Pre-Ramadhan…

After stopping for a week because of lack of time and the tiresome body, here I am again trying to put up with the latest. I'm lagging behind with some ideas and experiments I should have been working with lately, and my time management, to say the best, sucks. Yet, not sure if this is my problem or it's just my destiny to be so.
In the meantime, I think it is time to put some of my work done in 360 mall here in Kuwait, after the end of the contest specified for that mall. Of course, none of my work did win (3 photos maximum for every contestant). However, I did get an email about one of my images being shortlisted (i.e. qualified at some point). Not sure though which image is it!

I

The location itself was, despite its visual beauty, hard to find a good perspective in it. The third place in the contest was awarded to a friend in the group and I'm not sure at what location exactly was it taken. My three contributions were actually made of the same panorama in different projections. It was hard for me to find some interesting points or some harmony, and to add to my hardships, my light meter was out of power and I had to depend solely on the camera's light meter; which meant I must work in Av mode instead of the Manual mode. That contributed a lot to discrepancies in exposures. Not to mention the final weird color spots which I usually encounter from time to time in my HDR panoramas. However, it seems that I was either in the wrong section for the contest or, maybe just didn't find hidden corners like the others did.

II

After doing the panorama, I did indeed take single shots, but then reading the conditions thoroughly I've found that shots should be more into those Vertical Gardens. The single shots I've made were, unfortunately, not into these gardens and more into the architecture of the place. Also, they were taken with my converted camera and using an infrared gel filter at the back of Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens. Thus, I've found myself just changing the projection for this single panorama and submitting the images to fill in the 3 slots available. Of course, it is not necessary to fill in these 3 slots but I felt bad of uploading just one, the regular flat one (I). The vertical one (II)seems to be the messiest of all with many color splashes and a lost focus on the gardens themselves, even though I tried to make somewhat a swift movement for the gardens and the decor. Still, the element of harmony is lacking drastically in this one.

III

The planet projection of the same panorama had the same defects almost; lack of harmony, though maybe to a lesser degree than the vertical projection. In the planet projection, specifically, I tried to increase the cyan tones a bit to counteract the excessive red to magenta tones. Doing the panorama beside that long pillar was absolutely a wrong idea. But with such a place that lacks a specific center of mass (i.e. a center architectural focus to wrap the panorama around it), I had no choice there. Doing the panorama in the middle of the sets of tables of the cafés in that area wouldn't be any better too.

Upperways

As I've mentioned before, after doing the panorama, I tried to take single shots. These singles shots were done with my converted EOS 7D, and tried taking shots with and without the infrared filter. The difference here is that, the converted camera would record all spectrum from infrared to ultraviolet, as well as the visible spectrum in between. But using a filter on the lens, would filter the visible spectrum and other ranges to allow a specific band to pass. All single shots were taken with Rokinon 8mm fisheye lens, and some were in landscape while most were in portrait orientation. Shots like Upperways include the widest spectrum, and after a bit of twitching to the white balance value, some strange mix of colors is produced far from reality. Nice effect. In Upperways, I used DxO software to correct the fisheye distortion, and that resulted in cropping a large area of the image. One question occurred to me at that time which I'm still not able to answer: How to do the metering for infrared shots?

Infra360

Usually, when shooting infrared shots with a regular camera, I would in fact take several shots using high ISO value and checking the histogram. When the histogram is alright, I just roll back to the lowest ISO and do a long exposure. Things are a bit different when using a converted camera because (without a filter) metering is done for a whole spectrum (adding the focusing problems). With some filter on the lens, probably the method of trial and error can still be done though it would be lengthy somewhat; yet the concept of having a converted camera is to be able to work with such filters (UV or IR) with ease as if working around with a regular camera. Working in LiveView is a must in these cases, whether the camera is converted or not, and specially when the lens has no IR marker (and I've never seen a UV marker before at all!). While doing more shots like Infra360, I've discovered later that some shots were adjacent somewhat to each other with little perspective difference, which might be proper for making a 3D anaglyph later on. I wouldn't know exactly until I try though.

