Behind the Lens

An important part of my work is concerned with Macro Experimental Work and with finding new ways to enhance what nature already placed there and understanding how one can give objects and sets their corresponding meaning and fill them with a particular energy.

The Artificial Light Macro section is a particular quest aiming to achieve crisp, noise free results, using different lighting techniques. It has been developed into many different branch projects which have
different stage sets characteristics which bring them apart.

Attention and innovation would be the main terms, imbued in a certain vision and atmosphere you wish
to embed in the images, and overall, much patience, searching, organizing and working nights.

Among the images that are related to movement, I nominate the Moved Light section, in which light is stretched and shifted (be it by a horizontal, vertical and/or rotation type camera movement) and becomes
trails, fireworks, likeness to particles in motion.

Painting with light should be just as random as you want it, sometimes achieving abstract, fairy-like results.
This can be taken one step further, as in the Photo Show Reel, where Maya particle effects were used
to make the trees flow and dance.

Nature fascinates me as a whole and I try to explore it as best as I can, paying attention to the details and light conditions one may just pass by. Many a time it was better to leave the trodden path in favor of some exploring.
In time you will have trained your eye to search and be gladdened by the fine and small parts of the world.
Perhaps I would best define this as telling a story that is already there.

In the future I intend to develop the Artificial Light Macro staged sets and continue with new series, also to expand and enlarge the dimensions of the sets even further and continue to use new materials, to combine different parts of natural elements with man made artifacts and substances. I will also try to create more organic environments,
to have a more sense of natural, random growth,
but actually to be arranged with care or think up simple and elegant scenes.

As for the Moved Light section, while I had previously ended up in a dead end, I have managed to take it one step forward with the Compositions and so believe there is still room for more.

This general overview, as well as the indepth information provided in the About-TechData page is meant to be made known, as I believe that the flow of information should be as unhindered as possible, though there are some fine points and details each artists or craftsman will keep to himself, either because it is a guarded secret,
or because there is no way to express it. Most of it will be known to you, though.

Thank you for taking the time and reading about those insights...

 

All the images from the A.L.M. galleries are realized with the following idea in mind: to be as close to true photography, made from the camera, as possible, though in a now digital age. This means that they do not involve any kind of photo manipulation, all objects and environment conditions are simulated and placed on the 'studio stage'.

The corrections applied are as follows: the corners of the image are redone/filled in the Minutes subcategory, due to a specific workflow and necessary reflection acquirement. In other cases, very small areas are repaired, a few highlights removed - and those last changes are rather seldom.

The other are normal post production technical adjustments in Photoshop – almost all images are HDR processed and locally adapted - color corrections, curves, shadows, saturation, a bit of noise removal in some cases, some sharpening, all applied to more or less, depending on the case. Other in-depth techniques are used on some of the images with Polarized Reflection or Glow, due to the more complex workflow; still, they do now involve photo manipulation. 

Tremendous patience is needed for some of the arrangements, as the Eye Pair or The Egg. Also, handling many plants at once is a challenge in its self. Still, I believe that a single person can give life to sets even bigger than Summer Dream, the 7 piece work that defines the Spirit Woods section. It was a true joy in creating that one. I still remember the insects that were coming out of the pieces of moss and wood that were on the kitchen floor.

The arrangements are definitely not done just after the rules of space partitioning and other principles. Though the art of Japanese painting and giving energy to even the most simple and seemingly mundane object is open to many years of study, you should still eventually feel that an object has its home in a specific place, area, or that some geometrical forms, be they visible only in terms of composition, are arranged as they are because of a more personal, mythical meaning.

The technical side will surely raise some problems. Balancing pure color lights gets to be a bit tricky if there are too many involved, also, intensities may cancel each other out, white lights may bleach, pure color is too saturated. The key is in selective lighting, sorting the temperature of the lights, and, of course, some light post adjustments. The Spirit Woods section has pieces that vary between six and nine different light sources, including the main one.

When you need to do something not tried before, you will end up improvising. Also, in lack of a proper studio, constructed and atuned to your purposes, there are some mistakes that you are aware of while you are doing them, but have no choice. Also, large sets that require a longer shooting distance and also panoramic stitching poses even more practical and technical problems.

I hope that at least some of the technical issues will get better in the future, with a more proper and professional equipment. It is difficult to accept that the best resolution for a water drop seen in the background in the images of the Minutes category is a bunch of pixels. Sometimes you need more detail to tell a story.

Also, the present generation of LED pure color lights has lived its day and looks outdated and has reached a clear limit. That is why it will take a while until I will be able to make a revolutionary and noticeable change in this field.

In the future, compositing A.L.M. images with Glow World images or 3D realistic vegetation or objects and animating parts of the scene sounds like a good path.

A.L.M. will also be implemented into the I-Platform, bringing on 3 dimensions, interactivity and story telling. They will have an increase in resolution and detail, new lighting and background techniques, long exposure effects and varied environments.

 

The story of the moved images started when I realized that the Light and Zoom technique is extremely limited and unsatisfactory.

Panning the camera in one of the available cardinal points sounded as the next best natural thing to do. In time, the technique and movement types and also my own precision in getting a certain kind of feel and look increased.

Because of the fact that in many situations exposure times were not to my linking and I was not able to replicate the effects or bend them to my view, I began using a filter in order to change that. The next step was discovering how I could work and enhance the image in post production. From the first step of decoding the RAW image to the last minute change inside Photoshop, I had a lot of details to learn. The final image is a product of many little subtle changes, and in order to work those changes, the initial image must be just right.

After a while I thought I have reached the limit of this technique and what I could do inside it. But I was proven wrong. I only had to look at it another way, and create images to the extent that they are no longer stand alone, but part of a story, and that the movements employed in them complete each other. Thus, I ended up with the Triptychs and Diptychs. I also started using natural colors again, in an attempt to reach different depictions and moods. A new filter and additional experiments lead me to the soft and changing hue gradients you may see in some of the images.

Besides going back to the particle flowing effect used in the Photo Show Reel Minutes and Movements, and extending that to calm or overpowering screensavers or projected visuals, I believe I will try to somehow extend this technique in the future and that the possibilities are not yet exhausted.