Alexander 6, V5.

Been some days without putting some words here. Well, the natural thing with the holidays. I'm heading back to work by tomorrow after 3 days of holidays (neglecting the weekend, which makes it up to 5 days of holidays).
In this holiday I had some time to make up my own home-made light tent and softbox for my flash, and big thanks for my brother who has soft hands with the tools! I bought some tiny desk lights and fixed some energy-saving light bulbs to use as side lights for my light-tend.

 

My light box or light tent

 

My softbox for my flash head

One tiny problem happened after fixing the sides of the box, and that was the fact that the glue started to eat into the white surface. It is a problem but I don't think it would affect the snapping too much, since the object is going to be inside the box with lights out of the box. The main purpose of these wings on the sides (as I read in the main scheme) is that they serve as "reflectors." You can find the main scheme in this blog.
I didn't try the flash head so much, but I had some trials with the light tent a bit, trying out with my censer again. The first problem was to fix the box on a suitable surface on a suitable height. The table I used before for snapping the censer (and the turtle before) was not a suitable one because of its small surface area and hence, I wouldn't be able to put the desk lamps around (I would need other small tables to do this!). Anyway, after moving here and there, I fixed it over my suitcase (which still contains some stuff I got from Ireland and some books!). I've fixed the desk lamps around it but one problem occured then, and it was obvious in the pictures taken after, but I had no solution to that really. I could have fixed something below the box just to elevate it a little from one side, but the wax was already molten and I didn't want to shake the censer anymore fearing that something would drop down on the inside of the box. I kept it that way and made the censer body as straight as possible, with the molten wax being tilted to one side.
I took many shots in different modes (and sometimes in different WB) but the chain of pictures that I worked with most was a series of 9 pictures taken with constant aperture (f32) and changing shutter speed (time), making up a sequence of 9 exposures.

 

Photoshop composite and tone-mapping of 9 exposures

The good thing here is that the lighting was somehow good and controllable with 3 desk lamps fixed in positions surrounding the light-tent itself, but despite the fact that I used a narrow aperture (f32) as I usually do, to make sparkles of light reflected of the subject, here it did not show up. I'm guessing that I'm supposed to put a light source hitting forward to the censer instead of putting one to the top of the box. Yet, I had some fun merging different exposures.

  

3 exposures, tungsten white balance, merged and tone-mapped with photomatix .

The above image was taken in tungsten white balance, anyway it is not a big deal now with the white balance (in analog photography it was a big deal already, but with digital photography you can change that easily when you shoot in RAW). I called it "Frozen Censer." Despite the fact that I know clearly most of the stock sites won't like such images that got plenty of effects in them, but I put this one in Bigstockphoto.com.

Bigstockphoto had been kind enough to accept lately one or two of my images. Unlike Fotolia, who always refuse images either as "quality problems" or "aesthetic problem," Bigstockphoto does mention the problem exactly for you, and if you can, you would be able to fix the problem (when possible) and submit it again. Of course if there is no potential marketing for the picture itself that's another story. At least, they do mention something for you and don't leave you in the dark like Fotolia does. Lately, all the problems that I've encountered when my files are refused from Fotolia are under the "aesthetic" category, which makes me ask myself how this is fixed?

Anyway, back to the censer again, I made a go also with Exposure Fusion. Although I'm not so fond of this method but sometimes, it does some beauty to the images. I can't really tell what is the algorithm and the method used here, but your exposures are not combined to make one HDR image and then tone-mapped, but it sounds more like direct tone-mapping without passing the HDR phase.

 

Fusion of 9 exposures.

And finally, I tried out the fusion of several white balances extracted from a single image (the original was taken in tungsten WB);

 

Several WBs fused together.

Generally, the contrast is good despite the fact that I did not put a light source directly hitting into the body of the censer from the front. The flame inside has a sharp contrast and appears somehow "flamboyant" from the middle of the censer and the purple hue is dark, but can be shown with some saturation a bit. All the images anyway were not put directly but there was always some manipulation in Photoshop for increasing the contrast slightly or increasing the saturation and changing the hue little bit.

