Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Shanghai 2010, album III

And finished the third album of my August trip to Shanghai.

Click here for the album with some 12 photos.

Click here for the total index.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Acrobatics in Autumn

Dutch spider doing Cirque du Soleil kinda stuff...
Note how it clings on to two legs with two other legs...

Click on photo for bigger version...

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Shanghai 2010, album I

And finished the first album of my August trip to Shanghai.

Click here for the album with some 26 photos.

Click here for the total index.

Friday, August 20, 2010

From the top...

Jin Mao tower, seen from the Shanghai World Financial Center (the big monster)... the somewhat smeared out lights weren't my idea but are due to the glass in between that prevented me from falling down 492 meters... the glass was quite greasy, hence the light dispersion...

Click on the photo for the bigger version...

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Old and new

Bell tower near People's Park at Nanjing Road West...

Do note that this photo involves some trickery. One of the annoying parts of photos that involve sky, is that in certain conditions you can't get the subject and the sky in one photo to be exposed properly (not too bright and not too dark). If the sky is ok, your subject is too dark, if the subject is ok the sky is too bright. You get these white, washed out skies. Depending if the sky is actually blue or clouded also is of influence: clouded doesn't help. There's tricks to avoid this problem. One involves taking several pictures of the same scene with different exposures and merging them later on. And although I've never tried, I assume that involves a tripod, which I don't use on city trips, that's just too much. Then there's graduated density filters, which I don't own, and polarizers, which I do have but didn't try. I doubt if they would have helped.

In this case the sky was completely blown out. 'Blown out' on a technical level means the light is so bright that the sensor doesn't have a value for it. The value of the pixels goes beyond what they can hold, so they're left behind at the maximum, which is pure white. This also means there's no information in the blown out part. Adjusting brightness won't help to recover details, cause there isn't information in that part, just white.

Usually I don't mess with my photos a lot. I adjust the sharpness a bit, the contrast and brightness, fiddle sometimes with the white balance, but that's about it. However, in this case, cause I liked the composition, I decided to go a bit further and simply replace the white sky with a piece of Shanghai sky from another photo, taken a few minutes earlier. That's quite easy to do in Photoshop cause the white part is recognised by all kind of tools rather easily.

Otherwise the photo is genuine, those buildings are really there :-)

Click on the photo to see the big version...

Monday, August 16, 2010

Hungry women...

It's the month of the Hungry Ghosts - for ancestor worshipping, Buddhist and Taoist Chinese not to be taken lightly: when the gates of hell open and the dead walk among the living (you and I may laugh about it, for a believer this is a scary month) - but ghosts are difficult to capture on digital (works only well with a rather expensive special filter and a black light)... so in stead... at a food stall in Shanghai...

Click on photo for bigger version...

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Love...

... at the Expo...

Click on photo for bigger version...

Big monster...

... peeping through...

Click on photo for bigger version...

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Traffic at night

Click on photo for bigger version...

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

It's Shanghai...

... cause no matter how high they go, how many new towers they keep building, this one is unbeatable... no doubt in my mind this is the signature building of Shanghai, and will be for a long time to come... What it lacks in height it certainly makes up for in other ways... it's definitely one of my favorites...

Click on photo for bigger version...

On the river

Part of The Bund, taken from a boat on the river...

Click on photo for bigger version...

Monday, August 9, 2010

Skyline

Part of the skyline in Pudong...

Click on photo for bigger version...

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Towers in the evening

Part of the skyline in Pudong, taken from across the river in Puxi...

Click on photo for bigger version...

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Yes, those legs are mine...

Praying mantis, crawling from behind a bench... one more time...
Click on the photo for the big version...

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Well hello there gorgeous...

Praying mantis, crawling from behind a bench... To my surprise they're actually smaller than pictures like these had me believe... Their 180 degrees rotating head is quite amazing, and I could get it to look at me by softly blowing in its directing... Usually you see the green version, but I didn't have a choice, this one was brown... Had to use flash though, it was wobbling in a somewhat dark corner...

Look at the spikes on its front legs, I wouldn't want to be another insect caught in those big eyes, they are ferocious. And a well known fact: the female chews up the male during copulation... She doesn't even wait till the pleasure moment: usually she starts nibbling on his head half way, the poor sod... Talk about one night stands...

Click on the photo for the big version if you dare...

Monday, June 28, 2010

Singapore 2010, album

And already for a while in the photo list on the right, here the album of a recent trip to Singapore.

Click here for the album with some 21 photos.

Click here for the total index.

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Into the sunset...

Stacked from 30 photos...
Click on it for the big version...

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Charlie

Meet Charlie, Charlie the beetle...

Charles officially, but friends call him Charlie.

He's dead, sorry to say.

I found him behind the curtains, which explains the fact that he's a bit dusty.

I needed something to further test my automated focusing software.

Charlie seemed like a good subject, only a centimeter tall, high on his dried out legs and an ok name, although I named him myself.

In fact, he might be a Charlene, or a Charlotte, who's to say...