Finale

I'm trying slowly now to work on some of my projects; specifically the 4D experiments. I'm trying to formulate some ideas about it though. Meanwhile, I'm observing the arrival of Ramadhan by next week, and I'm not sure if I will be keeping up with this blog or not. However, one thing is for sure: I'm going to have sleeping problems the whole month. My activity, as well, will be down low because of this. I miss traveling, but looking at my budget at the current time, seems this year is not going to be mine. Ironically, it is the year of the Monkey in the Chinese Calendar, which is my Chinese sign as well… The Monkey.

Synchronizing Engine...

Well, my first week being back to work and a really one hell of a week: stress, mood swings, road rage; you name it. In the same time I'm back to my readings and to photo processing, specially those from the US, while trying to regulate my time as much as possible and to be more involved with the group's activities. I've discovered lately that some people do take me an example as it seems in some way - either in photography or something else, but I have to say this feeling is frightening as much as it is pleasing. I've received some questions lately from members of the group about how I do what I do and how I choose my angles, or how do I envision the shoot. Some questions like those need a philosophical answer and long conversation.
This all comes in a time where I'm under pressure somehow to having one of those new smart phones (mine is HTC running on WindowsMobile v6.0) just to keep in touch with the rest of the group via some Apps. The matter is still ongoing in my mind to consider having one of those - yet, I'm not so convinced about it and I do think it is a waste of money, because I would be using it only for the group, supposedly. Also, I've been submitting suggestions to the group as well, concerning new ideas for workshops and establishing a system for borrowing books about photography between the members - and waiting for any further advance in these fields so far.

Now back home, I've somehow started a rhyme for my work pace but I don't think I will stay on this theme for long. I usually stitch a panorama overnight or start the stitching in the morning before I leave to work, then come back from work and start working on it, and then after posting it I would turn to a regular photo and try to process one or two if I can. The end result is 2 to 3 images a day. I've already even filled the 2^nd album with 20 images and feels like it was yesterday when I've just finished the 1^st! However, I won't send the album in mass email yet as I've just also sent 103 images from the Constitution Day festival by email to lot of friends (same images in the slideshow in my previous post). 

In between working out the images from the US, I took another peek at some of the images taken from Sharg mall, and specially the panorama which was done inside in the main hall of the mall.
I've done only a flat version of this panorama and a QTVR, but now I've discovered how amazing this place can be under planet projection.

Planeta Aurea Orientis
(Eastern Golden Planet)

Here, in this panorama specifically there are several points and work that have been done and I'd like to note out here:

• One important elements that works as a guide line for the eyes of the viewer and helps on standing this panorama specifically out, is the fact that the ceiling was made of straight wooden boards. This gives an effect of absorbing the viewer to the center.
• The usual weird color patches appeared. They were blue, and as a new approach, I've added a Photo Filter layer to the whole image while in HDR mode to counteract the blue color. Naturally, the opposite color to BLUE is YELLOW and hence it added more golden shade to the whole image. However, this approach didn't eliminate the blue patches completely of course but it reduced their intensity in some areas.
• Any place with pillars, is worth shooting in panoramas and converting into a planet.
• With added contrast and other adjustment layers I've realized the potential of pulling the viewer further from the outer side to the center inside by darkening the outer edges where the wooden boards are shaped like magnetic field lines. Here, it was a work to be done with the Burn tool.
• A notice which I cannot completely confirm, but most of these weird blue patches, would appear around areas of stitching errors.

Beside Sharg mall, there was also a shot taken from the roof of the mall itself later that week when I was preparing my camera on the top before the fireworks display for the Constitution Day. In fact, this image was just a test to the see the general framing and the exposure along with the white balance settings.To check for the exposure, I've taken a bracketed shot (with 3 different shutter speeds). However, after all the sorting was done, I re-checked the folder and thought of some of these test images. I wasn't serious about it and didn't think of uploading it to stock sites, but the image gained some likes specially on Flickr.