The thing that was missing from this, the sparkle that used to show up when I used the flash in a completely dark room. I have some experiment in my mind currently, and I shall get back to the censer again, I suppose!

Today, we have the 5th verse of Alexander VI; The last part of Alexander's story. The work with my transliteration has stopped as well during the holiday, but tomorrow is the working day, and I think I shall get back with my routine as usual (despite some pressing work in the labs).

__________
97. then Alexander asked about the secret
98. and the old man explained in few words
99. "secret of the lights after the lights in the Beginning"
100. thus, Alexander felt the burden of destiny
101. crushing down his shoulders from Heaven
102. and then he said with a shaking jaw
103. "how am I supposed to know the road,
104. if I never heard of your ancestors before?
105. and how I am supposed to reveal the secret
106. if I do not know what you are talking about?
107. help me O good old man in my task
108. may God help you to succeed in the good ways"
109. Náwi established his words with the praise of God
110. and said to Alexander: O young man, did God forget you before?
111. or did He give you a false promise before?
112. No! Thus you shall walk by His grace and mercy
113. like He made you a sun and moons to guide you
114. through the deserts He will never forget you
115. stay with us for three days and be prepared
116. then go on to your journey with your destiny
117. the prophecies there were made will not lie
118. go and fear nothing O Vuqurnún
119. thus Alexander decided to stay for three days
120. while the hermits prepared him for his journey

Alexander 5, V5

Sadly enough, I could not resist a nap in the afternoon yesterday. Yes. It is a sad thing because I was going to work with my plants but unfortunately, some people were asleep at that time and I didn't want to make a big fuss, thus I just settled down waiting for them to wake up... and slept while doing that! One day gone without doing anything.
I'm continuing my reading about what is called the "Arabic Parts" and digging further to see what can be seen (or foreseen?) in those relations. I got one program to do most of the calculations for many Arabic Parts itself. I had it a long time ago and I didn't know how to use it and at that time back then, I didn't know what are these really. It is a freeware called Astrolog. It was hard to utilize and use things or set up things around in this little software, but I think I did it correctly this time (by comparison with some other sites that give free natal charts). Since the software has a weird way of producing a text file, I decided to make a print-screen of this long list and paste it here as an image instead of a test;

 

 

A very long list with calculated positions of many stuff. I wish I can get some insight into their meaning related to their positions.

After having some tiny pinches and pains on my sides, I decided maybe it is better now to increase my intake of water, since such pains can be (sometimes) related to kidney problems, and the usual thing is, to filter the kidney by drinking water. I finished 1.5 litres today, and that was a great load and a great work, because I had to go to the toilet every 5 minutes!

Some more happy news for today: I washed my car :)... hence, there will be rain soon.

__________

97. Alexander gathered with his nobles and discussed the matter
98. and asked the old Nertus for some help to find wood
99. but old Nertus denied to help with wood because it was sacred
100. because the trees have special memories of their fathers
101. and cannot be cut down by any costs or for any purpose
102. thus Alexander had to think of some other way of help
103. and from afar he noticed some sparkling in the horizon
104. and Alexander asked Nertus about the luster from afar
105. then Nertus answered that this is the great sea of Zús
106. where the world ends to this limit from the south
107. it is where the Tawyátá comes from and where it goes
108. and just then Alexander had an idea to do with his men
109. which required a great sacrifice of souls and courage
110. and he asked Nertus to prepare one hundred great straws
111. and to prepare a skin of a sheep and fill it with air
112. then he asked his men to take the straws and swords
113. while he wore the skin of the sheep and went with them
114. and he dropped himself in the sea of Zús with the skin
115. while his men went under the shallow water with the straws
116. and he poisoned the skin on his body with herbs known to him
117. so if the men did not catch the bird he would poison the bird
118. hours were spent and the men come up and down from the water
119. while Alexander remained on the top of water not moving
120. until the huge bird appeared from above, covering the sun

Alexander 4, V5.

