From a Welsh garden - Chive

rob marshallrob marshall Registered Users Posts: 224 Major grins
edited May 14, 2011 in Holy Macro
Eight manually focussed shots using a 5D MkII (lovely camera!) and a Sigma 105mm macro with 21mm of extension tube added to get in closer. Stacked together in CS5 (which is just as good as Helicon in my opinion). Studio lit indoors. The flower is about 3cm across, so I had to get in quite close to fill the frame - just a slight crop.

C&C welcome

Looks better on black

5684100851_f8eff02260_b.jpg

Comments

  • RustyJBRustyJB Registered Users Posts: 69 Big grins
    edited May 3, 2011
    beautiful, well done!
    i like placing my images on a black background also, really sets this off, i just ordered the Helicon focus pro software to do focus stacking myself, looking forward to the practice
  • