Mustajdee…

Somewhat a relief from a toothache! Something I was planning to do within the first week of the new year and for that occasion I was planning (and did indeed proceed with) for a one-week leave off work, but now that I've fixed the tooth (hopefully permanently) I guess it is a chance to invest that one-week leave in something else; Well, beside sleeping of course!

Genies

I've talked in my last post about a new panorama which was done in, if I can call it so, semi-infrared environment. The panorama was done completely in the dark with only candles as the light source and with a modified Canon EOS 7D for infrared photography BUT without any infrared filter; Hence, because of the candles and the absence of infrared filter, I might as well call it a "semi-infrared" process.

جِنْ (Djinn) - Original

Anyway, I've stated also that I'm in the process of creating new projections and styles out of it, as I usually do with my panoramas. Let's call these derivations Genies. Working with these genies was no fun as with other panoramas because of the amount of stitching errors that I had to put up with; Meaning, I would need to fix these stitching errors with every production for one of these "Genies". Some of them I did notice and fixed (to the best I can) in the original, but it seems changing the projection styles do exaggerate some curvature and lines that some stitching errors get amplified visually; They are there, but I didn't notice them until I've changed the projection and the perspective.
Generally speaking, my choices were limited in doing some artistic work here mainly because of depicting myself in the panorama in 3 positions, and also having these 3 poses on almost one side of the room and not balanced across the room. I had my vision back then when I was shooting this panorama and of course my thought was all focused on the overall flat, equirectangular (spherical), look. Things change though when you try to make other projection styles. There are some specific points to care for as to the presence and absence of some objects in the scene or the curvature of some lines that might not help the overall look of the image and sometimes even checking for exhaustive or unsolvable situations with the nadir (and the zenith) points. For this reason, I had to give up many ideas here and almost satisfied myself with the 3 main styles: Planet, Tunnel, and Vertical. And just in case you are wondering what's with all these Arabic names, well, I've been naming some of my latest images in Arabic and I'm starting to like it; It's my native tongue after all, right?

Genie #1: Tunnel
Typically, I would go with the planet (or little planet) projection first thing when I do panoramas, but I kept that for later simply because I didn't like it much; Nothing out of the ordinary about it. However, I was reluctant to do the tunnel projection (which is the opposite or reverse of the planet projection).

اسْتِحْضارْ (Conjuring)

The tunnel projection of this panorama, namely استحضار - Conjuring, causes my "base" to be extremely large (ahem, larger than it already is), so I was reluctant about displaying such a distortion. However, the shape of the carpet and its ornament, making some sort of framing around the scene made this projection seductive (specially that I wouldn't have to deal with fixing the nadir point here). Moreover, there was some nice surprise for me there when I started tone-mapping this panorama from HDR (using Photomatix). As you can see here, the ornaments of the carpet got glowing and shining and I'm not sure why is that; It happened only here in this projection of this panorama!

Genie #2: Planet
So, things did not stop at just the tunnel, but also the planet (or little planet) projection which was least favorable for me since it does not have that dramatic look that a tunnel projection gives out. At this level, I've tried to tone-map the HDR panorama using Photoshop instead of Photomatix, which did not even give me any dramatic look either but it was fair I'd say. It almost kept the original look of the HDR panorama at 0EV level. I'm thinking that it is probably attributed to the asymmetry in the scene that such projection for this panorama did not yield pretty much of an interest. At least the nadir point was relatively easy to fix!

حُضورْ - Arrival

Genie #3: Vertical
This one was the least favorite one actually. No symmetry and no organization, just the fact that it is a vertical panorama (using Mercator projection). To do this projection, I had to actually exaggerate the width of the panorama and then crop it out in post-process. I had to tilt and rotate the panorama to make sure that none of my copies gets cropped in the stitching process. Tone-mapped using Photomatix, again, but I keep looking at it and just say "meh." Here, again, I had to work on the nadir point and patch it up.

اسْتِرْفاع - Levitation

Other than these 3 trials with projections with this specific panorama, I've tried to create a wide-view panorama (planet projection with a pitch change to 90 degrees up or down), along with other trials with some other projections, but the trials were not so good actually, lacking organization or symmetry and some point of interest. I think it is probably the flat (equirectangular) format which is the best suited for this panorama because this is how I originally envisioned it as I worked with it. The tunnel version is good as well but its point of interest is the framing and that strange glow in that frame, all made by the carpet, but deep inside that frame, the focus is so-so I'd say.
There could be a chance that I would try to stitch this panorama again but without the additives (the 2 copies of me on the bed and the sofa) and see how things would go. But I need some time to do that, as I'm already struggling with some ideas that I've already packed in my head, yet can't do much about them for the time being! Also, I need to examine this panorama further to see if it is worthy to be converted into a VR.

Beg Your Pardon?

In the realm of ideas, there had been one idea specifically that I wanted to do so much. The problem, as usual, nnot having a proper model and so I have to do it all on my own, which causes a lot of shattering in focus in fact. So, the final image you'll see here did not bring me satisfaction much but at least I worked on it. I'm afraid to be stamped with perfectionism though.
The idea of this image did actually come from an old poem I've composed, titled The Beggar of Nothingville. It was not hard to visualize the final image, sort of, but the hardships come with doing the required physical job (specially moving the gear around to a proper location). I guess I'm getting pretty old here.

