Oldies Anew…

I was not sure really how to start this blog post. I was thinking seriously of giving myself a little vacation from blogging for few weeks and come back later when my "esteem" gets better, specially that the country is going through a slow opening-up after a long lock-down since last February (partial and total).
Meanwhile, I've been coping a lot with mood swings and I've already started to isolate myself from the so-called social media (which have nothing social about them really). Add some toothache (or gum problems) to the mix and you will be having a blast of stress on a brain that have already been coping with a handful of problems already.
All that lead me to slow down with my camera work and the shooting new ideas. However, this pushed me to work a bit on old shots (directed at keeping the streak count on YouPic) and this kind of helped me at looking differently at some of these old photos that I've neglected - even test shots shot at ISO 12,800 are subjects to this artistic venture.
In between all this mental mess, there is in fact a series of images that I'm working on; Some sort of a story, but I decided not to post about them here yet. Let's hope I get the chance to work more on the ideas that I've already planned ahead, which I've postponed so far because of, well, life problems. So, this post will be dedicated more likely to those work of art that I've accomplished by re-visiting some of the old images. They are many, but I won't be posting everything of course. Just few for now, and some for later!

But First: A Little Announcement

Just before I proceed with my (boring) talk about some of the oldies, I wanted to give a little announcement here about some of my photos, specifically selfies.
Since uploading any photo of any face requires a model release and sometimes there is some hassle even when uploading my own selfies about this issue, there is one particular website which accepts these photos without checking but they make it clear for the contributor that they don't bear any legal consequences for any missing model release, so they just advise the contributors of providing such a release. This stock website is MostPhotos.
Unfortunately, MostPhotos doesn't provide handy tools for contributors like other stock websites (e.g. Canstockphoto), so it was a bit hard to get some banner fixed into my blog. Thus, I'm having a direct link to my MostPhotos account here, in hope that it works. It should lead you directly to the newest contributions I've made on MostPhotos.
Even though, as I've said, MostPhotos doesn't require a model release to upload such images, I did in fact create my own simple model release just to upload my selfies and I've attached the release to these images. So, I think I will work further and try to find some of the 3D anaglyph images (which are not normally accepted in other stocks) and selfies that I've created in the past to upload them to MostPhotos. My main aim for my MostPhotos account is to contain some of the fine art work that I think are not quite useful as a stock, which is commonly dedicated to designers and web-developers.
I just wished that there is some kind of a banner to add as a signature to some of my blog posts or any formal settings instead of sharing a link to my profile like that.

Some of my selfies artwork that are uploaded to my MostPhotos only.

Oldies Anew

Driving With Retinitis Pigmentosa

Starting with one image that is not so oldie, and this one was part of my project to create an image for Retinitis Pigmentosa Awareness Month (February) in 2019. The experiment was a fail in general because of the bright sun and my speedlites not working under the sun (they use infrared and not radio transmission) and after taking some test shots back then I've just called it off and went back home (which is less than 5 minutes walk away from this location).

What's different now, though, is the realization of the artistic potential (well, pushed by the desire to keep the streak of upload on YouPic as well), and while I was thinking of making the shot "whole" as much as possible in-camera when I shot this back in 2019, now I realized that I could work on it in a different way, even though not to the exact vision I've had back then.

This said, viewing the image under the light of some editing styles that I've been reviewing and applying lately, I decided to work on this simple shot and add motion to it (something I was not planning to do back then). In a nutshell, the process involved:

• Adjusting the tones and contrast, and adding vignetting.
• Adding lens blur on various levels in the image to add some depth; i.e divide the image to fore-, mid-, background by blurring to various degrees on each zone (farthest is the hardest).
• Adding motion blur, again, to various zones (closest is the hardest). 
• Adding radial blur to the tires. 

All of this blurring did require a lengthy work of selecting specific areas and be careful with these glass windows. The motion blur specifically was shifted a bit to the right after applying it to keep the blurry lines following the car and not in front of it. Cropping was also due here even before working with the image. Got to say, this work spices up my appetite to editing.

