Infrasible…

Well, it was hard to think of something for this blog post this week, so I chose to continue with some of my activities post the "strolling" period which I've made many posts about (I think I did 7 posts?).
The weather, of course, has gotten hotter, and for sure no strolling out at this time. It would be somewhat (just "somewhat") nice if I can go strolling at 5 a.m. where the sun is still about to rise and shine and there is a little (hot) breeze tickling my face, but for sure that won't be the case if I decide to walk around for some long distances and taking pictures. Not to say, it is not Ramadhan now and people would be active or starting to be active in early morning getting ready to go to work and such and probably I would be easily spotted and, honestly, the last thing I need in my life right now is such stupid problems (from such people).
So anyway, I've had some ideas to do and try, and for this reason this post might come out as short as it is something I'm still trying to experience and experiment with as much as possible, providing that I get the proper subject and the power to do so!

Infrasible

As the title suggests here, the little project here has something to do with infrared photography and it is something I really wanted to do for a long time. Though not as exciting as doing it to ultraviolet images but still something artistic to work with nevertheless.
My aim was simply to merge infrared images with images made with visible light. Typically, people or photographer would take more about merging ultraviolet images with images shot with visible spectrum to mimic the vision of some creatures (or bee vision). However, I don't hear or read much about people saying anything about merging infrared images with visible-spectrum images.

سَعَفْ
(palm leaves)

So, my first target was a palm tree outside in the yard. The process here involves shooting 2 images of course, and this is a challenge on its own and of course it calls for a tripod. The process here involves changing the filters on the lens without as minimum of a movement as possible, and being outside already there is always the challenge of the breeze (which ruined some of the shots already here). For shooting Palm Leavesi I've used the wide 20mm to add more depth to the abstract and make it look like a jungle (this palm tree was a target for a pinhole shot later on). First shot was taken using the IR-Cut filter (Kenko's) and then IR shot was taken using Neewer's IR950 (i.e. threshold 950nm) and IR730 filters. Unfortunately, things were quiet in the beginning but the breeze started shaking the palm leaves when I started using the IR730. For this reason, shots taken with that filter didn't quite overlap perfectly with the "normal" or visible-spectrum image which had been taken with the IR-Cut filter. Anyway, such series can be useful for other purposes later on.
I won't be talking about the details of the editing here, with all the crops and alignment (which wasn't quite perfect because of the slight movement even in Palm Leaves) but to explain the process in simple terms here:

What we are doing here is that we are stacking the 2 images, the infrared one (not color -corrected) and the normal one, and align them, with the infrared one being on top preferably. Using the Blending Options of the infrared layer we turn off the Green and Blue channels and keep the Red one on; This way, the red channel from the infrared layer will take over the red channel from the lower (normal image) layer. It is important though that the two images, in the RAW phase, must be edited (if needed) in the same manner when it comes to contrast and exposure but without correcting the white balance of the infrared image. As for the normal image, correcting the white balance seems be a must even though I was using the IR-Cut filter. Also, when shooting the two images, the metering was done from about the same spot of the image but because we are dealing with different spectra here, it seems editing such issues in RAW is a must.

Still Fire

Generally speaking, using different IR filters of different threshold values wouldn't change the outcome significantly as it seems and probably only some changes in the level/saturation of the red tones in the final composite image. Anyway, seeing the troubles of working outside, I thought of checking if I can do something inside and I had in my mind that specific corner at the balcony door where the sun rays shine through around mid-morning.
Here again, for Still Fire, I've used my 20mm but I'm forced to because of the space available. In fact, I've crammed myself! If I had more space, I would be shooting this with 50mm and put the aperture at f/1.4 to blur the background. The lowest f-number for my Voigtländer 20mm is f/3.5. It added a slight blur to the background that might be seen on close-up view but not much from a distance.
Of course merging the infrared and the normal shots is not the end of the story, there would be still much to do to enhance the overall looks and add a mood (if any) to the image. One of the things that perplexed me in Still Fire is whether I should remove the cyan tint completely (in the background mainly) or not. However, I've decided to keep it but reduce its saturation a bit. 

