Announcement: MostPhotos…

Well, this is another short post of some sort. I want to announce something and in fact I'm barely having the time to type this! Things just started to get busy suddenly! Home, work, health... mood swings, you name it. With all this mess, some ideas had been building up in my head, and I will talk a little about them down below. But first, with the announcement.

Announcement

As I've posted some announcement in my previous short post, here is another one and this time for something a bit more than just stock photos.
I'm actually providing some of these new panoramas that I've been "re-making" with their original size at the time of stitching. What does that mean? Well:

Typically when I set my images to be stitched and make a panorama, the stitcher would take the original sizes of these images by default, and the resulting image by default would be somewhere around 22k pixels wide! However, when I stitch, I reduce the size to about 10k pixels wide, and from there I do even minimize the size further usually before uploading to the stocks because usually such websites do have a size limitation.
Right now, since MostPhotos does not have a cap on the size, I've decided to upload these panoramas at their 10k pixels wide size and put them in a special gallery on MostPhotos for sale. They would be perfect for large prints, being up to 86cm wide (or more), that is about 2.82 ft, at 300dpi. Meaning, the size can still be enlarged further with proper DPI reduction, if needed.

So far, 10 panoramas had been uploaded to MostPhotos and hopefully more to come. I've been spreading the word across social media and now, in this post. In case you would like to follow up, you can also mark this page and check if any new panoramas been added. Worth noting that these panoramas are exclusively available on MostPhotos, alone.

A glance at the gallery in MostPhotos. Clicking each thumbnail would provide more info about the panorama.
Click to enlarge.

Now, the reason I'm doing this is for the technical (and financial) hardships that I'm having concerning printing and sending prints (even before COVID). Things are worse now because of COVID of course (specially with technically a non-existent postal services here and relying heavily on private couriers which charge much). Thus, I've decided that maybe I should offer those for sale with a suitable price online for people appreciating arts, and leave the choice of printing (and sizing) to them, instead of doing the whole work of printing and sending. As noted, this is a first batch I would say, and hopefully more will be added when I get the chance to make some more (I have some ready but wouldn't upload them for various reasons, but only display them, on smaller sizes).

Finale

Well, as you can see above, I've been busy with the issue of creating panoramas (and still with that in fact), and in the same time busy with new ideas that I'm still trying to figure out how to apply them. In addition to that, I will be preparing another batch of single shots to be uploaded to stocks (mostly some old shots re-processed).
All this work with preparing photos for the stocks makes me think seriously of checking for some "keywording" software to aid me with generating relevant keywords instead of thinking about them from the top of my head! I do use some websites already but I'm guessing that they are not too advanced. That's another story for another time.
On the other hand, I've been surprised by 123RF, which rejected ALL of my previous 25 uploads! The reasoning for 90% of them (if not 99%) was set to "Pixelation" or "Pixels". I deem this completely a non-sense, as I know that the images that I've uploaded were reasonably sharp and clean. Setting this reasoning for mostly all the images makes me think that there was another reason behind the rejection, probably not technical at all. Meanwhile, Dreamstime did accept about 11 out of these 25 uploads (and these 25 are also available on MostPhotos).
February is on the way, and I'm trying hard to squeeze my mind for some ideas regarding my annual shot for Retinitis Pigmentosa; If you are reading this and don't know, February is named as Retinitis Pigmentosa Awareness Month. I used to do a shot every year since 2017. For this matter, I'm trying a bit of brainstorming using some websites for random word generating in order to spark something in my head, beside surfing Pinterest but so far no chain of thoughts had been established yet.
On the other hand, some ideas visit my head concerning drawing inspiration from my daily (or semi-daily) readings for Quran; A habit that part of a resolution I've made some years back and got fulfilled during COVID and lockdown till this very day (and so far I've read the whole of the holy book for 3 times and doing the 4^th nowadays). That would not be an easy task of course, specially when trying to avoid modeling (which brings me back to selfies). Anyway, since I read one part of Quran almost every day (Quran is divided to 30 parts), then initially the idea is to create 30 images, with each image being inspired by some line I do read in each part. I don't see results pretty soon for this but let's say it's a goal in itself and to be achieved with an open time limit. But I do have to put this aside a bit and focus on my Retinitis Pigmentosa project for now.
Now, all I'm praying for is, some peace of mind, and less mood swings, and yet further some quiet place. Maybe I would be able to recollect some of my thoughts that way…

