Pasque Flower

[John Robinson]

Pasque Flower(Variety Rubra

Jon
I had this one ready before yours so I might as well post it. I'll go through my workflow which may be of help.
There is nothing done to this shot at all apart from downsizing and sharpen for web.

Arrage subject or choose shooting angle to best for BG etc. Camera on tripod
Line up camera on subject- check for stray leaves/ objects in back etc. Compose shot finally
Set Camera on 1 sop down. Set metering to centre single point average. Use remote cable release.
Focus to just in front of subject so nothing in focus.
Move lens focus ring a small amount and end up focused behind subject.
Load files into a holding folder on computer.
Check first frame and delete until you come to first one with nearest point in focus.
Go to last shotb in sequence and decide if you want the rear stuff in focus or if youb want some OOF stuff at the back. Delete files accordingly.
Make note of first to last frame. Say 1 to 9
Open combine ZP- click on NEW - to left.
Insert files 1- 9
It will come up with a full frame picture

The top panel will say "Align frames"
Click OK
When another still pic come up- click on "do stack" - and click OK
The final finished shot will appear shortly.


As a matter of interest I have my camera set to medium quality. This is because my PC in this programme takes a long time with the 24 mp,s of the full quality D7001 files.
Note
This shot is straight outb of camera. Nothing done at all. This is my simple method which seems to work, but vI'm affraid I have no knowledge of the PS method.
Hope this helps
John

[Hazel Grant]

Sorry, but I'm a bit confused re the word delete. You take these multiple photos and then delete them?

[John Robinson]

Hello Hazel
Sorry if I didn't explain it well. You only delete the ones you don't want to use. You take extra in the first place just to be safe.
For example- you start the sequence by focussing in front of the subject. If you tried ton get it spot on the nearest point of the subject you would probably miss by a fraction. You would then have to do it all again.
Same at the back of the subject- take a couple of extra ones past the last point in the object you are photographing. That means if you leave them in, the whole subject including leaves etc at the back will be in focus. You might want those leaves at the back blurred so you delete the last two or three shots so you will have something blurred in the back.

At the front for example- say the nearest point to the camera is the tip of a petal. If you focussed on thet tip and then found you missed it beyond it by even just a few millimeters you would have do start again.. Yopu would never get that petal sharp because you never got it. If you start the focus a few millimeters in front of it you will get itb though if youb see what I mean.
Easy to do but not easy to explain.
Hope that helps.
John

[Hazel Grant]

Yes, that clears up a lot.

[John Robinson]

Hazel
Thanks- It is really simple as I say- but hard to explain. Any problems please ask again.
John

[Adhika Lie]

John, apart from the very good picture of this flower, I would like to thank you for the great tutorial on focus stacking. I haven't had the time to go out and take some of these macro pictures, but it's on my list of things to do.

[John Robinson]

Adhika
No problem Thanks. Once you get started you will be hooked believe me !! Its great fun.Start on somnething simple like a daffodil.

John

[Jonathan Ashton]

Very pleasing image John, your stacking is pretty much what I did, however regards metering I would not simply underexpose, for macro indeed most types of photography I expose for the highlights in the subject.

[John Robinson]

Jon
I have the D7001 down one stop all the time full stop. It just seems to work better that way. Not just for macro.
John

[Jonathan Ashton]

Jon
I have the D7001 down one stop all the time full stop. It just seems to work better that way. Not just for macro.
John

I am afraid there is nothing I can say John as you method of capture and processing (excluding Combine ZP) is totally different to mine.
One thing I would say is that if you are underexposing you are not maximising the potential of your camera. Take any image at 1.0 and -1.0 and 0, You will see the file at -1.0 is the smallest file size.

[John Robinson]

Yes I agree Jon
The D7001 has a reputation for over exposing and I dont like that so I have it permanently on that setting and everything seems not far off judging by response.. Its just that I personally would rather have under than over and I do appreciate that tends to increase the potential noise. I think at the level of images on the web it takes a lot of seeing the difference.
As I said- for macro I have the camera on medium quality anyway so that in itself looses loads of pixels.
As I have said many times - I like photography not PP
Cheers
John

[Jerry van Dijk]

Hi John, this looks great! Excellent details and colors. Exposure with the one stop down looks spot on to me. I recognize what you are describing from the D7000 too. My technique on stationary subjects is to take a sample image, check the histogram and adjust my exposure accordingly.