Photography/Lens thread

[mike lobanovsky]

Wwwoooowww Rob,

What a beautiful stingray you have here! Excellent! :)



I visited Carl Zeiss Jena quite frequently in the past. They used to build very, very good objective lenses for our microlithography equipment like optical wafer steppers and such. Do they still produce them now, I wonder? They used to be pretty strong at that.

:drink:

[RobbeK]

Hi Mike, --o/t-----------

All I know is that they still exist -- (half a miracle after the wall came down -- the relation between Oberkochen (Carl Zeiss in the West) and Jena was not so fantastic -- it all became a cold war affair between those two).
However, we also used Jena tools in those days, distributed by Jenoptik (iirc).
For the moment there's a kind of cooperation (joint venture ?) with БелОМО from Minsk -- and this one had a less optimal reputation about end control of their products. -- but then the world changed a lot in the meantime ... (I think it already was a satelite from LOMO in (then) Leningrad ). I also do think Jena works together with LZOS now (http://lzos.ru/index.php).
But Meyer Feinoptik in Görlitz (on the Polish border) is gone. (well, Arsenal in Kiev is exit , FED is exit , SVEMA gone etc.. (as for analogue photography then)).

best Rob

[mike lobanovsky]

Hi Rob,


...(joint venture ?) with БелОМО from Minsk...
Exactly. But БелОМО wasn't and still isn't too bright and all they can produce is some cheap optics like binoculars, rifle sights, magnifying glasses etc. CZJ's microlithography lenses were huge but extremely intricate multilayer devices about 20 kg in weight and quite expensive too, like $450,000 each IIRC. We (НПО Планар/Planar) were not cooperating with them; it was a strictly buy-and-sell relationship. Now Planar is almost completely under Samsung and I don't know if microlithography is still the mainstream of their activity.

OK, enough of offtopic here else Petr's gonna ban us for sure. :)

Regards,

[Petr Schreiber]

It is very unlikely to see me banning anyone for talk about photography and lenses, but to keep the threads clean, I open this thread for further discussion on this topic.
Feel free to open new ones of course :)


Petr

[Petr Schreiber]

Hi guys,

there is extermely simple way to achieve lens flares typical for movies shot using anamorphic lenses. You need just a tape and fishing nylon wire.

Things to watch out:

you must fix the wire vertically to get horizontal lens flare
if your lens have rotating front element, you have a problem
the wire might become visible in strongly out of focus bokeh circles


I found this approach mentioned in interview on shooting Sherlock with Cumberbatch, I thought it was a joke, but ... it works, see the attachement.


Petr

[RobbeK]

Interesting Petr !!

Never tried it, -- but, some vaseline on the lens also can give dreamish images. (oops, not on the lens, but a glass plate or so in front).

http://www.ipernity.com/doc/294723/26521013

I used B+W film for this !! following the technique of Prokudin-Gorskiy, start of the 20th century !
This one is from 1911 : http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/prokc/21800/21886r.jpg
(from : http://www.rferl.org/media/photogallery/24928691.html )

The glass plates are now digitally reprocessed , and reconstructed -- just like RGB they use the same color channels !

best Rob

[Petr Schreiber]

Very nice Rob!,

I heard about this technique before, but never tried it myself. Your photo has really unique look and mood!

I went to the night city with the Jupiter today and my ego was hurt a lot. Maybe it is the reverse direction of sharpening, maybe the long exposures, but I did only single photo sharp... and not a really good one. I need to practice more.
I am very happy with Nikkor-Micro 55mm f/2.8 - it is full manual, but it has incredibly long "run" of the sharpening ring, allowing to be superprecise. I never missed a shot with it.
But with the Jupiter... that is another story. Clearly a problem on the user side, it will take some time... :)

(Note: the 50mm Jupiter becomes 135mm lens equivalent on my Nikon 1 V1, due to sensor size, so it is not that easy to keep it stable with times around 1/25)


Petr

[RobbeK]

Hi Petr,

You were looking for the most demanding situations concerning making pictures ;-)