Back Home…

Just back from Dubai last week, and nothing is changed it seems. I had to get my engine clogged with problems as soon as I arrived. Anyway, meanwhile, I got myself into some activities and projects, and some of these are related to Dubai's expo somewhat. This is going to be a quick wrap.

Photography Live

This was main title of the expo. The one held last year was named PhotoWorld. Probably the organizing company had changed and hence the name was changed as well. Anyway, this event was a major gathering for all photography-related parties and companies. It was a quite professional gathering and I did finally find professional printing companies who know the meaning of ICC profiles!
Three days plus one day of preparations, all made it such an exhausting stay. Positive feedback was galore and many people had the urge to join the group. Unfortunately, the group is not yet quite open to the outside world with its limited options for delivering workshops. Anyway, this is left for the management of the group to decide.
On the other hand, I didn't do much documentation for the expo since I brought my camera with 2 lenses only. However, I did record some videos (yet I'm no videographer). The videos weren't that good anyway, but I'll post one below. This was taken as I roamed the grounds checking various parts of the event. The most interesting part for me was those corners for companies related to printing and printing materials.

I won't be exaggerating if I say that the real work started after coming back from Dubai. This is because of the ideas and information gathered during the event and which must be studied for a while to help on advancing further, specially in the printing field. However, I've been busy with other things lately…

360^o

This is the name of a mall here. I'm going to spell it out from the very beginning: I hate it. I hate its location, and hate almost its internal design as well. Anyway, I was pushed to enroll in a special contest regarding this mall (by friends), thus I decided to pay a visit and check what I can do about it. The contest is dedicated to the so-called Vertical Gardens which is a prominent feature in a specific corner of the mall, which in return is filled with cafés. Visiting the mall prior to the shoot didn't change any of my opinions about the place; it's a waste of space. My choice was a panorama and I decided to go in the very early morning before the busy hours (realized later, that the mall is open even if the stores inside are closed, and some people jog or walk inside in the mornings!).
Doing a panorama there is really exhaustive, and to make things harder, the light meter died out, thus I had to depend solely on the camera's metering (which was fixed on Evaluative).

First Version

Despite the mall being without any visitors almost, there were the workers and the security, and all contributed to some blurry movements in the scene (which was hard to clone out in Photoshop too). After stitching and tone-mapping the First Version, the very old problem of colored spots (blue mainly) showed up further. Had to work lengthy hours just to clean these spots (and later in other versions I didn't).
After finishing from this panorama, I tried to shoot some infrared shots with my other (converted) camera, but checking the images, it seems that I've focused more on the decoration and international design (the ceiling specifically) which was one of the few nice things in the place, but forgot totally to include the gardens in the image!
Having the situation in that way, I've decided to produce other projections of that same panorama and submit them for the contest (3 images maximum). Anyway, I think I can do some other projects with these infrared shots. Anyway, I won't be posting more at this moment, and probably I will be waiting for the closure of the contest by May 21^st. The awards sound nice, but the subject is next to null. Had some ideas for capturing a motion with long exposure somewhat, and suggested this idea to other friends, but it seems even if this is possible, the interior design and angles would be hard to find and work with. I'm not optimistic about any good results in this contest (typically), and I can imagine that the future winning shot, is merely a documentation of the place. Meanwhile, I'm attending more important contests, for the group and for myself; namely the Epson's first panorama contest. This is a contest that I'm eager to roll in, even though my chances are weak in the world of professional panorama-makers.