المُسْتَجْدي (The Beggar)

Depending on the brightness of your display, some details in the black would show, and might not. As my monitor is calibrated and I work as per the histogram I can assure you that tiny bits of details only should show on the lower part of the image. Of course, المستجدي - The Beggar is not a single shot, but a composite. As I said,  Ididn't have many to help. Also, the place I was shooting in was barely one meter wide and it would be hard for 2 people to be there at the same time!
You may ask, what brought me to such a place? Like, aren't there any other places? Well, since I'm confined to home, I looked for a place that would give a texture for the background; Most of the walls inside the house are blank (and worth noting that I was planning for B&W image from the very beginning), so colors of the walls won't change much, but texture would. Beside that, and since I'm working alone and not bearing the hassles of stands and reflectors, I did need a small space just enough to give a slight bounced light off the walls. I have to say though that this one didn't work quite well because the wall is matte, but it added a tiny bit of reflected light though.

The space of the shoot. The speedlite was placed behind the bars on the upper-left corner. Total width is definitely less than 1.5m.

Voigtländer 20mm Color Skopar

I was planning to shoot with my trusty Voigtländer 20mm lens but then I changed my mind to my seldomly-used-but-awesome lens: Sigma 12-24mm. I thought, if the space is small, it would be better to have some flexibility here in the focal length, which happened indeed as I thought; I did zoom a bit more than 20mm on this lens. If I was to use the Voigtländer 20mm, then I would have to move the tripod instead; Not an optimal choice in such small space.
One more "element of design" here was to tilt the camera downward a bit. Since the topic is about a beggar, supposedly a low-class individual, then it is typical to look downward at such people; I mean, it is something done somewhat subconsciously.

Sigma 12-24mm f/4.5-5.6 EX DG HSM

It took me several shots to get the pose right and working quickly there (fun fact: kept a candy in my mouth under my upper lip to change my features a bit). Too bad I'm not a make-up artist to create more dramatic expressions with make-up, but well, I tried my best. After taking that shot, I've made several shots for my hand pose under the same conditions, as much as possible. I was going to flip the hand gesture horizontally but the lighting conditions here forced me to accept it as it is and just satisfy myself with positioning the gesture correctly and working on cloning out the traces of the fishing line that attached the heart to my hand (which was cut out from black paper by the way and taped to a fishing line and to my hand). One thing I was not sure of though is, whether I was right in adding that bit of halo around the heart to bring attention to it amid the dark tones of the image. Probably, if I am to upload this photo to some contest later on, I would remove this halo and keep it dark as it looks more "natural" despite the editing.

Close up comparison for the heart with and without halo. Might not be quite visible in close-up (click to enlarge) but it would be clear when viewing the whole image. If you focus enough, you can see the halo around the heart in the first image (left) and its absence in the second (right).

Finale

A year is ending here, and there is a plan to spend the first week of it just to my own. In hope that would recharge me up for the upcoming upheavals. News are up and down about the year. Speculations, predictions, and seriously all get on my nerves right now. Moreover, I'm having some hard time about my workplace and its future. If I want to leave, where would I be heading? Many questions play around with my mind and I'm trying my best to keep calm, and watch carefully as things unfold. Things are changing and it sounds as if I don't belong to this world anymore.
Anyway, I better invest a bit of my time in my camera this winter. I should try and push myself out like the old days. Maybe I can do that in my upcoming short leave. No specific ideas but I might raise my ambition a bit to the level of a nocturnal panorama.
Anyway, time is ticking on and on, and a year will be over soon and probably not much would change in my life as usual, but let's hope we all will be gliding smoothly through it. Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it (I'm typing this in Christmas time actually).

Galore…

Again, I'll try to wrap this quick. I'm seriously suffering this winter, with lack of enough sleep and the tiresome body, along with some weather conditions; I don't mind the coldness, but there were few rains here and there and the situation was not encouraging to explore the beach at night as I usually do.
Thus, not much was going on this week except for my usual work with shots and specifically panoramas from Ireland trying to do more experimenting with various touches and projection styles. Meanwhile, I devised a plan to invest my time in doing various things at work (since no real work is running). Thus, I dedicate some time to typing an article, and then to read some Irish grammar lessons as much as I can or reading a book, and finally spending the last hour at work watching some cartoons. I know, fancy workplace you might be saying right now but no, it's not. It's filled with stupidity to the neck and what I'm doing is just my methodology to payback and vent. As a rule: I don't respect those who don't respect me.

Now back to the images, and specifically panoramas. I'm trying to keep on the schedule with doing one single image a day, and one panorama day (both from Ireland's collection of 2014). Panoramas specifically had been a target for my "extreme Mercator" methods which I've mentioned in my previous post. There were some interesting results, specially after the help of Mr Photoshop in doing a bit of effects.

An Ais
(the axis)

One of the panoramas, An Ais, was easily shaped into a twirling surreal environment; probably what really helped here is the semi-conic structure of the tower inside. My hardships here, though, were the color adjustments and balancing (it had a greenish shade mixed with yellow).
There is a lot of empty space in An Ais and I was going to crop that down and make a square, but some features would be cropped as well and there was a great chance that it might look unbalanced more. Anyway, I had to exaggerate just a little bit in the twirl at center by using the wrap command in Photoshop and twirling the central points a bit. All that was done in HDR mode before tone-mapping. However, it wasn't always as easy and simple as that.

Gaoth agus Gaoithe
(wind and winds)

Some other panoramas like Gaoth agus Gaoithe were large, and definitely a simple wrap wouldn't work. Thus, the only solution available was to use the Twirl command under Filters menu. However, this command was not available for 32-bit (HDR) mode, nor 16-bit mode. It was all rolled back to good ol' 8-bit. Most of the adjustments were done in 16-bit mode of course, but to do the twirl command, I had to move back to 8-bit mode (which I will use anyway to save it as JPEG). This panorama in particular gained some popularity in 500px and the count went down after a day or so; I will never understand how this website works. Yet, the more difficult panorama was yet to come.

