Djinn…

Officially winter! We already got some rains here and I'm trying to enjoy as much as I can out of it because I know in some months from now, it will be so damn dry and "cooking".
Anyway, I didn't post anything here for about 2 weeks (or 3? I didn't count!) for some... legitimate reasons I'd say: A new panorama!

Djinn

Just before I get into the story, I'd like to explain the word Djinn to those who don't know it or never heard of it. Djinn (Arabic: جِن) according to the Islamic literature and belief, are creatures created even before the creation of Adam and Eve and they inhabit and dwell Earth and even space. They are created of fire and unseen by humans (except to few, saying that from experience). So, in some sense they are equivalent to what the Westerners would call Demons. Also, they can be either good or bad, they have different faiths and beliefs, as well as living in tribes and social classes of their own, just like humans.
So, I hope this introduction fascinated you a bit to read on, as I think the technical stuff coming along this post might be a bit boring! Since I didn't touch my panorama gear for quite some time now (mainly because I didn't travel nor I'm part of any group that does activities here and there). Thus, I had to look for alternatives; Ideas, mainly to be done in my periphery: Car, home, work... etc. It took the idea some time to "cook" in my head and I was kind of slow and sluggish in preparing my gear (typical), and the target was one of the rooms in my house where typically guests use, in case we get to have any sleeping over.
Now, the keywords for the work or the general idea revolves around: Magic, black, dark aspect or darkness, and maybe a touch of some horror and fear? Since I don't have models (as usual) I had to think about it thoroughly because the task is not easy here as the idea started to take shape in my head. I will be shooting myself, in various locations within the room, while it is dark and definitely needs a somewhat longer exposure (not good for stable poses!). Anyway, things (unwillingly) went on two trials and for this reason I didn't post last week, because the plan was to have this material ready by then but, unfortunately, the first trial failed drastically and I had to re-do the whole work in a different manner and a different setting.

جِنْ (Djinn)
Click to enlarge

Voigtländer Color Skopar 20mm f/3.5

Lumicon H-Alpha (Night Sky) filter.

Try #1: The first try was done  with my modified Canon EOS 7D and Voigtländer 20mm lens, fitted with the Night Sky filter (i.e. H-alpha filter) which is, partially, an infrared filter actually, allowing a band of Reds. I've tested this filter against my B+W 092 Infrared (threshold: 650nm~690nm) filter and compared the results (in-camera, using Custom WB). Comparing the blue tones specifically, I've decided to go with the Night Sky filter instead, this is beside providing a tiny bit of shorter exposure time. Working with 20mm instead of my usual Canon EF 15mm fisheye lens meant, of course, shooting more slides or angles, and that means forgetting about doing any HDR work here because the load would be simply RIDICULOUS. Now, using 20mm introduced another problem here is the need to change the usual orientation while shooting. So, instead of starting at 0^o for the tilt, I've actually used -15^o instead. This is just to include the whole stool with my body in the separate shots that I would need to do later to merge with the panorama while stitching (having myself in two shots to be stitched together is next to impossible; It must be one shot including my whole body). Another problem is the misalignment of many slides, and the empty spaces that added to the chaos (the computer was unable to connect these slides nor I was able to do so manually because of the featureless spaces). After 2 weeks, or so, of working on stitching this panorama, I've realized that this thing is beyond repair and I must re-do the whole thing, and probably drop out some of my requirements for this panorama, like using an infrared filter, and just shoot in the usual manner.

Canon EF 15mm f/2.8 fisheye

Try #2: So, after the failed attempt, I've switched back to my 15mm lens and this time I thought of some trick to compensate for these empty spaces; I've simply stuck some electric tape on various sections of the wall just to aid the computer later on to stitch these images - and just to show you my luck, the idea did work really but the tape was some bad quality and almost fell down, so I had to work fast! Anyway, testing the White Balance before the shoot, I've realized that this is almost equivalent to infrared shooting with my modified Canon EOS 7D, because the room is dark and the major light source is to be from the candles (which issue infrared of course). I banged my head at that moment; How come I didn't think of this before instead of all the hassle with my first trial?! Of course there should be remnants of the visible spectrum but that was not a problem specially after calibrating the white balance in-camera. The scene already turned to be an infrared-like. With this, it was like shooting a normal panorama and I had the power to do bracketing for HDR merging and tone-mapping, which I did. *sigh* Just like the old days!

