In my effort to document the prairie bloom season here this year, I went out on a very windy day yesterday. My main target didn’t even open, but I decided to give this little plant a try. This particular specimen was about 4 inches tall and the bloom head was about 1/3 inch across. It wouldn’t stay still, but I shot several stacks just to see what would happen. This was the first one and was comprised of 23 images. Helcon focus couldn’t seem to handle the alignment (see follow on image), so I tried Photoshop and though excruciatingly slow, it did a very creditable job. There’s no follow up work on the flower itself in this image.
The best I could do with Helicon focus (but note that I do need to update it):
What technical feedback would you like if any?
Anything
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
Anything
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
5DIII, 180mm f/3.5 lens + 65mm extension set, tripod, f/8, 1/160, iso 800, manual exposure, 23 frames merged in PS.
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23 images of different focal points on a flower only 1/3 of an inch wide. That is some fine, precision work! I love the final image, and the clean, soft, simple background. Beautiful bloom.
It does sound like a lot of very fine precision work and especially on a windy day. It is a pretty little complicated looking flower blossom. I like the nice clean bg and the 23 image stack gives lots of detail. I have never tried a focus stack but the second image looks like too many similar distinct lines for the software to figure things out. Good for you to capture the blossom at the peak.
What a great commitment to document the prairie flowers in your area Dennis. And this is an amazing 23 image stack. Thanks for sharing your process and it interesting - and good to know - that Photoshop did such an outstanding job with this image. Very nicely done.
Have never tried focus stacking but a 23 image stack sounds like a tremendous amount of effort. The result proves that your hard work paid off. Very pleasing composition, detail and soft background.
Your persistence paid off with a fine composition. I like the detail, slight curve to the stem and the background. Do you use a rail to get incremental focus? If not, how do you get 23 photos at discrete focal lengths?
@Allen_Brooks I got it by sheer bloody luck. They’re probably no where near equal increments. I have a focusing rail somewhere in the gear drawers, but I never remember to get it out. So it was just shoot, change focus slightly, shoot and repeat until I got to the far end focus. The 23 wasn’t planned, just worked out that way.
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