360/VR Micro-short Cinema Series

Back in the days, kings used to ask painters to have princesses painted so that they know who to marry, but sometimes artists cheated. Then that evolved with colors and more so with photography. Later we discovered cinema and more recently 3D cinema all to get closer to the feeling that this is real. Now we are at 360 VR videos with head-tracking headsets and without any further due, I'll let you enjoy the following micro-short episodes of 1-3 minutes:



1. 360 experience of a lingerie photoshoot with actress and model, Asia Ford

2. 360 ground-level peek of slalom artist Marc Angel from a cone's perspective

3. 360 experience of a micro-theatrical piece with the Angel and the Devil featuring Nikita KLOSEWOOD and Mike GARCIA

4. 360 experience of the beautiful and talented violinist Anna Gongdadze

5. 360 another 360 ground-level peek of actress and model Asia Ford wearing a beautiful [INTERACTIVE]

6. 360 surreal experience of Jardin des Plantes

7. BONUS (surprise announced on youtube Channel).









At some point, that won't do the trick and we'll need holographic projections of an alternative reality and at some point even that will need to be enhanced and made interactive and sensible such that we can feel the environment and so on and so forth.

Ode to the Tiny Planets we Inhabit

We have built our tiny planets based on our fears and beliefs, comfort zones and ambitions. Sometimes these planets collide and form new planets, other times they form galaxies such as this very collaboration with beautiful and talented Ana, the violinist on the central planet.



I have been working on this project for the past week with theta 360,  and aftereffects.

Hacking Reality with Psychotechnology

Who in his bored mind and mundane life would not be tempted to trick his brains into a dreamy state and enjoy its outcomes. While drugs have been banned in many civilized countries, music, movies were accessible to the masses as a form of entertainment. In some places alcohol and even soft drugs were sold legally. Meanwhile, advances in technology are allowing us to experience altered states of the mind.



Jason Silva, Joe Rogan, Terrance McKenna, Eric Davis, the Schwitzgebels and many others have talked about psychotechnology and the following is a condensed clip defining it and illustrating it.


You can try it for yourself, grab yourself a google cardboard or make one yourself if you cannot afford a 5 USD or the packaging and shipping time, but still can access the internet and read that blog. I have acquired a hack of the oculous rift which allows for additional control for gaming. I have hacked it to allow for augmented reality by pinching a hole for the camera. I have also connected it along with the leap motion to my android nexus 5 phone such that I can navigate by simply moving my fingers across the leap motion's sensor field of view.

#Playing with #vr #virtualreality and #ar #augmentedreality until I was finally able to fool the #left #hemisphere of my #brain. I wish I had more #time to develop my own #virtual world and #connect it to the #leapmotion #controller at least for a few minutes of #entheogenic #enlightenment



I was able to fool my left brain into going down the stairs in one of the simulations (Tuscan village) thus feeling a soft disequilibrium probably from my ears and a noticeable relaxation in my thigh muscles. I was able to speed up my heart rate 12 beats per minute with the virtual crazy swing VR while sitting on my bed.


I wish I had more time to develop some of the apps with the given SDK and the many ideas that come to mind.

White balance in real life

This goes for fellow photographers especially for those that the white balance that is in almost every camera has not yet become completely automatic and invisible.

I ordered those custom-made shades that allow me to trigger white balance in real life i.e. to see warmer or colder tones by just looking upwards or downwards. If you look up to someone (in a metaphorical sense), you will see them in a warmer (more orange)  tone, if you look down on them you will see them in a colder (more blue) tone.

DIY glow in the dark t-shirts

With some off-the-shelf glow-in-the-dark inkjet transfer papers for dark fabric I was able to make my surreal coffee art and self-portrait fractals glow. You can do it too and here is what you need from Amazon for the technical part! Besides that you might need a UV light to recharge the phosphorous but any strong light will do the job.

Here is a fractal self-portrait glowing in the most tenebrous of darks! 

Here is a replica of my absurdist coffee painting "We inhabit a pussy tailed universe" glowing on my T.

Remember to save energy to save the planet. Make glow-in-the-dark T shirts not war :)

I promise to post more often in case anyone is reading and the web statistics do not lie. Drop me a note or just "hi". Happy 2014 and 2015 just in case :)

Can Bokeh Be Used for Watermarking Videos? | DIYPhotography.net

Can Bokeh Be Used for Watermarking Videos? | DIYPhotography.net

Mona Lisa in 3D

 


Cross your eyes to feel Da vinci's muse, the Mona Lisa.

3D fractal self-portrait

 


3D fractal self-portrait of ALAgrApHY

Invitation to the unearthly 3rd Dimension

Dear fellow earthlings,

I invite you to travel with me to the most unearthly corners of my imagination.

Fasten your seat-belts and 3D glasses or simply cross your eyes to fathom the depths of the unimaginable.

"Mon enfant, ma soeur, Songe à la douceur. D'aller là-bas vivre ensemble! Aimer à loisir, Aimer et mourir. Au pays qui te ressemble!" -- C. Baudelaire.