Civitatem Felix
(Happy City)

Again, some points worth mentioning here, and even though lot of people like it, I have to say, to me it is just an experiment and I don't really consider it a nice one. However, here are some notes about this image:

• The main factor here after merging HDR and tone-mapping the HDR, is the color space. Assigning and not Converting the color space from Adobe 1998 to ProPhoto. This step alone is responsible for pushing the contrast and the saturation of the colors, specially the blue, to a higher and a vivid limit.
• Many adjustments for the orientation (as the tripod seemed to be tilted at the time of the shoot originally!) - but here I had depend on my eyes and rotate the image manually instead of relying on the conventional tools in Photoshop for fixing the tilted horizon. For some reason, the fixes done by this tool didn't look right to me eyes.
• Even though it was f/8, but I didn't expect the sparkle in the light sources to be that strong. I would love to make halos around the light sources now rather than sparkles.
• Used Faux Dynamic Range method (or the false dynamic range method) to extract some details from some shadows and highlights and increasing the contrast.
• Finally, since this image is for a small display and not for stock sites upload, I've exaggerated a bit in my use for noise and sharpening plugins (before and after minimizing the image). Seems it created a strong and a pronounced look after all. Of course some details would be lost but in a small size display, that is not important really.
• Spent some time trying different crops after adjusting the tilt as I was trying to find proper placement for objects along the edges and the corners.
• The image in general is unplanned and typically a chaos. There is no specific order, no specific trend, just a view for the city. Yet, people like it. Something weird is going on here!

Now, on a different note, I think I have to change my usual printing shop. I'm getting somehow sick of the service they provide - always something broken, no material, and you have to go the main branch which sucks. I would like to go to somewhere else but the other places I know so far are far expensive as far as I know. However, I will check out when the time comes. As for now, there are games on the queue line need to be played and finished with...

中国的星球
(Chinese Planet)

360...

A fast paced week somehow. Nothing new on my camera level except of visiting a mall with my class to do some practice, but otherwise, no new panoramas, except of working with old ones. I keep looking at my Ayvarith papers and my microphone connected to the PC and ask myself when I'm going to work with it. Hope soon. For the time being, there are games on my list I need to finish. Games, are important to me. For the time being I'm trying to finish a game called Gray Matter. A nice one with sci-fi theme and magic stuff; oh, combined with some psychology as well! After that, I'll be in hunt for Jonathan Boakes' games Bracken Tor, and TLC3. These corners of the UK that really need a visit one day. Mystery, is what keeps the mind alight. But I might not be able to play all those until the time of Hajj comes, by mid October. I'm busy, somehow, sorting my schedule and my leaves to do the pilgrimage. My work place is somehow giving me a headasche for the time being with their stupid laws and regulations.

I. Failaka Re-Visited:

Under the light of considering further possibilities with panoramas and changing the viewing angle, I've re-visited older panoramas, and specially the one for the "Ghost Bank" taken for a deserted bank building in Failaka island back in November 2010 (after my return from Ireland).

Ghosts Bank

This time the twist was for other projections as well, which I've never thought of back then. Anyway, the tone-mapping is quite different of course. I knew beforehand that Photomatix will give me a headache with some errors related to the size of the final image, but after all I didn't make it smaller and went on with it. For some weird reason, when Photomatix v4.0 encounters HDR images as large as 8000x9000 pixels, it would give an error for memory issues. Doing a "batch single files," which does not require a visual examination, would still not work. Photomatix v3.0 on the other hand, it might show some errors related to memory limitations, but batching single files would work fine (and of course takes a long time). For this reason, the planet projection of this Ghost Bank panorama was tone-mapped in Photomatix v4.0 in the beginning, and the tone-mapping parameters were saved, then loaded into Photomatix v3.0 and the HDR image was tone-mapped accordingly in "batch single files" process. I don't know what's the deal, but it might be a time-consuming process.

