Set Back…

Been weeks now and my health still on a swing. Though better than 2 weeks ago when fever struck me, but the remnant cough is taking its toll on my lungs already. I've been thinking seriously of checking back with the doctors to see if I should take Seretide; a steroidal inhaling powder that I used to take 2 years ago when my lung was apparently damaged or something because of some renovation in the house when apparently so much particles got stuffed inside my lungs. The case is different here since it is a remnant of some fever (apparently for the weather change), so I'm kind of reluctant to ask for Seretide for the time being. All I've been doing for it is having a herbal cough syrup which helps a bit, and sometimes having a spray of Ventoline; though it is not a case of asthma.

Rolling

DR-655

Been a while now since I got my new filter, the DR-655 hot mirror from Kenko, which is supposed to block IR for good in combination with my B+W 403 ultraviolet filter. Ironically though, I couldn't do a real test for the filter yet, as I'm aiming for capturing faces and flowers. Around 3 weeks passed already now and I still can't do a real shoot, except for a quick check-up. I did make a video indeed just to compare between Tiffen's hot mirror and DR-655, but of course it's not a photography project with depth.

First: B+W UV pass filter alone.
Second: B+W UV pass filter + Tiffen IR Cut.
Third: B+W UV pass filter+ DR-655 IR Cut.

As I don't have a good UV source for indoors work with the filter, I'm forced to try and work under the sun; And here comes the irony: For 3 weeks, I couldn't work outside with the camera, either because of the timing, the weather (haze and dust), or because of my health issues. However, I've realized the point that DR-655 is indeed a good hot mirror since the exposure time doubles or even triples in comparison to Tiffen's hot mirror. This typically would call for a higher ISO as well, that's why I'm planning ahead to work indoors with UV sources, such as blacklights, or maybe we do have some hope with regular CFL lamps. I thought seriously of bringing my camera to work and try to do something with this filter as there is a nice garden around my workplace and could be a good target, but first we have the weather that does not come in terms with my aims, and then we have the hassle and the fuss around this place (I don't want to be walking around with my gear while everyone is looking). 

Thus, for the most part, my work involves mainly some edits for ignored images from the past, or re-makes for old images (specifically with the LAB technique edit), and for some of those, the results were astonishing indeed. One part the sets it back though is the hard bleeding (too much saturation that could not be put down, or could be but with lengthy work), and/or the noise level that raises significantly. 

Generally speaking, I find myself picking at those dark exposures (most of them were part of bracketed series to merge into HDR) and that explains, partially, the rising noise level when the exposure is adjusted in RAW editing and then in LAB technique. However, since I do not have any plans to print any of those and only for online displaying in small sizes, I didn't bother much on reducing these noise levels. But I have to say, though, that the idea of printing some of those newly/re-made photos does fascinate me.

Polladhearg

As I said earlier, my work with the camera now is minimal as I'm trying to do something about the newly-acquired filter, yet I did manage to take a "test" shot. This shot, Polladhearg, was actually a test shot during my work indoors with the DR-655; Taken before placing the filter on the lens. It is a macro shot using 50mm lens with a 35mm extension tube. The shot with the DR-655 filter turned into a fail since the image, which took 40 minutes to complete, was severely blurred and shaken. Not to go empty-handed, I decided to work on the regular test shots. Funny thing is that I didn't notice all those pollen dots on the petals when I was working behind the camera, but only when I was processing the image. No wonder my allergies are stuck to me still…

