(As an aside, the above video is my first HTML5 YouTube embed, because it puts flash playback to shame on my Netbook. Technology advances ever onward!)
I used The Gimp for a few solid hours this morning. Observsations:
GEGL grinds The Gimp to a halt. I have no idea if it is tied to the size of the files in question. I eventually gave up on a GEGL unsharp mark and instead just duplicated the layer to sharpen it the old-fashioned way.
The eXperimental Computing Facility (XCF) file format is The Gimp’s native workabout file format. It is equivalent to Adobe’s PSD format in that it It supports saving each layer, the current selection, channels, transparency, paths and guides, but, nicely for me, it seems less of a hog in raw file-size.
I grabbed Kharanos #1, renamed it as 1.jpg to enhance its aesthetic purity and plugged it into both Adobe Photoshop CS4 and The Gimp 2.7.1. In each editor I created a new and blank layer, saved and exited. The results were:
1.jpg was 4.5MB.
1.xcf was 24MB.
1.psd was 45MB.
Ah, yeah. I created a new layer and the overall file-size jumped tenfold. Nice one, Photoshop. I love working on panoramas, and I’m restricted to a Netbook. File-size makes a huge difference in performance. Gimp win.
As a result of the above file-size differences, The Gimp is noticeably nippier on my Netbook as compared to similar work (with all three files open at once) when compared to Adobe Photoshop CS4.
Even with the single-window improvements in 2.7.1 (and onward), the defaults still occasionally feel ass-backward. I’ve so far remapped the majority of the “core” keyboard shortcuts.
I like the clone tool. Photoshop’s “preview” is frequently distracting and equally frequently doesn’t reflect the reality of the final finish.
My stunningly expensive 15 euro webcam turns out to be super-sensitive to infrared light. I popped an R72 infrared filter on the front and got some surprisingly clear and usable images/video.
I apologize for the quality of an image; I was trying to screencap the scene while holding an R72 lens filter over the front of the webcam, which in turn was wobbly. My next step is to look at the fun and creative things I can do with a webcam, beyond the webstream and time-lapse projects I blogged about on the other site.
Star trails and astronomy immediately come to mind.
Kinda. I mean. It is a webcam still. Maybe more of videography?
Having two blogs and trying to keep their content separate and unique sometimes leaves me at a very strong risk of neglecting one or another blog (caveat: I maintain the capability to immediately and seamlessly merge one blog into another, should I see fit). While I’ve been active on other-and frequently related-geek fronts, I haven’t really felt and strong desire to pick up a camera since mid-May or so. I know that I’ve gone through such dry spells before. I also know that eventually I will come back to photography in a strong way.
Give it time.
Having starting working with 091 Labs (/plug), and having been shown how not-difficult it is to process basic film, I’ve come up with some embryonic ideas that I eventually would love to try:
I have a big stock of photographic paper. I could use some of it for six-month exposures.
A room-sized camera-obscura in order to dramatically demonstrate photographic principles.
Over on the other site I have really gone into a good bit of detail on the technical side of the whole webcam/timelapse thing, but here on Misadventures I want to hold forth for a few minutes on the creative side of the matter: I am really excited to have a method for painlessly capturing timelapse video, so long as I can find somewhere to put my laptop. Maybe more of this?
Last night I had my first hands-on experience with developing my own film at the surprisingly gentle hands of Sinead Williamson. Load roll, add developer, tumble, fix, rinse, and dry: That’s it.
Considering the arcane language used by regular film photographers on Internet forums and in guides I was expecting…expecting what, exactly? Bunsen burners, frightful expressions, chthonian black robes embroidered with eldritch glyphs, chanted incantations to the Exarchs of Ith. Maybe a touch of blood sacrifice too for the sake of form.
In the end, the only really cult-ish part of the night was the late hour involved. Sinead and I started on my film at 11pm (more on the night with Petra and Tommy on my other blog), wound it up at about two o’clock this morning. I crawled off to bed, while Sinead was up until past four developing her infrared film from the weekend gone.
Dedication, she has it.
Scanning at Rua Red in Tallaght was also painfully painless: €2.50 an hour for the use of a media room equipped with professional scanners and Mac Pros. Sinead gave me a good overview of the equipment and helped me to figure out what it was that I wanted (I settled on a high-resolution contact sheet with individual images suitable for web use).
Overall? I am disappointed with the quality of my output. I’m thrilled to have finally gone through the whole process of developing and scanning, don’t get me wrong. But when I look at the images produced I have to admit disappointment in the final contrast, grain and sharpness. I’m positive about this because I’m at a beginning: I can only but improve.
This blog is not not not on any kind of hold or hiatus; instead I simply do not have any kind of content to upload to it. I’m on a break from photography because I am simply not inspired to go out and take photographs using the equipment I have right now. My lack of a decent any prime for my Canon is sorely felt. My body (Canon camera body!) is old. Past its prime. Compared to any 35mm film body, I can really feel its age in comparison to the more modern bodies of…three years later. Haha.
So what does this have to do with you, dear reader? I’ll be in Dublin on Sunday/Monday for a crash-course in black and white film development and scanning with Sinead. There will be photographic content, huzzah! Loads!
I will, in future, be forking off non-photographic content back onto Tumblr. Having learned my lesson from having to deal with a huge mass of untagged posts, I’m starting from scratch with a whole new tumblelog. As of this moment my DNS is still propagating, but you will be able to catch it back over on bhalash.com. Again. History repeats itself blah blah. Shut up.
I will be changing the theme, though. The Unstandard is a great, fun, graphically-oriented theme, but only if every single post is a photo post. Otherwise it starts to look kinda ugly. I have some more reservations beyond that with the theme, but they are minor and not something I’m going to let subtract from my strong like of it. I’ve become comfortable with the smaller base image size used in The Unstandard and will be looking for something clean and along those lines.
