Well, the weather is getting warmer that now are in March already. I'm not sure if I can do more strolls outside. My last one was on February 2ⁿᵈ when it was rainy and cold; Life kept me occupied then after and I was not able to repeat the experience. In fact, I was already thinking of a panorama in some place, but to do it I'd need to be up early and I'm not sure if it would be safe because it is a place in between some houses. I don't trust my luck when it comes to dealing with people's mentality around here.
Anyway, for the coming few posts, I'd be going through some of these simple strolls that I've did in January and February, so far.
A Beginning
For starters, the strolls for this winter were a bit of a challenge, simply because I'm using different lenses other than what I used before (20mm and 50mm). As a starter, I've decided to use the Sigma 12-24mm, and on my regular or normal camera. Thus, no infrared, no ultraviolet this time.
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| Sigma 12-24mm DG HSM the adapter hood is not shown |
This lens has a diameter of 82mm and I can't fit any of my filters on it even though I do have step-down adapters. I tried to fit it once onto the front hood (which is an additive to the lens and not part of it) but for some reason, the ring did not click in. It seems that such hoods are made into a slight ellipse and not a full circle to be able to hold onto the body of the lens front, thus it was hard to put a circular ring adapter onto it. I didn't want to try further for fear of breaking something, but i assume that even if I was successful here, there would probably be a big chunk of vignetting which probably won't be fixed in post-processing. However, it is worth another try, some day, some time; Just not now! Anyway, I had one more trick in my sleeve yet.
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| Cokin flare filter |
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| Vignetting from the tape |
vignetting already and how it might cause problems that can't be fixed in post-processing; because, this is exactly what I did in fact, but with a different kind of filters here. This filter was the Cokin flare filter, which I purchased for cheap from a friend. The filter needs adapters to fit onto the lens but I don't have any of that. I've used it before several times just by fitting it onto the lens front and hold it there by improvisation! This time though, the filter fits nicely (sort of) onto the hood of the Sigma 12-24mm lens, but I needed to tape some edges to keep it in place and THAT what caused the vignetting (not the filter itself!).
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| 开始 (the beginning) |
For the beginning, I've headed westward from home and I've set the White Balance to "Fluorescent"; My favorite one at times of dawn or dusk (so mainly around the blue hours). Made some test shots just to gauge the exposure a bit (working in "Av" mode). The Beginning was processed from RAW, but later on, I've switched to bracketed shots and the whole work (almost) in these series to come was done in HDR. I didn't work in HDR for quite some time, and I felt the urge to do something crazy. Just to note, I used HDR (and still) for panoramas and other shots but typically I'd tone-map the image to make it close to reality, but this time I needed to do something "unreal".
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藍色的背後 |
Moving along that neighborhood (facing south now) I've arrived at the playground just at the local grocery shop. It's such a suitable place for geometrical abstracts, but I've never thought of stopping by and taking some pictures here. Anyway, it was a nice opportunity to inspect the place and do some HDR spree. I had some clicks around the fence and I tried to stabilize my hands as much as possible (and I was shooting at waist level). The real struggle though came about afterward when processing such images, like behind the blue, as I was trying to "perfect" the geometry and make sure everything is parallel and straight; A theme that I will be struggling with a lot in the coming shots and later days as well.
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| Candy Gates |
As I'm typing these words now, I''m trying hard to memorize the sequence of events as much as possible (it had been 2 months already). Ironically, as I'm doing this and going through the files, I've discovered some files that I didn't process at all for some reasons that I can't remember. Anyway, finishing from the fence, I've headed inside the playground (which lies on quite a small area) and the place was colorful indeed despite the harsh treatment from the sun all over the past summers. Honestly, I liked the place so much that I really wanted to go into these tunnels and structures (no wonder kids like them, it gives a sense of secrecy!) but alas, my body size wouldn't fit there, and no need for further embarrassment here (cleaning workers were around). The colors in this place reminded me of candies, hence the title of the image(s): Candy Gates; and I say images because things developed naturally into a series of such "gates".
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| Candy Gates 2 |
However, "colorful" doesn't necessarily mean "joyful" or "merry" - does it? This is one of the strong points for shooting HDR (or to be precise, shooting bracketed images to merge them into HDR later); it would allow you to control the mood of the image more than just editing the RAW file itself, but with some expansion with the capabilities to shape the light itself in the image. Thus, images like Candy Gates 2 would normally (maybe) look merry and colorful with all the tones of red and blue in this corner, but darken the image as if it was a Halloween scene and you have a reflection on some abandoned place that was once "alive". Not far from reality though.
