IN the poppies

[Steve Bein]

Not this year yet, but the poppies should bloom soon and then fun times.
We found this rattlesnake along the road while driving to different locations during a poppy shoot. When we approached, it moved on into the bushes. After it settled under the bushes we move din. Shot with a Sigma 180 macro on my 5D-, and pretty close. Now, I have the 150 macro and will use a doubler if I get the chance again. Taken in three shots focused near, mid then far, layered and erased the OOF portions. I think more images and a smaller aperture might have improved the image. It was close work, but the snake seemed calm and there was no problem.

[Steven Kersting]

Cool shot/subject. I agree more shots would have been better (PS has a focus stacking feature built in). I think I would have preferred a little more profile for more/clearer eye. But kudos to you for just taking the picture, much less several.

[Roger Clark]

Steve,

Very impressive image, and especially so with depth of field through stacking. The snake is in a position to strike. How far away were you?

I would crop the upper portion off a little as I find the one reddish stalk that is bent over distracting. If the bend were cropped out, then one couldn't tell if is was one or two stalks and with so little seen, would be less distracting in my opinion.

Roger

[Dan Brown]

Love the snake, Steve! Is this a Mojave Green Rattler? Good job on the multi focus tech!

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Steve, can you tell me, why you adopted a 'stacking' approach, rather than the more conventional approach. It also has a feel of high ISO & slightly over sharpened, I could be wrong, but please could you include the EXIF data if possible, as it is useful for feedback. It is interesting to see both the front & rear of the snake is 'sharp' but the middle either side of the head look blurred?

Personally I am not sure if this works because of the various DOF & sharpness of objects, but great to see experimentation & thinking in an alternative way.

TFS
Steve

[Morkel Erasmus]

nice pose and details here! interesting to work with focus stacking on a snake this close, you've got cojones :)

agree with Steve, the OOF parts which shouldn't be OOF based on the DOF elsewhere in the photo is quite distracting

[Harshad Barve]

nice pose and details here
TFS

[Ed Cordes]

Excellent capture! I agree that it looks a bit over sharpened. Stacking technique worked well here.

[Ken Watkins]

An interesting outcome to a process that I hat I have no idea or understanding of.

I doubt that I would have hung around long enough to take more than a few frames

[Steven Kersting]

An interesting outcome to a process that I hat I have no idea or understanding of.

I doubt that I would have hung around long enough to take more than a few frames

HERE'S a tutorial on using photoshop for focus stacking. (usually used for macro work)

Depending on how close the OP was it might have been impossible to get adequate DOF...in which case he was TOO CLOSE for me!
I think I would have chosen a smaller aperture and taken one image or used a longer lens.

[Steve Bein]

Thanks for the comments. The snake seemed pretty calm when I was shooting, I was not as calm, but it worked out. I realize the head is not as sharp as I would prefer either, but this was an experiment which came out with a fair result and had the result of learning. Next time, it will be better and I will take more time. A longer macro lens was not available. Thanks for the info on the stacking program in CS4, which I use. I will follow up on it.
The poppies should be popping this year and who knows what we might find.
STeve