Is é ag titim Ashford
(Ashford is falling)

Along with the extreme Mercator trend lately, I've started also an off-the-center trend, mainly dedicated to tunnel view panoramas and planets. It is an approach to give a more dramatic look to the otherwise dull planets or tunnels, specially if there is no strong symmetry involved. In this panorama particularly, Is é ag titim Ashford, I wanted to add something extra other than just tilting the globe to the corner. Suddenly the idea of moving the clouds occurred to me. The perfect command for this was the Radial Blur, which can mimic an effect of zooming into (and thus adding some depth). The Motion Blur might be capable of that too but here, this command moves the pixels horizontal only without any "focal" point to direct the lines of pixels to. According to Christian Bloch (Blochi), the author of the HDR Handbook, such blurs are more beneficial if they were to be done in HDR format, because in HDR mode you don't control the pixels only, but also the luminance data accompanying them!

Source: Amazon

Well, the challenge here is how to do it? The square panorama after some tilting and cropping, was a bit more than 9000x9000 pixels! Selecting the sky portion was a bit lengthy work to do but it was done with some considerable effort and "eating" around some edges. Even with selecting a portion of the image (almost half of it), Photoshop machine couldn't apply the effect because of RAMs problem. Solution? Switch to the 64-bit Photoshop version. It has access to more RAM space to do the job. The only awkward thing about it is, no plugins are installed to be used for this version. Thus, I had to run this version JUST to do a radial blur! A radial blur of degree 5, took around few minutes to be done here.Saved the file (as PSB) and then back to the 32-bit version and the work was done the usual way; tone-mapping, enhancing, reduction!

Now, I've officially made another Instagram account for my Ayvarith (@ayvarith) and I'm posting a picture per day so far. I'm starting with the alphabet for the time being. Probably later I will get deeper with themes like "word of the day" or some grammatical issues? Who knows! The cumbersome point here is trying to log-in and out of my 2 accounts and posting here and there (and then re-posting from one into the other).

This is it for now and I wish if I can handle this weekend properly and do further out-goings at night. I just need to think of a proper location. Not counting on my luck here…

Hektisch II…

I'll try to wrap this quick. Well, happy new year first, and wish you all who read this (ONLY THOSE READING THIS!), ahem, a creative new year. A year that washes whatever pains that were there in 2014.
Currently, I've been celebrating my own triumph against one of the hardest panoramas that ruined my appetite for panoramas for some time, but now the appetite is all back of course! However, there remains the part where I MUST do the fixes for these newly generated panoramas, including the HDR tone-mapping which proved to be tricky - and we end the show with noise cleaning which proved to be an arduous task.

Casadh an tSúgáin
(twisting of the rope)

In fact, Casadh an tSúgáin is an Irish song title which I was listening to as I was doing the processing for this image, and seems it fits exactly the image's geometry! When I explored the variety of projections I've totally forgot about the usual flat panorama as it looked very regular and mundane. Hence, I've continued to explore the other styles. However, in Casadh an tSúgáin tone-mapping was troublesome and consequently it made for a hard time with the noise cleaning later. The leader of the photography group liked the small version of this panorama, and asked me to include it in the next set of images to be sorted out for future uses by the group (a usual procedure); however, I'm not sure how would the large version sustain the critique with such noise and spots that would need another round of cleaning. In this projection, I've noticed how the close pillars (to my left and right on location) could have formed a straight line. Originally this panorama was 90^o counterclockwise but I decided to put it as seen above making the symmetry line horizontal and adjacent to the major pillars - while keeping the corridor up and down to form some sense of ground at least, specially with some of the buildings.

Herculis Cuniculum
(tunnel of Hercules)

Next on the list was the tunnel projection, Herculis Cuniculum. This one had even harder work done to it and yet it is suffering still, in the original large version at least. The main problem here was to cropping and distort to ensure some degree of symmetry. Anyway, it seems I did achieve some degree of symmetry along the central vertical axis but not the horizontal one unfortunately; and this is what you get when you screw things up on location with symmetry and centralizing the tripod in the middle of location! The noise level here was significant but not troublesome as much as it was in the previous projection with Casadh an tSúgáin, which is something I don't understand so far, but probably it is related to the degree of distortion that each projection bears. The main nuisance in this panorama specifically comes from the night sky and the buildings of the city; those are the main sources for the high noise level.

Planeta Laternis
(planet of lanterns)

At the end we have the typical planet projection, Planeta Laternis. Originally, this panorama was 90^o clockwise. However, it did seem to be more balanced with keeping the buildings of the city up, while the corridor would spread left and right. Anyway, the rotation process was done later, after all the fixes and the trials to "gain the symmetry" back with a lot of distorting processes. Since I didn't shoot the nadir, I had to fill the space of that block with a solid color and seems it fits perfectly (after adjusting the hue and saturation to match its surrounding tiles). All of these adjustments of course were in HDR mode and before tone-mapping, but the hardest part was to distort such a large file in HDR mode and make it fit specific proportions and perfectly centered. For this reason I mostly do large stitches because I know I will crop them a lot later on, and the good thing about Planeta Laternis is that the edges (where the roof of the corridor itself lies in this projection) contains not many interesting details beside some stitching errors; Thus, cropping this area out was a big relief and a solution which shortened the processing time significantly.