Process: Processing the images was typical: Load the files, run Photomatix to merge the brackets, and then start with the stitch. It was essential here to calibrate the white balace in-camera before the shoot, otherwise the HDR merging and adjusting the colors would have turned to be a "wedding party of wild elephants" - Sorry, the best I could find to express my thoughts here.
However, while merging the bracketed images to create HDR slides as usual, I've made a mistake which I didn't discover until I tried to stitch the panorama for the first time. The mistake was enabling the Remove Ghosting with Detection level set to High. I'm not sure what I was thinking but in a nutshell, the computer created a movement where there were none in fact, and that PRODUCED ghosting! So, the situation was like the old advice of turning off the image stabilization on your lens when your camera is actually stable on a tripod because that would trick the lens and creates a movement. This is exactly what happened, but digitally this time. So, I had to re-merge the bracketed image in Photomatix again and this time putting the detection level on Normal. I've activated this option in the first place just "in case," specially that we have candles here and there might be moving shadows that would make the stitching harder a bit.
That was concerning the merging process but there was still a side work that had to be done and that is preparing those slides of me (specially those involving my reflection in the mirror) but no need to go on with this - it was just a simple masking process. But all had to be done in HDR mode of course with HDR slides.

Effects of using High detection level for ghosting removal on Photomatix.
Click to enlarge

One slide with tape cuts.
Click to enlarge

Stitching: As for the stitching process, it was typical to try to stitch the HDR slides first right away, but as usual, it failed. I remember in old times, this didn't happen much. Anyway, what can I say here; The image was indeed dark and I've intended for it to be so. Thus, I followed the typical procedure of tone-mapping the HDR slides using Photomatix again, and trying to get the best details from each slide. Of course the process is automated; I just pick the darkest slide possible to work with and save the settings then apply that to all. From these tone-mapped images I would create a model, and base the stitching of the HDR slides on this model. Lot of details here, but anyway the thing was not out of troubles, as usual. The tape trick did work to some extent but still needed some help or let's say a "push" from my side so I had to add some manual control points to match between the slides. Actually this problem happens all the time with or without sharp details between the slides for various reasons. All these tapes on the wall would be cloned out of course when the panorama is stitched completely. The final stitched panorama still had some stitching errors which I couldn't fix before stitching so working on that in Photoshop was inevitable. The thing is that I have to do these fixes every single time I create a new projection out of the same panorama; So, it will be such a slow process after all.

Finale

Well, this was the "short" story of this panorama, and I'm still having some more ideas at the back of my head, cooking and waiting to be served when I get the power and time. Beside that though, I'm still working on other projections of this same panorama here. I didn't want to put all the eggs in one basket so I might post about these in 2 weeks time from now; If they are ready though.
Now, it is time to think about some other panorama to do, beside the other ideas at the back of my head of course. The past few weeks were kind of hard, mentally. I was literally waiting for weekends just to sleep as much as I can (and even skipping my socializing with the family around some games like I used to every weekend). I'm trying to re-discover myself here, in some ways, but seems the process is taking longer than I participated. There is a talk about change in the horizon, things going to be better, the hardships years are over... yet I don't really see any of that in the horizon from my side. The travel that I've participated for 4 or 5 years now is still an idea that I could not make a reality. Would it be soon? We'll see. I'm planning for a little vacation by the first week of the new year, but I'm still not sure if I would be able to because I need to make sure that I won't be needed in my workplace. Boy, I'm going to sleep for real, and who knows, I might head out to shoot at night like I used to in the past years…

Cashel...

