Roaring Engine...

Attention: QTVRs ahead - give some time for this post to load, please!

Amid the political dilemma in this country, I'm cooling down my head and trying to carry a grin wherever I go. Despite the fear in the eyes of everyone I meet, I just feel delighted. I'm on a vacation until November 17^th and I'm going to enjoy my time even if the sky is falling down on Earth.
I'm coping still with my sleeping time and somehow I managed to fix it little bit. But I know myself, I'm going to screw it up again soon. It is amazing how time flies, as I've prepared already my first album of 20 images from New York (and Staten island specifically). I remember when I used to work on images from Ireland, it did take me more than just 2 weeks to prepare a single album (of 20 images). I have to prepare a mass e-mail with all 20 images now.

There are lot of panoramas here to deal with and naturally, lot of problems to deal with. Unfortunately, some of them have problems that are not resolved so far; mainly problems in flare and exposure settings, but less problems in terms of alignment of slides and broken lines.

Enlightenment

Working with panoramas is a weird business indeed. Hardships can arrive at any point, and easiness might come from points that you thought were hard - or vice versa. The panorama taken from the Chinese Scholar Gardens on Staten Island, Enlightenment, can be an example for this phenomena; if I can call it so!
This panorama had no need to add a zenith point (topmost slide) because the upper range slides make up a closed region on top making the panorama perfect. As for the nadir point (bottom) it was relatively easy to work it out with a logo. The hardest point in the panorama, however, was the White Balance (WB) and I've struggled with the color cast and the shade in general. I think I've learned my lesson here: a gray space is not as easy as it seems! I had to do many editions in HDR mode before baking (tone-mapping) the HDR here. One of the fixed things is selective exposure reduction which helped adding a halo around the lanterns.

The Porch

I'm trying hard to make a QTVR out of any panorama I've taken already but some of those just don't make it as good as the flat version, just like the The Porch panorama; taken from the porch of the Victorian B&B. I would describe my struggle with panorama as a moderate one, but the magenta tones and the dramatic noise level made the QTVR a bit of a non-pleasant experience. Anyway, I've added the QTVR below. This particular QTVR was limited with its downward tilt because the logo got really awful after tone-mapping - which taught me a lesson here: Add the logo AFTER tone-mapping.

The Victorian B&B

Just before leaving those panoramas from the 1^st set or album, I'd like to bring here one panorama that is already to 2^nd set. The Victorian B&B panorama was/is one of the hardest panoramas that I've worked with so far. In fact, it was stitched and re-done twice. In the beginning, I stitched the panorama making the middle line of the house (the partition between the first and the second floor) in the middle, which makes it a horizontal line. Why? Because at this point I was able to clone the tree branches on the top and I would no need a zenith slide to be placed there. However, after making the QTVR I've found out that the result is weird a bit and the view does not resemble how the scene is viewed with perspective of a standing man.
On the other hand, the clouds and the exposure related to them were a major problem and even though I've reduced the effect of the plain color patches by changing blending priorities, yet there was some cloning job waiting for me in Photoshop. Tone-mapping this HDR panorama was done in such a way to emphasize the green factor in the scene, which required Photoshop processing too.

Bent Not Broken
Canon EF 100mm macro, f/2.8,
800^-1sec, ISO 100

Of course, not all my work had been on panoramas, but I try to spread my efforts equally between single shots and panoramas by doing some single shots in between panorama projects, but there are times when I just didn't feel like touching anything at all. Bent Not Broken was already done when I was on Staten island, but I've re-done it when I arrived back home and I've increased the sharpness dramatically to make it more pronounced. The crop is made into a square as I felt it is more pleasant for the eye and serves the bending stem perfectly rather than a wide empty space on the left side (even though such space can be used for some text if any need arises) - yet, I've felt I should make nature speaks with silence and no need to give much unnecessary space.

Happy Halloween

However, not all single shots were easy. I mean by single shots, shots that are not prepared for a panorama here. Most of them though are bracketed shots for HDR merging - even though I frequently see my chances with single RAW file editing before proceeding to do the HDR - unless I'm pretty sure and know exactly what I want to do with the HDR, then it is the time to head directly for merging. A shot like Happy Halloween pronounced to me that I need more dramatic light here. After mangling with Photomatix for several minutes if not one complete hour, the effect I really need to do was not available just like that - so, I had to approximate and carry the job into Photoshop to take care of the rest. I can't remember how many adjustment layers did I add, but two words can tell it all: Too Many!