Bon voyage!

3D IR

Have you every seen Infrared with your naked eyes?


Here is your chance through the first infrared video in 3D. Enjoy it in HD!

3D Stereo Areal View of Coastal Mexico

Original and Prints at 3D Seascape by =alahay on deviantART

In order to see this in 3D cross your eyes such that the two images overlap in a third central image which will be in 3D having the clouds protruding outside the screen. Let me know if you can or cannot see it.

Areal view of coastal Mexico. I did not invent 3D stereoscopy but my contribution is a rare 3D perspective of coastal mexico that was nontrivial in terms of timing the two frames.

I AM COMPLEX, A FRACTAL SELF-PORTRAIT

Fractal Self-portrait
Music by Neelix (Same but Different)
http://www.facebook.com/alagraphy

IRgraphy

Last week I thought of a very affordable and elegant technique for painting in 3D space with infrared technology.

You only need the following items:

1. Digital (preferable with liveview) or Film Camera. You must check if your sensor can detect infrared; To do so, just flash any remote control towards the camera and you should see the invisible IR light on the LCD of your camera.
2. Any remote control -- I am sure you have one at home, if not, get any universal one ($5-$25)
3. Any Infrared filter that fits your camera. I recommend the r72 filter that allows IR spectra beyond 720nm. Most remote control IR wavelengths range between 920nm and 960nm. You can find filters online ($20-$75) or you can build your own cheap IR filter with red and blue transparent plastic or glass sheets but I recommend the former for better quality. 

Now, you need to set your camera to manual and set the shutter speed to at least 5 seconds to give you time to paint. Turn the shutter and start painting with your remote control pointing towards the camera lens. I anticipate some examples made using the technique detailed above using a Pentax k-x and a 50mm lens:

EDIT: The first image (above) was featured as a daily deviation on www.deviantart.com for the innovation in manipulation-free photography. So far it has been downloaded 600 times, viewed 6000 times and faved 900 times (03/30/11).

SLR + InfraRed Filter

Eventually you will get bored of shooting landscapes and portraits until you can afford a lens upgrade, a trip to a remote place or find a new inspiration.

A very affordable ($10-$50) change of perspective  can solve your problem and get you inspired for weeks if you are up to the aesthetical challenge. An infrared filter allows into your camera's sensor only photons traveling with long wavelengths, mainly above 700nm. The most common and recommended filter is the R72, which filters light waves above 720nm. Infrared filters are known to add an eerie yet dreamy feel to your pictures as illustrated below (using R72). 

Infrared cameras are very sensitive to light, whereas more commercial SLRs need to be adjusted in order to see through the almost opaque infrared filters. Personally, I adjust the exposure to +4 EVs (about 16x slower shutter speed or faster lens) when using the filter and I use a white balance that is similar to that of indoor yellow light. State of art in lens production becomes a ball in the ISO's park with the inevitable noise for action shots or hand-held cameras (in contrast to using a tripod). I resort to ISO 1600 or 3200 when tripod-less.

With IR, any regular place can be turned into heaven with some skills and composition. Lamentably, the latter is not an easy game with a quasi-opaque filter. Therefore, you can either shoot blindly and then get feedback through the playback or you can compose without the IR and then attach it when done composing.

I hope you enjoyed this trip along with the slower photons. Bon voyage!

ROKINON 500mm f/8 Mirror Lens Review

I must say that it is mostly thanks to this mirror lens I am about to review that this blog exists.

DESCRIPTION
ROKINON 500mm  f/8 MIRROR LENS
Purchased from overstock.com for $119
Came with T-mount for Pentax mount, x2 multiplier and 3 filters.
More details: http://www.overstock.com/Electronics/Rokinon-500mm-1000mm-Mirror-Lens-for-Nikon/3863117/product.html

USE
So far I have only used it for night sky photography and some telescopic silhouette patterns

PROS
Very compact and light 12.7 ounces and 3.4 in. L x 3 in.Diameter.

CONS
Terrible image quality (see images below)
Terrible light transmission at f/8 and f/16
Rough manual focus.

EXPERIMENT
Here I compare pictures of a full moon taken with the same pentax k-x body (at 12 MP) but with various lenses:
1. 70-300 mm zoom lens by Sigma at 300mm and f/5.8
2. 500 mm ROKINON mirror lens at f/8
3. 500 mm ROKINON mirror lens x 2 multiplier at f/8 theoretically

Click images to view in full resolution. Caveat, the images are cropped around the moon so expect the files to be bigger for the 500mm ones but is this extra tele worth the image quality?

OBSERVATION
I took more than 50 images to adjust to the right focal length but it seems that the image quality is independent. It is either T mount lenses in general, mirror lenses in general, ROKINON mirror lenses in particular or my ROKINON mirror lens specifically, but I doubt the latter. I wonder if any mirror lens owner can share his two cents worth conclusion to this confusion.