So me and Charlie or Charlotte or Charlene were messing around a bit, until I was finished, stacked 24 photos of him, and zoomed in on his dead head.

I must warn you... it's not pretty...

It got me a bit nauseous...

As far as close up insect shots go, this is probably one of the worst ever, but at least my software got the job done.

Stacked from 24 photos, meet Charlie, Charlie the dusty, dead and dried out beetle.

Click on the photos for the bigger version, but don't hold me responsible for the consequences...

Charlie... stacked from 24 photos...

Charlie close up...
Click on the photos for the big version, but be aware: can cause stomach cramps...

Monday, June 14, 2010

Stacking II

Well, intrigued by this focus stacking business, I figured out quite quickly that the big difficulty is actually changing the focus in between shots.

You can do it manually, by twisting the ring, or most likely by shifting the camera, or probably also by shifting the subject. But unless you have some kind of rig that can be shifted precise and by minute amounts - to shift either the camera or the subject - it's not gonna work flawlessly. At least not with me twisting that focus ring and my crappy tripod.

Then I figured out that Canon has a software development kit for their EOS cameras, and I thought: what if you could let the computer drive the focus, small steps at a time and in between take a picture?

Turns out that SDK of Canon had exactly the right functions to do that, so I wrote myself a little application. It shifts the focus by a certain amount and then takes a picture. You can tell the computer how much to focus, in what direction to focus and how many pictures it has to take.

Works pretty well if I say so myself, and the big advantage: I don't have to touch that ring anymore.

The application is a bit rudimentary, and I still need to figure out the focus distances between the different options Canon gives me.

There's basically 3 types of focus drive: minute steps, bigger steps, quite big steps. Either closer up or further away. But I'm pretty sure they relate to one another. Question is: how many minute ones fit into one bigger one, because knowing that allows for more control if the bigger steps are too big and the small steps lead to way too many pictures.

Here's a picture truly not worth the effort (although this stuff goes pretty well with caviar, I assure you), but the proof is in the pudding (or something like that), so I took a crazy 100 photos and stacked those into 1...

Anyone interested in the software: I'll most likely have some kind of version worthy of distributing very soon. It's specifically for EOS cameras with Liveview capabilities (that's essential, else the focus won't drive). Tested on Windows 7 with a 5D Mark II...

Note though for those not grasping this fully or reading it half: it's not stacking software. It's 'automated focusing & picture taking' software. For the actual stacking of the resulting photos you need other software.

First of the 100...

Last of the 100...

All 100 combined...
Click on the photos for the larger version...

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Port Dickson, album

Here some photos of a recent trip to Port Dickson, on the west coast. Photos taken on 15th of May 2010.

Click here for the album with some 14 photos.

Click here for the total index.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Stacking

I've been taking photos with a 'real' camera now for a few years. And looking back I can see improvement. Can't believe the photos I kept in the beginning that I would now throw away in an instant, so I also became a lot more critical. But fact remains, I'm still learning, and despite other people sometimes liking them, I feel I should do better.

By now I know a lot of the technical aspects, but actually putting that knowledge to good use to produce stunning photographs is a whole other story.

One of those techniques I have been dabbling with the last few days is called 'focus stacking'. It's a very simple principle and can be applied in different circumstances, but it's particularly useful in macro photography.

With a macro lens, the depth of field (DOF) becomes extremely shallow if you move the lens very close to the subject. That basically means that the portion of the image that will be 'in focus' or 'sharp' is very limited.

Think of depth of field as a square piece of glass, like you would have in a window. Now imagine holding the piece of glass in front of you, like looking through the window. Now imagine slicing that piece of glass through your subject, say a flower, straight down. Only within the thickness and boundaries of the glass will the image be sharp. Everything that falls in front of the glass is out of focus and everything that falls behind it is out of focus. Only within the thickness of the glass you have focus. And with macro lenses focused close up, the piece of glass becomes very thin. That's simply a given. Even a very high aperture is not always the solution. It doesn't increase the DOF (the thickness of the glass) enough, or there's not enough light to increase the aperture.

So, you take a picture of a bug, and only a tiny part of it is in focus. You can see that in the self portrait: Only the ass of the fly is sharp, the rest is blurry.

That's where focus stacking can come to the rescue.

What you do is take successive pictures of the same subject, but with each picture you shift the focus a little bit. Then in the end you run some software that's gonna combine the different pictures into one, picking only the in focus parts from every photo you took.

There's a catch: If your subject moves in between shots, the attempt fails, so it works best with subjects that are static. Insects are not very easy in that respect.

Here's one of the first results. Not a photo I particularly like, this was just a test subject.

It consists of nine photos. The first picture is the first of the nine, the second picture is the last of the nine, and the third picture is the stacked result, where more or less the whole flower is in focus.

First of the nine...

Last of the nine...

All nine combined...
Click on the photos for the larger version...

Monday, June 7, 2010

Lightning over Malaysia II

Photo taken around 3 in the night. All the light you see in the sky is from the lightning... Without these flashes it's really pitch black out there...
Click on the photo for the big version...