Here I am. Finally, in my final destination, the Thornbrooke House in Cashel, Co. Tipperary. I couldn't write something yeterday when I was in Cahir because the wireless service in the hotel was only downstairs in the lobby, and I really didn't have the time to go there. I was so tired that after showering in Cahir House Hotel, I fell asleep for most of the day and woke up by night.
Cahir is a little town, and I was surprised by the simplicity and the beauty of this town. There is so much to see in that town and since I was planning for one day stay only, I didn't have the time to go around so much. There is a place called the Swiss Cottage which I aim to visit some time from now. The way takes around 15 to 20 minutes from Cahir to Cashel. I had my morning walk after breakfast around Cahir and snapped some images, but before that and the day before, I snapped a picture for the castle from my window, and at night it was also glamourous.

Cahir Castle from my window

Down there and beside the castle, there is so much to see. Long walks and chestnut trees, and the river or the stream, which I've forgot its name!

The Little Waterfall Beside Cahir Castle

There is so much to see in this little town and even it has an antique shop that I SHOULD visit beside a gifts shop that it is a MUST for the family and friends. But the thing that really pleased me there is... SHAMPOO!!! YES! They do have a shampoo in the bathroom in the hotel! Silly isn't it? Well, after being in Travelodge in Dublin, I decided to buy my own shampoo, and I found out a pharmacy in Cahir that got plenty of hair-care stuff. Beside that pharmacy there was a photography shop that got me interested to see. It might be a studio, and they might still have the old camera stuff!

Cahir House hotel is a fine place but not for people who expect high level of services. It's quiet, sort of. The squeaky floor was a problem for me since I move a lot inside my own room, and there is no lift (elevator). I had to train my muscles a bit with carrying my luggage, because I didn't want to anyone to carry them for me. It's a habit of mine not to trouble others with my own stuff!

Now this is my first day in Cashel, I'm not planning to do much other than organizing my stuff and settling down a bit. I have 13 more days to come ahead. The owner was so generous to offer me 2 muffins! They were so yummy! I'm trying to remain awake so far and thus adjusting my sleeping habit. On the technical side, my Photoshop CS2 on this laptop, beside the laptop's speed, is giving me some hard time. The RAW files taken with my Canon 7D are not supported, and hence I have to adjust the terms and the size to post them in here with the DPP (Digital Photo Professional) that comes with Canon cameras usually. Beside that, All the images here won't be adjusted in anyway to be tone-mapped HDR like I did last year, but directly put in here, from a single RAW file.

I need to get up now and do other things!

Amazing Grace!

It's here!!! It's finally here!!! My Canon EOS 7D! After spending 2 weeks waiting for it it is here finally. It has been in clearance delay for around 3 days and the guys in DHL called me and sent me emails to send them some links or catalogs about this product! Why? I don't know. After all, and when I went to pick it up, I was told there was no duty on it. What the hell is going on?

 

Of course along with that came in my spare battery. Now with the arrival of this beauty, there is sooooooo much work to do. Preparing a place in it and getting some adequate place for my old camera, Canon 350D, and also getting a remote control (and I will check if I can get a wireless one for it too), because I didn't buy a remote along with it thinking that my remote cable will be sufficient for it (I got mixed up with descriptions in various websites and I was lead to think that my remote will work with this as well). So far so good. The modes dial on the left is making a real difference for me, but I didn't try real photography with it yet and I'm still to this moment trying out the various functions in the LCD preview and also the functions assigned to the buttons. So much reading for the manual to do as well, and also I have to write a decent review for this camera on Amazon and B&H. I like to be honest with camera-related subjects. I'm going to be busy beside being busy already reading the printing book, which is about to finish so far. This book is a mine of information. Thank you Uwe. Thank you Jürgen.

