More Experiment about DOF

On the next day, thanks to the generosity of Amon Ra or Apollo for showing his face, I was able to capture the image with smaller apertures to get a deeper DOF. Here are some more pictures that I took with the same object and relatively the same angle, and with different DOF. I crop and resize them so that the different of sharpness can be easily seen.

f/7.1

f/8

For comparison I also add the cropped version of the picture from the day before.

f/5.6

As you can see, there isn’t much improvement even when I decrease the aperture opening, but as I try to capture from a different angle, something happened.

Viola

It is also using the same f/8, but I move the camera a little bit higher, so that the relative difference of the distance between the front and the rear groups of flower to the camera is lessened a little bit, thus both groups of flower are now within the DOF. And there is more to it about DOF, which I forgot to take attention to other than aperture and angle, it is distance.

Look at the rabbit, it has a round body shape, but you can see that there aren’t any out of focus area to even a single fur. That is because when I capture the flower, I use the closest distance that the lens is capable of, which is 28 cm. But I took this picture from much farther distance, about 1-1.5 meter. Increased distance from the object will increase the DOF despite the aperture opening. But that’s kind of problematic isn’t it? If I want to take a portrait of a small object like the flower above, to take it from a far distance will hamper the composition right? Because the main object will be too small. Or, the other solution is to decrease the aperture opening right? But what means you’ll need a good light source, or else, the shutter speed will be too long, and your shaky hands will tell you that you aren’t meant to be a neurosurgeon. And that is when the money comes to land a hand. A telephoto lens is the answer. With it, you can use the largest aperture, but at the same time taking it from greater distance without losing control over the composition. That is why a good portrait lens always uses short telephoto focal length, which is about 60mm to 80mm, even 100mm. Long live money eh :P

Another picture that I took at the same day was my mom’s Adenium.

Noticed that the background is somewhat less blurry then my yellow flower pictures. That is because the distance between the main object and the background is much closer, and in this condition, the only way isolate the main object even more is a larger aperture opening, like about f/2.8 to f/3.5, and that my humble friends, means more money. Sadly there aren’t so many cheap “fast lens” (larger opening, means it requires less time to capture the adequate amount of light) with zoom capabilities, and now is the right time to add a quotation from photo.net in their guide about buying lens.

“Be careful (and Rich)”

And, discussing about this DOF and background reminds me of Mr. Toad’s analogy about shoot and leave friends. A good portrait photo shows you the main object pleasantly, but no background is perceivable. Same as shooter and leaver friends will looks good and nice to you, but the hell you know about what lies beneath their hearts, and the hell do they know about your life and the depth of your soul.

And here is how the above picture looks at the pixel level.

But don’t get too excited yet, I had about several dozens of this same picture, only 3 or 4 of them are qualified. Mostly, what I get is this.

Or sometimes even worse. So life isn’t that all convenient even with a DSLR in hand. But that’s the advantage of a digital camera, you can just take as many pictures as you want to, and choose the good one later on. And of course a DSLR with a good lens will make life easier. :D

And, there is one more thing that I can show from this particular experiment. Look at the two images below.

Notice anything different from the first one? See that the green fence at the background looked farther at the first image, and farther even more at the later, while the main object looks exactly the same. That is the effect of using a different focal length. If you use a wider lens as 28 mm like the later image, it will give the impression that the object and the background looked farther. But if you use a 55 mm focal length, it will as if the background is at s very close distance, as the first Adenium picture shows.

I think I’ve done quite a lot experiment about DOF for now. Some of the picture I took in the subsequent post also got something to tell about DOF, but let’s just save it for later. :P

Edit: I have increased the picture that I upload to 700 pixel wide, but somehow the blog setting limited the appearance to 400 pixel wide, and I have found no way to alter it for the time being. Perhaps I'll make a flicker account. But the pixel level image has been readjust to 400 pixel only.

Flowers, Day One

Messing Around With DOF and WB

Why another post about photography? Because I’m lazy, writing about other serious things will require quite an effort to create a well formulated theory. Not to mention most of them are just the peculiar side of my head, or like Cheiro the astrologer mention “Children of their brain” (“their” refers to me, the 4^th of April born guy). So I think I’ll just enjoy the simple things first. This is what the Taoism called a non-action act, a wu-wei act, or a meditative action.

“Act without action

Do without ado”

-Tao Te Ching

A similar concept to what Mr. Toad has told me about doing things one at the time. Perhaps he’ll write something like “A Toad’s Prayer 3” in the future.

After spending like more than a week in my own garden, capturing images of the same objects for dozens of time from many varieties of aperture, ISO, WB, different angles, and sunlight intensities, I came out with hundreds of photographs. But I’ll start slowly, one post represent one day attempt. As for the day after, I’ll make a different post.

