Sisters…

I'm posting this late, I know. But things were forced upon me actually. I've tried to finish it for Thursday but I was struck with some ailment (stomach bug probably) that kept me awry and exhausted (more than before) most of the time. Luckily though it all happened after I've already finished my post for my Arabic blog (phew!). Anyway, as I've mentioned in the previous posts, I've been working on some macro trials lately and I've already posted some pictures previously, so this one is actually a continuation of this trend.

Sisters

After trying to shoot some macro outside in the open, and without a speedlite even, I've decided to take a step further and actually do it indoors. One of the reasons that I don't like doing macro indoors, specifically with plants, is that I would most likely need to chop or pick something to work with indoors. These pots are quite heavy and dirty so picking them inside is not an option at all! However, for art's sake, I've decided to break "some" of my principles this time…

粉红手指
(the pink finger)

So, for starters, the first question to answer was: How am I going to let he flower stand. The bougainvillea flower is quite small and the inner parts are, of course, even smaller. The solution came about in the end with (drums): … a can of PRINGLES! Yes.
Unfortunately, I didn't shoot the setting as i would do usually (with phone) as i work in a hurry a bit because with such flowers, I guess things would go pale quickly and I have to do whatever I can, racing time. I've just pierced a hole into the plastic cover of the can and let the stem of the flower go through it and that's it! 

Details Oriented

In this trial, as far as i remember, my trials to shoot at 5X ratio (or 5:1), using reversed Voitgländer 20mm lens and some extension tubes, all failed. Naturally, since I wasn't using a rail yet at this point. So, the rest of the shoot proceeded with extension tubes and my trusted Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM lens. Since the shooting is indoors (which actually is still slightly shaky because of the AC breeze!) but I was a bit free to shoot in HDR, without a speedlite of course. Both, The Pink Finger and Details Oriented are shot in HDR, but each has a different story, since each was shot in a different extension tube. Shooting objects or scenes in HDR gives a wide variety of choices for creativity that might follow up at a later time even. Here, The Pink Finger was shot using 36mm extension tube and when tone-mapped from HDR, I've tried to make it as normal as possible with a catch of rim light. Meanwhile, Details Oriented was actually a test shot and I didn't quite intend to put it up because it was shot with 20mm extension tube and contained a lot of background elements that were distracting. Later on (weeks after the fact) I've decided to do the HDR for this shot, and crop it tight, and work on suppressing the background as much as possible. I was able to make it pitch black but then I've realized that it might not quite normal that way so I've put down the opacity a bit. When tone-mapped, I've tried to add details via tone-mapping as much as possible (hence the title). Sharpening in the post-processing phase added even more structure to the whole image here. I'm still considering visiting these images now and then and see if I can do more HDR tone-mapping work differently to have different results.

三姐妹 (一)
(three sisters 1)

Then comes the part where I stopped using HDR bracketing and started to work with the speedlite to have more of a dramatic look. At this level I've returned back to using the 36mm extension tube and tried to get around the flower to find a special angle of some sort. The result was a series of 3 shots, of the same scene, but with change in the light directions. I've called it the Three Sisters after the three stems (or stamens) at the center.

三姐妹 (二)
(three sisters 2)

三姐妹 (三)
(three sisters 3)

Interestingly, out of these three, the first and the last had greater number of likes (specially the first) than the second. I'm guessing because there is some element of darkness and contrast in them more than the bright second version in the series. Worth noting here also that shots were taken at f/22 (maximum) and yet the petal in at the center in the background is slightly out of focus (as I've set the focus on the front stamen mainly). In the macro world, this is normal, and this is why focus stacking is used even with large f-numbers such as f/11 or f/16. These two values are advisable usually rather than using the max of f/22 because most lenses got their "sweet spot" for the sharpest image and least diffraction or chromatic aberration around these values, and as it can be seen, the depth of field is considerably shallow even at f/22. At this point, I didn't care about these elements at the back but my main interest was the stamen at the front, but if I was to take everything into focus, then I'd definitely need to do focus stacking (which I've tried later but that's for another post to come, hopefully).

At this point, I've finished the "experiment" but there had been other trials with this set, like shooting at 3.2X or even 5X but I'd call them a fail really, so no need to post them now. On the other hand, I think I will still check this folder to re-check the images (specially test shots) to see if they have some potential, and also to re-work the HDR brackets I've shot already and tone-map them in different ways, if possible.

Finale

At this level, I'm trying hard to push my creative juices forward a bit. Ironically, though I want to focus on using my DSLR, I often find myself switching to my phone because it is in my hand most of the time right now (starting with this habit around the time of doing my retirement procedures). I've also remembered a project or two that I was supposed to do and finish in 2021 and totally forgot about them. Let's see if I can just put my mind (and mood) into these things and finish them for good! Meanwhile, I also need to think of something to do for the Arabic Language Day on December 18ᵗʰ.

My physical health is recovering a bit right now after rounds of bloating and diarrhea, topping that with a tearing mental stress caused mainly by the people in this house. I think it is time for me to give up hope in fixing things here and talk about things are go wrong in this house; It's fruitless, and putting more stress on my back and unnecessarily causing more mental ailments, more than what I do have to deal with already. I guess this calls for more isolation in my room and to learn how to not give a damn, even when this house collapses altogether. Not sure where I'm heading to, but I do need a long rest, for sure… and a "home".

Most Photos!