How my Photoshop looks when working with these panoramas.
Notice the guidelines all over the place to ensure a symmetrical distortion and cropping.
click to enlarge

Finale

One year is over now and a new one coming even though I don't care much about it. After all, generally speaking, I'm not supposed to celebrate it! However, I do wish all readers a happy new year with all the best wishes to be fulfilled within.
My plans for now is to use the winter to my advantage as much as possible and go out at night often. I know when summer comes, it's all but a dead season. I just hope my body would cope a bit further with this, specially with the hectic life style and responsibilities thrown on my way.
As for my plans for the new coming year, all what I want for the time being is, to be more careless actually, and have further fun. Lot of fun…

Quick…

Well, I think I'm going to wrap this quick for the time being. The time to turn back to work is close by and I think my soul is not yet ready for this! My time table and schedules are in a real mess, testified by the traveling luggage case that still laying around on my room's floor! But the real annoyance is yet to come; my first day at work is in fact my appointment day for some regular eyes examination - and I HATE those examinations.

Disaster

Meanwhile, I'd like to note what happened here as a "miracle." I was almost going to delete all the folders of images from my laptop since I've copied all the folders into my PC. In a glance, then, I've noticed that one folder which contains several single shots and one full panorama was not copied (specifically dating October 3^rd). I'm not sure why and how this folder was copied with the rest, but I've noticed the folder of this date specifically had no shots, except for 2 selfies! (yes selfies, self portrait done back in Ireland). Anyway, this is a lesson for me right now as to go through the files and folders after any session or travel, and never to delete any file right away after copying. I think what mainly happened here was caused by the fact that I didn't change the time on my camera when I traveled to Ireland (I did later though) - this affects the way files are organized and to what folders specially if the shots were taken before and after midnight time according to the homeland time (Kuwait's time), while it's not midnight in the destination (Ireland's time), and thus making one apparent session be split in between 2 folders without knowing! The panorama in that folder, on the other hand, is kind of problematic because it was not centered correctly, but that would be another topic to be discussed later maybe.

Processing-wise now. The work with my new arsenal of images from Ireland had been somewhat slow this week; mainly because of the bad sleeping pattern and the busy mind with other things, which made me dull with inspiration and imagination when I work with photos. However, I've got into the second phase of processing my panoramas: surreal projections. Which means, mainly, planet projection beside other stuff.

Táim Suas ag Dul
(I'm going up)

However, my very beginning with the second phase of panoramas was actually a vertical panorama and not a planet projection. Saying this, there is already a panorama that I've neglected on purpose because I can't work my mind with it or decide how it should be, and that is the panorama from the lounge.
Anyway, it is typical of me to do a vertical panorama out of confined elongated places like corridors. The surreal view of up and down in one image just fascinates me (call me a psycho, I really don't care). Here, in Táim Suas ag Dul we can find the typical mistake that I do, always. A non-central position which shows drastically later on when the panorama is stitched (and there other panoramas which got it worse than this!). Despite all the trials to remind myself of the importance of centralizing the tripod on location in relation to a specific feature in the space, I just fail to adhere to my own advice. You can see the effect here clearly in the bad alignment of the lamp in the ceiling and the stair case: you make one straight the other would tilt, and getting them together in one alignment is impossible. However, the dramatic scenery that was done in planet projection brought me some condolences for this mistake…

Beidh Solas Tríd An Dorchadas
(there will be light through the darkness)

The panorama taken in front of the Waterfront, Beidh Solas Tríd an Dorchadas, was my first target for such planet projections where the clouds can be extracted for details. The hard part in processing this image is the color tint as a whole. The blue sky you see here was actually bluer than this but I had to put down the tint a bit just to make it reasonable (fearing "bleed" of saturation). Originally, the sky was white with some dark areas. At the end, I had to achieve somewhat a manual contrast control by dodging and burning specific areas. Of course all of that was done AFTER tone-mapping the HDR panorama. Luckily, I've saved a stitching file for all (or most) of the panoramas that I've done in flat format. Thus, all I have to do is change the perspective and few options and then stitch (no need to go on and create control points and align images all over again). However, the really dramatic view which I really liked is not here, but somewhere in Co, Mayo!

Réalta an Ashford
(star of Ashford)

I really love this panorama specifically, the one taken in front of Ashford castle (and hotel). Despite the fact that it wasn't quite centralized and it has some unbalancing elements, yet the atmosphere and the colors of this location specifically give me delight. Here, I've tone-mapped using Photoshop (like I did with Aughnanure's panorama) just to control the aspect of the sun. No worries about matching the left and right edges of course (i.e. the seam) since we are not going to make a QTVR out of this one. I've already tried to contact the staff by contacting them on Instagram (no response so far as I'm typing this) about using these panoramas - at least for contests. The situation would have been different if Ashford was a landmark managed by the state instead of being a property owned by some private companies. Anyway, I can do nothing but to wait and see!

Finale

Well, I've skipped here a lot. Some QTVRs were made but I think not much to be said or done about them, except of thinking of doing a specific page for large format QTVR maybe? Saying this, I look back at all the things that I'm supposed to be doing beside photography but they are on halt so far. Gives me a shiver down the spine.
In the meantime, I've been active with the group in preparations of an expo related to the Book's international fair here, some time around 23^rd of November, beside running after Al-Thani contest. Let's hope no fuss this time with the catalogs (we didn't get the previous ones for Austria's contest yet!). But all of these activities don't keep my mind busy enough into other realms still, nor they are able to keep my nightmares away. My life is a real mess for sure and one thing is needed for sure at the moment: to travel again. Alas, this won't be any time soon…

An Caisearbhán Mór
(the grand dandelion)

Anatomy...