Finale

It's been a week now since I've got back from Dubai, and seems my schedule is overloaded with activities; work problems and contests, and also considering options and studying. The bird inside of me is clicking in need to travel and change scenery. Alas, summer is here scorching my body and mood, and Ramadhan is coming soon as well with my sleeping turbulence.
I know that I've forgot about lot of my life's pleasures, and I would need more time for myself. But what would I do with this time if I "create" it? I'm technically losing interest in many things as I grow older and older. It seems life is but a silly chain of events in my eyes, no more, no less…

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)

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!

After Math...

Well, well. Ramadhan is over and we are back on the busy tracks on the everyday work. I wished for one complete week holiday though, but anyway it was not possible at all, with Eid starting out on Friday, and since Eid lasts for 3 days, it was over by Sunday, and then Monday was given as a substitute for Friday since Friday is already a holiday originally (weekend).
I wonder if I'm going to write here daily since I'm back to the fast pace life and the coffee-drinking in every morning, but if it is to be so then it must be limited to the size of material at hand. As I'm writing this today, I do have some material indeed and some news, as I am waiting as well for my travel to Ireland to arrive on the 28th of this month. Two weeks from now. Two long weeks...

In the meantime, I'm waiting for my shipment of the new Canon EOS 7D to arrive, which surprisingly is still in my Borderlinx box in the US (according to the website). This got me worried so far. What if the shipment took so long (abnormally to DHL!) and I didn't have the time to pick it up myself before going to Ireland? Even if it was to be here before 28th, I do have my worries of getting used to it before going to Ireland. I have to train my fingers with its controls and my eyes with its LCD display.

Canon EOS 7D

I like the idea here that the modes knob is on the left instead of the right side of the camera. I guess it will make me more flexible and easy to change modes easily (specifically between the Tv, Av and M). The thing which didn't appeal much to me is the fact that the LCD panel where information like EV and other criteria is fixed on the upper side of the camera, not like my old 350D, where it is above the LCD display and everything is done in front of you. I hope the situation is like my friend said, that Borderlinx website is just not updated regularly. Days feel so so so long when you are waiting for something, and I just hate that.

My friend, thankfully, presented to me 2 books as a gift for my birthday. Well, it took so long but anyway he wanted to do that anyway! I gave him a list of books in my Amazon's wishlist and told him to pick whatever he likes to pick. Too bad he doesn't blog but I might consider put his email address here to send him your requests :), he is a generous man! 

The first book he got me is the one book I need so urgently since I'm working with my inkjet printer and printing out my photographs: Fine Art Printing for Photographers: Exhibition Quality Prints with Inkjet Printers, 2nd Edition 

 

I'm just starting to read and so far it's all in the circle of an introduction to printing systems. With my work start right now, seems work time is the only time I'm able to read this book for now, specially with my Ayvarith business being idle for some time now.

The other book was also a book that I was urge to own, but for some time now I've been delaying this in favor of photography books, upon which I'm concentrating to expand my horizon in this field. The book is: Introduction to Manuscript Studies. I've been always fond of such artifacts and eager to see them with my own eyes, and take snaps of them with my own camera. These objects gives you a vivid imagination even if you can't read them, and if you can read them, some wisdom is added as well, something beyond our physical world and the wisdom of the internet nowadays.

 

But this book is large and big, and I can't start reading it right away. I'm thinking of having it with me when I travel to Ireland but even with that I'm reluctant. I have 3 books in my mind that I need to pick only one of them. The printing book, the manuscripts book, and a book that I got last year from Ireland about Irish myths which I just started to read recently. Mainly it is a set of stories.

Beside these books I'm concerned so far by the weight of my luggage and the security procedures in airports, as I am trying to transport with me a tripod, a monopod, a mini-tripod and the heavy VR-head 303SPH Manfrotto.

All I have to do I guess is just pray for some good luck my way. I might need some bigger case for all this mess I have at hand right now. Or, I might just end up making my backpack for my own clothes!