雙火
(double fire)

Right after shooting Still Fire, I've moved outside as there is a plant growing in the yard and I was eyeing this plant for any type of shots for days. Of course, I was originally escaping the conditions outside that would cause the plants to shake while shooting 2 shots and changing filters and all of that but the case here was a bit different even though the location was a bit problematic like in Still Fire because I had to get low and cramp myself in a small corner somewhat (and get blinded by the sun a bit). Here though, for Double Fire, I've used 50mm and f/11 to discard the surroundings as much as possible. The location of this pot was in the corner and the planet was a bit stiff or something that made it almost unshakable by the breeze. Here though, I've decided to remove the cyan tint completely as I thought it didn't fit the scheme as in Still Fire. Anyway, seeing how the shot was a bit boring and had so much crop to remove parts of a pipe and another pot beside it (even though I was using 50mm which has a narrow field of view), I've decided then to do some art and mirror the image. In the process, I've tried to put more emphasis on the red tones and make it pop out against the dark background. One thing though that I've should have done before finalizing the image is to push the 2 mirrored images closer to each other to reduce the bulge at the center a bit. Anyway, it's not something I would be uploading to the stocks… or… may I!?

These images were also subjected to swap in channels (Red/Blue) and I think the results were fair and worth checking them out. Makes me think of uploading both versions to the stocks though I'm not sure of the acceptance as I don't see a specific focus or point in such images (they were tests after all!).
The next step now is to find other targets if possible and/or work on doing ultraviolet composite images as I didn't try to do much of these as well. Unlike the case with the infrared images, the ultraviolet images are supposed to be merged in the blue channel (I suppose). On the other hand I'm thinking of typing a blog post for my Arabic blog specifically about this process and try to post it there before the end of June, in order to keep my word and promise for posting at least once a month!

Well, as I've mentioned just now, I will be probably typing a blog post for my Arabic blog, thus I might be absent for more than one week from posting here. This might as well give me some time to work on some new images or projects if possible (and if I get the power to do so). I do have few images here and there I might as well be posting and talking about (in connection to the infrared shots here) but I'd rather keep it for later.
One of the challenges I'm also trying to calculate for is using my "super" ND filter (10 stops) in some way, preferably indoors. I had this idea in mind for a while but now the weather is hotter and I doubt I can do much about it so the challenge is intensified now as I try to think of some creative way to use this filter in the "comfort" zone of my own home! We'll see…

Finale

So, this is my "short" post about merging infrared and "normal" images and I'm still looking for some more opportunities to apply this technique. So for now, I might be absent from this blog for more than one week in hope that I would be over with my Arabic blog post by then, and again with the hope that I might take some more images. Also, I might also check my latest images to see if there is anything worth uploading to the stocks as I didn't upload in ages. I miss shooting panoramas as well but my choices are pretty limited in recent times. I hope I won't get to the day when I would forget how to use such gear.
On a side note, I've downloaded all my images on Photobucket and contacted the admins to delete my account there completely. I used Photobucket a lot in the past when the very beginning of this blog to link images from there (I'm not sure why really). Anyway, those old posts surely will have broken links anyway. I'm surprised though that some images that I've never uploaded there appeared there as if it was linked to my Facebook or something? It's creepy I have to say. I came across some memories as I've done that and I have to admit, some of them added some water in my eyes a bit (yes, felt like crying).
Lately, I've been extremely exhausted, spending about 80% of the day in my bed (specially around weekend times). I'm really losing the appetite for socializing at all (as well as for food). Been listening to motivational stuff here and there and yet I feel stuffed and stuck. Nothing makes much sense anymore right now. I want to get up, to do things, to go out, but seems wherever I head, there is some block on the way and I don't mean just any obstacle, but simply, block. Heck, I don't even have people to talk to like before, but few small chattering here and there and mostly online. I might be an introvert, but guess what, even introverts got their own social needs at some point. All that goes amid strong flashbacks of past failures on many fronts of life. Suddenly, I'm here. done nothing in the expansion of 20 years of my life.
It feels like suffocating slowly, and I might as well sleep in one of these days, and never wake up again… I wonder if there would be anyone who would be missing me anyway. Such a useless life.

Palmitaria 2

Diaspora…

Saying "Exhausted" is not enough to fulfill the description of the current situation. At some point, I thought I would need some dose of adrenaline, and some Prozac at other times, just to get me through the past 2 weeks.
Rolling over many ideas, I kept my gear and camera scattered around the place, and that would require one day indeed to be collected back again. Some ideas were simple, but I was hoping to get through the project with something acceptable.

