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

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!

 

Focus Stacking for May Flowers

I did a lot of focus bracketing and stacking last month.  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 thereafter.  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.  I then combine the images on my computer using Zyrene Stacker.

Iris

Columbine (wild)

Both cameras were set for 25 images (the maximum is 99) and both cameras allow you to dial in the distance you wish there to be between shots.  Some trial and error is required, because the distance options are 1 through 10, with 1 representing the shortest distance, but none of these numbers are defined.  As far as I can tell the distance varies depending on the subject distance. In all cases I used a distance of "2".

Fern (wild)

Fern (wild)

Only in the Pansy image at the very bottom here did I need 25 images to cover the flower from front to back.  In all other cases it was 4-18 images and on average I needed 11.  Twenty-five images was generally overkill, and the unnecessary ones were just deleted on my computer.  Perhaps the Pansy needed 25 shots because I shot at F2.8 (the others were at F4) and I was very very close.

Trillium (wild)

Fern (wild)

All but the last two were hand-held.  I was able to hold the camera (sort of) steady because I was either sitting cross-legged or was sitting on a folding stool I bring with me.  Either way, my elbows were firmly propped on my knees. But the "elbows on knees" technique is not as stable as a tripod.

Wood Poppy (wild)

Trillium (wild)

The final two images were taken on a tripod.  I think I will use the tripod more, going forward.  I find the tripod reduces the apparent movement of the flower between shots.  It is not a matter of images being sharper, as the shutter speed is sufficiently high to get 25 sharp shots even hand held. But the more movement there is of the flower (and/or camera!) during the 25 shots, the more difficult is it for the software (Zyrene Stacker) to align the images. Hand held images show more movement (change of position?) of the flower within the frame, from shot to shot (though the images are sharp), because the camera moves between frames, while images taken on the tripod show less movement of the flower from shot to shot. Obviously I am unable to hand hold without moving during the three seconds or so it takes to take 25 images. The side to side movement is obvious when viewing the location of the flower in the images, and I am guessing that there is some (but less observable) movement back and forth.

Wild  Geranium

Wild Geranium

Tulip

Wood Poppy (wild)

Trillium (wild)

Spiraea

Guelder Rose

Lilac

Rhodedendron (first bloom of the season)

Pansy

Olympus FW 4.0. Focus Stacking. 60mm macro. F4 with interval at "4"

The other day I reported (here) on using the new focus stacking feature available on a couple of Olympus cameras.  I used the EM-1 and 60mm macro (120mm equivalent) with a focus interval setting of "2" (range is 1 to 10) and an aperture of F2.8 (maximum lens aperture) to keep the background as blurry as possible.

Yesterday I tried the above gear at F4 and an interval setting of "4".  The "4" places a greater distance between focusing planes for each of the 8 bracketing shots. To prevent blur lines between focusing distances I experimented with F4, rather than F2.8, for the greater depth of field provided by a smaller aperture. The backlit palm frond (picture #2 below) shows sharper focus throughout compared with the image taken with with F2.8 at interval "2".

Since I want the blurriest background possible, the next experiment will likely revert to F2.8, but perhaps with an interval of "5", as I have seen "5" recommended on the internet somewhere.