Beside reading this book, I'm trying to apply some of its concepts specially regarding the calibration of my monitor which is not easy at all. I've been looking for more information about my own monitor just to get an idea about what kind of monster I'm dealing with. The first you are expected to do when calibrating your whole system for printing process, is to calibrate your monitor. My monitor is LG L1954SM, and for my ill luck, I've found out that it has been discontinued since 2008 maybe. Typical luck of mine. However, I got to install some drivers and a software from LG website called Fortemanager, that is supposed to help you out in the process of calibrating your monitor. Because of the hardship I'm facing in creating a profile for my monitor and creating an idea about what I'm expected to see, I'm thinking seriously now of getting a colorimeter. I found one that is relatively cheap in Amazon, and might do the job perfectly.

Some "relatively" cheap colorimeters

The thing about these tools is, you don't have to use your eyes for calibration or anything. Relax! The more digitized the process is, the more objective and reliable it is.

While checking again about the procedures to calibrate the monitor (which seems that I have to do using the controllers of my graphics card in Control Panel because, simply, the controllers of the monitor are not suitable at all!), I've realized the fact that before doing the tests with the usual test images, the conditions for my monitor MUST be unique in a certain way:

• White Balance must be set between 5000K and 6500K (mine is on 6500K already).
• Gamma must be set to 2.2 (my monitor does not display any values for gamma except 50/0/-50 !).
• Luminance must be in the range of 100-125 cd/m2 (candela per meter square).

Of all, the third was the hardest to check. Until I found out some website that suggested an objective way to measure it using the camera light sensor, and even though it is not a professional or unique enough, it does some work and approximates the desired results already. You can find this method here. This method solved something, but still more to do. An idea popped into my mind as well, which is to try this camera method for
 checking how much light does the media (glossy paper...etc) would reflect. I'm not sure if this is really an objective way, but it might shed some light on the matter of reflectance of papers, and also the opacity of papers. The theory is to measure the light source in a dark room by the camera (i.e. checking the shutter speed while setting ISO400 and f5.6 in Av mode). and then reflect this light from the media and check it again with the camera. Then check the ratio of the two values. This might be a deciding factor later on in case I want to make special prints in a less or more reflective surfaces (for a desired effect for example). Yet, it's just an idea still.

Along side to the monitor calibration, a printer set-up and calibration is required as well but this one is going so slow. Just recently, I've printed out another test image of my own and tried to compare various settings. The colored ink though was finished of blue and this really PISSES me off. I bought new inks, but didn't fix it in the printer yet. After all, from the talk that goes on in the book itself (Fine art printing book), seems my HP Photosmart C4783 is simply, a simple printer and not really made for advanced use or printing, although it gives some nice results somehow on various glossy types, providing that you'd know how to manage the ink and know when to print in Best (not always good) or Normal mode (but never Fast because it shows banding).

The Cracked Marble. My test image.

About the image above, it was taken for one marble from my collection (yes, collected them when I was 10 years old or younger), and it is a tone-mapped HDR. I made several experiments in fact with this marble but I've found out that the most beautiful version was this one. My main aim was actually to try out making a SR image out of it, but once I've seen the beautiful colors, I went on and did the shoot for HDR as well. The HDR shoot though was not regular by the camera only, but done with the dedicated flash, Speedlite 580EX II.

Speedlite 580EX II

Now, fixing the flash sync with the shutter made much difference, as well as pulling down the diffuser (which is mainly, according to the manual, for fisheye lenses to avoid vignetting on edges), and the ISO - all of these factors changed the nature of the image (which was taken inside the home-made softbox). One setting, which unfortunately I don't remember quite well, made the perfect image by almost lighting the background as well the marble as well. Notice that in all of these shots I was using FEB (flash exposure bracketing), because I can't use the camera's bracketing (AEB) when the flash is in work, and also I was still using daylight bulb on the side.

After this little experiment I decided to do some others, but they were simple. One of them was done for my shaving cream brush, trying to make a suitable pattern or texture from a SR image, and then taking a picture for my pine cones that I've collected one year ago from Ireland.

Brush pattern. Suitable for photoshop too!

Pinecones from Ireland with background removed.

Nothing was so special about these images, except that for the pine cones, I've mounted the 500W halogen light on my monopod to light the pine cones and I didn't use the flash at all. Removing the background was not completely an easy task anyway because the white background was not quite unique (mainly because of dust particles accumulating on the box's ground). I think I should change the background translucent paper already.

