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).
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| 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!
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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. |
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| Voigtländer 20mm Color Skopar |
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.
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| 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.
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| 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).
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