Milkweed Seeds

[Mark T Helm]

91356
I have been trying to get a sharp image of all the hairs on these seeds. This is a 30 image stack composed in Zerene Stacker. Shot on a bench with an Olympus E-1 and 14-54mm lens

[Mitch Haimov]

Compelling image. I imagine setting up the 30 images for this must have been a bit of a project, but the results are worth it. Very close to your goal of all hairs sharp, but there are two short sections of a OOF hair above the UL rule of thirds position that keep drawing my eye. The good news is that they would be easily cloned out. I like having the seeds at the bottom with the hairs filling the rest of the frame. A variation I would like to see would be very similar with the seeds at the bottom, but no seeds cut off (i.e., the bottom and LL with seeds positioned similar to LR. This forum is making me want to try Zerene Stacker! (If it will run on my machine.)

[Mark T Helm]

Compelling image. I imagine setting up the 30 images for this must have been a bit of a project, but the results are worth it. Very close to your goal of all hairs sharp, but there are two short sections of a OOF hair above the UL rule of thirds position that keep drawing my eye. The good news is that they would be easily cloned out. I like having the seeds at the bottom with the hairs filling the rest of the frame. A variation I would like to see would be very similar with the seeds at the bottom, but no seeds cut off (i.e., the bottom and LL with seeds positioned similar to LR. This forum is making me want to try Zerene Stacker! (If it will run on my machine.)
Thank you, the set-up for this shot is a movable rail so the milkweed seed are stationary and the camera is moved at regular intervals. The OOF isthe result of not being able to move the camera in small enough increments to get each hair in focus, I have since replaced the rig with a microscope base.
Good suggestion about the seeds on the bottom being cut off, I was so intent on the focus I missed the framing. ZS is a very good programand I use it alot but PS CS4-5 have an auto align auto merge fuctions that work very well for stacking short stacks (3 to 5 shots).

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Mark. Maybe you need a 60-image stack? :S3: This is pretty impressive as is, but Mitch makes some good points regarding crop and comp that I think would make the image stronger. Since this was a setup shot, it would be easy to have another go at this. (You've just about convinced me to download Zerene Stacker and get to work. :S3:)

[Ken Childs]

Hi Mark, Mitch already covered most of what I was going to say so I won't repeat it. I think that OOF spot he's talking about is one of those things that happens when stacking intricate images, especially ones with hairs. The nice thing about Zerene is that you can fix these areas with its editing tools by cloning in focused areas from individual images. Once I figure out how to do that, I'll let you know! :bg3:

[Mark T Helm]

Hi Mark. Maybe you need a 60-image stack? :S3: This is pretty impressive as is, but Mitch makes some good points regarding crop and comp that I think would make the image stronger. Since this was a setup shot, it would be easy to have another go at this. (You've just about convinced me to download Zerene Stacker and get to work. :S3:)
Thanks Steve, that seed pod is long gone, spread around the backyard down along the river. You are correct that a larger number of images would improve the result but more importantly I could not get my increments of movements fine enough to avoid out of focus segments. Because I did not have infocus image to edit from I could not improve the sharpness. Oh well part of the challege. Warning, stacking is highly addictive use with caution. Get low move slow.

[Mark T Helm]

Hi Mark, Mitch already covered most of what I was going to say so I won't repeat it. I think that OOF spot he's talking about is one of those things that happens when stacking intricate images, especially ones with hairs. The nice thing about Zerene is that you can fix these areas with its editing tools by cloning in focused areas from individual images. Once I figure out how to do that, I'll let you know! :bg3:
Ken as I mentioned to Steve I did not get sharp images so I could not improve the out of focus elements with ZS.

[John Chardine]

Mark- Quick question: do you get the same effect by changing the focus of the lens as you do by moving the whole rig on a rail, or are there subtle or not so subtle differences?

[WIlliam Maroldo]

Quite interesting image and quite an achievement. I am wondering what Fstop you were using and if you could have increased it enough to cut down on the number of images needed, and why you didn't simply change the focus of the lens (as mentioned by John)? regards~Bill