Basket Maker House

Basket Maker House (BW)

There are also some instances where it is hard to decide which to upload to the stock images websites like the Basket Maker House sample. The Black and White version was done back in Staten island with my laptop (since I was planning to to work with color with my PC alone for better resolution and view). Both versions are tone-mapped from HDR and to me, I like them both. I leave it for you to decide which one is closer to your feelings!

QTRVs

Now, to the real stuff. Well, skip this section if you don't have QuickTime plugin installed already. I've prepared small QTVRs for posting here but also some of them were prepared in large format.
To reduce the size, I've started not to render the QTVR using 100% quality, but something between 70-90%, even for large format panoramas sometimes depending on what I'm aiming for. I've noticed though at 100% large format QTVRs tend to be crisper and sharper more than the original sharpness - I hope this is not an eye trick.
First we have the temple place at the Chinese Scholar Garden:


You can get the large format from here.

In this QTVR I tried to do an elegant move by putting the text in a circular form around the nadir point instead of just putting the text in the middle as I did before. I think it works nicely that way - but the mistake was that I didn't put the nadir point after tone-mapping, but I did it in HDR Mode and tone-mapped the whole image making the text, sometimes, illegible.

The porch's QTVR isn't really something I'm happy about, but I did try after all. The weird textures and patches of colors in such a small size QTVR makes it weird looking and doesn't really reflect the comfort reflected in the flat image itself. I didn't prepare a large format QTVR for this one though.


 

Then comes the irony with the hardest panorama but the easiest one to fix its nadir point: The Victorian B&B from outside.



And you can find a larger format in here. You can see that the nadir point was easily fixed by cloning the concrete ground. I love such grounds! But alas! it's not always that easy!

With these panoramas, I've done mostly all of phase one concerning my panoramas, which is supposed to be about flat presentations of these panoramas, and QTVRs along with that when possible. Only few panoramas like my room's remains to be checked, and also the pond of the Chinese Scholar Garden which is prepared already but unfortunately, has a flare and changing colors problem that can't be easily fixed in Photoshop. Probably I have to work hard on this one. Phase two, however, can be anything; Litte planets, wide-view, tunnel view, I really didn't decide yet.

Thoughts and Condolences

Despite my short stay in the US, on Staten Island, I think my experience and interactions with people there was rich - richer than it was in Ireland I presume.
One of these interactions were not physical, nor even direct, but something ethereal, if I can call it so. It was Saturday, October 20^th when I headed with my friends from Staten Island to a nursery where Mr Harrison is kept for extensive care, specially for his condition of Alzheimer. It was a quiet little family gathering and I've been introduced to the members, but not directly to Mr Harrison. However, I've remained and took some pictures, and in one weird moment, this old man, who was celebrating his 91^st, raised his head with a smile looking at me for some reason that I couldn't realize until this moment I'm typing this - yet, after being paralyzed for a moment and looking into his eyes, I've started to shoot some pictures of him with that look.
Now, after Sandy hurricane that swept through the eastern parts of the US, and which devastated Staten Island, and after 2 weeks and getting back home, I got the news that Mr Harrison had died. Maybe we should be happy for him because he didn't live in torments for long and now he is in a better place. But the fact that such a connection was made between us, without even a chat or a touch, that, is something to be revived and remembered.
Now, I do have a firm belief, that everything that was done -my travel, my stay, meeting friends, and getting back home before the storm, and being there with the family of Mr Harrison, and being with Mr Harrison- all of that, was done and planned in my fate for a reason and a goal. Now, it is the time for me to think and recognize the lessons. R.I.P. Mr Harrison.

Ready, Get Set, Go!

Here we are back again to the homeland, after a tiresome trip back and fro. Surprisingly, my friends in Staten Island told me that once I've left New York, the whole weather got screwed up, and now they are waiting for some hurricane! Luck? Maybe...

I had many ideas and many reflections since I was there and till this very moment in fact. So much that I have a problem organizing my thoughts. Life, going on, societies and dealing with people - and of course the world of Photography.

Even though it had been days since my arrival back home, I think I still have some sleeping problems. Awake all night and sleepy at daytime, and would that help to work with the camera at night? It should, but I'm too lazy to do so!
Anyway, as soon as I settled down, I've plugged in my external HD and started to work on arsenal of photos. Even though my new laptop is relatively upgraded and faster (with 8GB of RAMs) yet working with my desktop PC is a must even though it is slower. However, during my stay I've used the laptop to create small panoramas and other still images, mostly in black and white.