When I Was A Boy

It's been a while since I've written (typed) some poem, and lately there had been an urge besides some signs that I find along the way of my every-day that points to a fact that I must be a writer of some sort. Not sure how real or true these signs are/were, yet I did have this urge for some time and in on many occasion I've just dispersed the ideas for writing something, mainly because of my confused mind. Not long ago, I've written a little piece which I've called "The Ghost" and it was inspired mainly by one of my artwork with my photos in fact. This time, however, it is completely off my head. I've downloaded Verse Perfect again after abandoning it for a long time, in hope to help me with my writing. It is a good tool with many aids, yet I think it is better to sometimes "innovate" if I should call it so. The great thing about Verse Perfect is that it does provide a syllable count (or metric, whatever it is called), which somehow helps me on balancing the lines. I really didn't use such features a lot before, and maybe used another feature more; The rhyme code. Verse Perfect is actually implemented with a number of rhyming courses to help with the writing process.
Anyway, off with Verse Perfect, I've tried to write something completely out of the order here, in terms of rhyme or syllable counts. I called it When I was a boy, as it goes about my own reflections about my life and how complicated it got on as time passed by. Somehow melancholic, but I guess nothing new when it comes to my own writings:

Off by the lavender fields,
oh no mind for any needs,
And my winds set to sailing,
no time given to ailing,
Back in the day,
When I was a boy.

Those days Oh who remembers,
warming nights of those winters,
The wee heart that I had carried,
no thoughtful run ever rallied,
Such were my days,
When I was a boy.

Alas! my sails stopped rising,
under that moon uprising,
Had I not seek a clear mind,
but stabbed a stab in the hind.
Bye to those days,
When I was a boy.

Where are they and where is me,
beliefs stand as a lone tree,
Singing to the stars above,
the joy but for me thereof.
Gone are the days,
When I was a boy.

And when my days are over,
and the grains be my cover,
Someone, please, itch on my stone,
"Here lie the head and the bone,
of glorious days,
When I was a boy.

Writing this, I really wished to make it longer, but the words' generation just stopped, and to tell the truth: I even started writing the last verse first, then made my way up and down. The verses here are not connected in rhyme, but each one of them is made of (a,a,b,b,c,d), obviously with same d, or same ending line in each verse. I tried my best to keep the syllable count constant for each verse as 7,7,7,7, 4, 5. In fact, this count was mainly established when I wrote the last verse and somewhat I felt obliged to keep up that count for all other verses. Maybe it is the perfectionism in my blood still kicking. Just as a trial how does it go, I've enrolled this piece into a contest on Writing.com and it got some nice views, and even an honorary mention as well. Well, seems a good come back, if I can call it so. I think I should write more at this point since my urge for photography is kind of holding the brakes right now.

Finale

Linguistics
by Al-Husain Boum, PhD.

As my work with the camera is almost on hold for the time being, my mental processing is still pretty much active; Pretty much that it gets annoying in bed time specifically. Meanwhile, I'm trying to finish some of the books already, with one interesting linguistics book which a friend gave it to me (but I returned it to him after finishing it) for the lack of time for reading, as he said. The book is by the Moroccan author and PhD holder Al-Husain Boum [د. الحسين بوم]. My friend in fact got the book back in last November from the annual Arabic Book Fair from a Moroccan bookshop/store participating in the fair. The book delves so deep into simple matters (in the Arabic sentence structure) that things do not appear simple now when I see a simple Arabic sentence! Hope that makes sense. However, the most interesting part of the book is even at the end, when a comparison is made between some Indo-European languages (Latin, Greek, French, Farsi, and even Sanskrit) and Arabic concerning the concept of syntax and sentence building; Specifically speaking, the Nominal Sentence [الجملة الاسمية] as we call it in Arabic; that is sentences built upon connecting nouns without the verb (to be)! I didn't realize how complicated the matter is until I've read this book. In fact, with this text, I've got more insight on how and why Irish is the way it is as I'm learning it, and somewhat the real meaning of Copula, which is a widely used concept in Irish. I've been looking around for any way to contact Mr. Boum and send him something about Irish and check for his opinion about it. Unfortunately, no luck.
Finishing this book now, I'm trying to dedicate the same time and effort to other books which have been collecting dust here and there (at work and at home). I need to finish those ASAP, and most importantly, to find a way to store them as well. 
My life seems to be in a stalemate, with spikes of hope coming in and out of it. I wish if I can just leave everything behind me and fly away. I'm so tired and I'm thinking seriously of having a short vacation, for a week maybe, off work just to sleep properly and get some routine off my back. Yet, I tend to think about the coming Ramadhan, and how I might need every single day in my leaves' balance. Even my relaxation has to go through a complicated process of thoughts and math to check everything that fits in place. I can't help it even though I know it's not a healthy trait to try to fit everything in place and calculate for everything and every step. Sleep, at the moment, had become a frequent wish more than traveling is.

