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!

 

Macro set up #2: Olympus E-M1 + Panasonic 35-100 + Canon 250D close up lens

This set-up is similar to the one used for the flower photos in the previous post and which is shown two posts-ago here.  But instead of using the 500D closeup lens designed to focus a zoom lens at 50cm (about 20"), the 250D is designed to focus a zoom lens at 25cm (about 10").

The 250D is slightly thicker, perhaps because of its
greater magnification. More magnification = more glass.

Olympus E-M1 plus Panasonic 35-100mm plus Canon 250D close-up lens

This is what I found out on the Panasonic 35-100:

The advantage of the 250D is increased magnification. Assuming the lens is all the way zoomed in at 100mm (FF=200mm), by cutting the focusing distance to 10", the 250D gives close to a 1:1 macro (FF equivalent). The 500D  can only give you about a 1:2 macro (FF equivalent).

But with greater magnification comes decreased depth of field.  The depth of field with the 250D is so thin that I found it necessary to use F5.6 or F8, whereas with the 500D I used F2.8 or F4.

Depth of field at F2.8 and 100mm (FF 200mm) = Perhaps 1/2".

Depth of field at F8 and 100mm (FF 200mm) = Perhaps 3/4".
But with more gradual fall off giving the appearance of much more DOF.

Regardless of the one you use, or with any other acromatic lens for that matter, it takes some getting used to.  Your lens will not focus at infinity!  The 10" and 20" focusing distances are not minimum focusing distances, they are essentially the focusing distance.  That is why they work best on a zoom.  To widen your composition you can't move further back more than a few inches from the subject. Instead, you need keep the same focusing distance and zoom out.

Zoomed in at 100mm (FF 200mm)

Zoomed out at 35mm (FF 70mm)

The photos below were all taken with the 250D.  However, for flower photography I prefer the greater working distance of the 500D.  With less magnification, the depth of field is greater, and I can consequently use a bigger aperture thereby allowing more light to enter the lens.  The more light entering the lens, the lower the ISO required and/or the faster the shutter speed, both of which are good things.  Also, the 500D seems to be more forgiving when it comes to focusing distance.  The sweet spot is 20", but it seems I can go a couple of inches more or less than 20" and still lock focus.

Zoomed back to 65mm.  F8

At 100mm.  F8

At 100mm. F8

At 100mm. F8

80mm. F4

35mm. F2.8

Macros from Olympus E-M1 + Panasonic 35-100 + Canon 500D close-up lens

Though I have several dedicated macro lenses, I chose to take this makeshift arrangement (refer to my blog title) to the botanic gardens on Saturday.  I have had the Canon close-up lenses for many years and have used them on a number of cameras, well before I purchased my first macro lens.  From time to time it is fun to take these acromatic close-up lens out of their cases and give them a "go".

For more details and explanation see my prior post.

In all of these cases, aperture was F2.8.  I'm not sure that gave enough depth of field. You may like or not like the result.  But my desire was to get a blurry, creamy background if possible, and for that a large aperture is needed.

Except where indicated, these were shot at full zoom of 100mm (FF=200mm). With this combination of camera and lenses, when zoomed into 100mm, depth of field is about 1/4".

Here's what I got:

75mm (FF=150mm)

Flowers at the Botanic Garden: Olympus 60mm macro at F2.8

I spent a relaxing hour at our local botanic garden.  These were all taken indoors with the Olympus E-M1 plus 60mm macro set at F2.8.  The first three were done with a touch of flash (about 1 stop). ISOs ranged from 200 to 800.

Most folks around here are absolutely ready for the spring to arrive, and for the blooming that will soon be all around us outside.

Detailed EXIF information can be seen along with larger images on my Web site, here:
http://www.peterfraileyphoto.com/towerhill2014mar15