Spotting Red

Many props and items have been purchased or improvised trying to establish some ideas for some photos. I have to say that this project, The Color Red, was beneficial at some point for making my mind run wild and made me connect to my world; trying to express feelings by using the power of still life and setups. Something I rarely do in fact.

Broken Love (I)

The first thing to do was to repeat the rose and ice heart experiment according to recommendations given by the leader of the group. The new instructions involve removing the random petals and including the rose into the ice mold. That proved to be challenging somewhat, since the rose went afloat and froze just like that. Breaking the ice mold (resembling a broken heart) caused the rose itself to "break!" You can see that clearly in Broken Love (I). The rose being afloat was not a good "view," so to say. Thus, there was a third (and a final) trial.

Frozen (I)

Frozen (II)

The last trial involved doing layers of ice to stabilize the rose inside the mold. This was done in two days of time by pouring a layer of water and wait for it to freeze, then pour another layer and wait for it to freeze and so on till the pan or cast is filled (almost). I had to compromise here with the idea of freezing a boiling water (to make a transparent ice) as I did in the previous 2 trials. However, the shape and the translucence of the mold was even better that way! I liked it shape so I snapped several shots as it is without breaking it first as can be seen in Frozen (I,II). I had to break the mold then to mimic the main idea in mind…

Murder

Breaking the mold was a challenge by itself. This is because the ice was formed into layers and not frozen all as once piece. This made cracking the ice out of uniformity and was hard to be done in a soft and easy way like the previous trials. Had to hammer so hard and then collect the scattered blocks into one position trying to make a heart shape (somewhat!). At this point I've removed the plastic piece underneath the block (which I used to give some reflections); this would help keep the blocks stable and not easy to slide off the table. I cropped the final image in somewhat panoramic format to give more direction for the water (blood) coming out of the heart.

Murder (II)

A friend of mine then suggested to change the colors (in fact he was pointing out to doing the experiment all over again), making the heart red if possible. Hence, I thought of using the typical channel swap method which is usually used in infrared photography, where the Red and Blue channels of the image are swapped. However, upon inspection by the leader of the group, Murder was favored more (probably for its calm atmosphere). According to him, this can go into contests as well. I'm happy that I've finally made something!

愛 (love)

The "Red" project didn't stop at that point still though. I kept on trying to do more ideas. Many ideas proved problematic, and more problematic even was to spend valuable time trying to achieve them instead of skipping to other ideas on the queue. Painting strawberries, for example, was one of those ideas which I've abandoned for good (but came back later in another form as will be shown). The next idea on the line was simple: a mother and daughter writing the word "love" in Chinese. I chose that word specifically for its duality: it is the word for "love" and it has a radical for "heart" used in it. You can see above that the word "heart" is painted in red. Well, my writing wasn't that good specially that the brush used is not calligraphic in nature (Chinese calligraphy uses special kind of brushes and special types of inks). Anyway, I used the help of my sister and her daughter to show their hands with the brushes as seen above. Setting the speedlites was a hurdle, as I was trying to depend on camera settings and light setting as much as possible to approximate the scene to a high-key. I've reflected 2 speedlites on the sides off large white surfaces (papers or so) while a third speedlite was held in one hand with a "bulb" diffuser. Lot of work had to be done in Photoshop though, to fix the colors and contrast and also flip my niece's hand to make it a left hand (but the edit was a fail and the I uploaded the original as it is to stock sites). The image anyway did not pass the sorting process, but it was accepted in a number of stock sites.

Artificial Nature

I stopped for a while from the project Red, and chose to work with something else. I thought I was over with it back then but I got struck with some idea, but it involved editing more than just mere photography. However, the concept is the same one I was thinking about with strawberries before, and in fact I was looking for strawberries first, but then I realized working with apples is more appealing because of the larger size. The idea about the food consumption in our modern world and how it is "edited" with genetics. Without going into the details of the make of such "design" but opinions were mixed between a pro and a con about this edit. Personally, I do feel there is something missing but I can't put my finger on it yet.
The funny thing about this shoot though is the improvised "cube" or "tent" for lighting. Three large white surfaces (or hard papers, or whatever) were placed as a background and on two sides, while placing 2 halves of a car shade on the top and at bottom. Using only two 580EX II speedlites and each one of them is pointing to the opposite side, the lighting was good enough and almost similar to that of a cube or a tent usually used for product photography. The idea is to bounce the light from one surface to another just like the beams inside the microwave would do. That way, the scene is supposed to be lighted from all directions.

