoshop. I thought of doing a blog post in Arabic for this technique and for this I'm going to need some time to do things. 

 

Camera-Wise

 

Camera-wise, I've been trying to work a bit on minor things, and I also have some ideas that I want to work on for February, Retinitis Pigmentosa Awareness month. Winter is passing by already and I didn't get the chance to do any shooting outside like I did back in 2021 in November, mainly because of the fatigue and the turbulent sleep.

Anyway, I've been working with a little macro project which I'm not finished from yet and still trying here and there, but here is an example:

 

 So, in case you didn't realize what the image above is about, it is just a combination of 2 macro shots of the same screw. The left one is at about 3.2X and the left one is at about 6.5X. I've gone extreme here and the images surely needed lot of sharpening. It seems that even at 6.5X, and for such a slender object like this screw, one would need to do focus-stacking. Anyway this is something for the future. I'm still working on this.

Finale

So, this is a quick post just to list what I've been doing lately and to announce that I'll be away for 2 weeks at least to finish my Arabic blog post, hopefully. As of typing this, I didn't even start it!

A lot is cooking in my head right now, and specially for February and my RP project as usual for every year, yet my body is just not cooperating. Now that I'm retired, my mind is more active at night, as if I'm back to my origins as a nocturnal creature. Bad news is, I do have some stuff to do now and then during the day. In addition to that, I'm not driving my car much now (naturally) because of my eyes condition, which kind of leaves me deprived of many things, and I'm reluctant to break the rules of RP right now.

Kika XI…

Honestly, I was too tired to even start typing this blog post. Thus, probably this one would be somewhat a short post. I think there is nothing weird with being tired, recalling my usual back pain sometimes, and my hectic life or routines everyday. There had been days that I wouldn't eat any lunch or dinner even. Anyway, it is time now for Kika's photo challenge, and this time with Week 11.

Kika XI

At this level of the photo-challenge, I got very busy with my brother and his studies and I barely had the capability or that piece of mind (pun intended) to work with the camera or to think of something new, or even to just edit. Well, editing is what I did but after some long time of searching and reflecting. The theme for the 11^th week challenge was "Weather." And of course, you can't speak about weather, in Kuwait, without speaking about the sun and summer. Because, well, this IS the weather of Kuwait! What else do you expect here?

Sunny

For this photo-challenge, as I've stated before, I didn't take any new shots, but I've referred back to some old shots, specifically some of those that I've shot in the shining morning sun of May of 2020, during a total lock down back then. I remember I was testing all my infrared filters back then and this particular shot was probably made with Neewer IR950 filter (and of course using my modified Canon EOS 7D). To be honest even, it seems, for some good reason, the shot was taken with B+W 043 black filter (UV-pass filter).
If I remember correctly, this image was processed differently back when it was taken in May, but for this particular photo-challenge, I've processed it again with a huge crop to the image to let the focus go to the eyes specifically. Not sure what type of processing I used here but I'm sure it is not the typical IR processing that I would usually follow which typically turns the image into almost a monochromatic one. Adding also some more emphasis on the luster of the eyes.
With this, the photo-challenge almost comes to an end with only one week left. Actually I could've done week 12 here as well but I'll leave it for another week. The last image posted for Week 12 is, again, an old one.

Bubbly

At this point, I come to the bubbles project which I've postponed previously. It's a photo shoot that spanned several days; Trying a new method or technique every now and then. The final result was more than 90 images (which have been processed and published).

Final setting

In the process, I've tried several ways to light the bubbles and also worked with 2 lenses (50mm and 100mm macro). I'd say though that the 100mm macro did fit most of the shots. Those shot with the 50mm needed a great deal of crop. Now, I don't want to go on with the story in length, but the goal initially was to shoot a bubble at the bursting moment. Though I succeeded only with 2 shots but nevertheless, the collection of these colorful bubbles was worth the lengthy work. 

Bubblosphere LXVIII
(one of the bursting bubbles shots)

It would have been better if the bursting shot was done in midair but unfortunately, as usual, I had to work alone. So, most of the work was done on a stable ground (used an oil burner as a base for the bubbles) and I've been moving around, blowing the bubbles and taking the shots.
Speaking of bursting, that calls, of course, to the usage of high-speed. However, that was not done right away. I was actually having some trial-and-errors with the lights and I've been using several lighting methods, and even a handheld beauty-dish to light the bubbles. Anyway, turns out that the perfect lighting angle for the bubbles is to be (as seen in many videos on Youtube) from above. The  final setting can be seen in the image above, where I used a white board hung over the work area to bounce the light from all my speedlites below. I had to do it that way since I don't have a softbox.

Bubblosphere XX
(shot with handheld beauty-dish)

Worth noting that despite this number of speedlites (and the supplies of batteries!), I still needed to raise the ISO a bit to get a proper lighting level in the images. Normal I'd say, since bouncing the light or even diffusing it would cause such loss of power anyway. Though at such moment I would appreciate some light source with AC input instead of DC batteries! Ah well…

Worth noting also that I've been doing some stroboscopic experiments before all of this work as well but the results were not quite to my liking but I've merged several images into a single ones (and I've posted about them few posts ago in Kika's photo-challenge about Colors).
Anyway, to summarize it all, I've made a video containing all these images. If you are reading this and wish to get any of these, you can find the full collection on my Canstockphoto profile (you can also click the signature at the end of this post) and some of them had been accepted as well on 123RF. 

 

 

Finale

As I've stated in the introduction of this post, I've quite lazy (or tired) to type down this post. This makes me think of having a break after doing the last post about Kika's photo-challenge in two-week time from now. Not sure how long this break would be but I think I just need it not only for physical reasons, but also to build up some content as I'm actually too tired to hold my camera or even to think of anything new.
As time is ticking, it seems that I will be back to work around the end of July or the beginning of August. I don't want to start talking about the stress that I'm already living in since I heard the news. I'll be back to the rush hours, and even more, more stress at work because of the events that took place there during our days off (around one year and a half). I'm all alone there and surely ugly things will be hitting the fan. Meanwhile, I'm still waiting for sparkles of hope to shine as I'm looking forward to get my medical retirement if possible for retinitis pigmentosa, specially before moving to the new location which further away from my home, and it will surely cause me hectic time in driving to there. So many ideas, so many thoughts, and all cramps my brain rendering me paralyzed. All I can do is pray, and send my heart with hopes across Heavens…