Finally... a vacation from work. Well, not a vacation from home unfortunately, but in hope that this would happen this year, after summer (i.e. after the holidays season). The schedule is, or should, be busy with activities specially with my camera, but I also hope not to forget my Geltani project which has been on hold for some time. On the schedule as well, a trip to Failaka and spend one night there, if possible.

Continuation

In the previous week I've been working with some panoramas and "panaglyphs" from around my workplace. I've stated some problems in my previous post about the failures that I've met for doing a "panaglyph," or a panorama anaglyph. I've continued the work and tried to do other projections this time and as expected, not much of a success either, but I'd say better results than other previously done stitches.

Planeta Caela

My next stop was the planet projection for the panorama. The image you see above is the left side of the tried panaglyph. This panorama should have been posted last week in fact but because of some technical problems with my internet I had to finish my previous post ASAP. Anyway, after tone-mapping this version of the panorama, and then tone-mapping the right side of the intended panaglyph, I tried to overlap them both and create a panaglyph. The geometry of the projection helped me with some trick to align both planets together.

Planeta Caela (3D)
WARNING: DO NOT STARE FOR A LONG TIME.

The trick here, was to align one corner of the globe and then place the rotation cross-hair to that position and use it as a center of rotation for the whole image. This allowed for a better alignment, but that does not mean there are no ghosting. It's just more fitting that way because of the geometry. Ghosting here can be a severe matter because with this geometry we might have, instead of left and right portions with red and cyan, we can have also in addition cyan and red in up and down direction; i.e. orthogonal to the direction of the human eye! This, of course, is not good. In addition of course, the skies have changed in between the shooting of each of these panoramas thus both of them won't coincide at any point, which produce such strange ghosts and halos when you see them with Red-Cyan 3D Glasses.

The Big Sweep

Doppeldimension

On the list there was the vertical panorama and the wide-view projection techniques, and each with a purpose and an effect of course. However, the vertical panorama, Doppeldimension, was a bit further experimental. If you compare Doppeldimension with The Big Sweep you would notice the drastic difference in the tones; and this is not something done by tone-mapping in fact, since the values used in Photomatix are almost the same. However, some simple trick done to Doppeldimension here and I loved how it looks. The matter was simply to use the Channel Mixer adjustment layer in Photoshop and swap the Blue and Red channels (like how it is usually done in Infrared images) and then blended in with the rest of image using Soft Light blend. The beauty here is that it almost suppresses all the tones to some degree, but pronounces the Greens more; in fact I had to use Hue/Saturation controls to reduce the Greens just tiny bit and avoid Bleeding. Bleeding is when the color or tone is so saturated that it looks like it spills out of its regional container into other adjacent areas (imagine it as if water is spilled over a paper with some ink).
I think with this, it's time to say it's over and start thinking about another panorama and another location. I'm not sure where it will be, but this time I think I should make it an interior panorama rather than an exterior one, just to avoid the change in the atmosphere as much as possible. Of course, if the place has windows there would be some change in the light level but the change won't be drastic as there are now shadows from the sun inside the place. I have to think of some place. Think, think, think...

Anatomy

This week was a week of lesser activity; just before the vacation. In hope that I will increase the pace in the coming few days. For this reason, continued experimenting with my flashes like I did last week but this time not for a portraiture; but rather macro eye shots. I remember the last time I did a macro shot for my eye was done using the Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 macro lens. This time, however, I've decided to use extension tubes to get even better results. But notice please that I DO NOT ADVISE ANYONE TO DO WHAT I DID.

Arabian Eye
Canon EF 50mm+20mm ET, f/22, 20^-1sec, ISO200.

With macro mode now, of course we do need some small apertures, i.e. high f-numbers, and consequently, high level of illumination. I literally had to stick the two flashes I have, 580EX II and 430EX II, so close to my face that I did feel the heat gushing out with every shot. Lighting is difficult in such situations not only because of the narrow distance, but because I'm doing it all myself for myself; in such situations it would be better that someone would guide and help - but I have none in my case.
Anyway, the main two modifiers used all the way here are the snoot (with honeycomb grid to narrow further the light beam), and the Bulb diffuser (and you can see their reflection on the iris of my eye above).

Split Eye
Canon EF 50mm+20mm ET, f/22, 20^-1sec, ISO200.

There were several good shots and the trick was to process them differently to give various impressions. In Arabian Eye for example, I've tried hard to make the light look gradient (it wasn't much of a gradient originally) to give the sense of mystery and power to the look, and also the noise reduction was done to some areas only and not to the whole image because it was too smooth to my desired look.
Seeing this problem with the gradient, I tried other shots using only the Bulb diffuser as in Split Eye, which still rendered it even in lighting somewhat and needed further processing. The reason this is called Split Eye is the fact it is not a colored image; but a black and white image and tone-splitting was applied which made it look like colored. Further Photoshop workout had to be done to improve the gradient effect here.

With Details

Just for fun here, I've picked one of the images and tried a crop for 100% close-up to the iris just to see the degree of the details. I have to say there were good enough, and this is only using a 20mm extension tube. This, in fact, encouraged me to shoot even higher: to shoot my eye with a greater zoom, using all my extension tubes (i.e. 68mm). But the task, of course, is not that easy at all. Mainly because of the position of the light sources relative to my eye, and my eye would be way too close to the front of the lens - way too close, more than it was already when using 20mm extension tube. After many trials, it was done even though not as clear as the ones done before...

More Details
Canon EF 50mm+68mm ET, f/22, 50^-1sec, ISO100.