Now, everything is on busy mode. Trying to do everything as fast as I can, and experimenting as well as much as I can before going to Ireland with my new camera. There in Ireland, I will try to do it as I did last year, writing a blog for every day of my stay and putting pictures here, if possible. So far so good with the camera for now, but I didn't install any software that came along in the CDs with it. I need to do this ASAP in my laptop and my PC. I hope though, my 8GB+1GB CF cards would be sufficient, since with such high resolution and with my desire to shoot in original RAW always makes the average file size around 18MB with this beast! For this reason, I got myself today a 16GB CF from a local Canon store, and the price was not adequate at all. The price of this "unknown" brand to me was 32KD, and for this same price I would get something similar from the US delivered to me, and from SanDisk. The problem now that I didn't count for is the recording speed (in terms of MB per seconds). But probably I won't use this property a lot.Most probably I will be using the 8GB CF then 16GB and then if things got worse, I will use my old 1GB CF. The 8GB and 1GB CFs are from SanDisk with different writing speeds.

My current CF.


The thing I got today, and please check the price
and compare it to 32 Kuwaiti Dinars!

Beside this CF, I should mention that I went there in the first place for something completely different. I was there to get myself a remote control for my new Canon EOS 7D, because my control was not adaptable to it. Now, the shop owner surprised me that the remote is wireless too (not a complete surprise but the surprise is that he has it!). He told me it works with AAA size batteries but when I checked the shape just now, it runs with lithium CR2032 battery, which I think gives a longer life. But I have to check the manual for this little thing to check how it would work for successive shots and for the the bulb mode (shutter speeds exceeding 30 seconds).

RC-6

Well, I guess this is the end of the story for today. I've been writing this post for 2 days now, and probably it will be the last for me for the time being here in Kuwait. I have to prepare things and re-check everything before my travel to Ireland next Tuesday's after-midnight. See you till then!

Could Not Resist...

Well, been many days now since I've posted stuff here. Mainly because my work is boring and slow going, I spend it all watching stuff on youtube waiting for the working hours to finish and sometimes I sign up for a short leave to leave work earlier than the regular time. My life at home though is not that idle, however. I have a list of games to play for now, and just recently I've finished the Dark Fall II - Lights Out. It is a ghost story of he Sci-Fi type. Despite my fascination with the story itself and the great design of the 1912 lighthouse and the sea village, despite of all of this, I had to go on and depend heavily on the walkthrough all around the game, mainly because of some minute details and my fast-paced way of playing such games wouldn't help with that! However, I've been always fond of Jonathan's games. Made me think seriously of being a ghost-hunter myself! The only thing here is that in the oriental world, we speak of demons and rarely ghosts as it is in the western part of the world. For such a task, Failaka island would be the first target for such investigations I believe, after the turmoil and the war and the deserted houses witness that.

I've been weak. So weak. I couldn't control myself and my expenditure. I fell in love with a new tool that costs more than one thousand dollars. In the beginning I was so ambitious to own a full-frame Canon camera, namely the 5D or the like, but the prices got me into shivers and I almost wanted to cry! Looked again for something "cheaper" and yet I couldn't find something that satisfies me completely, except of the Canon 7D and the cheaper variety of Canon T2i. I was in favor of the T2i mainly because of the price.