Dark Aspect

One of the aspects of this panorama is the fact that I was working with the monopod. Shaky, but with cloning out the remnants at the end, not much of a headache. If the monopod was raised to a low level (to the level of my chest almost) that approximately raises the VR-head and the camera to my chin level. At this level the shake might not be so apparent (but there is some of course). I had to use back then because I didn't have the appropriate tripod.
The second venture after this was a vertical panorama. I made a mistake here but might be considered a surrealistic look after all.

الحلم الكئيب
The Gloomy Dream

For some reason I just named it in Arabic. However, the viewing angle was tilted and hence the tilt on the top part of the panorama is apparent, and that, caused me to name it a "dream" because it has some surrealistic look.
This vertical view was cropped (typically) from the sides and the edges to remove the remnants of the VR-head and the colors were altered a bit by adding a Photo Filter adjustment layer before tone-mapping the HDR. The Photo Filter was Deep Emerald, to give a creepy look. Also there was Exposure adjustment layer to pull back the exposure values accordingly to the whitest spot in the place (the entryway at the bottom).
Maybe the most beloved aspect (point of view) for me was the WV or the Wide View angle. I had to work a bit with adjustment layers a bit before tone-mapping in Photomatix.

Cold Alone

I had to crop little bit in the beginning just to bring things to the center a bit. In this image, and instead of fighting back against the purplish hue (because WB was set to Fluorescent back then) and make out the whole thing in vibrant yellow and red, I've decided to move to the next neighbor of purple; Blue (remember the rainbow? ROY G BIV rule?). In my work with HDR slides in Photoshop so far, I've rarely used the Hue/Saturation adjustment layers. Most of the color adjustments were done actually by Photo Filter adjustment layer. I find it giving more realistic looks and adds to the color instead of shifting the color. That does not mean I don't use Hue/Saturation layers, it is just I don't find them useful all the time.
In Cold Alone, and after fixing the Exposure as usual, I needed two Photo Filter adjustment layers. The first one is to add the general bluish cold look to the whole scene. In this layer, I used a layer mask to remove this effect from the yellow-reddish ceiling here. The second Photo Filter layer was added to increase the vibrant color of the ceiling (by using one of the "warm" presets) and also using a layer mask with it, but of course it is the inverse of the previous layer mask used before (just a copy paste of the layer masks). Weirdly though, in HDR mode in Photoshop, you can't use the inverse command (not from menus nor with the short cut "Ctrl+I"). To do the inverse of blacks and whites, I would use the Levels command (Ctrl+L) and flip the black and white arrows at the very bottom of the dialog box. To avoid any fuss, I would remove the black arrow to the middle first then the white to the other end, then push the black to the place of the white arrow. Sometimes it becomes so hard to know what to click when the two arrows overlapping each other.
Just imagine the blue ink you will be losing for printing such an image!
For the time being, I'm considering visiting Failaka again, specially that summer is on its way out, but I can't decide which time. Since I'm preparing for Hajj journey, I might not have the needed time yet to go there. It would be nice to take a tour with my camera on video inside the car like I used to do on the mainland. We'll wait and see...

II. 360:

Last Sunday it was another workout session with my Photography class. This time we headed to a mall here called 360. As you might have inferred from the name already, the mall is circular in shape. I spent around one hour and 30 minutes trying to find that place, moving from one jam to another.
Architecturally speaking, I didn't find much of interesting in fact. Although we had the freedom to go into shops to take shots from there but as it is with me always, I hate to contact people or ask for permission, so I got stuck to my ground; roaming around the mall trying to find some interesting angles. We had around 2 hours of time but personally I spent only one hour or so and decided to head back home before the darkness hovers over. However, it was a spark for an abstractive mind. I had to bear little bit with annoying people as usual, but the main point in the whole practice, as I think, is to learn how to concentrate in the middle of a fuss (quite the point if you are a journal photographer).
Although most shots were taken in bracketed exposures for HDR later on (except of few ones taken in long exposure), but a lot of those were uploaded after some processing in RAW then converted to JPG.