As you can see, I've reduced the ISO back to 100 instead of 200, with some increase in the shutter speed. The reason for this is, after situating the flashes in proper positions to light the eye, I decided to reduce their power by the camera instead of controlling their own power - it's easier that way. The final image you see above was subjected to several processing trends (beside converting to black and white to kill the chromatic aberration). The rest was a struggle to show more details and to equalize the light over different areas - with layer masks of course. Surprisingly, more veins popped out with the processing!
Now to the mathematics little bit: This shot was taken using 50mm lens attached to 68mm extension tubes; thus according to the equation (m=ET/FL), to get the magnification factor, we would get 68/50 = 1.36, meaning the image of the object is magnified by x1.36 times. In percentage as well this would be 136%; 36% more than the normal size.

The difference here with the last shot is, the details are as they are - no cropped image at 100% view to get the details clear. Quite promising at this level and no need for EXTREME macro shots with lens-coupling!

Finale

Well well well... a vacation for two weeks. All I'm hoping for is to have the real "fun" I'm planning for. Some worries still chase me though, but I'm trying to have a full relaxation as much as possible - of course including long hours of sleep in the days when Mom has no dialysis to do.
Seems like two weeks are not enough, but this is the beginning. I have to break the circumstances around me. As one of my teachers put it for me last week: if you can't help yourself, you won't be able to help your mother. And the question remains, how am I supposed to help myself if I live in a helpless atmosphere; where even home, is not a home... ?

Bridge-O-Rama...

Hectic week. Or maybe I should say hectic 2 weeks. I thought that allergic reactions have long gone from my body, but with the wake of last week, I've realized that this is not "completely" true! Itchy nose and sneezing continuously with a red face and eyes. It seems that it is related to the dust wave that we've encountered that day. Everything is calm now, except of some sneezes here and there.
Anyway, this gap of a week without a post did accumulate some materials to be posted here, so this post might be lengthy a bit! I'll try to follow some chronological order though.

Back to Flora

With my sister's delivery, flowers hammered in the house. Not so many in fact but it was a chance anyway to do some macro and some other types of magic. The flowers (and roses), however, are typical and seen them before and took pictures for such types before. Thus, it was my task to find something new about these flora.

Comrades in Beauty
Canon EF 50mm + ET, f/22,
400^-1sec, ISO100.

Typical in such floral situations I would go into macro level because the floral arrangement is and might be a good thing for still life, but this is something I'm really not going into for the time being. However, the floral arrangement might be inspirational as I will show later - but not in the case of the first bouquet, thus going macro, to me, was a natural choice as can be seen in Comrades in Beauty. I've named it Explosive Beauty in the beginning but, let's say I didn't like the violent name for such gentle shades and hues along with the soft stems. I've taken pictures like this before in a workshop with the photography group and experimented with the same flower indeed (Lily, or is it lilly?). I see that using a speedlite in such approaches is a must to add some flavor and atmosphere. Otherwise, the shot under the ambient light might be plain and flat. In Comrades in Beauty, the speedlite was adjacent to the lens and to the flower's stems. Because I was using high f-number and High-Speed (to kill the ambient light), I had to get the speedlite by hand so close to a "ridiculous" distance! Probably using 2 speedlites would have solved the problem, but no need to add more stuff to an occasional work.

InfraRose
Canon EF 100mm macro, f/16, 100^-1sec, ISO100.

Then, the idea of doing macro and infrared visited me again (I've done the same 2 weeks ago). However, this time, it would have more abstract sense since it is to be taken from the top of the rose and not from the side like I did before, two weeks ago. Originally, the shot would be highly overexposed but with the IR filter on the lens it retains the details back (and might be underexposed sometimes!). In the processing of InfraRose the red hue (the rose was white) was swapped and turned blue. Red was beautiful as well, but it was so typical, for roses that is.
InfraRose specifically, stirred some weird criticism by some people (and some others do like it as it is). Not something new to me actually, but it is the type of criticism that was handed to me that made me re-think of what or how do people think about such images. Probably I should list these points:

1. Some people said they like the general color, but everything was off and there is a loss of details. My answer is: what details? It is indeed a macro shot, but the general theme is abstract and I don't see any details are to be preserved in the original shot in those white petals.
2. Halos. I didn't pay attention to those in the original shot and I'm not quite sure if they are the result of extreme sharpening, or simple because of the speedlite light (which was used in taking this shot). Yet, I don't understand still, how come such thin halos to make a big deal of the general view.
3. Some people edited the shot already (without my permission) and fixed the general tint and retained the original white color of the petals. OK. Some people did like the white version more, yet I didn't send any invitation to edit my own photo. I know how to make it white, IF I wanted to do so!

This is some of what has been said already about this shot. Anyway, enough with this bouquet, and let's get to the next bouquet which was delivered later. As I've mentioned before, the arrangement of the flowers in a bouquet can be inspirational by themselves. I know, lot of photographers do arrange their own shots specially if they are into still life photography, but this is not the case with me. I work mostly by rules and lines, and if not, I deal with what life throws at me.
The floral arrangement in this bouquet specifically inspired me to show uniqueness and separation from the rest of the herd. Simply, by pushing the central rose upward above the rest, and shooting from the top. It was time for using the lateral arm again!

Eigen
Canon EF 50mm, f/1.4, 15^-1sec, ISO100.