Side Dishes

In between those "red" photos, there were some older ideas were put on queue to be done. Specifically, some ideas related to the marbles' images I've done before. As suggested by a friend, an image of an eye reflected into the glass marble would be a better idea. For this idea, I was going to use my brother to sit behind the marble, but a better idea and more stable one was to use my laptop as a background.

They Are Watching…

The drawback here was the inability to fit the eye image to be completely full screen, and because of that some white lines appear on its sides. I've simply loaded the image into Photoshop and put the window on full screen. I had to use some extra stack on the top of the keyboard and then put the marble on top of the that stack, upon an acrylic sheet I usually use for reflections. This was essential as the keyboard was getting into the final image and this was undesirable.
In the beginning I was trying to fit the marble or the whole scene into the frame but then I realized a crop is inevitable.In fact, adding more space to the image and cropping later would give more flexibility in terms of design and placement for the marble and its reflection. In the editing phase, despite cleaning that sheet, I had to work for long time on cleaning the area below the marble.

They Are Watching (II)…

As I was working I had this idea of doing an inversion into an inversion. That is, inverting the eye image, and then inverting the image while processing it in Photoshop. When that was done, I've rotated the image for 180 degrees upside down. Why? Not sure. But it looked more pleasant that way. However, the overall look still not so appealing, probably because of the blue and black combination. The eye reflection here is also weak and somewhat lost despite the simplicity of the image. I'm eager to show the first to be sorted, but not the second! I'm sure the second would not have any chances.

Another side dish was served to me on Wednesday is when I got the news for the arrival of my second camera (finally!). It is another EOS 7D which I purchased from a friend and then sent it to LifePixel for conversion to a full-spectrum; That is, supposedly capturing infrared and ultraviolet spectra. Just as a simple test, I've tried this selfie while standing next to a glass door allowing the sun to come in, and also using the on-camera flash to quicken the shutter speed a bit (at ISO400). Interestingly, as I was working on LiveView (essential for focusing precisely), with the absence of clear IR sources (e.g. sun, flash), the scene would be as it is in normal images (i.e. the shot is not reddish). My initial position was in front of a mirror with CFL lamp on top, and since such lamps do not issue any significant IR radiation (and has a coating inside that blocks UV), the image in the LiveView was plain normal. The IR influence did not appear in a clear way until I moved near the glass door. More ventures need to be explored in that field, specifically when it comes to panoramas. The selfie you see here is plain and direct from camera RAW without any modification (except for resizing of course).

Finale

Many things are going and racing through my mind, which makes me more serious about having a vacation away from my camera a bit. However, having a vacation from my camera doesn't mean not, supposedly, stopping the experiments. I do have special concerns as I plan to jump further with my panorama processing, and I'm thinking seriously of putting my relatively-new Voigtländer 20mm f/3.5 lens into work with panoramas, and my initial checking tells that I wouldn't have to re-calibrate my VR-Head for this new combination of camera-lens. It needs time for further testing and inspecting and check that no parallax-error or minimal parallax-error is achieved with this lens without re-calibrating the whole set. If re-calibrating is required, I might give up the idea. The reason for going after this, is my belief that the optics quality is better with this lens more than my common and usual Canon EF 15mm lens. Another testing series should check for the amount of chromatic aberrations. In my previous shots like 愛 (love), which was shot with the 20mm Voigtländer at f/18, the aberrations were somewhat visible on close inspection. However, the final say is to be told only by direct comparison between the two lenses taking shots for the same scene under the same circumstances. On the other hand, I need to look after possibilities of doing HDR shots with my newly-converted camera, as well as shooting panoramas as I do with my normal camera.
I'm not sure when I would carry all these plans, because I'm thinking of resting for a while for real and try to organize my life all over again. Well, I think I'm failing at this already but I might do something at least. Heck, just thinking of my gear which I need to pack back into the proper places I get a shiver down my spine! It is not only the camera that is giving me some stressful times, but everything else around me seems to be doing so. I can almost swear that if I was a brick, I could have been cracked or smashed already for such amount of mental stress. Anyway, who cares… and I'm trying not to care, the best to my capability…

Cold…

The engine is non-stopping and steam is venting from every ventilation route possible. Well, this is what I'm trying to do. My stuff are scattered around the house and I feel so pressured with time, and yet I didn't achieve much. I was hoping that I would be over with the project RED soon, but this wasn't the case, despite the encouraging feedback to my images.