I'm sure you know --

-wide or nearly wide open apertures have a narrow DOF, so this needs very exact focusing.
-long shuttertimes also need special care : -- the classic rule is (in your case around 125mm) safe time = 1/focal length = 1/125sec. or faster.
(This however is very relative (but within limits) :
It is not the case when using a slower speed all the shots will be blurred , only a certain percentage - and this percentage grows with the slower times -- it has to do with breathing and vibrations from your blood circulation ; do it as a marksman ... just as everything related with shooting a rifle
--- do not breath for a moment
--- squeze the trigger (button) no pull or push
--- use every support for your body - wall , pillar/collumn (laying down is the best of course)
--- not too much coffee !! (a little beer or wodka is better !! a little !! ) )

You can practise -- a digi cam doesn't waste film as I most of the time do ... "Übung macht den Meister !" (I'm not German, but everything in German sounds important ;-)

best Rob
(Cold weather also pushes the limit upwards (at least for myself ))

[Petr Schreiber]

Hi Rob,

hehe, easy conditions would mean no joy from "the hunt" :)

Thanks a lot for the tips - I especially like the 1/focal length tip, this never occurred to me, but I think it works - the "okay" shot was done at 1/100, which is close.

Regarding the stabilization - I have one little helper I use for video, maybe I should use it for night shots too.
It looks like this (http://www.digikamery.cz/images/products/prod-424-big.jpg). You can make 3 point contact system with it:

back of the shoulder
chest
eye-viewfinder touch


Will try to bring it with me next time.


Petr

[RobbeK]

Hi Petr,

- the 1/focal length -- an old rule of the thumb (used for more than a century now, should be correct).
- yes, perfect tool in you link -- I use a Soviet Sniper : http://microsites.lomography.com/zenit/fotosniper/img/cover.jpg
(however, once picked up by the police -- confusing with a rocket/granate launcher ;-)
- Arsenal in Kiev made lenses fitting the Nikon , they are marked with an "N" (Кириллица : "H" ) they are all very excellent.
- Must have's !!! :
Panoramic GUI's to stitch your images
- like http://www.ipernity.com/doc/294723/23438867 >180° !!!!
from : http://hugin.sourceforge.net/ based on the tools created by Professor Helmut Dersch of the University of Applied Sciences Furtwangen. (does a lot more than Pro/Paid software ... Mercator, Panini mapping etc .... )

- HD range mapping from a multiple of images (bracketing)
http://www.ipernity.com/doc/294723/25307055
from http://qtpfsgui.sourceforge.net/
(this one uses Hugin for aligning the images !!)

Any questions, please ask .. you helped me a lot with TB and TBGL !

best Rob

[Petr Schreiber]

Hi Rob,

thanks for the tips. For the panorama-stitching, I use Zoner Photo Studio, it is pretty good.

It also features "tonal mapping" feature, which allows to approximate HDR from a single photo quite well.
I do use this feature to enhance black and white (and single color) photos, please see the attachement.


Petr

EDIT: Hmm, it seems the forum recompressed it, you can download full res here: http://we.tl/GN7Nhp3HnU

[RobbeK]

Ah Thanks Petr,

Is that Brno ?? (been there once, but only a drive-through ).

Hugin has a lot of projections (ZPS one ? (prabably shperical then)) - spherical projections have the disadvantage that there is no compensation on the Y axis, so buildings may turn out lower than in reality. Projecting on a cylinder (Mercator) , a cone (Lambert) is an interesting cure.
Hugin even has Paninin and architectural projections even more specialised for these !

best Rob

[Petr Schreiber]

Hehe,

yes, it is Brno. It is great city for photographer - very rich in structure, yet small enough to walk from one edge to another during long summer day.

I am not sure what kind of projection the ZPS bases his work on - based on focal length it simply stitches the photos together and they don't look deformed. You can manually edit the matching features and focal length for fine tuning.
Will check out the tools you listed, it seems they offer some extra options :)


Petr

[Petr Schreiber]

Hi Rob,

did you have any chance to use Jupiter 135mm f4?
It is available her for ridiculous price, and in combination with V1 it would behave like 365mm f4.