Probably in shots like Eigen I should've zoomed in further, but since the 50mm lens is a prime lens (no zoom) and I'm completely relying on the lateral arm and the tripod to get closer or further from the rose, it was better to settle down at this level and work with some cropping later when required. I did some cropping indeed to remove some edges and to shift the center of the image to the center of the rose, as it was a bit off-center. Another self-note is, probably f/1.8 or f/2 was better just to include the edges of the central rose further into the focus. However, personally, I do like the dreamy sense of it that way in general.

InfraEigen
Canon EF 50mm, f/1.4, 15sec, ISO100.

Of course, the idea of the IR filter visited me again, and I've applied it. I think it does give a mysterious (and maybe melancholic) feel to it that way. Even though InfraEigen seems like a black and white shot, but there is a slight tint in the image. I can't really remember if I swapped the channels like it is customary with IR shots, but judging from the light bluish tint at some part, I guess I did indeed swap the channels!
After taking the first shot with a shallow depth, I thought it's a good chance to try IR with really sharp focus and a lengthy exposure (because I seldom try this!).

InfraEigen II
Canon EF 50mm, f/22, 6min, ISO100.

InfraEigen II (soft)
Canon EF 50mm, f/22, 6min, ISO100.

In many occasions, and while processing the shots I take, I find that increasing and decreasing the Clarity when dealing with the RAW file can produce many chances for interesting outputs. When dealing with InfraEigen, the situation was the same but probably because of the already-shallow depth of the scene, softening the edges did not have a strong impact on me, but when dealing with InfraEigen II the softening effect was apparent. The green tint in some areas in the soft version (after swapping channels and processing) is due the fact of increasing the Vibrance. Of course, in all infrared versions, dealing with the noise was a hectic matter, but no need to go into those details for the time being!

Bridge-O-Rama

It was about time till I get the chance to do some photography project that I had in my mind long ago. Photography on the top of a pedestrian bridge.
I've delayed this project mainly because the bridge is somehow close to some sensitive buildings and my mood was (and still) not open for more conflicts with some authorities. Anyway, this time I had some spare time so I decided to head to that bridge and work a bit just before dusk time. Finding where to park my car in the first place was a big deal by itself!

Arabestract
Rokinon 8mm, f/22,
6^-1sec, ISO100.

As I climbed up, the first thing to try was my Rokinon fisheye. I was quite sure that it will make up something interesting when it is combined with such straight long lines tending (or seems to) go to infinity. I think this is what classical artists would call Vedutismo. I've taken some shots on one side of the bridge and tried the best I could to place the tripod and camera exactly at the center (but typically my trials failed anyway). Later, I've headed to the center of the bridge, almost, just to check the view from that point. I've realized how hard it is to judge your position in the air compared to the ground, and while I thought I'm at the center of the bridge because the ground below me looked so (!), but the fact is I wasn't and I didn't know this fact until I've shot Arabestract. In this shot, I've literally laid myself down on the ground and lowering the tripod as much as possible while pointing the camera upward. It was hard to look at the viewfinder or even the LiveView, thus I had to use a high f-number with focus to infinity to ensure the depth encompasses the roof of the bridge. Anyway, there were no other details, but only the roof, so I guess no need to worry about the hyperfocal distances. My only fear was to be lying down there while some passers would decide to "pay me" a visit!

Originally, I didn't really plan for a panorama even though I did take my VR-head with me (usually I take it just in case some idea pops up). However, after checking the result of Arabestract I've realized there is a great potential for some amazing geometrical plays, judging from the abstract of Arabestract. Thus, I've settled as fast as I could (because the light was changing and dusk is getting closer) and started taking the panorama.

Bridge-O-Rama

Hungover

I Dream

Before doing this panorama, I tried some weeks ago to re-calibrate the Manfrotto 303SPH with my EOS 7D and Canon 15mm fisheye lens and make sure about the no-parallax point. However, I've realized that because of the distortion originally inherit in such lenses, it was almost impossible to achieve such point, but rather we can reduce it, as I came to believe. Anyway, after doing the panorama I wasn't disappointed, despite the many stitching errors that I had to conceal or fix in one way or another. Lot of these stitching errors are somehow hard to notice in a small size scale. With my new PC I was able to stitch relatively large HDR panoramas in relatively a short time, and I've stitched almost two versions of each projection just for comparison. At times, it is even hard to judge which projection is the best. The vertical projection for example produced two nice panoramas, with each giving some specific feeling to it: Hungover and I Dream. To tell the truth, I do feel that I Dream is closer to my heart.
One of the major problems here though is the tone-mapping of such panoramas. There were many factors that made this a hard task to do somehow:

• I've used the Fluorescent WB which typical for me in such time of the day, but probably the tones of the place were not forgiving for such white balance.
• Photomatix tone-mapping was hard to control with its aspects, thus I had to turn to Photoshop itself to tone-map the tonal curve point by point. Photoshop versions after CS4 really amazed me (currently I'm using CS5) with its tone-mapping capabilities. They have improved significantly.
• Under such circumstances, it was hard to decide whether the color cast should be corrected or left as it is. Lot of work with layer masks was required to control this aspect.

This was just some of the problems, excluding the original hard time in stitching the panorama in the first place, where the computer was unable to generate lot of control points for some reason I'm not aware of still. However, my amazement was still to come in two projections that I did not even think of or even had a vision for...