Discovery Galore…

Here we are again! I've been busy the past 2 weeks or so in writing Arabic articles for my Arabic blog but here I am again into this blog doing, amazingly, nothing. Yes, Nothing. Everything is on hold and I'm not doing much with my camera, BUT, I'm doing lot of thinking and I'm seriously planning to place my next online order soon. Hopefully I won't go bankrupt after this…

Kenko's DR655

One of the major things that I really need to get now is Kenko's DR655 filter, which blocks infrared (i..e it is a hot mirror filter). Despite having Tiffen's hot mirror already but after reading and investigating further, I've realized that Tiffen's filter is technically an open gate!!! It barely blocks any infrared, and thus working with this filter with my leaky B+W 403 Ultraviolet filter is not a good choice at all. I've discovered this as I was reading articles and posts in a page dedicated to Ultraviolet photography with some links to practical tests to various filters (IR, UV, HM), and there I've discovered the hideous truth: Tiffen's announcement about the effectiveness of their hot mirror filter do not coincide with the practical technical testing. The transmission chart even was such a horrible nightmare to me!

Tiffen's hot mirror transmission chart acquired practically and posted in the link above.

Thus, I can say with a degree of confidence: People, do not get that filter even if you want to use it on a regular camera to enhance the colors of your shot. The filter is not even effective at 750nm as I thought. Just for comparison, here is the transmission chart for the filter mentioned above, DR655.

DR655 Transmission chart

Well, we don't need to understand Japanese to really realize how perfect this filter is for my needs. As you can see, DR655 has a steep slope down at around 650nm and indeed blocks at around 700nm, while still allowing ultraviolet range (~ 300nm-400nm). Why I didn't figure this out years ago? Of course, there is the option of having a proper ultraviolet filter other than the one I have already (B+W's) but that alone would cost more than the combined price of a hot mirror and B+W filter. Besides, would shall I do with the B+W 403 filter then? Sell it? I don't think people here do realize this kind of art nor would be interesting in it, not to say what would they do if they discovered it is leaking IR. Yeah, getting a new hot mirror is my best bet for now, and I need to do it fast!
There are other items I would be ordering beside that, not related to photography, but I'll talk about it in some other time maybe.

Ath-Fháil Amach

Most of my activities in the past weeks were focusing on re-discovering some of the old images from Ireland and Malta. I was specifically looking for some chances to make out some more Anaglyphs. Along the way, I was able to identify some images with some potential after neglecting them before, mainly with some focus on enhancing the colors (using LAB technique generally). Well, the potential I mean here is not a potential of being classified as "Top," but I mean an image that can be enhanced and, well, be viewable; Instead of being neglected and deemed useless.

Yellow Caps

Shots like Yellow Caps made me, though, re-consider my approach with editing in LAB. In this image (and few others) I often had trouble with the saturation, so much that I did need to do some extra work to fix the problem. This is beside the "curves amendment technique" which is practically re-assigning the values for the Blacks, Whites and Gamma in the image to enhance the contrast and at some point fix the white balance. In Yellow Caps, it can be noticed how the background contains a large red spot, which is there originally but it got exaggerated in saturation with LAB technique, but then I had to do extra work to reduce the saturation, and yet it might feel a bit popping out still. I've reduced the visual impact further by using Lens Blur on the image (despite having a shallow depth of field already); My main goal with Lens Blur though was to pop out the front element further (with the help of sharpening).