I have seen some (http://forum.mflenses.com/userpix/20113/4077_IMG_2975_1.jpg) nice (http://forum.mflenses.com/userpix/20113/4077_IMG_2997_1.jpg) bokeh (http://forum.mflenses.com/userpix/20113/3851_IMGP0011_1.jpg) images made with it, and some slightly ugly (http://forum.mflenses.com/userpix/20113/4077_IMG_0914_1.jpg) ones too; sharpness seems generally very good (http://forum.mflenses.com/userpix/20113/3851_IMGP0099_1.jpg).


Petr

[RobbeK]

Hi Petr,

Yes, I have one (Soviet made Jupiter) and a Carl Zeiss Sonnar 135mm -- both lenses have the same design and were developed at CZ Jena in the 1930s (IIRC Ludwig Bertele).
Excellent stuff, and most other 135mm's are mostly copies of this design.
As for the Soviets, they just moved German production lines to Kiev and Krasnagorsk - so in principle they are the same (initially). Before called Jupiter, they were named - 3K (Zonnar Krasnagorskiy) - БK (Biotar Krasnagorskiy) etc... It are not copies, just optics made "somewhere else".

You have to take care about one thing, this Jupiter was also available in LTM (Leica mount , 39mm) and !!! for the early series of Zenit cameras.
But as the Zenit has a lens registration of 45.5 mm and the others 28.8mm while, they will fit the camera they are not workable.
Thus, to work with your adapter you have to be sure that the lens is ... for Leica, Zorki, Fed, Leningrad, Drug etc ....

best Rob
(wishing all the best for 2014)

[Petr Schreiber]

Thanks for the fast reply,

I will bring my camera with me to test, it is in antique, so it should be possible to test it on place.

Best wishes and lot of joy (not just) from photography in 2014!


Petr

[Petr Schreiber]

The image in the attachement is shot through Nikon 135mm f2.8, but it is not that important in this case hehe.
I call it "The good guy and the bad guy" :)


Petr

[RobbeK]

Great Petr !! congrats ... lovely contrast between colours and non colours !

reflections on the Svratka ? (not sure it's the correct name )

thanks Rob

[Petr Schreiber]

Thanks!

Yes, good old Svratka :)


Petr

[RobbeK]

8817


Bohemian crystal ! CZ made.

The special about this is that the film is developed with coffee !
A mix of Sodium carbonate (Household soda - to get the correct pH ) , Vitamin C (the anti-oxidant, converted into ascorbates by the Soda) and instant coffee (caffeic acid seems to be able to reduce silver salts - wasn't there a urban story that Coca Cola removes rust stains ?? ;-)

The intention is to make an environmental friendly developer based on common house hold products. (since the bankrupt of Agfa and Kodakn some products are harder to get than before -- I hope Foma from your country will stay strong -- we are depending on them for paper, film and chemicals these days -- ok the alternative is Ilford in the UK , the French Bergger only sells very limited stuff now)

best, Rob
We also were able to turn paracetamol into a developer (the classic pain killer) by hydrolyse converted in para aminophenol using Sodium hydroxide (or KOH).

[Petr Schreiber]

Hehe,

I recognize the shape of the "glass puppet", it looks very dreamy. The black and white checkerboard reminds me of Alice in wonderland :)

Before your post, the most extreme story about cofee was my friend eating it in its raw form during exam time. But developing photo in coffee definitely beats it, this would never occur to me :p


Petr

[mike lobanovsky]

The special about this is that the film is developed with coffee !
A mix of Sodium carbonate (Household soda - to get the correct pH ) , Vitamin C (the anti-oxidant, converted into ascorbates by the Soda) and instant coffee (caffeic acid seems to be able to reduce silver salts - wasn't there a urban story that Coca Cola removes rust stains ?? ;-)
........
We also were able to turn paracetamol into a developer...