Meditative Cleve

Of course, one of the first things I was handling is the matter of the panoramas, specially those that I've promised to send as a gift. Meditative Cleve for one, was down experimentally with my laptop during my stay just to check for the level of the light (and back then it was a Little Planet projection). After arrival though, I worked on a bit more to achieve the HDR panorama I'm seeking. My experience now says that even though PTGui can link images and achieve a HDR panorama directly from the RAW files (specially the new PTGui) but apparently it is still better to work with HDR files (i.e. HDR slides prepared with Photomatix for example and plugged into PTGui). This way, the list of the images is shorter and easy to handle the various angles (instead of dealing with more than 120 images you will be dealing with 40-45 images). Also, many problems concerning the exposure overlapping and the exposure curve - and some errors or smudged areas because of that - all of these problems are reduced when merging HDR files instead of single RAW images in PTGui.
In Meditative Cleve there was a tiny a problem during the shoot and that was after shooting the full panorama, I've asked Cleve, my friend's hubby, to take a pose. Because the altar was close to where I stood with the camera, I had to adjust the tilting angle to -30 instead of the conventional -45 degrees that I usually use in my workflow in every panorama. Only at -30 degrees, I was able to include the whole body of Cleve in one shot - otherwise, I would have to take several shots and tilting in different angles to include the whole body. Funny thing that later, and after one long day working on this panorama, I've realized that there was a blending error causing Cleve to lose part of his head and his right shoulder! And then, the work had to be done all over again with adjusting the blending options and then hiding the traces of my tripod again.
Because I didn't take all my equipments (naturally!) the nadir point in my panoramas are hard and easy in the same time. Easy because I don't have to worry much about it - I don't have the tools with me! But hard because working around it is a tough one specially if I want to achieve a QTVR.

The Victorian B&B Lounge

The easy way around this nadir problem is the typical logo and title at the bottom, or, rendering the QTVR file with limited vertical viewing angle (tilt). However, because the lower angles do show some pieces of the tripod head, I've decided to adapt to the logo approach to hide these traces as much as possible. Now, I end up doing a double file for flat panoramas, one with a nadir point to plug it into the QTVR machine, and a cropped one (like the one above) for regular viewing and printing.

QTVR

In this travel I did take a lot of panoramas (relatively) and working on them will need some time. For the time being I'm just checking my chances for flat panoramas and QTVR as they are a priority to send as gifts as promised. Even though panoramas like Meditative Cleve is done in a vertical form, but rendering the QTVR is easy once the stitching file is saved and I will get back to it surely - but I'm hesitant if I should include Cleve in the QTVR or not (remember that I do have the full panorama without Cleve originally).

Anyway, here you can find a QTVR done for the Victorian B&B lounge and I have to say that I do really like the place and its simple architecture. Comfy, and not so complicated. Don't forget, you need QuickTime installed!

This QTVR is also available on a large file with 800x600 window which I plan to send over in a CD to my host, Danute Garlach, along with a print of the same panorama. Anyway, since I did take some panoramas outside, I don't want to rush and I need to check which panorama would work best as a gift.

Well, This is just the beginning now with this post. I'm trying to head back to my usual routine of posting every Thursday. I've done lot of single shots before leaving New York and after arriving back home, but I don't want to put it all in one basket.

The engine needs greasing, with hope now, I will start a new approach to life after this travel. Not sure how, but I need to knock down the clouds of melancholy and depression. I have to...

Bye Staten...

Well, here we go. Two days till the long flight comes in. Today, I will be heading out of the Victorian B&B to the Days Inn in Jamaica, near by the airport, and stay there for 2 days till the 24^th.
Last Saturday, the 20^th, I headed with my friend to Manhattan after a small birthday party for her grandfather in the nursery home. Man... how do people live there? The atmosphere, the busy streets, the traffic and the dark places; I'm just amazed how people think of spending a vacation in such a place?!

Had been working a bit on some photos and panoramas, and there is a load of problem that I have to take care of when I get back home, like the HDR blending of some panoramas because I've been trying to work in Manual mode and get the most out of the details in the highlights and shadows and in many occasions I do end up with very dark slides.

The Victorian Bed and Breakfast

It's hard to do everything here in this laptop because I do need lot of plugins and somehow a suitable working place instead of working on bed!
Well, I have to say bye bye to this awesome place now, and bye bye to my friends. I'm dying to see mom again. I do wish if I can fly tomorrow at least but well, the plans took place already and I will be off by the 24^th.