Speeding Light

Another oldie came from the year 2013; Back to the days when I used to go out at night and shoot. This shot though is a bit far from home. It's from Ahmadi (city) which is known typically for its National Day decorations every year. I used to head there with a friend (he drives) and shoot as much as we can. Unfortunately, though, I never made a panorama there. Anyway, I've revisited the RAW files again here and picked one image that I didn't process before and started to do the latest I've learned with it, and again, I've added some radial blurs (no motion blur here).

I have to say though that, despite its simplicity for me, I had some hard time deciding what to do, and how to do it. The image had been cropped to a great extent actually to remove some excess lines that I've seen as distractions. To be honest, its not quite what I've envisioned. I wanted to depict a real camera movement which would make these arches of light zoom in (or out). Anyway, things didn't turn out exactly as I wanted them, so I had to satisfy myself with this at this point. 

Some Night in Oman

The last one for now, is an image that I've processed several times actually, but this time as I've stated before, I'm trying to apply some new techniques in editing (which involve tone-splitting, big time!). The photo comes from Oman, 2015, when I traveled with some group members (back when I was a member in a photography group). The shot was actually a test shot originally but yet it was acceptable with its noise level (when viewed in a small size).

Original first edit

One of the things that I've processed differently, beside the tones and colors in general, is the cropping ratio which I went on "free" mode to crop in the new edit. It might be sound or seem an easy thing to crop an image for some, but trust me, it is a hard task specially if you have a tint of OCD in your personality; Where you tend to keep everything in a specific aspect ratio because, well, this is how to be perfect! So, I can say that during the new edits of old images, I'm trying to release myself from the sense of guilt as I crop. Now, Color-wise, I do like them both actually even though I have to say that the original or first edit of this image from Oman gives a good contrast to the stars in the sky. However, the new edit is more dreamy-like and some people expressed their love for the colors in this image actually. Must add that there is also a B&W version of this image but it's an old edit as well, so no need to put it here.

Finale

I think this is enough for now, but the list is pretty long actually, specially with photos from my travels to Ireland, Malta, and Oman. Moreover, I've been "hunting" for anaglyph images from these old photos. There are many occasions when I've shot successive shots which turn out later to be suitable for 3D anaglyph making because of some minor movement. This, and with the help of StereoPhoto Maker which I've reviewed in my last post, there are better chances even to create "deeper" anaglyphs from such images, as far as I've witnessed myself actually. Things are promising in this field.
This said, now seems my only outlet for such art is YouPic (beside stock websites of course), after ditching Instagram for good this time. Even my other account, which was dedicated for my conlang, Ayvarith, can't be returned after being hacked (apparently). Thanks to the "security" system of Instagram.It seems that my introversion has cast its shadow even on my (so-called) online social life. Deep inside, there are things; things of feelings. Feelings of disgust for all these social platforms. For this reason, I really need to fill this gap in life and time where these platforms used to take place with something more productive, beside editing. I'm currently reading eBooks and planning to do more and more readings if possible. Now I'm starting to imagine what if people, or a group of them, just started a campaign to boycott or simply stop depending on Instagram for their artistic, creative, and marketing needs? During such times of COVID-19 this might sound a bit hard but I do think it can be done (and in a reasonable way). Whatever the solution is, it absolutely should not be under the management of Facebook. At this point, I have to mention that I've even stopped logging (or keep myself logged) on Facebook and I just drop from time to time to see if there is any new comment or message, and to upload a photo to my albums. We, definitely, need a new platform for communication and arts.
My mental status is going through some (harsh?) upheaval lately. People, or community as a whole, is pushing me gradually to get on serious with the thought of living alone, in my own home, if not leave this whole country just to gain some of the peace of mind. I could be exaggerating for one reason or another, but that feeling of opposition wherever I go is just unbearable. I seriously keep asking myself, am I that stupid really or people simply don't understand my suffering, my needs, or even my normal speech? I don't know what the hell is going on with my life but I know one thing: I want to have my own place. How? I don't know…

