Trying flower pics for a change

Lord Vetinari

Do either of these shots work?
same shot one in natural light , the other with flash, both have been focus stacked.

Brian V.

Ann McRae

I love glads. I much prefer #2 (and I am thinking it is natural light). Can you tell me what focus stacked means?


ann

Allen

Both are nice but No. 2 is my favorite. Only one slight fault, the tip of the flower is cut off at the top. You did a great
job of stacking, something I've tried but the wind never seems to be still enough.
Al

Lord Vetinari

Ann McRae wrote:

I love glads. I much prefer #2 (and I am thinking it is natural light). Can you tell me what focus stacked means?


ann

Yes #2 is natural light.
It means each picture is made up of two or pics which are taken at different focus depths. In both these cases they are made up of two pics one of the base open flowers and the other of the opening buds which were on a different focal plane. Then use a focus stacking programme (combinez5) which stacks the images and automatically chooses the in focus bits.
Brian V.

Lord Vetinari

Allen wrote:

Both are nice but No. 2 is my favorite. Only one slight fault, the tip of the flower is cut off at the top. You did a great
job of stacking, something I've tried but the wind never seems to be still enough.
Al

Thanks Al,
I have had quite a lot of practice with stacked macro insect shots. The programme I use to stack the images (combinez5) seems quite forgiving- these were blowing around and the shots were handheld.
Brian V.

BigAl

Nice shots Brian. I like the colors in #2, but prefer the DOF and detail in #1.

regards
alan

Lord Vetinari

BigAl wrote:

Nice shots Brian. I like the colors in #2, but prefer the DOF and detail in #1.

regards
alan

Thanks Alan, I haven't found a way of combining colours without affecting DOF yet.