My first attempt is to create a portrait with a shallow DOF (depth of field), to isolate the object that is to be the starring of the image. And my first subject is flowers, red and yellow flower which names I don’t know. Well this is the primary result.

Although it looks pretty fine right on, but at the pixel level (zoom to 100% magnification with your image viewer) I noticed that not all the flower is in focus. I only use 55mm f/5.6 and it seems that the DOF is quite shallow already. The background looks readily blurred, but unfortunately with the expense of some body parts of the main actress is also out of focus. The next image will depict what I mean more clearly.

Noticed that only the several front flowers are in focus, the rest are in misery. But the 2 images above have a 3 dimensional shape, meaning each small flower has a significant range difference, and it is more pronounced by the relative close distance which I took this image (as close as I can get with this lens, that is 28cm). So my next-day attempt will be to capture it with smaller aperture, hopefully with the effect of increased DOF, and get a sharper detail for all the flower, and capture another flower with a more 2 dimensional shape.

This is also the first time I ever noticed the huge difference between different settings of WB. The first picture was taken with the WB set to auto, and here is the same object with more or less the same angle but with the WB set to sunny, cloudy, and shade. By the way, it was about 3 PM when I took those pictures, its cloudy and no direct sunlight.

Sunny

Shade

Cloudy

The shade setting always gives the most reddish color, or what Mr. Ape called “hot” several days ago, which sometimes makes my eyes sore a bit. The cloudy and sunny setting looks better IMO. I think I like the sunny best. The auto setting just looks too dull, but sometimes it does get the job done.

Now the post gets too damn technical. Well, what can I say, during my infantile photographic life, exploring the technical aspect is the basic requirement. Great photos are about artistic soul, momentum, and luck. But when the opportunity does come, or the artist of your brain gets the tickle, you would want your photographic skills as superb as you can get, not to mention having the suitable equipment required to capture that specific moment. So be enthusiastic, be aware, be diligent, and be rich. PTT salary, here I come. :D

NB: any tips about uploading image to Blogger?because I'm not quite satisfy with the resolution they provide.

New Year 2010's Firework

First project with Canon EOS 400D/Digital Rebel XTi

It took the eagle quite some time to figure out what would he like to post, since he got a mate to be dealt with, nest and eggs to be taken care of, and not to mention setting up snake traps here and there for either protection and free lunch. But here it is, the eagle eyes are still a bit sore from 2009’s lack of sleep and depression, so it hampers his ability to learn early on. But fear not, more projects and experiments will be posted as more knowledge is gathered during this lazy useless idle life phase of him.

This picture was taken from eagle’s mate’s second floor balcony, right at 00:00 am 01-01-2010, the fireworks actually launched from La Piazza at Kelapa Gading Mall, but since it only happens for a few minutes, and I didn’t brought my tripod, plus I was lazy, so there is no use of running down the street to get a better position, because it will be either too late or result in a horrifying image quality caused by either my unsteady hands (not a neurosurgeon’s hands I guess), or streetlights hampering the metering process.

This is my first attempt to get pictures with my sister’s Canon EOS 400D + 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 kit zoom lens (which I had just claimed for ownership :D ) and I will stick to this camera for quite a long time. Because it happens so fast, there is no way I can use manual setting to determine the effect that I desire, so I set the ISO to 1600, used the P program to let the camera determine the correct aperture, which always 5,6 at 55mm focal length (the focal length that I use for all this images), and I rest both elbows on the balcony’s fences to act like tripod (which I couldn’t had done so if I ran down the streets).

All the image above were taken under correct exposure determined by the P program, so the aperture is varied from 0.6-2.5 s. although some of them are quite satisfying, personally think that the auto metering makes the sky look a little too bright.

Below are a couple of images that is accidently captured without waiting the camera to be ready, so that the shutter opens up quite briefly. But in my opinion it gave quite a decent effect. It isolate the fireworks with no trees or grainy sky background, and it freeze the fireballs along with its smoke, contrary to just some lines of colors u see above.

And that’s it for now. Please give your comments especially Mr. Swikee, Mr. Snake (If you haven’t tripped on my snake trap), Mr. Ape, and Mr. Bunhead (even if it’s just to make fun of the snake).

AHAAA!!!

Aha...Hello...at last...I'm back...that's it....enough with this screw up phase....its been a while since my last post to this blog, and during those months of absence, I've been through many cycles of insomnia-hypersomnia-insomnia-repeat, depression-anger-depression-anger again...I've been lazy, piss off, delusional, etc...I hate 2009, along with its holiday, along with its Christmas (yes, you don't need to reread the sentence)...Sounds really bad eh...so that's it...time to wake up...I had just cleaned up my desk, cleaned up my camera, and my laptop, and along with this post, well that's a start...my next goal will be to repair this laptop (it beeps crazily when the electricity is unstable), and reboot the system..and I still got 5 new books to be plastic covered...so yeah, one thing at a time.