Stalemate…

Sounds it's been ages since I've typed anything here. Actually I was busy with my other Arabic blog putting up an article discussing the "Native ISO" as a concept, and how to find it out practically for the camera under question. It seems anyway that most, if not all, Canon cameras do have a native ISO of 160. I used to mix up the concept of the lowest ISO and the Native ISO, but it turned out this is not correct. After testing, I find it indeed as it was mentioned in many websites and discussion threads, the Native ISO of 160 for Canon has less noise than ISO 100 (the lowest)! Not only that, but even one full stops from ISO 160 (e.g. 320, 640) do show lesser level of noise from those less and those more in one third stop for each value. This is one major step of knowledge in fact, as gaining 2/3 of a stop without sacrificing the quality to the noise can do wonders, specially when working with speedlites and high-speed photography. Thus, from now on, I'm going to set my ISO on 160 by default!

Scopone

It feels like being in a head-lock with this Scopa project. Been days now, or rather weeks, without doing anything about it. This is mainly for the lack of people (models) who are willing to take the step with me, as I've finished all the regular cards, and now it is time to shoot the court cards which must contain a person. 

Fante di Denari

My first trial was to shoot the Fante di Denari with my nephew; A shot that needs to be re-done apparently. The shot was taken with my Voigtländer 20mm lens which apparently proved to be a bad choice here, not because of the distortion (barely visible here), but because of the extra spaces that I needed to deal with and which resulted in some space above the head, and that, should not there. Adding to that, my nephew's devilish looks were not, well, devilish enough! After this shot, I've decided to shoot next with my 50mm, which is in fact the correct choice for portraiture photography on cropped sensors like my camera's, because it approximate the perspective of 80mm lens on full-frame camera. So I moved next to do the Fante di Spade, and this time the victim is the usual brother of mine. One day I think he would be killing me but I can't find any better replacements! 

Fante di Spade

Beside changing the lens to 50mm when doing the Fante di Spade, I've also changed the position of the speedlites. Instead of striking from below on the side as in Fante di Denari, I've placed them right in front of my brother in Fante di Spade. Because of the lack of space inside the frame, I've changed here to a dagger instead, as placing a sword in such narrow space would eventually cause it to protrude outside the frame. Can't say I'm satisfied about his hand placement with the dagger but I need to satisfy myself with it for the time being, after directing his pose myself (ahem). He had some hard time wearing all these stuff already! With him, a devilish face was achieved, and I pretty much liked it that I've made his head shot into a separate image by cropping from the original before converting the whole image to B&W.

Il Fante

It's a good thing that I've been doing all this project's shots in infrared, as it opens such a wide gate for creativity instead of sticking to the original colors, and not to mention the fact that our eyes turn bluish in such images making them a bit more interesting!

Exactly how my chess horse looks like.

Now to add to my obstacles and problems, we have the issue of the Cavallo, the Horseman or Horse card. Of course I will not be shooting a real horse, but it was time to think further of some substitute. Initially, my idea was to find a horse head costume, but seeing how it was hard to get a crown for my Re (king) shooting later on (and I'm not sure if they will fit properly even), so I had to think of something else. It seems inevitable to do some photo editing and montage and the idea was there for me: Superimposing an image of a horse over the original shot. Thought of downloading the image from some photo stock website, but then I thought why not shoot it myself. My first target was my chess pawns, but that thing did look like a Scottish terrier more than a horse!!!

Re-Discover

Since my Scopa project is undergoing a stalemate, I've decided for a big part to dig up and check old photos and apply some techniques that I've not used in a long time, namely the  LAB Editing technique, in which colors are enhanced or modified by converting the image to LAB from RGB (and back to RGB later). Meanwhile, I did indeed discover some stuff, and also I did process some pretty old images that I've totally neglected because of various reasons (mainly being of bad exposure or shaky) - so old were they that some of them actually date back to 2009 with my first visit to Ireland with my old Canon 350D and 2 kit lenses! Moreover, there were some "artistic" editing to some images, doing effects and all these stuff... you know.