Around Ashford

On the other hand, despite all the extra work that editing with LAB would issue, there are images like Aroound Ashford where the lengthy work paid handsomely with somewhat a mystical look in this ordinary shot with pale green hues (originally). The major thing about this image which made me neglect it is, actually, the spots of highlights between the trees. This is a problem in many of the shots along the years and right now I'm trying to fix some of these images by overlapping (not cloning) with other areas of the same image (sometimes from another image). Most of the time, it gets all natural-looking, and if not, there is the cloning tool to fix some minor issues about that.

Islamic Display Room

One of the things that I work on re-discovering them is the punch of panoramas done back in 2015 for the Al-Uthman Museum, which was a comissioned work. Since I've done these panoramas, I was asked to keep them "in hiding" and not show them, and it was not till 2017 when I started showing my panoramas on Instagram, apparently with no objection from anyone related to the matter. Anyway, right now I'm starting to re-discover other projections for these panoramas and specifically the planet and tunnel projection styles (technically they are the same but with a change in viewing point), and boy, what did I see!

Magnetum Marinum

Some of these panoramas were, well, nice looking. Some of them were, well, SUPER-looking. Examples here, the Islamic Display Room and Magnetum Marinum were both done in tunnel projection instead of planet intentionally. As for Islamic Display Room, I had to switch to tunnel because of some bar in the ceiling which broke the symmetry awfully, while for the other one, Magnetum Marinum, obviously it was the flooring boards which astonished me. I've been always a fan of lines; Harmonic lines specifically and those that just make up swift and smooth geometrical shapes. This is why I fell in love with this panorama in such projection so much that I didn't even dare to put a watermark on it so I won't disturb its harmony, even though that this would put the image in danger after all. I'm still processing these panoramas and still checking and I think there is some good potential. The problem is, though, whether I have the right to submit those for contests and stocks, away from the social media thing. We'll see…

Finale

Bloomless Bloom (3D)

There had been one or two experiments with some other infrared shootings but I'll keep that for later maybe, as they were minor experiments captured after a glimpse of idea, and yet I'm not sure if this idea will grow further. Meanwhile, I do need to get to my other projects that I've listed here already before, but I'm not sure where and how to begin. My mind is still stuck at completing my Scopa project which arrived to a stalemate with no model to shoot (and I'm not going to pay for a model of course). 
Life seems to be getting weirder as I go on now. I'm trying hard to understand myself in the first place and that makes me a bit more isolate than before at some level. It is weird how I get attached easily with people out of my reach and yet find it hard to get along with people close to me. The question of my mental capabilities and whether or not I'm right or wrong about my relations with people around is a continuous hurdle to my mind. It's just amazing how one can find someone similar to a great extent, even in simple things like handedness, and feel attach to, yet they are just out of reach not only by distance, but also by core beliefs; And despite that, things get along. At least from a distance. Meanwhile, everything close seems to collapse with no glimpse of hope about a bright future. I really need to get back to my camera and work non-stop if I can, and a vacation… ASAP…

Filter Galore…

The toys are finally here, and it is that time of the year! Even though it is hot outside but I have to cope a little and check the results of "playing" with my new toys.
As a brief for what I've ordered before, here is a list:

• UV-cut gel (polyster) filter.
• IR-pass gel (polyster) filter.
• Solar filter.
• Hot Mirror circular filter.
• Motorized tripod head.

There are other stuff but no need to list them right now until comes to talk about them. This set of filters is the core of my testing this week, beside the motorized head. The hot mirror (or IR-cut) filter is of interest for me because I'm intending to use it with my B+W Black 403 filter, which passes Ultraviolet, but has a considerable leak in the infrared region as well, and here comes the hot mirror part: to block infrared from reaching the B+W filter.