These are some abstracts, and there were plenty of others that I just need some time to reflect upon. As I said most of the images were uploaded directly after processing the RAW file, but there was a trial at least once for a HDR. But tone-mapping the HDR (in Photoshop) didn't spare me from using extra adjustment layers.

Wooden Arches - Processed RAW

Wooden Arches - Manual Tone-mapping (Photoshop)

Wooden Arches II - Photomatix

The contrast was a bit enhanced when tone-mapping but the major blue shade on the top was added by a Photo Filter adjustment layer after tone-mapping, and then adding a layer mask to avoid touching the lower portion of the image. I tried in tone-mapping to do the best to lighten the wooden pillars a bit but I guess it didn't work out well. I still have Photomatix which, as usual, proved to be superb to Photoshop and my manual tone-mapping. My main concern, in fact, to do the HDR slide was my hopes in eliminating some movements on the ground from people going around (yeah, so annoying, no one would even try to respect you *sigh*. OK, I'm kidding...). However, after merging into HDR it turned out that procedure didn't help much and I had to clone out the movement myself.
We are left then with some long exposures. Long exposures here is something longer than 2 seconds for me. Accordingly, depending on the lighting inside the mall, a single exposure at around 0EV takes around 8 seconds. Enough time to make a water line look silky with its flow. For this reason, my first target was the fountain. I took several shots in fact, but maybe the best angle was from the top.

Vortex

The vertical line in the center is a matter of the fountain itself and helped me much to achieve a sci-fi look. I tried to calculate the time it takes for the fountain to spur the water vertically high up, but seems the process was completely random! I had to depend on luck little bit here (isn't photography, majorly, a matter of luck after all?). I had to crop the image little bit because I didn't realize that originally, I didn't include all the fountain, and the edge was cut from the right side, so just to go around it I've cropped more to concentrate the body of the fountain on the lower right corner. Hope this visual trick helps.

General view of one side of the mall and the fountain.

In the image above, it is more like documenting in fact rather than being an abstract itself, but it was taken in a long exposure as well (around 13 seconds). The long exposure here, specifically, helped on removing the excessive movements going down there on the ground. You would think the mall is empty, but no, it wasn't. This is one of the benefits of long exposures in such situations (beside the night photography thing). Sometimes, people might occur like ghosts passing by, however, this is a nice effect too in my opinion. The fisheye distortion was fixed to straighten the wooden pillars (and that makes the image smaller in looks).

Now, for all these pictures you see... I've forgot my flash memory at home when I went to my class to discuss the images and finding my errors. Now, doesn't that suck? Yes, big time. My memory sucks, and I suck...

Been days now since I wrote something, and been weeks since I worked with my Ayvarith recordings. Seems my fatigue is slipping me the chance to do anything (well, except of using my camera maybe). I'm not sure when I will start recording again. I've arrived at chapter 4 so far. Chapter 6, will be the great burden on my back. As for now, I just wish if the Hajj season comes like a blink...

Thursday Is Here!!!!!!

I just can't believe it is my last day at work before the BIG vacation! Also the last working day during Ramadhan! I feel so hyper that I wanna do everything today! Specially sleeping!!!

Been snapping around some places lately, and I got that panoramic shot that I was planning from last week; The Sharg Market Panoramic View.

7 sections with 3 shots in each for HDr composition, totaling 21 RAW images to do this. I hope the colors are OK though, despite the fact that some areas remained extremely bright. I tried to fix these areas by moving the "shadow and highlights" curve up and down but not much could be revealed. Anyway, they are small areas.