Back to printing, I gave a try on calibrating my monitor as it is usually adviced for people who process their photos and print them out. The calibration process is aimed at giving the processor (me) to see on monitor almost the final product that would be printed out with the inkjet for maximum quality. I surfed the net a bit for some methods to calibrate my 19" LCD monitor. One of the methods that I've tried was using a special chart displayed on monitor and you'd have to adjust the brightness and the contrast of the monitor in order to view the chart correctly.

from http://www.photofriday.com/calibrate.php

In this chart, you are supposed to see different grade of whites and blacks over all the letters from A to Z. In the laptop's monitor (14") this is the situation by default, but with my LCD back home, the struggle was tiresome. I tried everything in the monitor's control but I gave up in favor of fixing the brightness and the contrast in the NVIDIA controls in the Control Panel (along with the Hue and Vibrance). I was able finally to almost see the different bands, but the general light of the monitor was greyish and so hard to see clearly with it. Just in case, I saved the profile in a separte file just in case I want to load it when I work with my prints. So far, and after looking at my laptop's monitor and see how it is clear, I think I will work again with this problem and see if I can find a suitable compromise. Probably I'm supposed to fix my LCD at a right angle.

The other method for calibration involves printing out a specific set of images and changing the parameters of the monitor to match the tones of the printed image. Despite the idea which sounds logical, but yet I don't feel it is a practical way or should I say, a systematic way for calibrating the monitor, but when all fails, seems there is no escape to follow this as a last resort.

Behind the camera now, I've decided to have fun my own way with Eid's visits. Personally, as a loner and so much isolated from the social life in here, I don't go out and visit the rest of the family members like my family members do usually in such occasions, hence, I decided to go on and work with my camera when my brothers and sisters started to visit with all the noisy kids (and adults as well). I mounted the flash of course, which I didn't master yet, and went on splashing the light pulses all over the place (and blinding people sitting around as well). I realized again that I still need to practice the basics to use the Speedlite flash before I think creatively with it, but anyhow, the whole thing was a point-and-shoot process with a high shutter speed (but not higher than 200 since the flash unit automatically limits the speed). I'm still trying to figure out some way to shoot in higher shutter speeds like 1000 and above with the Speedlite flash, and probably this is only possible in single shot mode in the camera and setting the flash unit to Manual and full power as well. The Canon EOS 7D has a wireless control which would enable me to control the flash without any need to attach it to the camera. If only I had it back then.

 

Canon Speedlite 580EX II

No trials in HDR field this time of course, but only trials on catching the moments. Although I tried to take on bracketed exposures later in a group photo with my brothers but it failed as well for the shake. Now I realized how hard it is to mke a HDR for portraits.

My niece! Hilarious!

Angela

Of course along with other troubles, you can expect the hard shadows as well. No softbox in use here, nor a reflective surface to bounce the flash light from. Just a direct hit in the face! I'm thinking of printing some of those images. Usually the time of Eid is something I don't have much fun with, mainly because I don't get along with others as well as being bored more than the usual. But now, seems I have a sort of an effective way to have my fun, my way.

I've finalized the last slideshow with photos from Ireland, and entitled "Ireland - VI," but so far, I'm trying to find some way to send it over to many emails of friends I know. The final size of the WMV file was more than 23MB a bit and with some trials to minimize the size (and quality a bit) the final product so far is an AVI of 13MB. I might put this file into my Google account for downloading and put a link leading to that in the email. I've just found out that in Google you can't upload a file larger than 20MB into your account.

Just before I finalize this post, there is one hilarious event that took place few days ago, and I really would like to mention this here, problably some reader would find me an explanation for this. If you followed the previous post, you might read something about creating a SR imge of a toast texture and produced almost a 31MP image out of three 8MP images. I had to fine-tune the final image a bit and fix the tones and contrast. The image was submitted as it is then to Canstockphoto, which accepted it, and also to Bigstockphoto, which unfortunately, refused it. Now the reason for this refusal was hilarious a bit. Grainy image. Do they realize the image is of a TOAST surface?!?!