Unbelievable! Until now, I was perfectly sure experimentation of such sort was characteristic of the poorest societies only... I remember there were lots of popular magazines in the former Soviet Union that taught people how they could improvise with means at hand in order to get what they needed every day and what was not available in the stores. Not that Coke was popular or accessible at those times either though...

Were you on the DDR side of the wall then, Rob? http://www.fbsl.net/phpbb2/images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif

[mike lobanovsky]

... the most extreme story about cofee was my friend eating it in its raw form ...

I confirm that chewing a handful of raw coffee beans was my primary trick with my Mom for fear lest she should smell tobacco when I used to come home after school. http://www.fbsl.net/phpbb2/images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif

[Petr Schreiber]

I got an used Tokina 28-70mm f2.6-f2.8 ATX Pro, mostly for video: because of its stepless aperture and basically constant aperture across focal distance range.
But it is nice for photography too. It has its issues, like:

not so good corner sharpness
tendency to produce images with "glow" when wide open
its heavyyy


... but still very enjoyable.


Petr

[RobbeK]

Hi Petr,

IMO an excellent picture -- everything leads to the central figure (which divides the fore- and background) , very well spotted !
Tokina is an excellent lens maker, I think they also provided a lot of Cies (like Vivitar etc...) with lenses , for the moment there's a cooperation with Pentax IIRC.

Often (almost the rule), optics for "moving" pictures are tweaked designs from "still" photographic optics -- somewhat faster (and less sharp - with the idea behind it that for moving objects ultimate sharpness is completely unnoticed. All world-Cies did this -- already in the 1930s Leitz made an Hektor Rapid doing f 1.4 (this was a prime lens - in those days a turret with a battery of lenses was common , i.o. zooming they rotated into the preferable lens ;-)

However, I have a Schneider Variogon, designed for moving pictures that performs really well for photography !
http://www.ipernity.com/doc/294723/25307055/sizes/1600

(I wrote some programs for the dark room - all in ThinBasic , maybe I should publish them here - though no idea someone is interested in prehistoric skills ;-)

best Rob

[Petr Schreiber]

Hi!,

is the glow effect on your photo product of lens or post production? Tokina sometimes does produce this dreamy look at f2.6.

I would be interested in your scripts, and I think it would not be bad idea to have special subforum for photography image processing scripts :cool:.

I didn't know the Schneider Variogon brand, but I can see their did some really interesting designs, like Schneider-Kreuznach Macro-Variogon 7.5 - 45 f1.2, for example. But I can't find any photos made using this particular piece on the internet grrr.


Petr

[RobbeK]

Hi Petr,

Post processing - 3 image bracketing to get a wider dynamic range from a sensor. (The density range on film is higher than on sensor - it's physically thicker and can build its image also somewhat in depth (which may result in less sharpness )).

Seems this one has a bokeh donut ;-) http://vimeo.com/74635789

Dreamish wide open -- that's not bad to have that possibility , many lenses perform thise way imo - wide open some spherical aberrations may enter the system. In the past (during a certain era) such lenses were used for portraits - not every one has a soft and perfect skin and some details may be hidden somewhat .. but a lot changed over the years and the post 1950s images show most of the time (over)sharp portraits -- a question of taste, but a little but glow/glamour/soft focus may be very tasteful some time ...

I attached one of these programs - I buy ciné film (300ft reels ;-) much cheaper - less than 1€/film ) cut it and spool it into cassettes - for my cameras only reading the DX code I need to fabricate these which is the reason for this code.

best Rob

[Petr Schreiber]

Hehe,

one of the advantages of smaller chip on V1 is that it takes the best part of the lens (at cost of narrower view angle).
In the video you linked, shot on GH3, it is evident the lens is designed for smaller surface. The donut bokeh is very unusual :)

I attach few more pictures from tokina. One shows the overall sharpness is good at f4+, second a bit of abberation is present at the edges and the last one shows the mentioned glow at f2.6.
EDIT: It seems the TB forum recompresses the JPEGs. Most evident on the middle image.

