Calla Lily

shniks

Hi guys,


Here is a shot of a Lily. This shot is focus stacked- 40 frames merged using Helicon Focus. I found the lighting to be a little uneven- will have to be careful next time. :scratch





Thanks for looking.


Cheers,

Lord Vetinari

Stack worked well !
Brian V.

shniks

Hi Brian,


I had a couple of questions for you. First, how do you control the brightness levels across the frame? The brightness varied a lot from the front of the flower to the rear. Second, the color of the flower is not exactly how it was. Is it the camera/ lens combo? I used a D700 with a Nikon 105 El Nikkor reversed on a PB-6 bellows.


Thanks,

Lord Vetinari

shniks wrote: »

Hi Brian,


I had a couple of questions for you. First, how do you control the brightness levels across the frame? The brightness varied a lot from the front of the flower to the rear. Second, the color of the flower is not exactly how it was. Is it the camera/ lens combo? I used a D700 with a Nikon 105 El Nikkor reversed on a PB-6 bellows.


Thanks,

Hi Not quite sure what you mean by the first question ?- do you mean light gradation across one frame or that the lighting was varying quite a lot from one stack slice to the next ?
I do sometimes get exposure variation within a set of shots for a stack but if it's noticeable I tend to standardise them during RAW processing. However stacking progs do standardise the exposures as part of the stacking process.

Re the colour not sure if you were using flash or not but the only thing I tend to do is change the colour temp of flash shots during RAW processing down to 5600'C but I'm not sure if this is just a "canon" thing.

Brian v.

shniks

Lord Vetinari wrote: »

Hi Not quite sure what you mean by the first question ?- do you mean light gradation across one frame or that the lighting was varying quite a lot from one stack slice to the next ?
I do sometimes get exposure variation within a set of shots for a stack but if it's noticeable I tend to standardise them during RAW processing. However stacking progs do standardise the exposures as part of the stacking process.

Re the colour not sure if you were using flash or not but the only thing I tend to do is change the colour temp of flash shots during RAW processing down to 5600'C but I'm not sure if this is just a "canon" thing.

Brian v.

Hi Brian,


Yeah I meant light variation from one stack slice to the next. It seems as you said, the program averaged out the exposure. So will have to look into that.

I did not use a flash. I will try and play with the color temperature during RAW processing.


On another note Brian I had a question regarding lenses. I am currently using a 105mm 5.6 El Nikkor lens reversed on a Nikon PB-6. I find that the lens micro contrast is not in the same league as the current Nikkors. (A current sample attached below- the photo just lacks the punch that I can get from say a 105 VR or 24-70/ 2.8). I was thinking of getting another Nikon lens. Which one would you recommend to use on the PB-6? I am looking to go upto a 2X magnification.

I am really tempted to get the Zeiss ZF.2 100mm lens for the bellows. Would that lens work properly with the bellows and would the IQ be the same or would it degrade? I feel it shouldn't degrade as it's on a bellows with no glass surfaces in the middle. If I can use that lens, how much magnification can i get with it on the bellows? Would I need to reverse it? Questions, questions.


Thanks a ton for your help.







Cheers,

GOLDENORFE

very good stack, composition great

i have never had any problems with slight differences in brightness when stacking.

orchid shot looks good, maybee try a little contrast if you think it neds it

phil

Lord Vetinari

Hi shniks,
Not really going to be able to help you at all- I'm not familiar with Nikon lenses or bellows use. Only comment I can make is many people use very odd lenses on bellows eg reversed shortish focal length primes (50-30mm) or even sometimes old enlarger lenses. Think you'd be happy with any of the modern Nikon fit macro lenses, for example I'm using a Tamron 90mm which is optically excellent on one of my canon rigs.

Brian v.