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Lightning over Malaysia

There's this quite spectacular view over here on some evenings.

It's lightning, but very far away, behind the clouds, and it can last for hours. You don't hear thunder, it's too far away, but the effects are a sight.

I've been trying for some time now to get some shots of it, and believe me, it's not easy. Apart from figuring out where the focus should go (there's no initial light to figure that out, between flashes you're staring at a pitch black sky, and infinity focus seems to be too far), there's the issue of exposure and shutter time, and not to forget opening that shutter at exactly the right time...

And then, let's not talk about the mosquitos, which make any outdoor activity here a challenge, especially in the middle of the night.

Here's my first attempts after a lot of experimenting and some itchy bumps. It has some camera shake, which makes the whole photo a bit fuzzy...

Click on the photo for the larger version...

I'll be trying this again soon, when the occasion arises, since I now have some idea about the right settings. I'll have the mosquito repellent ready... hopefully with better results and less bumps...

Friday, June 4, 2010

Self portrait

Self-portrait: my reflection in the ass of a fly.
Size of the fly: more or less the size of the fingernail on your pinkie (unless you didn't clip that nail for a while).
Click on the photo for the larger version...

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Moon over Malaysia

My first moon shot...
Testing the Canon Extender EF 1.4x II on a EF 70-200mm F4.0 IS.
Click on the photo for the larger version...

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Port Dickson

Port Dickson, May 15th - click on photo for a really big version...

Friday, May 7, 2010

Ye Shanghai

Shanghai December 2007 - click for the bigger one...

So why this photo from the past?

Well, I'm going back!

Ever since that rather short visit in 2007, I have wanted to see more of Shanghai. Of all the cities I visited in Asia it was the most spectacular one. Vibrant, full of surprises, developing at a tremendous pace, with so much to see and so little time. Even there I already knew I wanted to go back, for a longer stay, and now it's going to happen.

When?

In August.

I just dread the number of photos I'll be returning with...

Doorway

Entrance to an abandoned house in Melaka...
The text on the door turns the photo into a bit of an ironical image, that is if you can read it...

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Shipwrecked...

Building in Singapore... click on photo for the big version...

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Orchid

Click on photo for the big version...

Friday, April 30, 2010

Rain over Singapore at sunset...

Click on photo for a really big version...

Friday, April 23, 2010

House and Mirror in Melaka

Click on photo for a really big version...



Mirror... click on photo for a bigger version...

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Terengganu, album

And here the second album of the trip to the east coast, Kuantan and Terengganu, the end of December 2009. Photos taken on 26th, 27th and 28th of December.

Click here for the album with some 21 photos.

Click here for the total index.

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Small harbour in Kuantan, album

And here the album of the trip to the east coast, Kuantan and Terengganu, the end of December 2009. Photos taken on 25th of December.

Click here for the album with some 13 photos.

Click here for the total index.

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Floating Mosque

And one more of the Floating Mosque in Kuala Terengganu.

More photos soon through the albums...

Click on the photo for the bigger version...

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Views and beach

View from hotel in Kuala Terengganu...

View from hotel in Kuala Terengganu...

Me, in a washed up light bulb at the beach of Kuala Terengganu...

Flies feasting on a dead fish at the beach of Kuala Terengganu... I'm no fish expert but I think it's a puffer fish...

Click on the photos for the bigger version...

Friday, January 1, 2010

Sungai Lembing

One of the pleasant surprises of the latest trip in Malaysia was Sungai Lembing.

Not really knowing what to expect we drove there from Kuantan. It's about 40 kilometers from there, and the drive reminded me of Borneo a bit. A long stretch of green into the middle of nowhere.

At the end of that 40 kilometer long road lies Sungai Lembing. A half deserted mining town. Once blooming and an economic hot spot with tin mining - apparently the biggest tin mine on the planet -, the town is now in decline. Closed up shop lots, some of the few streets deserted. The building style quite different from other places in Malaysia, mostly wooden houses. It felt a bit like an abandoned Hollywood set from a Western; The town in 'High Noon', right before the fight starts...

We visited the small museum on a hill at the end of the town, all about the tin mining, which lasted till 1986, when tin prices on the world market dropped and the cost of mining started to outweigh the profits.

Then we drove a bit further into the kampung area behind the town and saw some spectacular views of houses along the river side and a very long but small suspension bridge across the river wobbling up and down when walking over it...

Sadly the sun didn't corporate and photographing landscape in Malaysia seems almost impossible. The view is never clear due to the humidity. Perhaps at sun rise - I'm not a morning person - but during the day landscape pictures always suffer from this blue dispersed haze, due to the light being broken by the water in the air.

Bridge...

Bridge with motor cyclist...

Near the museum...

Typical shop lot in Sungai Lembing...

Click on the photos for the bigger version...

Kuala Terengganu

Here's another photo...

Crystal Mosque...

Click on the photo for the bigger version...