Anyway those phase is not entirely that bad...during those screw up phase, I have many ideas to write about...from the most rational like updates on my situation now, what had happened, and what am I going to do in the near future, or to the most insane one like where human evolution is aiming to in relation to medicine...I want to write about the history of China, particularly Beijing and its relation about the pride of being Chinese, about the history of the founding of the USA along with Christian church, and how it should effect the Christians point of view about religions in the modern world...about Lonesome George, the only creature in the world that lives totally alone since we humans had wiped out his entire species...but most of the day, I just stuck with gym, DOTA, and anger...so hope that this post is a start of a series of article, since I have this habit of brooding, I borrow this word from "eat pray love" a novel by Elizabeth Gilbert, a very good book, which reminds me that I also write something about this book..but my kind of brooding is not quite the same, Her brooding is mostly about her love life, while my brooding is mostly about random insane thoughts, or at least peculiar point of view, like the things that I mention above.

And last, I have a new hobby. Photography...hahahaha,It never cross my mind that I'll ever enjoy capturing beautiful pictures...several years ago, if you said something about photography, I'll just say "duh", ain't my thing...but hei, who would've thought...up until now I've manage to learn many things about lights, exposure, white balance, etc, which means, some updates will contain images that I've taken.

Her Morning Elegance / Oren Lavie

Just a funny video clip that was shown by my sister..She told me that this technique of film making is "stop motion"-film...enjoy :P

Roverandom from Tales From The Perilous Realm

This illustration depicts very well what kind of story Roverandom is. that tiny winy dog is Rover the main character, and the bird is Mew one of the character that he encouters during the journey. No I'm not gonna spoil everything here, so this is not going to be a true review, but rather my personal impression of this book plus some background information about this book.

Roverandom is one of J.R.R. Tolkien's work that has no connection to the Middle-Earth Saga, and lately it is republished in "Tales From the Perilous realm" along with four other Tolkien's works. No it is not some book about searching for eternal meaning of your life, nor cracking the mystery of God or Love or whatever that is, nor that it is an encouraging brave adventure story that gives you a boost of adrenalin and motivates you. it is a children bedtime story about fantasy and adventure, in a creative and fun way, reading it will gives you the impressions very much like "Alice in Wonderland", but in a less cartoon way, and more like a delicacy of the british old legends. And to my surprise, I like it.

It reminds me the simplest joy of reading a fantasy book. It never stops to stimulate my imagination, along with its detail but with a little bit of poetic touch descriptions about the scenery. as I continue to read it, as long as nothing from the "outside" comes to bother me, it actually feels like watching a movie. you can actually imagine in your own way how does the environment looks and feels like. And now, with some addition of Alan Lee's illustrations, it gives more value to the book, because i just simply love it. That picture above is just one example of his works.

Aha, I remembered now why I like to read The LOTR trilogy at the first place, it is not because of great plot, or deep psychology, or the bravery of the soldiers. It is because this (imagination stimulating) reason and the vast unbounded fantasies that doesn't fall into a foolish nor ridiculous cheap creative way. Even in the translated edition (My first Tolkien's book is Indonesian translation of "The Fellowship of the Ring"), Tolkien's works always excel on stimulating your imagination. Of course not all readers fancy it, because some of my friends are not.

"Along the way, the pine trees stands firm like the soldier of the white tower at the right side and the river flows steadily along the left side and end to the water-fall that as deep as the abbys. Far beyond, the hills with its arrogant look upon us crwal its way to the unkown boundry of the dark clouds"

Well that isn't originated from the book, it is just my own recreation of how the book usually describe the scenery, and far from good i must say. Yet for some, this kind of detail is just to much and confusing. But for me, to be able to visualize it, is a very enjoyable experience.

And here is some more fun fact about this story. It is writen in the first place for his son, who losts his toy-dog one day while playing at the sea shore. So Tolkien wrote the story to calm his son and gives some relieve about the fate of that lost toy-dog of his.

Here is some phrase that is simple but attract me to share it here along with some picture that I hope best accompanied it.



"The moon rose up out of the sea, and laid a silver path across the waters that is a way to places at the edge of the world and beyond, for those that can walk on it."





"The sun jumping out of the sea, all fiery-red with clouds about his head, as if he had had a cold bathe, and was drying himself with towels."




Other illustrations of Roverandom. I can't find any on the net, so I just take a picture of it directly from the book.

Roverandom with the sea-wizard.

The White Dragon of the Moon.

Here are some other illustrations that I found from internet, but they are not Alan Lee's works. I got them from here : http://jemimahunt.blogspot.com/

Roverandom with the Moon-Rover

Both Rover are chased by the White Dragon.

37.61 + Right-sided Sore Throat - A Possible Source of Depression?