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| Candy Gates 3 |
One thing, I might say, is common among all these candy gates shot, and that is that they would have done better if I had focused a bit and spent some time centralizing the camera to make the perfect symmetry. Maybe I was just a bit lucky in Candy Gates 3 and 4 (just a bit) but focusing too much in shooting such abstract scenes would defy the whole purpose of this stroll and this shooting session altogether; wouldn't it? Therefore, I was literally reckless when it comes to precision here. Also, pointing with precision here would really require a tripod in my case; These coffee-addicted hands are no good when it comes to stability AND precision together. One of them is allowed only!
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| Candy Gates 4 |
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| They Shall Pass |
I arrived then on a bridge-like structure between two "towers" I think (or something similar). What I liked here is how the morning light seeped through. I have to admit here that much of the blueness in that scene, They Shall Pass, was majorly done in post-processing phase, but the play of light and shadow was still beautiful to my eyes in reality, as it is in the post-processed version. It was a struggle to shoot this vertically as I was holding the camera with one hand and pointing downward, while keeping the camera strip away from the scene with the other hand, and all of that had to be stable for 3 successive shots. I was lucky, actually, to find a suitable set from all these shots to work the HDR out and tone-map it. I had to do some cropping of course and some perspective fix.
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| Broken |
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| Три Арки (three arches) |
Having enough from the playground, I've moved out to check on the rest of the neighborhood, which is not something new really, but what makes it "new" here is the element of using a different lens; A lens that I didn't use before in such strolls outside.
Just outside the playground, few steps away, stands a house with arches. Now, I like architecture photography but such an activity has its own allergies when it comes to places like where I live for privacy issues. People like their privacy and a stranger, who can be barely seen outside his home and don't have friends in the neighborhood, is always a suspicious sighting. Anyway, since I was in a haste and I didn't want to stay for a long time in front of the house, I've taken a shot for these arches on the house's facade. I thought to myself "I'll try to fix this at home." Fixing here was mainly in terms of the perspective. I sort of done this, somehow, as seen in Three Arches, but the final result was somewhat catastrophic, and I've spent a LONG time trying to fix the perspective. Perspective issues, specifically, are always better to be fixed on-location if possible. In this shot, there were two perspective problems: sideways and vertical perspective. As for the vertical one, this is natural because I'm shooting on the ground and not using a tilt-shift lens. As for the sideways, I was supposed to be standing directly in front of the arches, but alas, that didn't happen, and I had to do both corrections in Photoshop, and thus the resolution of the image did suffer so much. Originally, the image had more than 3 arches and more space on the sides and top, but all was gone in the process.
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| Jailing Shadows |
There, at the same house, some shadows made a play on the outside walls (and I was lucky to have no car parking there!). The irony about the shadow (or shadows) is that it was formed by a small metallic piece in the corner of the cars shade, but the shadows were naturally magnified on the wall (just like how the projector works). The post-processing was in HDR first, of course, and I tried to tone-map the image to show or get a more dramatic impact. However, this was not enough and I had to do more to the contrast and sharpening in Photoshop (specifically to get that texture on the upper portion of the image). This one, too, had undergone some perspective (and distortion) fixes, as I was trying to make the verticals as straight as possible. The distortion caused by the lens itself is mainly due to the edges rather than the center, and thus with cropping the image to focus on the center subject, it wouldn't really matter much to fix the distortion for such images, and for such a lens, the Sigma 12-24mm DG HSM. However, I have to say that I don't quite trust the installed lenses profiles in my old PS, and from time to time I'd be looking forward for other reliant methods to rectify the distortion caused by my lenses. It can be done at home if only I have the proper chart and proper space to work within!
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| Colorful Past |
Afterward, just after that house, I've arrived at the (in)famous house which, if you've been around this blog for a while, you probably have seen already shot in different styles with different lenses and filters. This time though there are a number of different factors, beside the falling metallic roof on the front door here, as seen in Colorful Past. The difference here is that I'm shooting it with a new lens, and no filter, and using HDR technique.
In processing this shot (from HDR), I've focused on the element of "livelihood" - that is to show how vivid the place is despite the apparent of the status; Maybe we can call it a "contrast in concepts", aided by that contrast in colors between the blues and the yellows/reds tones (as complimentary colors on the colors wheel). This image also was subjected to perspective adjustments and cropping accordingly. Here, though, the tilted lines (vertical or horizontal) could have been already there in the scene regardless of the camera tilt or distortion, but I still worked on making the vertical and horizontal lines as parallel as possible. HDR is not the end of the story of course, and I still had to do a lot of things in post-processing (beside the perspective fix that is), like adjusting the contrast and adding some blur or haze, as I deemed sharpening in such situation wouldn't add to the feel that I'm aiming for.