Canon 5D Mark II

Canon EOS 7D

Canon EOS Rebel T2i

The 5D Mark II is 21MP in resolution, while the 7D and the T2i are both 18MP. The T2i is cheaper mainly because the type of memory cards used as it seems. Generally speaking, the 7D and the T2i are both the same except in some criteria like the memory used and maybe the timer option. Also, the Canon 7D has a wireless control over Speedlite flashes which benefit me a lot, but I'm not sure that the Canon T2i does have that or not. I even went down with my ambition and thought of getting 15MP camera, like the Canon EOS 50D,

 

Canon EOS 50D

I was frustrated. I have limited time because the B&H stores are closing for the Rosh haShanah, the Jewish new year's holiday, and in the meantime, I have limited time as well because it would be nice to take this camera with me when I travel to Ireland by the end of September, and hence I have to make a decision so fast. It was really a turmoil. Add to that frustration, I'm thinking of saving a bit as well to get me a used car by the end of the year or by the beginning of the next year. I've found one store based on UK that sold the 7D for a bit of cheaper price (in dollars as well) but then I was struck by the fact that I have to pay extra charge for using my credit card! I never saw such regulations in my orders from USA before, at all. Hence, I've canceled this idea from my mind and mainly thought of ordering from the B&H only. Finally, I decided to sacrifice with some money for the sake of some long term investment, and I placed an order for the Canon 7D with an extra battery for it, for an estimation of something around 518KD, which was something a bit more than 1,800 US$. The main problem here is that those cameras now have a video recording capability, which is something I do not need and do not use at all, and that, as I think, contributes greatly to this price!

Because of the previous commitment to such equipments, I'm thinking of seriously pushing my limits with photography and arts in general somehow in some way, but yet, I can't find a way. An exhibition seems a good idea, but yet, I can't really figure out how to do it or how does it work and how much would it cost! All I can do now, is wait to be noticed maybe.

Back to my simple life now and my regular work. I've dug some more websites that mainly sell photographs from Ireland, and I've emailed some to see if I can be a contributor or asking about some regulations but so far, no reply at all! I'm planning to dig for more and find some opportunities out there.

In the meantime, I got some ideas going through my head, specially when I started doodling again in my office trying to pass the time to escape that prison. I've decided after some sketches to make a series of vectors suitable for weather broadcast and seasons of the year, and submit all to Canstockphoto (and who knows, probably Bigstockphoto too).

Some vectors so far. (Top left) Circular ornamentation made by a repetitive pattern of a single shape, 

(Top right) A tide, (Bottom) Wind vector.

I'm still working on these sketches so far, as I'm planning to make doodles for the four seasons. I have to resolve some problem with the vector uploads in Canstock and waiting for their reply so far. The JPG display does not show and makes it hard for me to organize my files.

I made an experiment again with a software that I've forgot about some time now. That would be the PhotoAcute and its options for producing Super-Resolution (SR) images. I really can't remember how I thought of it or what sparked the idea, but it was about making a serious trial for a SR image, because I don't remember I did something similar. The target was the texture of a toast surface in a close-up. I've bracketed the exposures like I do with HDR, but here I've used a short distance, mainly a 1/3 stop only, with a small aperture (f32), at 55mm.

Toast Texture (minimized)

After converting the RAW files into TIFF (and this is one awkward thing about PhotoAcute, that it does not deal with RAW files directly), I've put them in PhotoAcute and set the option to increase the resolution. The resulting image was saved as TIFF as well, and the size was 6904x4604, making the resolution up to 31.7MP, or rounded to 32MP (the resolution is simply a multiplication of pixels dimensions). The TIFF version was already 225MB! While the JPG version was already exceeding 25MB. I've submitted the image in hope of acceptance now. I might be using this method a lot lately, specially in a close-up images for patterns and textures. Now imagine this peaking in resolution, accompanied by a proper gear, like a 18MP camera!

By a simple comparison, if it is accurate to state this, my 8MP camera produced at the end a 32MP image almost, which means 4 times the original resolution almost. Hence, a 18MP image, would produce I suppose a 72MP image at the end. My hand is itching.

Beside all of this work, I'm trying to make a final collection of photos from Ireland, but this time I'm trying to fit it into a movie file by using Windows Movie Maker. So far, I suck at this. I can't manage to put it as I like. This way though would be fanciful and better than clicking images to see a larger version in the email message. Plus, I can add music to it, and so far I picked some "noisy" music that I like; The March of The King of Laoise. A tough bagpipe tune. Let's hope I figure this thing out before my vacation (which I'm burning to start ASAP).