Hi Guys, My first Post in this forum. I borrowed a macro lens to enter a monthly competition at my camera club. I though I would have a go at image stacking which I had never done before. I took a few images and stacked them in CS6, but I was not happy, little areas not blended as well as I hoped. So I had a look in this forum, saw a stacked image by Ron I liked that was done with Helicon software. So, off to that site, bought a copy and straight away I was much happier. So I Went down to the nursery, bought a Lilly I liked, set it up on the kitchen table next to the window and snapped away. Added a bit of flash (on camera, all I had) and then created this image. Entered it into camera club Competition and won for that month... Weeee...!! never done that before.
So this is a 5 image (think it was 5...) taken by adjusting the focal plane of the lens. The Camera was a 1D4 and canons 100mm Macro lens. The settings were 1/40 sec @ F7.1, ISO 500. I had a flash set up on top of the camera with a tissue over the flash head to diffuse the light a little more. the gear was sitting on top of my 5 series gitzo ...
Processing was simply creating the stack in Helicon, not sure what setting here because I had a full 1 hour of self tuition under my belt at this point and I just fiddled until I got what I liked. I Then imported it into CS6 and adjusted the levels a little more and sharpened using the NIK package. that's about it.
Careful, it's addictive. ;) With the positive reinforcement from the win, you will no doubt require an intervention at some point in the future. The most troubling sign is when the stacks are more than 10 images...
Lovely choice of subject. Greenhouse grown plants from the nursery can be so prime! As this one is.
The stacking works great here, giving us those strange projections deep in the flower which we rarely take note of otherwise.
I might burn the shadow in the upper left corner and one or two other spots around the periphery, but otherwise loving this for everything else.
I must look to see if the variant of Helicon I bought will drive the camera focus, If not I will upgrade I think. Manually moving the lens is not ideal as its a bit of a pain scanning the image at each focal increment looking for bits that are in or out of focus.
Don, when I manually stack, I start with manual focus with live view at the nearest point and take the photo. The rest of the series I acquire without looking, just moving the lens focus ring the smallest increment I can (toward the far focal point)--I don't try to find the next focal point visually. If you try to focus using your eye, you may lose your place, so to speak, and move the wrong direction in the series, which creates problems for the stacking software. I stop acquiring when it looks like I have safely gone beyond the last focal plane I want. Then I look at the series on the laptop and remove extraneous frames at either end. Your description of the process helped me understand why so many have struggled with stacking--I am acquiring the images fairly blindly, which apparentl works better than doing it by actively focusing.
Thank for sharing Ron. I guess there will be an issue will be if you move the focal plane beyond the depth of field. It will be imperative to make the smallest adjustments to focal plane to avoid this happening...
This is good. I tried something like this myself using CS6 but was not pleased with the outcome but you have managed this very well. Very true to life colours. I don't know enough about stacking technique to say much more except that it is harder than the software manufacturers would have you believe!. My only observation is that the tips of the central petals may be a touch over exposed.
Welcome to the Macro forum, Don! You're certainly off to a great start with your stacking! Very cool colors, shapes, and textures in your image - and all in focus. Very nicely done - I hope to see more of these!
Don...your competition win was well-deserved: this is beautifully exposed, the colors are vibrant, and the image is sharp throughout. It would be beautiful framed, or on a calendar. You've motivated me to learn more about focus stacking!
Hi David, Have you tried the helicon software?? I did not find it too difficult although There is much to learn to get the best from it, as I have found out already.. Thanks for the comments.
Hi Steve, Thanks for the Welcome and the comments. I have already advised the owner of the lens that she might not get it back...
and Wendy, Thanks for the nice comments and I am a little humbled that I have provided motivation... Ron advised to be careful with stacking as its addictive.. Just saying...
This is a wonderful image!! I love this particular lily -- whatever it might be called -- and you captured wonderful detail!
The problem with stacking in PS is that it creates halos where things overlap a lot -- picture a hibiscus shot from about 30 degrees off axis from straight-on, with the stamen (?) in a very different focal plane then the petals behind it. Zerene Stacker can generally handle that, and apparently now also Helicon.
Lilly
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