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
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
1 comment:
great job! i like that they were hand held, and that you were even able to capture the insects.
Post a Comment