Alexander 6, V8.

It is one busy day, and full of dust. The weather was nice in the morning, but suddenly after a visit from my director who asked me to get the "air sampler" out to collect a sample of air in "such" weather, I suddenly stopped and looked through the window, and voila! A yellow planet was there! The time was almot 9 a.m. even (and not exactly 9).
After some trials again with my tortaloza (my beloved turtle, going to call it tortaloza from now on), and my watch with my rings. Not so much to be mentioned really, but I did, somehow, make up some sparkles on the surface, but yet I had to use the flash head as well. I made 2 images different in DOF and tried to combine them with Exposure Fusion option in Photomatix, but the result was not what I did expect. The image was a bit of what I call "dreamy effect," where you have some blurred fog like texture over the original image (and with some sparkles as well). Anyway, I discovered that the shallow DOF for the two images can be combined together in Photoshop by stocking and blending (not an option for CS2 users);

 

Two images of different depths combined by "blending" as "stock" in Photoshop CS4.

As you can see, in the first image the ring was sharp and the turtle is blurred at the back (it gives a sense of a distance) and the opposite is on the right image, although the ring might not seem so clear whether it is blurred or not. However, with Photoshop and not by exposure fusion, I made a new image with both objects sharp.

I felt that Photomatix's EF option is not what I need, so I found, as mentioned in some site, that there is a freeware named EnfuseGUI. It is a software based on a command-line program made before. "GUI" stands for "Graphical User Interface," which is the type of softwares I do like the best. However, the software got a glitch and crash every time I drag and drop some files in it (or maybe it is because I was using RAW files rather than JPG or TIF?). There is no "add" or "open" buttons in this software, and the only method is to drag and drop. I think I shall try again today and see if this problem is related to the files being RAW or not. I have to convert the files first.

The software has many options that I've never heard of in Photomatix; many sliders and check-boxes here and there and something about maps or the type of map. The map here, as I believe, is the map created from one file in order to measure the weight of each pixel (usually done by doing a Threshold effect in the memory, i.e. not seen in front of you on the monitor but merely something calculated and data collected for usage by the CPU). I could be using Photoshop less now, but I think this is for good.

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169. a man got closer to Alexander and started
170. and the story of his folk he went to tell
171. "we are from far away lands there near you,
172. in greenish mounts just before Caqobia,
173. we are the Shepherds, and I am Ikilis,
174. every year at a time like this,
175. we come to this spot with sheep to pasture
176. and the volcano god Kadmún won't allow us,
177. until we pray for him and slay some sheep
178. and if we did not do that, all our fortune will be gone"
179. Alexander boiled with rage but kept silent
180. and talked slowly to Ikilis the shepherd
181. "dear Ikilis, what kind of god is that,
182. who has no mercy for his followers?
183. and what kind of god is that,
184. who cannot make other people worship him?
185. or what kind of god is that,
186. who asks for fortunes of others?"
187. Ikilis thought about it for a moment
188. then asked Alexander: what do you mean O good king?
189. Alexander smiled to know that the man is able to think
190. then Alexander said: no gods on this Earth,
191. except of God who is every where,
192. and that Kadmún is certainly a demon of tricks

Alexander 6, V7.

After some streak of idleness and a streak of melancholy all over the place, I was able to make one experiment which I cannot say it is sucessful anyway but, well, it was a nice chance to test my softbox again.
I made many sittings and changed the position of the front light many times trying to make that sparkle off from the surface of the turtle but there was no use for that (except a tiny bit of luster). I even used my flash WITH the lights being on. I like the background though and the soft shadow, but I also need a nice sparkle in such images;

 

Exposures made by different apertures merged together and tone-mapped by Photoshop.

I read in some website that Exposure Fusion (which is a new technique that came after HDR), is now a new trend and is pretty much preferable rather than the HDR, mainly because of the skill needed when tone-mapping a HDR. Well, to me, the situation is not always like that. Many times, the EF did not yield the colors and contrast I would like to see in my images. However, there was a bit of information that I really liked to try, but I didn't do well yesterday (my mind was shattered), that is EF is able to enfuse several depth of fields, because the technique mainly compares pixels and picks the best pixel from each image to be represented according to some algorithm. I used EF already to merge pictures of different white balances (WB) and it made some nice images with different, and weird, hues like the locker before;

  

Two different images made by the same collection of images of different White Balances.

I shall try again today if I was able to, and to try out different depths of field to be combined. I think I should have somehow an active background instead of just a plain white background. Anyway, I shall leave you now with Alexander...

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145. after finishing their worshipping in a hurry
146. they turned to Alexander with reddish eyes
147. and asked him about his name and origin
148. he answered back and told them the truth
149. they laughed in the beginning so loud
150. because how come the king of might
151. the well known king of Caqobia
152. be walking with no guards or army?
153. then one man showed his dagger to Alexander
154. and threatened Alexander if he did not say the truth
155. then Alexander asked them to see his index finger
156. on his left hand where he kept the royal ring
157. so the men checked his finger and got shocked
158. he was indeed the king of kings
159. the son of Pilippánút, the king of Caqobia
160. the conqueror of Geltans and Ghutans
161. they stood with no motion trying to understand
162. then with a smile Alexander asked them to sit
163. and he told them his story and his destination
164. and how he got down from his riches to poverty
165. then he preached to them about God and this life
166. and why he did what he did for them
167. and then he asked them about their story
168. about their origin and their faith