Another day, after experimenting again with my censer and the flash. Well, I learned it the hard way, that putting my flash on "manual external metering" does not allow for auto-bracketing of the exposure in the camera itself. I think what we need here is, a coherent light source, like a spot light. In fact, we might need two. One on left and the other on right and both pointing at the censer in a dark room.
You might ask, why I'm taking all that pain just take a picture in the darkness while I have a beautiful green big room with many lights in its ceiling. Well, mainly, there are 2 reasons:
1. I want to work more with my flash and get used to it.
2. I want to emphasize the contrast between the flames inside the censer and the surrounding atmosphere. Taking the picture in a bright room will make the candle flame not so unique and not "flamboyant" if I should say. There must be some contrast... and if possible, a strong one.

However, the experiments didn't go all with no results at all. Despite the darkness of the images taken (even with a flash), I combined some of the images (3 of them) by Photomatix which allowed me to change a bit in the EV values of the images, and hence, in the HDR historgram I got a wide range of EVs (but it's fake since I entered the values myself!). After all, the tone-mapping was not so bad I guess. I saved the file as an EXR and worked on tone-mapping in Photoshop and Photomatix.

Photoshop manual tone-mapping

Photomatix tone-mapping

I do prefer the second one though for the high contrast, but this façade is only in a small thumbnail. In the real sized image, the situation is completely different with the noise level (mainly because of the long exposures times).

Moreover, I combined another 3 images, but this time they are not different in exposure value, but in ISO value. Two of them were taken in ISO100 (but they were different in EV) and one of them was in ISO200. The result was somehow OK when the HDR histogram is examined, but yet, the noise was so hard to clear off (after the tone-mapping of course).

ISO100 and ISO200 combined with manual tone-mapping

In a conclusion, I think that we can try other ways to make out a HDR image. Yes, the best method is, I would say, either by auto-bracketing or by using different shutter speeds, but I guess the main idea is to get different light levels of the same object and make the computer do its own algorithms and logical comparisons to build up a unique "data sheet" with values corresponding to the light level of the object.

Today, I think I'm going to experiment again, and this time I'm going to use my flash again with my filters, and change them gradually.

Away from HDR and its fuss, I was doing some experiment the day before with my flash in "stroboscopic mode." That is, the continuous pulses of lights. These are useful to catch up a moving object.One experiment I still remember from high school time, when we used a stroboscopic source against the fan up in the ceiling to determine its frequency (that is, how many times does it turn around in one second), and as you may know already, frequencies are measured in Hertz (Hz). When the target object looks like if it was still in its place, then you can say that you got the right frequency value. Why? Think of it: a light source gives a pulse in the same amount of time in which the fan does one complete circle, hence, whenever there is light available, the fan is always in the same position ready for a new cycle and so on. Thus, with time, you will see as if the fan is still and not moving.

Anyway, taking a photograph of a still object is not so funny, is it? What's the problem with that? I can turn off the fan and snap a picture of it and post it and say "hey, this IS rotating fan, but got paralyzed by my flash." Well, no. Our lives must have a problem; and yes, I'm a pessimist.

The thing about snapping such an image is to produce some pattern; a beautiful one. Hence, we have to use the stroboscopic source, either in a frequency lesser than the one of the fan, or more. Lesser frequencies are not fun, I tell you. All what your camera would get is a plain white disk. Thus, we must use higher frequencies. Notice that we are using these high frequencies in connection with a long exposure (relative long exposure, I don't mean here the 30 seconds and above). Well, maximum of 5 seconds I'd say it's enough. One more thing to note is that it is better to have a dark space as well. Otherwise, what's the use of the stroboscopic flash?

Anyway, here you go with some results, which unfortunately, I've forgot the frequencies for each!

