Inside at the botanic garden in November

Below is a set of images from the Tower Hill Botanic Garden, from a visit in November.  All were shot with an Olympus E-M1 and either the Olympus 12-100mm F4 zoom or the Olympus 60mm F2.8 macro lens.  All were shot at F4 and at a range of ISOs, depending on the amount and direction of light.

All were focus-bracketed with between 10 and 18 images and the camera was hand-held in all cases.  Processing was in Lightroom, and aligning the images and stacking was completed in Photoshop.

Cape Fuschia

10 focus-stacked images

Olympus 12-100mm

Indian Mallow

15 focus-stacked images

Olympus 60mm macro

Rosemary

17 focus-stacked images

Olympus 60mm macro

Forked Blue Curl

13 focus-stacked images

Olympus 12-100mm

Bougainvillea

9 focus-stacked images

Olympus 12-100mm

Croton

16 focus-stacked images

Olympus 12-100mm

Match Stick Flower

18 focus-stacked images

Olympus 12-100mm

Palm Frond
17 focus-stacked images
Olympus 12-100mm

Flower Photos from July

As it turns out all of my flower photos for July were taken during a two hour visit to Tower Hill Botanic Garden on July 14. It was a mid-day visit and the sun was high in the sky, but the light was nicely diffused.

Petunia

Single image. No focus stacking

Gazania

Single image. No focus stacking

All of these images were taken using an Olympus EM-1 and an Olympus 60mm (120mm-full frame equivalent) macro lens.  Two are single images and the other 19 are focus stacked with between 3 and 24 images. Using aperture priority, most were at F4 and a few were at F2.8.  There was plenty of light, so all were shot at my camera’s base ISO of 200.  Shutter speeds were “safe” speeds of from 1/160 to 1/2000sec, with most being between 1/500-1/800sec.

Water Lily

Three stacked images

Marigold

Seven stacked images

Mock Vervain

Seven stacked images

One thing I’ve been learning about focus stacking is that it is a l-o-n-g process.  Not so much in the field, as the auto stacking feature on the newer Olympus cameras works quite smoothly. But, it’s in post processing that a lot of time is required.  

Day Lily

Eight stacked images

Day Lily

Nine stacked images

Photoshop does a great job aligning the images. I'm thankful for that, as all of these images were taken hand-held. However, it takes quite a while for the Photoshop software to first align the images and then make a second run to blend them.  The photographer has to hang around to click various check boxes as the computer churns and churns. 

Leopard Lily
10 stacked images

Poppy

11 stacked images

The results are quite startling to me.  Perhaps the thrill will wear off and perhaps eventually (soon?) I will decide it just isn’t worth the effort.  But right now I am finding it fun.

Mock Vervain

12 stacked images

Wild Geranium

13 stacked images

Although the shutter speeds I was using resulted in sharp images, it nevertheless took the camera 5 (?) seconds to record 25 images.  During that time there is inevitably some movement of the camera, as well as the flower. A tripod might help, but I didn’t use one during this outing.  A tripod would freeze the camera in one spot… though the flower will still move except on absolutely windless days.

Day Lily

15 stacked images

Fan Flower

17 stacked images

I’m not a tripod fan as it is, and the excellent alignment algorithms in Photoshop are making it easier and easier for me to leave the tripod in the car!

Egyptian Starclusters

18 stacked images

19 stacked images

Poppy

22 images

22 images

Insect on Flower

22 images

The Inner Workings

23 images

Bee on Flower

24 images

Photo Stacking for June Flowers

I did a lot of focus bracketing and stacking in June. Most of the 18 flower images below were taken at a local arboretum and a local botanic garden.  A few were in our yard.  I used mFT camera bodies by Olympus (E-M1) and Panasonic (GX80/85).  Most were taken with the Olympus 60mm macro lens.  Some were taken with the Olympus 12-100mm zoom.  

Both my Olympus and Panasonic cameras have a focus bracketing feature that allows me to focus on the closest part of the flower with the first shot, followed automatically by sequentially further-focused shots.  The beauty of this feature is that this is done with one press of the shutter and at a speed of approximately 10 frames per second.

May's images and post about photo stacking flowers mentioned I had assembled the May images using Zyrene Stacker. In June I instead used photoshop, and I prefer the results it gave me. And of course, for those who already subscribe to Photoshop and Lightroom, there is not the additional expense of buying a plug-in like Zyrene Stacker.

Basically, I find Photoshop does a better job aligning the flowers.  As a result there is rarely any ghosting, something I more than occasionally found using Zyrene Stacker.

Generally, I shot 20 images at a time, starting by focusing on the closest point of the flower.  In Lightroom I viewed each image and deleted any that were focusing further than the farthest point of the flower.  In some cases all 20 images were useable.  In one case, I only used the first seven images.

In all but two of these stacked images I shot wide open at F2.8 (60mm macro) and F4 (12-100 zoom).The two exceptions were at F4 on the macro lens.

Nine more:

With a couple of exceptions I sought hazy or cloudy days.  Light of any kind is good, but diffused light is the best!

 

Emerging Ferns are so Intricate and Detailed

Below is a set of photos from a recent trip to the woods, all ferns in the wild with their fiddleheads unfurling (for lack of a better word) ... so intricate and full of details. All of this season's fronds are wrapped up inside the fiddlehead.

I read a few introductory pages of the "Peterson Field Guide to the Ferns".  I found it rather amazing that worldwide there are about 10,000 species of ferns covering almost all ecosystems. This includes mountains and swamps; in sunny open fields and dimly lit wet crevices; on high, dry windy cliffs and on still waters of ponds and lakes; in the Arctic and Antarctic Circles (though sparingly) and tropical jungles (in great quantities). The only exception seems to be desert ecosystems.

Unfortunately all I know about the images below is that they are ferns.  I have no idea what specie(s) is/are represented here.

All photos were shot with the Panasonic GX80/85 and Olympus 60mm macro.