I must say I was a bit down, when I got the glow for the first time, but as I know how to control it, I am no longer upset about it. These all are shot with Nikon D80 body, on V1 I get less corner abberation.

Aaaand...I really, really like your script! This kind of utilities will be appreciated, I think.
I will contact Eros asking about possibility of dedicated photo script subforum.


Petr

[RobbeK]

Hi Petr,

Don't worry about those slight remnants of aberrations (at the wider apertures) , take advantage of these when an occasion pops up.

Rodenstock (Germany) made an expensive meniscus (!) (monocle in the slavic languages) lens with a heap of aberrations -- it uses a special sieve iris.diaphragma .... but , but look :
http://radan.be/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/sized_LRsverlana-sepia-001.jpg ;-) this lens is called Imagon (but something similar can be made from the front lens of standard Helios lens on Zenit)

Well I also made some theoretical related code for photography - a spring driven cloth shutter simulation.
(I'll post it later, it needs some background information, and the history about constant speed curtains and accelerating ones ).
Leitz made this big step (during WWII I think) on the Leica IIID (iirc))

Ok - the question is , how uniform is the exposure made by exposing using the slit between those 2 curtains if both curtains accelerate.
The amount of light is generated by the width of the slit , so at synchro time (as for a flash, when the 2nd curtain starts when the 1st reaches its end position ) the code calls this 1 frame (not included in the simulation) --
Let's say the speed is so that it takes 1/30 sec - in case the 2nd start when the 1st is half-way we get 1/60 sec. etc... (see program).
It can be proved (with functional equations) that with acc. curtains only one shuttertime can be completely exact.
Calculating a complete model is something else, and reasonably difficult - I could find nothing about this so I wrote this simulator.
In the program change values of the accelerations of the spring with moderate values , like 0.1 or something like.
If both springs gets the same tension , you get the behaviour of pre Leica III shutter, as used in by Soviets in the Zenit, Zorki , FED and many many others . (it is much much more expensive to build a shutter à la Leitz LeicaIII and higher than those of Zenit (which uses a copy of the Leica II shutter).
This simulation shows that if the tensions are reasonably the same the end result is acceptable.

best Rob

I very much like that first picture !

[Petr Schreiber]

Hi Rob,

script run well, disballancing the accelerations gives expected results :)
But what is the purpose of 1/N Framespace checkboxes?

And good news - Eros was very kind to add the sections in application forum.

Do you think you could add your applications there?:
http://www.thinbasic.com/community/forumdisplay.php?f=390

Recommended approach:

One application = one thread
First post always contains the latest version + screenshot


I will move my video applications to dedicated section too, right now :)


Petr

P.S. I like the result from the monocle lens. What do you think about "reborn" petzval lenses:
http://shop.lomography.com/us/lenses/brass-petzval-nikon-mount

My impression is that the bokeh is very "dramatic", it distracts the eyes a lot.

[RobbeK]

Hi Petr,

(somewhat late reply - carried away by the spirit of De Moivre :-) (and the answer takes some time)

Great news !!

The half distance sequences is to build (in case a complete travel of shutter takes 1/30 sec ) 1/60 , 1/125 , 1/250 ... sec.
This is the reason that on a non central shutter, you have to use the base speed for flash, otherwise only a part of the frame will be exposed.
Modern electronic shutters works completely different - they have (so to say) one top speed and all the rest is delay (electro magnetic).
The old time central shutter (Prontor , Compur , Copal) do the same (mechanically) , but a shutter as the Compur Rapid (GErmany) has an extra "turbo" spring to get a higher speed as 1/200sec. (it is only activated at the fastest speed).
Now the problem where the code is about is that with accelerating curtains - the width between both curtains becomes smaller while traveling, but its speed increases and then the question pops up : how exact is this then ??
If you give both springs the same accelerations you can see a kind of uneven pattern - however still acceptable.