The other work which was tiredsome as well since I was not shooting in straight line but instead in several directions and I made mistakes again and again (forgetting to zoom out with my lens and setting the camera too close to the object);

it is a walk way that was built as... a walkway... why I don't know actually since people can walk here or there! Anyway, they had the money to do it after all. This is a panoramic composition as well, by the way. The shots are taken on 3 main levels and in 3 different angles for each level, and then composed using spherical panorama. Cylindrical panorama was somehow good as far as I remember, but the Auto option in which Photoshop takes the lead in deciding what coordinates to use was disastrous (for the first time I do see that in fact!). I still I have some remains in my camera that I didn't download, so I might go one and check it out to see if I can do some other compositions with them.

I had an idea in the current time to chase after old houses all around Kuwait... specially those that they say they're haunted or something. In Failaka island, such type of houses are every where in fact because of the post-war effects.

Now it is the time to check after some of the essential things before traveling, like my visa, and my clothes! I'm so nervous about it, yet I need it so badly... so so badly...

Busted...

Despite the fact that I was tired and stayed awake for more than 12 hours, yet I couldn't sleep more than 4 hours. I had the urge to go on photoshooting just one hour before the sunrise. I didn't have any plan of what to snap, so I just went on into the streets hoping to find something, and then voila! I did find it.
It was a sloping down road, surrounded by trees (people who know the place, it is the branching road from 5th ring road into the Maghrib Highway). After taking shots, aiming at some panoramic view, I was surprised by a police patrol who stopped by to ask me about what I was doing. I was questioned just because I was standing in a straight line with some building called the "control tower" which has some controls for electricity and water I think. He said that I would be considered like a terrorist who is getting some information (well he said that indirectly). Anyway, I was lucky that I got the photos I wanted for a panorama shot before his arrival. Now after looking at the pictures and processing them I found out that I made a mistake that I didn't shoot with high shutter speed instead. There were few cars passing by, but the main blur was from the moving trees because of the somewhat tough wind that was there. The funny thing is, while shooting, some cars passed by and the shutter was still closed, and that created some funny noise in the images but it doesn't bother me at all. I called it the "Laser-beams effect." You see only red lines in the middle with no car showing! Hopefully I would post some of this here later when I settle on some good shot.
After moving from that place, after being annoyed with that cop, I decided to go to the seashore, but not my usual spot, but to some mall. The Marina Mall Crescent. There is a marina (sea port) with yachts there, so I tried my luck to shoot there as well and made it for a panoramic sequence. I need to do a lot with those files, specilaly that they are in RAW (CR2) format and not in JPG, which makes it even sensitive somehow and not directly to be dealt with as JPG files. They say RAW files are better for HDR composition.
That's all with my life for the time being after a dull and tiresome week, and a boring weekend as usual! Ta da!

Pain Pain Pain...

Sounds like if my life is a wreck.

The pain in my right ear is increasing. It increased right after using the medicine given to me by the doctor. I feel like if the right side of my face is paralyzed. I guess I need to take more painkillers.

I took the sick kitty right now. I feel sorry for him. I didn't want to see him dying with such bad conditions. No one is helping me in the house to take care of him, and apparently my life is a mess right now and can't get a grip of it. I put him somewhere, near the seashore, just before what they call the "Marina Mall Crescent." I laid him on the grass and put some tuna on a paper dish for him there maybe he would be able to get up again and eat, though I don't see any hope there. I spent like KD30 for the vet to take care of him, but nothing changed. I guess he has a great malfunction or disease. I hated to do it, but I hate more to see him dying in front of my eyes without being able to do anything for him. God, Thy mercy.

I guess I won't be able to go out this weekend at all. I was planning to go back to Failaka in the coming days just to check for more sites, but I guess this is not possible with such pain in my head. My only choice is to relax, completely and not moving at all.

I need to write down a word in my diary...