Planeta Arabesqueia

Swept Away

The planet projection was an amazement for me. I didn't realize this fact until I've worked it out in PTGui. These lines make an intriguing atmosphere. Ironically though, the tunnel-view projection which is the reverse of the planet projection (i.e. aiming upward from below) did not make an interesting figure, to me at least. This made me make up some theory about the visual attractions and panoramas, which I will mention below. Another interesting projection which was made completely by mistake as I was trying to settle down with I Dream above. This time, probably, I should name such style as the "tilt" or "twist". Without complicating the text, when I try to change the point of view of a panorama I usually work with specific and fixed amount of degrees, like 45^o or 90^o and so on. Sometimes though, I mix things up unintentionally, as it happened in Swept Away, which has an irregular vertical axis (relative to the bridge of course). This image and Planeta Arabesqueia were published in my group's instagram's gallery and received some applause from the viewers.

Arabesquette
Canon EF 15mm fisheye, f/16,
5^-1sec, ISO200.

Not only the panoramas themselves were interesting, but there was one specific point in the whole set where I loved to see alone and separate from the rest of the panorama. Talk about must having an attentive eye while working with more than 40 slides of HDRs. I rarely use the 15mm fisheye lens for anything else other than panorama shooting, but this time as it is in Arabesquette the 15mm fisheye lens made as if by virtue, all the lines vanish into the lower right corner. This point of view, I think, could have been so hard to achieve with Rokinon's 8mm fisheye because the field of view would be wider, and more details would be included. This tight point is just fine as it is.

Arabesquearium
Rokinon 8mm, f/22, ISO200. HDR.

After finishing the panorama above, I've decided to give it one last try with my Rokinon 8mm lens and shoot the bridge from the first point where I started originally, but this time, from the ground level. To stabilize my camera here I've used the battery charger under the lens hood itself! Well, shaky, but with a 10sec time, all was fine. The only problem was to check for the center of the image (which I was somehow lucky here to have the center in a proper place almost). Even though I tried to flatten and fix the distortions in such images taken with Rokinon's 8mm lens, yet I've figured that such step would take all the amusement and the visual interest out of the image, and it is better as it is; all lines converge into the horizon. Vedutismo! I loved this perspective more than the ones I've taken in the beginning of the journey from that same point exactly, in which I've used a tripod and the camera was above the ground (around 1m high, ~3ft). For this reason, I didn't really touch those taken at the beginning. In between also, there was some trials with my 18-55mm lens (yes the old kit lens) with the infrared filter but I was aiming at the road below and the general cityscape. I have to say it was just experimental as the lines did not appeal to me very much.

Theory

Gazing on and about the panoramas that I've already made here, made me think of some visual aspects and how to render or expect an outcome from a panorama. Leaving Swept Away aside for the time being as I need to check it more (probably doing old panoramas in this way and see for myself), the main interest for the time being is the planet and the tunnel projections. It seems to me that the interesting projection for some space is highly relevant to the direction of the interesting feature in the scene. As you can see above, the main feature in the bridge is the roof, which has elaborate designs. Doing a tunnel projection would bring this feature to the middle of the scene, and that specifically rendered it dull and idle. I see that Planeta Arabesqueia, in which the view is from the roof, has a more interesting render. I would lucky of course if the place I'm doing panorama for has more than one interesting feature, like the case in the panorama of the Grand Mosque of Kuwait, done back in 2011. The main interesting in the mosque was the dome and the ceiling in general beside the floor which was covered with laminated carpet. For this, a tunnel and a planet projection (beside a wide view projection) all had some interesting feature displayed - this feature should be exactly the point of the view (i.e. as if we are standing at that point and looking in the opposite direction). This might sound like a paradox; as to how I'm supposed to make an interest by standing or viewing the scene exactly at the point which I'm supposed to be interest in? The answer relies on geometrical plays and the abstract sense of the scene. If there is an intriguing design in my scene, I'm supposed to represent that design in the strongest possible way. This can't be done if I simply put this feature in the middle of the scene (as it is the case in the tunnel projection). I have to stretch or change the perspective of that feature specifically to make it an attraction to the eye. I think I didn't think in details about this point specifically but only this time I'm trying to approach the topic analytically.

Finale

For Sale

Some days ago my brother advised me to get rid of those prints that I've framed (and did cost me a plenty) by offering them for sale on instagram. I'm trying to do this slowly in the current time even though I know there won't be anyone who would like to buy them despite the price reduction to almost 50% of what it was. I need to get rid of them in fact, because there is no use of leaving them lying around in my room like that; occupying space and collecting dust. Yet, all what I can do is just wish for some luck to get these sold at such prices. Also, I'm planning to add some more new images to my website, specially those taken recently. I need, however, to check on the panoramas and fix them the stitching errors properly, which will be a very time-consuming activity!

Source: Amazon

On the other hand, because of the lack of the new books, I'm turning back to some of the older books (as I've mentioned in previous posts). This time, I've decided to read The Practice of Contemplative Photography by Andy Karr and Michael Wood again. I felt the need to re-connect with that magical feeling deep inside me, away from trying to make a set-up and planning for shots ahead. I need to awaken that feeling of seeing as the book put it. Probably I need more books like this one in the near future. With the rush in my life and the mess, with all these contests that I've been trying to put up with and the rest of the obligations; photographically and domestically, I think I need to get back to my camera and treat it as a companion, rather than a tool. Specially with an empty heart like this one.

In my work I've signed for a little leave just to get some rest from all the damned traffic jam in everyday. Mom told me that I've should taken this to travel out. My reply was: where to go mother? I didn't like to tell her directly to the face that I'm actually trapped, for taking care of her because, simply, there is no one I could rely on for such a mission. I don't think that would make her feel any good. Anyway, despite the dialysis timing which will still keep me active in the morning and out of bed 3 days a week, I'm hoping that such a resting time would do me a favor and make me produce some more images, beside sleeping more, and dreaming more...