However, the "faster" the fan looks, the higher the frequency is. Why? Well, to think about it, if you use a high frequency (more than that of the fan), you will be able to catch the fan in moments before completing a full circle. Thus, the higher the frequency, the closer the fan's wings will appear because they just moved a little before the last pulse of light, and building up those several shots, you will have a faster looking fan. On the other hand, if you happen to use a high frequency for the light, but "just" high above the fan's, then the wings of the fan will move a bit further until the occurence of the next pulse, and so on. Building up the snaps together, you will have a slow-looking rotating fan.

The electricity in Kuwait runs at 240V-50Hz, thus it is natural to guess that the fan frequency is at 50Hz, and I tried it and it worked and the fan was like stable in its place. I changed the frequencies many times when I snapped the previous images, but I would say the best results (to me) were those taken at 70Hz to 80Hz (or 90Hz).

I think I will continue my trials with the censer as usual for today, and this time, I will try to fix the flash to some amount (maybe full power), and then I will fix the the shutter speed and the aperture, and after all, change only the filters. I think by that you should have different exposures already, but the problem is with the flash being close and will give a reflection off from the body of the censer as usual. I do need a remote trigger!

I wrote another poem today, and I called it "Zvinkle and Danim" (or Daneem). Don't ask me about the meaning of the title because I don't know, but if you are interested in the meaning of the whole thing, then you might have to read it yourself and judge what I'm talking about. In fact, I think it was more like a nonsense in the first place but anyway my thoughts played the trick here while my fingers obeyed the orders. Again, it is for you to judge what is going on here...

__________
97. the men gathered around Alexander
98. and he ordered the pikemen to advance
99. and then raise the pikes like thorns
100. while the archers pointed to te sky and shot
101. and the swordsmen prepared for intruders
102. and the circles of fighters twirled
103. and Alexander in the middle slaughtering
104. his sword was the Charnagút of the three points
105. amid the mutants he was clearing them with no shield
106. while the beasts ate the bodies of soldiers
107. and few villagers remained in their place
108. and the shouts of agony started in the camp
109. and the loyals before left Alexander in his trouble
110. while Alexander was thickened with injuries
111. and thus with the anger in his heart
112. for all the trickery he faced in his camp
113. Alexander made a scream of wrath
114. when men faces turned yellow and red
115. and the beasts of Zimúrá ran away
116. just then the camp started marching behind them
117. picking them and slaughering them like insects
118. and Alexander was swimming in his blood
119. coping to stand up amid his victorious men
120. and looking at the massacre and the red trees

Alexander 3, v5.

A day marked with sluggish movements. I'm kind of used to sleeplessness by now but today was something different. Wherever I go, I must do something wrong; wrong movement, crushing into something... you name it. Thank God I didn't bring my camera with me today. Although I don't know what I was thinking and I did not have a clear plan on what to snap, but I just felt like taking my camera with me (and that means lot of stuff to carry out with me as well).
Worked on 2 verses so far with my transliteration, and worked in the lab for some time to prepare and can the fish sampled that I've grinded before. I was working under the hood for the first time. This device is amazing guys... you MUST have it. I should keep one in my bathroom really... (just kidding, I'm not an oil tycoon).
I have some ideas for in-home photography and also I left my PC work on stitching again overnight, since I discovered that I saved the previous file as a .HDR format, which tends to be sluggish and literally, my Photoshop stopped responding when I opened the file. I know the file size is big as well, but EXR is better for handling this I would say, and also it supports transperancy, which I need highly.
I've noticed one more purchase for one of my photos in canstockphoto (via fotosearch). A little amount to be added to my balance but anyway, it makes me happy at least that my photo is getting some attention after all. It was an old photo though (most probably taken with my old Sony, I can't remember!). The image is "A Busy Day in My Life".