Arbeit

In the beginning, I've tried to test a combination of various sets of filters against a tungsten lamp, but realized later after some research that tungsten lamps, despite being a good source for infrared, but are not good sources for ultraviolet. Moreover, and probably because I was shooting the source directly, the images of the tungsten lamp with stacked circular filters suffered internal reflections. It looked good though!

Consequences of internal reflections in between the filters stack (in the circle).

For this reason, I had to think of shooting a reflective surface, and under the sun of course since the sun is source #1 for ultraviolet. Even though most of my lenses are not specialized for ultraviolet and do have some coating, but I carried on the tests with both cameras; converted and unconverted (regular) one. The interesting part was done with the converted camera, while for the unconverted camera, I just wanted to see and check how UV-cut and IR-Cut filters do affect the image. We'll come to that later.

Converted

Since I barely have time to do what I want to do at home (specially after coming back home from work with a wrecked body because of the heat), I decided that it is best to pick my stuff with me to my workplace and try to test these filters by shooting some green foliage around the place. Even though none of my lenses is prepared for ultraviolet shooting but the results were somewhat significant. I decided to work without calibrating the White Balance (like I did when shooting the tungsten lamp) and to avoid any dragging (changing focus or zoom by mistake) I've used 50mm f/1.4 lens, affixed at f/11.

Click to enlarge.
Legend: Null=no filter, UVC=UV-Cut, IRC=IR-Cut, IRP=IR-Pass, UVP=UV-Pass.
Plain=camera and lens without any pass filter applied.

As can be seen from the comparison table above, I've organized the work by shooting with the camera and lens plainly, then applying the pass filters gradually, and by the end, applying both pass filters with each other. In every trial, the band-cut filters were applied; single and together by the end. As I stated before, the White Balance was not calibrated and it was not changed later when editing the RAW format, but I did some work with it later on to compare some results in particular. The color space was fixed to Adobe 1998 (unlike my usual way to work in ProPhoto). I'll try to navigate through some particular observations in order:

1. Using the filters first on the lens directly, it is noticed that UVC doesn't do much, but IRC gets the image closer to the real colors, and adding UVC later probably makes it darker a bit and maybe closer further to the real colors. The image still reddish after adding the hot mirror (i.e. IRC), and probably this is caused by the fact that the hot mirror starts blocking infrared only at 700nm, while some considerable amount of infrared do in fact exist before this range as well (at around 650nm, in some instances).
2. Using IRP on lens and then applying the filters again, probably emphasizes the fact that the hot mirror does leak a bit of infrared further. My B+W 092 filter starts its transmission at around 650nm. It is noticed that the image gets darker and redder as IRC was added. UVC did not change much features significantly, either alone or with IRC.
3. Using UVP on lens and applying the filters again shows again that UVC didn't have much effect in fact, and the hot mirror blocked some infrared indeed and the image becomes darker. That doesn't mean we are looking at pure UV image though, since we have the coating on the lens and the UVP filter does leak IR a bit before 700nm, and thus in between that range we would still be looking at a tiny amount of infrared still.
4. Combining the two pass filters here, IR and UV, and applying filters on them, provided some unique looks, specially with IRC. The whole scene turned into something like a X-Ray slide but in red, with edges being brightly the most. UVC didn't add much here though but it did contribute a little to the image brightness (i.e. reduce it a bit further). It's hard to notice with first glance maybe.

Away from these results, a quick inspection for all these sets after fixing the white balance in the RAW file, yielded some interesting results, such as that shots taken with IRC filter on (excluding the plain shots) tend to be yellowish in general, and shots where UVC is involved tend to remove some bluish streaks slightly and lighten the shadows a bit.

Unconverted

With my unconverted (i.e. regular) Canon EOS 7D, not much was noticed using UVC and IRC filters; not even the very old 18-55mm lens. However, of interest to me, was the UV gel (or polyster) filter which I've purchased specifically to be used with fisheye lenses, specifically Canon EF 15mm f/2.8 fisheye lens, which is my main tool for making panoramas.

Kylemore Abbey
Notice the bluish streak on the mountains.