Cold Love (II)

My first trials with the project resulted in Cold Love series. I had one idea in my mind and many liked the image but understood it as something totally different, but nevertheless, it's a good thing they liked it. What I like about this project is the push it makes (despite the pressure and stress) to make up the image, instead of waiting for a chance to make it. The first trial with this idea were good but not good enough and I was given some instructions; unfortunately though these instructions were challenging. First, the rose must be a cast inside the ice heart (which I made using bakery molds by the way), and the petals should be removed as they make a distraction. I tried 2 times more to make these instructions into fruition, but to no avail so far. However, I'm going to put on these results in the coming sorting meeting. If all fails, I think I will need to sort out to Photoshop to fix some of these problems (but not all). More ideas are waiting to be implemented and I've wasted enough time with this one and another idea involving strawberries (which will never see the light).

Black and white version from
a test shot from the project.

Meanwhile, my other trial for Selfie theme was also rejected for some technical problem (away from other problems in composition I believe). The focus is said to be on a portion of my back hair behind my ear rather than my eye. Well, with f/9 probably this is too obvious though on my monitor it wasn't pretty obvious. It's hard to do such a shot again because I'm doing it all alone. No one is going to set the focus for me!  Anyway, it's done and that's it. Now off to other projects to finish. This is getting really tiresome.

Little Universe (II)

 In the rush of projects and ideas, I've started to process a series of shots I've taken a while ago and totally forgot about them in such rush. A repetition for my previous trials with glass marbles and reflections. This time though I've changed the lighting method from dark field method to bright field method. The difference is obvious I presume. Here, however, I tried to get out of the typical scenery of reflection images by, first rotating the image, and then cropping the main subject and keeping the reflection, while cropping into a square (too much white area) and fitting the contact point between the marble and its reflection in one of the thirds' contact points. The reflection of the black boards on the sides is something I'm not sure of how to feel about really. Sometimes I see it as an ambiguous reflection and some other time I see it as something breaking the monotonous trend of such shot. I'll keep that for the next meeting to sort it out, though I'm not even 50% sure that such shot would pass. After this shot was published in the media, some friends suggested other variations to the main idea, so probably I'm not yet done with this experiment just yet.

Source: Amazon

As I go through my recent projects, I'm also reading this awesome book (which I've discovered it is volume 2 in fact). I'm trying to implement some of its tips in designing shots to my work with these projects. However, my reading pace is slow as I'm having no time to read except at work, and mostly at noon time just before I leave. The book discusses elements of design for the images in an abstract sense, as it connects between the human perception and basic elements of the image. At some point though I have to be careful about it because these interpretations are based on a Western view about the surrounding environment, and there might be critical differences between that view and our (Middle Easterners) view. For example, lines that slant to the right (/) in the image would give a sense of increment because eyes subconsciously follow the direction of writing and reading, thus making the line going up in direction from left to right. We, however, might see this line as a sign of going downward because our native writing and reading direction is right to left. This is just a simple example of the amount of information included in this book. The amount of information included makes me a slow reader as well.

Finale

Chain Reaction
Using Dark Field method.

Looking at my life now and all the things I want to do. I'm really running out of everything and time is such a huge pressure on my shoulders now. One of the projects that I've realized that I've stopped for long now is the Geltani conlang, which really saddens me to see it hanging there without a progress. I even thought, in moments of despair, to call it off and cancel all that progress, but I stepped back and said to myself "let's wait and see." I'm so taken away with photography now that it makes my life pace on brakes, and I don't know when I'm going to step on the acceleration paddle. Every time I try to manage my time and do some time management, things just slip out of my hands. Drastically. Makes me wonder now: do I need a long vacation away from my camera? Maybe…