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| After The Rain |
Then after the "haunted house", I came across, again, a previously-featured a corridor/alley/lane (whatever it's called) which passes in between two houses. I've shot this before in various lenses and filters as well, and this time it was the time for HDR testing. I have to say though that with such lens and without any filters, this scene doesn't seem quite interesting as before (adding to that, some objects and features had changed, like the wasted tire that was dragged further away!). Probably the only interesting thing here was the damp floor after the rain that fell the day before. However, HDR technique did help a lot in showing the details of the clouds (which would have been faint otherwise). Again, perspective fixes were needed and some work was put on highlighting the greens, specially on the tree in the background.
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| Media Center |
However, there is just that door before the entrance to that alley, which really caused a great deal of frustration for me. It was shot before (of course!) and in various lenses and filters, but in all cases, fixing the perspective for this door was/is/will be something troublesome, always. I'm not sure what's the secret about this door but I do think there are some issues in the architecture itself that I didn't pay attention to on-location, which makes rectifying the image is such a hard task to keep the verticals and horizontals as parallel as possible. The name, Media Center, comes from all these newspaper boxes on the wall. I really thought that this house was abandoned like some in the area (like the one I shot above) but turned out it is inhabited. These newspaper boxes actually were a deciding factor for me when I wanted to rectify the image, as I really wanted them in the image to add some element to the story, and because of them I had to change the whole perspective and cropping process to include as much as possible of them. Probably you can tell that I had to sacrifice one (or maybe two) boxes on the far right side. I tried to rectify the door and make its sides as parallel as possible, but yet there seems to be a bulge on the upper side or shade just above the door. Call me a perfectionist or some OCD'er, but I can't keep my eyes off such "discrepancies"; My eyes just go there automatically.
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| Media Center 2 |
After finishing from that door, it was time to go back. Usually, I'd take that alley and go out from the other side and walk back home (this is what I did in previous strolls in this area) but this time I just headed back on the same path that got me there already. The clouds were interesting, so just not to miss them I've shot something that I'm not completely proud of or something, but something for fun, as in Media Center 2. No rectification was required here as I didn't have a real goal or anything in this shot, but I was focusing mainly on the clouds and tried to highlight them as much as possible with HDR tone-mapping. In the post-processing (after tone-mapping that is) I've tried to add a tint of magenta as is usually seen when shooting using the Fluorescent WB (as this shot wasn't shot with it).
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| Восьмиугольники (octagons) |
At this point, my wandering was almost over and I'm already heading back home, but I still had some itch in my pocket (or my camera) and I passed the local mosque (just at the back of Media Center 2), where I shot Octagons. This time, the fence was high but still somewhat reachable, so I raised the camera with one hand to have a better perspective (better, not perfect!). Again, shot for HDR, but I didn't go super-crazy with tone-mapping, as I didn't like to have halos around the edges in this one. There was still some perspective fixing to be done as well as cropping to centralize the image (i.e. cropping in such a way to let the center of the image be a specific point or subject). In such situations, using a high f-number is a must (kind of) since I was shooting without looking and depending solely on the concept of hyperfocus (which better be done with higher f-numbers, f/8 and above).
At this shot, the stroll was over and I was already on my way back home. Processing the shots took me a while (of course) and I remember there was some delay because of some health issues back then. It was clear though that the Cokin filter (which was on the lens all that time) didn't do much for the shots, as I didn't have points of light in the images. Still though, the filter would accompany me later in the next stroll with somewhat good results I'd say.
Finale
For the current situation on the home-front, it feels as if something inside me has been dead. Maybe dead beyond resurrection. I don't know how I am moving or doing things around here, but all I know is that I'm alive, supposedly. fatigue and the turbulent sleeping pattern is the main theme for the current times of my life. I'm even typing this blog and finishing it after midnight. I consider myself lucky to finish this blog in time by the way, as I was running late and I couldn't force myself to type it down. It needed a great deal of power, and coffee.
I'm not sure what to expect or what to work for for the next few days or weeks, or even months, but the question that keeps ringing in my head all the time is: Could it really be that bad all the time from now on? Just to think about "Yes" as an answer to this, is quite terrifying…
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