I'm having some busy day by tomorrow with some tasks to do here and there and picking my sister's laptop to some workshop for upgrading... let's hope it all goes well. I hate going into that area where all computer shops scatter around and the streets just STINK big time.
__________

97. in that situation and fear
98. Alexander drew something similar on the ground
99. like the shapes of those beasts
100. and they yelled with fear in one voice
101. Jawgá! Majawgá! Hayhókhaman!
102. just then Alexander remembered the legends
103. legends was told by his late father
104. about sons of the demons and sinners
105. when they met together and gave birth
106. he remembered Jawgá Majawgá
107. children of doom, children of hell
108. then once again the command was revealed
109. from Heavens down to earth for Alexander
110. "Alexander, you are victorious. Go ahead!"
111. it was then when Alexander called the men
112. the courageous generals of all times
113. and he divided them into three divisions
114. Chirán, Tólímí, Shakrashom and Galgalom
115. four generals with thousands of men
116. these will block the way from the valley
117. Érán, Kahrími, Dartalom
118. these with workers from invaded lands
119. shall dig the ground and take the ores
120. and a dam they shall make over the valley

Alexander 2, V5.

One heck of a night and a day, that was yesterday. A headache and a high blood pressure that accompanied me all the way to my bed time. I slept earlier (or let's say tried), but yet kept on waking up. I took one Cataflam pill at the end just to knock me off and sleep for 3 hrs before raising up again to go to work.

Had a chance yesterday to snap a a picture from some junk thrown beside my work place. The image reflects my feelings about those people who glue their butts to their thrones. Despite all what they do, they remain stupid in the eyes of others and behated.



As you see, I called it the King of Chairs. The hard part was to fix the blue chair on top and make it remain there. When I did so (hardly) with some broken metal pieces from other chairs, the wind started to rotate the base. Usually I like such chairs but not in this condition!
The shooting was mainly to experience my ND filters that I've just received. I fixed the ND4 Grey filter and started to shoot, and then removed it and shot again, then I changed the angle and shot again then fixed the filter and shot back. Of course each session was for 3 shots to combine as HDR. At the end, I joined 6 RAW files for the HDR make up. This gives me an idea in fact about studying the relation between the exposure value, time and the ND filter type. I might do this soon to study how the long exposures (bulb mode) photography work with ND filter and what do I need exactly to eliminate the excessive exposures as much as possible in day time photography.
In photoshop,  I opened my HDR and started on fixing some coloring. Personally, I like the first version of the image (which was combined into HDR in Photoshop itself) because of the high contrast between the blue chair and the yellow wall, and also the darkened purple floor. All of these were fixed by adjustment layers in Photoshop before tone-mapping. Unfortunately, after saving the file, and for some reason I don't know, the original EXR file got grey spots all over the image (and seems I've pressed some wrong key with all that headache in my head!). However, I combined the images again and worked on the second version with Photomatix. Of course, the second version of the image MUST go to photoshop for some tiny adjustment with the contrast and sharpening and then small-sizing to hide some artifacts.
That's it for now and I'm still waiting for the reply of Bigstockphotos!
__________

The fierce eyes met with the frowned faces
while Chinchán exchanged the show of power
There was Kákhbár, standing there beside the king
a valour general, mercy has no landing into his heart
His drink was the blood, and his food was the flesh
and his jokes were made of spears cut into the throat
Then with a loud voice from the horizon did it appear
Chinchán shouted from afar at the so called Kákhbár
"We heard of a mass of muscles, and a heart of stone
a man called Kákhbár the hero, and I doubt if it is so"
The glorious Geltán had his blood violently out from him
and shouted back with words that no one understood
He walked alone to the field and everyone was watching
while Chinchán was there waiting for him with pride
Two heavy things were meeting at that time of old age
if not men, then it is free for others to imagine the beyond
Copper and Iron, no difference in color they have now
but similarities they hold in the sound they do when beaten
Strike by strike, they exchanged the power so fiercely
everyone saw the fire coming out from swords and eyes
If it was not for a mistake in the steps of Chinchán
his head wouldn't be a target to be splitted into two
Just then the Geltáns released the shout of ego
and the knees of Caqobians shivered of fear