Tranquility by The Pond

It started well with some neglected shots from The Chinese Scholars Garden on Staten Island; shot back in 2012. I've neglected some of these shots mainly for not being "interesting" enough or simply because I was not able to think outside the box of HDR rendering. Thinking about HDR, sometimes, made me neglect those images with one shaky exposure. Moreover, some overexposures were and could have been fixed in certain techniques, and I failed to see through it back then. That's why I always hold the believe to always keep the "apparently" not so good images. You wouldn't know when it will be good, at least for the social media!

By The Pond

For many of these shots, the LAB Editing technique comes to the rescue even though the angle can be somewhat "boring." Indeed, I didn't even imagine that people would express their liking for Tranquility by The Pond or By The Pond at all. Worth noting here as well that reflections off the surface of the water were enhanced further by doing such technique and enhancing the colors in general (I didn't have a polarizer back then and I doubt I would be using it if I had it back then even). Probably it would have been even better with a polarizer for sure but at least something is saved and shown! Important thing though is: Editing the RAW file to enhance the shadows and show some details there, specially if it is the darkest exposure of some HDR bracketing trial.

Tríd an Triantán
(through the triangle)

When it comes to overexposure for some areas, and to be specific to the sky, where there are no details, like it was the case with Tríd an Triantán, a simple masking and adding a background would do the trick. I could have added some background from another source, but I always preferred to add from the same image, mostly by duplicating the layer and adding a layer mask to it, then moving it (while detaching the layer mask from the main layer). Some cloning work might be due though, just to add few touches or fix something. In Tríd an Triantán, which was shot in 2009 in the periphery of Ashford Castle (with 18-55mm kit lens), I tried to apply another effect to mimic the shallow depth of field; Say, just to keep it interesting. I've applied this effect before to another image from Staten Island, The Moon Gate, but probably it fits Tríd an Triantán more because of the angle of view (it goes straight, while it is somewhat upward in The Moon Gate).

The Moon Gate

To apply this effect, I had to use Lens Blur instead of the usual Gaussian Blur, and it had to be applied on 3 layers with 3 different levels of blurring. This is essential as in reality the shallow depth of field starts light and ends up heavy in the horizon (or at infinity). Moreover, such an effect is better off with Lens Blur because the algorithm used in this effect mimics the shallow depth of field for the lenses, while Gaussian Blur effect does not (and more systematic). Thus, to keep things real: Please use Lens Blur!
However, with all that work to revive some old forgotten shots, I'm doubtful about their "Printability" - Yes, that's word I've made up just now. Many of these shots look good in small sizes making them good for social media posting and all, but the original ones are unlikely to be printed in large sizes, say like A3 or A2 for any expo to come. This is mainly because of the noise level which, if cleaned, might take off more details than it should. But I wouldn't know for sure till I try, so we'll see!

Panoramic Endeavor

This is something I've been trying for a while since I'm not doing anymore panoramas; So just to create something new out of my previous work. This thing is mainly creating animations out of panoramas, and specially those planet or circular panoramas. Sometimes though, instead of animations, some tessellation-like patterns are made (and uploaded to the stocks!). The main target was Instagram in fact, but with those large files of tessellations or patterns, it did sound feasible to be uploaded (after reducing their dimensions) to the stocks.

A post shared by TJ.Photography (@tj_q8) on Jan 14, 2018 at 10:23pm PST

As for the animations, the main problem was the reduction in resolution with the ongoing rotation with each frame (rotating each frame 5°). To minimize this effect, I had to work on larger file sizes and in 16-bit TIFF if possible. However, later on and after reading some threads online, it seems that such a reduction is caused mainly by Photoshop itself for some algorithm-related problem it seems. Meanwhile, rotating an image to the main cardinal points (90°, 180° and 270°) does not reduce the quality of the image. Then it occurred to me, to do four specific layers of the image with each oriented to one of these cardinal directions and rotate each for 5° (making up for 17 frames per copy). This way, the quality loss will be lesser. Adding to that, I still do work with a large file and reducing it to a small size (with a crop) and then rendering the video for Instagram at even a smaller size. All that work is done with JPEGs images and not TIFF anymore, so sparing me the memory crisis! With the addition of Actions, the work now is even a piece of cake; All I have to do is click a button several times and now I have 17 frames rotating with 5° each.