Here we are again. At work. After one week of holidays still I can't get enough of this. The problem even percist now because directly after this holiday, today, I do have to train some people in some special (simple) course at my work place. I don't know what is going on, but despite the fact that I hate to interact with people, since I've returned from Ireland last October, I've been even more isolated, let's say. I can't even stand dealing with people, and now I do HAVE to train some of them, and tour them around. I just need my camera...

Disperately, trying to put my life back again into order after my vacation. I have to admit, so far, I'm failing. My mind is clogged with ideas but so little to be done. However, I worked little bit on some images in this holiday. I hope I can push myself further and work on my Ayvarith project. I remember I've put a design for the Welcome page, but where is the damn file!!!?
I'm trying to make things simple for the webpage, and still I don't know yet how to do it. Beside that, I need lot of patience with voice recording (to show how to pronounce letters). To make things worse, my brother wants me to help him in translating some texts for a documentary. Ugh! If only I know how to time manage. I need some super powers in the work here. Something that makes me awake for 3 days with no blink of the eye! But even coffee had failed me now... the more I drink of it, the more easily I go to sleep!

In the holiday I worked on some images, from Ireland and from Failaka, but maybe the most exciting moment I encountered this week is the discovery of some new website to submit my images. Mostphotos.com. It is mainly a Swedish website, but the way they deal with images is cool and awesome. Mostly, all images are accepted, regardless of the quality (providing they are 5MP or more), and files are sold as either small or large sizes with prices from €5 to €25. The coolest thing in this website, unlike other stock sites, it is a site that patrons arts more than commerce, in a way that you can interact with other photographers, LIKE their images like on Facebook and comment as well. I didn't encounter such things in previous stock sites like Fotolia, Canstockphoto or Bigstockphoto. But one should be careful though, easy acceptance for such images might get you in the habit of caring less about quality!
I was happy to see many photographers do LIKE my images, although truth to be said, they are FAR better than I do; in their colors and compositions... etc. One of the most liked images and right now it is #1 as you login into the website, and that is the lonely road going out of the old resorts in Failaka:

I've been adding some images as well, old and new, and lot of them are having their likes as well. There are lot of HDR photographers as well that got magnificent images on the show. The cool thing about this website, you don't have to be afraid of HDR of being rejected for being "over-filtered" (always had this problem with Canstockphoto however I try to make images look normal). You can set your wild expressions with HDR as you like and as people like it, because people won't care much about the commerce or how much such image is marketable.

 One of the images I went wild with my HDR sliders, and still some people like it 

that way though I know it won't be accepted in stock sites!

Be careful though from that point of dealing with HDR. I tend to ask myself now and then when I have a new HDR slide at hands "what do I want?". One of the images that I worked with lately and posted in Mostphotos as well as Canstockphoto, is an image I called "Sisters of Hope." This image was also taken from Failaka, and it is a side view for the image above:

Sisters of Hope

In case you are wondering about the title here, it is just the feeling of finding such trees in almost in the middle of no where, on a deserted island. This image, despite the HDR combination, I had to pull myself back a bit and try hard to do my best without manipulating much of the HDR tone-mapping. The reason I didn't use one image here (and enhance it later) is that each image had a good portion of light in some area that the others do not have, mainly, in the sky region. As far as I remember, I combined generally two of the three images together and discarding probably the third image which was the most exposed one with so many bright areas. Since the image was taken handheld, it is naturally shifted from one slide to another, and Photoshop proved to be no good at aligning images. This was not the first time nor the last time. Many images I had that Photoshop failed to align properly, and for this matter Photomatix was superb, and it works on removing ghosting artifacts as much as possible. In some rare occasions I would need to tone-map manually with Photoshop, and hence I do have to use Photomatix first to align the images and then save the HDR slide and plug it into Photoshop. Not the process I quite like, but oh well... . But before tone-mapping I had to do some stuff like cloning some shades on the ground and brightening the soil to give a good contrast, and then tone-map almost without changing anything in fact! On a 100% zoom the image might look shaky because of the wind playing through the leaves, but I think with a print on A4 size, it might be quite interesting. This is what I'm planning next. I didn't work with my printer for some time now.

I'm still looking for some way to calibrate or make a profile for my printer+ink+paper combination using my scanner though, since my ColorMunki tool that calibrates the monitor is not a tool to calibrate the printer and prints.

The previous days were also of some surprise as well. One of the panoramas that I went wild with HDR tone-mapping with, just to give it a spooky look despite the sun outside, got accepted in one of the stock sites, unexpectedly! Here goes the story:

Bank of Failaka. Any ghosts around?

This image is for the bank (I suppose) that I took a panorama of on November 5th. I made a previous version of this panorama (of course it is all done in HDR mode) but in the beginning I didn't like it. It was somehow cheerful in colors despite the apparent damage in the structure. So, I went on going wild with my sliders in tone-mapping this HDR panorama. In the beginning I was not aiming really to submit this image to stock sites because I know what they want. They want marketable images, not slices of art. Well, it is their right however. Just for fun, I've submitted the panorama to Canstockphoto, and Bigstockphoto. The first declined the file for "over-filtering" as usual, but the surprise was, Bigstockphoto, accepted that image! This incident really encouraged me to try my luck with heavily tone-mapped HDR next time when it comes to Bigstockphoto. Of course, the image is there on Mostphoto.com as well. If only now I can find a place to give away my QTVRs. That would be awesome I guess!

My work with the photos now is really a messy schedule, but I'm hoping to do some of the panoramas, specially the one that I got stuck with, from Ireland. As for now, I have to concentrate on the translation project that my brother wants my help with!

Lonely