I would like to say thank you all who helped me during my stay. You're all awesome. 

Thank you

The Pano Day

Well, it was a busy day. I've been taking the panoramas around the B&B and some of them were done more than once just to check for the luminance level and if the HDR got them right. I've ended up doing most of them onISO 800, meaning a lot of work is waiting for me when I get back home. However, I think I need to take a couple more of panoramas from some locations in and out of the B&B.

Corridor

After each session I would try out the HDR merging and/or stitching just to see the potential for these panoramas. The panorama for Corridor is not a full panorama though but around 180^o degrees, and just for fun, I've included myself in the mirror; I was thinking of cropping that out in fact.
One of the lessons learned today is, away from the metering struggles, I could simple settle with a definite limit for the bracketing (for HDR) simply by checking the brightest area in the scene, and check at what shutter speed the details show nicely in the spot. Then, consider this shutter speed as the -2EV or -3EV point, and 2- or 3-stops to that shutter speed and make that point as the 0EV, and simply spread the bracket 2 or 3 stops around the 0EV (by default as it is in Canon).
Example: Fixing the aperture at f/8, and checking the some bright spot (in manual mode), the details of the bright spot appear to be nice (using the live view mode or the histogram, or both) appear to be at 50^-1sec shutter speed. If we want to bracket as -2,0,2EV, then we can consider this 50^-1sec as the -2EV point and add two stops to make up for the 0EV point, and that is 13^-1sec (2 stops). From there, just set the bracket on -2,0,2, and the HDR shot sequence should be running at: 50^-1, 13^-1, 0"3sec. Of course this method won't be useful for any situation, but it is just a thought when the details of such bright spots are important, like taking a panorama for the interior with bright windows.  

Yesterday was also a busy day driving with my friends around the island and tried to take as much shots as possible for historical places, bad though I didn't take my panorama tools with me (and it would take lot of time to shoot a panorama). I got myself satisfied with some shots and been experiencing with some of them already.

Basket Maker

The Basket Maker house was shot with Rokinon 8mm, probably at f/8, and of course it is a bracketed shot, and I've decided to do the HDR and convert it into B&W while tone-mapping, and of course some workflow followed in Photoshop. It is one of the shots that I like and I would work on it again back home, hopefully.

I've managed to change my schedule for flying back home and I've made it early and hopefully by October 24^th I will be flying back. I'm trying to surprise mom with my return so I've asked the family not to tell her...

Alexander 6, V123.

That was amazingly fast. Just when I've submitted some images for approval on Canstockphotos, 30 minutes later you'd see them in your portfolio! I was reluctant about those images though, well, mainly the house, because some times you are asked to get some "property release", which is like impossible in my case here!

It was not a completely idle weekend, yet it was not so active as well. At least, I've tried some stuff with my camera. Unfortunately I didn't upload the image on the net to be used here for now, but if it is accepted you can see it easily in my portfolio on Canstockphoto (and it was also submitted to Bigstock).
The whole story began when I found out that I was simply... idle. The idea sparked when I discovered that I still have a RAMs chip in my backpack (when I was looking for some papers). This chip was taken from my sister's laptop when I changed it for her in some workshop, upgrading her laptop from 500MB RAM up to 2GB RAM. I kept the chip since then and when I found it, I've put it aside to give it to my elder brother. He knows what to do with such stuff. However, after looking at my camera and tools, I realized it might be a chance for one techno-shot. Something I rarely do. I shot that thing with the help of my humble soft box, but I didn't fix any lights around it, except of the room's light. It was merely just to provide a white background. I used my 18-55mm lens, since I don't have a macro lens. This lens is my choice for close-up shots. I think I've fixed it on 55mm (max) and made the shot. I've made the chip standing up with a piece of toy clay, which was then removed from the image by cloning. Not a good solution though, I should've thought of something else. However, a macro lens, I believe, would have delivered a greater result, specially I'm using a shallow depth of field to give some sense of greatness or length to the chip, but well, this sense might come better with a macro lens as well.
I've made several shot under ISO200 and ISO100, but found out that ISO200 are better because the background was brighter and the chip stands out more. All you have to do then is just clean the noise with NeatImage, which I've calibrated to my camera long time ago. The thing I was aiming at (which was not a good option but worth a trial), I was trying to make a focus stack of 2 images, to sharpen the front and the middle areas of the chip and leave the tail blurred. Then comparing the results from focus stacking and the normal frontal image, I thought a single shot was enough to make the effect better, and no need for focus stacking. I was concerned for focus stacking mainly to show some details of the chips in the middle. Yet, turned out not so important I believe.