The reality is more complex - they tried drums (holding and generating the movement of the curtains) of uneven size etc...
Not sure, but I think the Leica (Leitz Camera) introduced the more sophisticated mechanism - these cameras are a little bit to expensive to put them on an operation table for a disection ;-) but someone told my part of it is using elleptical shaped drums (though I have no idea how this works )
Someone else told my how many Reichsmark this costed, but again, forgot the amount ...

Anyway the Soviets never introduced the III shutter and kept the old mark II even till the end (even later than the year 2000, mayb even today ... because ).... they are still in business .. partly (they also make military stuff - sadly an always florishing business ) because the LOMO guys picked them up .. as for the Petzval (as everything from LOMO overexpensive -- but their existance is very welcome , they keep analogue alive by selling heaps of films to those LOMO adepts who shoot film like some else digital (great quantity , quality ? don't know - if you like, it you like that's all imho ).

Petzval .. héhé .. formulated the first formula for an anastigmatic lens system -- a very incomplete formula (doesn"t mention the thickness nor the distance between the lenses !!! ) .. but a step in the correct direction.
Now an interesting fact : he patented his lenses and started to work for Voigtländer in Vienna - after it turned out the VL had to fill in these patent rights , the complete VL Werk moved from Austria to Germany (Braunschweig to be exact - this is 19th century - with low traffic over the roads - Voigtländer und Sohn was est. around 1750 ii) to escape this -- as for the reason they told the public that Braunschweig had a much better central railway station ;-)
Later VL was bought by Zeiss Ikon (they really fucked it up) and now the name Voigtländer is owned by Cosina Japan - they make cameras carrying "the oldest name in optics"
(they make beautiful (imo then) things : http://www.fototheque.com/voigtlander/ )

best

Rob

I have some original Voigtländer !!
a snapshot : http://www.ipernity.com/doc/294723/30339247
(proudly -- our first "Enkelkind" )
I make all the photo-chemicals myself , this is developed in a reproduction of the 1945 Wolfen formula (Agfa) - found the formula in a Intelligence US document - I took the Germans more than two weeks to convince the Americans, that they brewed NO rocket fuel at the premises :-))))))))))

[Petr Schreiber]

Your knowledge makes me wonder if I can consider myself a photographer at all :p
I really enjoy the discussion, learning something new every day.

Yesterday, I made a ... moving photo. Nikon 1 V1, 135mm f1.8 equivalent, see here:
http://vimeo.com/87997021


Petr

[RobbeK]

!!

nice document ... what capacity on your memory card ?? -- must be serious !
Quality image/sound is really good ..

Ah, yes .. worked out something previous evening - something I would like to do with TBGL :

-Opening a fullscreen OpenGL window (while running UI)
-Show a BMP (larger than the screen) and navigate through it.

If possible I think the first point will be the most difficult for me (if you can give a short explanation , I think I can manage).

best Rob (photography .. these stories are more of interest to a repairman than to a photographer ;-)

[Petr Schreiber]

Hi Rob,

the file size of the video is not that huge - the original footage at 1920x1080 is about 1 GB, but you can see the 1280x720 version for Vimeo is just 120 MB. It depends on the compression, when doing multipass, it can shrink a lot :)

Opening TBGL window fullscreen and manipulating image should be easy, please see the attached example.
There is one possible catch - please try to change the Image.bmp for some large image, but keep it power of two dimensioned (like 1024x1024).

You can use arrows to scroll the image.

Then, you can try some custom image - but beware. Some older cards do not support "any" size of the image and image dimensions must be power of two.


Let me know,
Petr

[RobbeK]

Thanks Petr,

I answered this @ TBGL sub - excellent tool !

For optics , I found this : http://allphotolenses.com/ - (kind of compare before buy) I compared the lenses I have with their evaluation and I have to agree with all of them. The Soviet lenses all build a high score , once again I only can agree -- yesterday I made some pictures with the Jupiter 8 and these are incredible good (as said this lens is infact a Carl Zeiss Sonnar from the 1930's (be it with coating this time)). I think the "secret" of Carl Zeiss was to make clusters / groups of lenses inside the optic. In this case 3 groups - I think this adds a lot of brillancy .