A post shared by TJ.Photography (@tj_q8) on Jan 23, 2018 at 11:03pm PST

For the time being, the favorite size to render these animations to is 600X600 pixels. However, it seems that I have to uplift the limit a bit and try 800X800 pixels, as it might look a bit stretched on some devices. And speaking of animations, there is another useful usage for them for regular horizontal panoramas, where I used to cut these into 3 slides (most of the time) and post them in a Swipe or Album manner on Instagram. Posting them like that did make up for some awkward alignment and that's why I would need to add a 4^th slide to put things in a proper perspective. Now though, doing animations, this is not necessary anymore. I can simply move the panorama horizontally and it is played back as a video in the same window and no need to swipe!

A post shared by TJ.Photography (@tj_q8) on Jan 15, 2018 at 10:21pm PST

There is a tiny problem with these horizontal animations though, which is how to divide the horizontal movement on equal number of pixels that matches the width of the panorama. Thus, unlike with polar/circular images, with displacement measured by degrees, the movement on the horizontal plane is measured by pixels. Hence, it does look sometimes as if the animation has jumps and not going smoothly. The loss in quality during these displacements though seems close to null apparently, which is good!

A post shared by TJ.Photography (@tj_q8) on Jan 6, 2018 at 10:29pm PST

A post shared by TJ.Photography (@tj_q8) on Jan 13, 2018 at 10:17pm PST

Vertical twisted panoramas as well appeal more to me for making textures like those above and I'm planning to do more of them soon. Those can make up for really huge files, but unfortunately, no stocks would be accepting them (maximum as far as I know, is around 30MB). It would be a great addition to have such files uploaded online at sizes of 100-300MB! To end this matter for now, here is a funny story:

As I was digging my old files looking for old panoramas and old neglected shots to do some art with them or animations, I've noticed that I didn't make a planet panorama from inside the Chinese Scholars Garden; specifically around the pond. I've made only a flat version of that place. Probably I've neglected this option because of some of the hardships and errors, I don't know! But looking at it now, it does sound good enough to be displayed.

Planeta Fenestra

To add some spices to "my discovery," I've edited the image with LAB technique again and tried to enhance some colors as well as reduce the overexposure (which is probably why I've neglected this panorama for long). And with this, we have a happy ending for this story and who knows, I might discover another neglected panorama!

Finale

Selfie Seal

With this long post, it does seem like I'm having a lot of activities in my life, while the truth is the opposite in fact, as I didn't touch my camera much and most of my work is about re-working old photos and trying to create something out of old things (even out of my selfie on the left). My mind is busy, and so is my schedule and body unfortunately. I do have a number of ideas I need to do, specially with February approaching; the Retinitis Pigmentosa Month. Just so to see, let's list these ideas down for the moment:

• Doing something for RP month as mentioned above.
• An old idea inspired by Sabah Fakhri, and still cannot do because I do need special arrangement and a narrow space.
• Infrared panorama indoors which would involve a hand (of a human or mannequin, whatever).
• Photo shoot for some selfies to be combined later on with Photoshop, reflecting schizophrenia or multi-personalities disorders.
• Photo series with chairs reflecting on corruption and old mentalities at work.
• Shooting through the microscope (again).
• Doing a photo shoot reflecting my personality as I deducted lately from some personality tests, where I got the classification of INFP-T (The Mediator type). 

All of these are just some ideas for now and all on hold, with my Scopa project on stalemate as well. Probably I'm dreaming too much? I guess. My life do look like being on a roller-coaster and I can't stop it. Everything around me is changing, and I don't see it to the good side. I pray that I will be able to travel for some time, away from this place, just to get things out of my mind for real. I feel like my mind and body are overflowing with those things they call "bad vibes." For some reason, I really don't feel like following onto that path of "positivity talk;" Deep inside, I feel it as seeing the world with pink-colored glasses and losing touch with reality, and the end result is a hard slam. If I'm thought of as a pessimist, then I guess I am with no shame in that. Probably my camera has done its job to its fulfillment, and the need to travel for some time is long due. When? I don't know…