Yep..apparently I got mild fever, and an acute bacterial right tonsillitis, with a small amount of detritus in it. perhaps this is the source of my drowsiness this whole day, and perhaps the day before. Or perhaps I just hope it is so that I can have a rational excuse for my laziness. After all, I do make lots of rationalization with this depression.

Yes, I am depressed, I admit it, and I realize it, and I'm aware of it, but it doesn't solve the problem. I thought there should be a reason for this depression, perhaps it has something to do with the meaningless of life, that it has something to do with the faulty of my searching for the truth. well the search did brought to me this depression, while it shouldn't. But to think again, why was it in the first place that I begin to search. I realize that what I actually seek is energy, undiminished source of energy, I need an endless boost of spirit, and many authors refer it as "enthusiasm".

So in that sense, there is actually no reason for me to be depressed by what I found (Well I'll not claim that I have found some everlasting truth, because I don't know, I just found something, that's it). Because perhaps at some point at my way I have strayed. My search for energy has brought me to explore myself, "What is the cause of my emptiness?", I thought that if I find the source, I can cure it, and my energy will flow. But then I start so see the faulty, I start to judge myself, my parents, and people around me. My scepticism took over, and I'm entering an endless search for reason and meaning. I start to judge the way of human's world (because I don't find that the world itself is faulty, It is as it suppose to be), and start to hate them because they are worthless and hopeless. And what is worst is that I end up in self-hatred.

But thinking again, perhaps it should be "everything can be meaningless and pointless, but it doesn't have to effect me". It struck me that I'm searching for enthusiasm, and it shouldn't have anything to do with others, or even my faulty. I don't even know why I suddenly think of this way, perhaps De Melo has got in to my head, perhaps it is he that do the talking. Well I certainly hope not.

Or perhaps I'm just depressed in the first place because I didn't read enough cardiology and afraid of failing even if I don't admit it. but it is possible, you never know, hahaha.

Idle is Misery

About a month ago, I was still a Cardio intern an RSUD Tarakan, trying to smooth my way out to become a cardiologist in the future, hopefully. And that means I will need to take the Cardiology residency exam, which also means, I will need to take a break about a month before the test, to make sure that I study enough. The idea is “With that much time, can u imagine how much about cardiology that I can learn”.

So the plan was:

Wake up – breakfast – study – lunch – study – nap – dinner – study – good night.

Or:

Wake up – breakfast – go to gym – lunch – study – nap – dinner – study – good night.

Looks like a terrific plan uh. Sure I’ll get to the top of the list of the writing test. I had no obligation else where, why should it be a problem to manage my own schedule? But Nooooooo. . . . It is much much harder then I think. It turn out to be:

Wake up – breakfast – uhmm.. still sleepy, might wait a bit so I can focus better when I read, so watch BBC knowledge – uhmm.. still sleepy, a short nap might help – uhmm..no, My eyes wanted to close, but my brain refuse to shutdown, so I’m force to wake up – lunch – uhmmm..now the headache kicks in – study, err..struggling to focus – nap – dinner – watch TV a little, why not, reading after dinner will only make me sleeps faster, that is called rationalization of laziness – oh my god, late night, study – barely focused – go online – sleep. And it goes for days +__+

The next day:

Wake up – Gym – aha, tired, but better then drowsy, u can study while tired, but u can't study while sleepy – lunch – study – long nap – dinner – watch TV – study – early sleep. Hmm…sound better, but it rarely comes this smooth..1-3 days a week, that is very inefficient +__+

So idle seems to bring more misery then a boost of spirit. Now I understand why the idle old Chinese folks do morning tai chi exercise. Perhaps an “SKJ” that I usually resent rather made sense. Because practice at gym in the morning seems make a better day. And it seems we people, or perhaps its just me, are accustomed with arranged daily schedule. when I have the freedom to manage my own daily routine, things seems to be getting out of hand. What a robot...

F*ck You...With * = U..hahaha

Well, in respond to my friends post about cool cursing, I think it will be interesting to add the infamous - since God know when used - word "Fuck" in this blog. Well generally, we know Fuck literally means having sex, or illiteraly means anything that resembles cursing. so I just opened up my Webster and found these:

1. To engage in sexual intercourse in both transitif and intransitif forms.

2. To meddle, followed by with.

3. Fuck around: To spend time idly, foolishly.

4. Fuck off: To idle, Go away.

5. Fuck up: To make a mess, or blunder.

6. Fucking: Extremely. Ex: It is fucking hot in jakarta lately.

The funny thing is, you can actually find it in Webster..hahaha...well you will certainly never find "ngentot" in Indonesian Dictionary. And I dont think ngentot has other meaning, or used in other vocabulary but literaly having sex, or pure cursing with no meaning. And I personally think that "ngentot" sound harsher, as this word will only accidently pop out when I am extremely angry with the "metro mini's" attitude while driving.