Beside this simple experiment, I kept on playing around with pictures from Ireland, and been changing some of them into Black and White or Sepia and see if any effects or mood changes occur. It was not until that moment, I realize the beauty of that one house I snapped from the motor boat on my way to Inchagoil island on Lough Corrib. It was something about its simple design that makes you feel peaceful. I don't know what is this house, is it just a resident or some B&B! But its view was simply fascinating! I want a home like that one day...

House on Corrib

The image to this house was added before to my collection but here we have mainly 2 different features about this image: a) it's a close up (and hence I didn't realize the beauty of the house before), b) it is made directly from the RAW file without any HDR enhancement, but only RAW file editing; in other words, no more than one exposure snap.
Realizing how beautiful this house looks, I tried to change its colors and I was surprised by the mood change that it gives me. Well, not really mood, but let's say an "inspiration" or "thought" solely by the change of tones in the image. The first thing was to do is to change this into Black and White with the help of adjustment layers (and not converting to greyscale mode).

House on Corrib (B&W under High contrast red filter)

I tend to use the "black and white" adjustment layer instead of converting into Greyscape mainly because of the options available here, which I can do manually originally from the RAW file itself, but I wouldn't be able to master this yet. Plus, my workflow forces me to use such adjustment layers because in most instances, I do need to save the colored version as well for some purpose before working in B&W. Here, I used the High Contrast Red Filter from the ready-made schemes in the adjustment layer itself. This image gives me a feeling of mystery rather than old or antique. Maybe the high contrast in black and white enforces mystery rather than antiquity. We could be on some theory here! Maybe also that this mood is highly influenced by Jonathan Boakes photography and games! Thinking about that now, this black and white with such house design do really reflect the nature of ghosts and hanuted houses. Maybe I would try to add a bit of bluish hue to the image and see how does it go as well.

The next thing to do, normally, is to add  tone to this image, naturally the sepia tone, which was simply added by Photo Filter adjustment layer.

House on Corrib (Sepia).

Now this image does indeed make me feel it is old, and I think the design of the house helps out with it. Sounds something Victorian. Add some white edges and burn some corners and do some tearing on the sides, and voila! you got an antique! It's hard to say any other thing about the sepia tone except that it turns things old. I rarely felt something different about it. Well, maybe it adds a bit of hot hue in some scenes and give an impression of some hot weather.

In the current time there is another little project I want to do with my camera and my dumbells set, but I'm thinking of the settings that I need to fix before the experiment and how to make the dumbells look like flying into the air. I need some help from another person, which unfortunately, is not something easy to do, not even among my family members in the house I live in. But there must be a trick to do everything by myself, as usual. The final product should be something in Black and White as well, and probably with silverish hue added or maybe bluish, depends on the lighting with the flash, since I'm still not mastering that yet!

Now, to some jokes around this place. One week and my watch is still not fixed. C'mon for God's sake!!!

__________

2929. it was then some moments later after the meal is over
2930. Alexander noticed that the old man was in deep thought
2931. thus he said: what is wrong O great grandfather?
2932. your mind seems quite busy as it seems, is not it?
2933. and Agdalán replied: yes, my dear, it is indeed busy,
2934. I am thinking of your ways after you leave this place,
2935. and I think the time has come to give you something
2936. and Alexander asked: and what is that O father?
2937. Agdalán raised up and went to some old wooden chest
2938. and he opened the chest with some large old key
2939. the sound of the metals in the chest were out loud
2940. testifying for the age of this old chest and its history
2941. Agdalán picked something from the chest and closed it
2942. he approached Alexander and opened his palm in his face
2943. the palm of the old man had some weird metals in it
2944. small pieces were they but shiny like the diamonds
2945. Alexander looked with surprise and said: what is it?
2946. Agdalán replied: these are what we call Kalfúd Sámith,
2947. it is the remains of an old stone that came down from Heaven,
2948. they are more precious than gold itself or silver,
2949. this is the inheritance of my fathers, it is for you now,
2950. take it and make a living by them for now for you need them,
2951. since you have no source of living in this world by now,
2952. and I do not want to see you wander as a nomad