 As it can be seen here with this example above, getting bluish streaks is common with my work, and beside the chromatic aberrations, these blue tints can be really troublesome to fix, specially when the work done involves HDR technique. For this reason, I was hoping that LEE UV-2B Resin Filter would be the solution for this. In fact, to my understanding, the UV-2B works on a range of wavelengths different than that of the circular UVC (scientifically, UV is divided to 3 bands: A, B, and C, but seems the naming is irrelevant to this). According to the description provided on B&H website, it is mentioned that it is "... useful for high altitude photography and eliminates almost all UV present..."

Click to enlarge
A: with UV-2B filter.
B: without filter.

Looking carefully at the two shots above, it can be seen that the grass and shadows are brighter when shot using the UV-2B filter. Notice that the two exposures are the same, at 1/200sec. Moreover, upon a close-up check, this filter greatly reduced the bluish haze around the branches; and this is a problem which I usually suffer from when shooting a panorama outside with trees or fine objects against the sky.

Click to enlarge
200% zoom of the branches.
Left: with filter
Right: without filter.

In zoomed portion above, notice how the blue streak around the branches on the right, is reduced on the left. Also, the shaded area of the tree or bush looks brighter with the filter. This blue streak around fine branches is a major problem when applying HDR technique and doing panoramas in general. Many panoramas had this strong bluish glow around fine objects set up against the blue sky. I'm hoping this filter will be the salvage for some of my problems with colors when doing panoramas. I've made a square piece for my Canon fisheye lens, and probably will make another one for my Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens as well, even though I didn't test the filter with this lens yet, which has a stronger distortion. Would this filter be useful in reducing chromatic aberration as well? Though logically they are not connected, but since the filter acts in the blue range, it might help with its reduction.

100% crop of a panorama done in Cahir, Co. Tipperary, in 2010.
Notice the purple and blue streaks around the branches.
The situation became catastrophic further with sharpening!
Could the UV-2B filter enhance such panorama and make it better?

Now with all these results, it is time to pick up a project and work on something to discover more about these filters; specially the UVP and IRC combination, and also using the UV-2B gel filter for regular panoramas.
Along the line, I'm researching the possibilities of putting my old useless lenses to use back again by adjusting them for UV Photography, as it seems there is some specific way to remove the coating from the lens front element. Not sure if the rest of the elements do have special coatings as well but I might as well research that to see. There are 3 main lenses which are kept aside; two of them because of damage and one because of its old age and little malfunctioning: Tamron 70-300mm (broken), Canon EF 55-200mm kit lens (broken), 18-55mm kit lens (malfunctioning). Some "adventurers" talk about the use of chemicals to remove such coatings and some speak of rather physical activity (like using sandpaper?) to remove the topmost layer of the lens front. I think it is worth a try, since these lenses are just taking some place and I hate to throw them out just like that. I think it is the time now for them to be useful for little experimenting!

Finale

With these tiny experiments, still more to come, as I need to test the IR gel filters, and the solar filters (tried some but no success). The motorized head had gone some testing too, and it is a valuable tool but has some cumbersome sides to it, which I might address in a review on B&H.
As I'm typing these words, I've received a new email message telling me that another panorama was chosen as an Editor's Pick for 360Cities website. This is the second time in around a week or so since my other panorama from Oman was picked as well. This looks promising, even though the panorama didn't appear yet in the Picks section of the website yet.

 
Inside The Victorian (B&B)

There is a call which I hope I can discover or try soon,  and that is the aerial panorama. I'm not sure how it is done, but if it involves the usage of those new 360 cameras to take the whole space, I might as well skip the idea. A drone is out of question for the time being, but it needs a further investigation to see what's behind such a trend!

With summer getting on my nerves already, and the seemingly becoming-harder life in here, makes me wish to travel as soon as possible and putting a burden on my budget. There is a vacuum in the heart, yet I'm not sure how to fill it. I'm tired…