Been browsing through some vacatures it seems Python has reached (almost) the popularity of C'ish languages -- interesting to have a look at it ? (what's your opinion ?)

best Rob

[Petr Schreiber]

Hi!,

that website will keep me busy for long time, thanks :)

I think I am biased against Python based on my experience when working on Bachelor thesis with it. It has the most sadistic native IDE I have ever met (called IDLE).
My colleague at Bender Robotics likes Python a lot on the other side. I must say I let it be because of:
- IDLE :D
- strict indentation rules do not allow you to freely indent code as you need. That is problem mostly in OpenGL, where you naturally want to tab out things inside Push/Pop matrix, Begin/End and ... you can't

Otherwise, it is language with huge number of libraries and some nice features. Give it a try, but save your nerves by using other than default IDE.


Petr

[RobbeK]

Hi Petr,

"strict indentation rules" -- mm, you have to write everything between p.e. a push and pop at the same margin (left aligned) ?
Well, they say LISP in fact stands for "Lots of Irrelevant Silly Parentheses" , but spaces and blanks don't count at all (except as a single separator).

Something about the meniscus/monocle :
Probably from the 1930's -- mother of one of my friends :
http://m.ipernity.com/#/doc/294723/25594013 -- such potraits/lenses were common then.

and how to make your own " МОНОКЛЬ"

http://photo-element.ru/ts/monocle/monocle.html
( it should be able to find some Helios 44 lenses with M39 mount fitting your adapter , though only produced for a short while )

best Rob

[Petr Schreiber]

Hi Rob,

regarding Python, yes - all the code is left aligned. The indentation is allowed only for language constructs such as if.
Friend showed me some kind of hack with placing \ at the end of line, but it was not very practical.

I really like the portrait!

I will go through the russian article during the weekend - I need to word out the azbuka loud, which would disturb other inhabitants of the house at the moment :D
On some photos, like the pair by the water, it seems the effect could be simulated with two layer approach (one original, second gauss blurred original, combined), but for others, it looks like more complex transformation.


Petr

[RobbeK]

Hi Petr,

Azbuka .. yep, let's keep the respect for Jan Palach and others ... (it's just informative on/from my side -- certainly not ideological -- there'e good and bad people in every system imo - it's the human that counts, not the system ).

Python -- found Pyscripter, with some nice tutorials , looks promissing (and it makes the indents itself) -- I notice some Lisp flavours like lists too. (but this may be only on the outside -- Lisp is a programmable programming language and I do not think Python can do this ). Other languages seem to take some Lisplike constructions too. Maybe in the end it comes all a little together (who knows).

Optics -- blur etc.. yes , there's some confusing in optics considering astigmatism and spherical aberrations differently, they have the same cause , the image of a point is not a point but a circle (sic) , and then the fading from the middle will be probably a Gaussian distribution.

Yes, nice picture from Valentina -- her daughter and grand-daughter are living in the west now, so I was glad I could digitalise this souvenir.

best Rob

[Petr Schreiber]

Hi Rob,

I hope my note regarding azbuka wasn't badly understood. I have simply problems reading texts in azbuka, I need to spell it loud, then hear myself, and then I can understand it. Yes, as embarassing as it sounds.

Regarding Jan Palach - it is hard for me to get oriented in what really happened from 1948 to 1989. I guess it will take my whole lifetime, without exaggeration, to analyze just this period. Current trend in my country is in a bit dangerous stage of glorifying everyone "fighting against the system". Real people become icons, in my young eyes not so different from cult of personality built by the previous regime. Very confusing. This is why the person of Jan Palach remains a mystery for me - I can't see a person, I see an icon.

What I already can see is that my nation is somehow "used to" some kind of big brother - being part of monarchy, being under influence of russians and now, under strong cultural influence of USA.


Petr

[Petr Schreiber]

...and back to photography :) I attach two pictures from Saturday.

The picture with little child demonstrate the etherical look Tokina can give, while the second one shows that when Tokina operator isn't asleep, it can be perfectly sharp too.


Petr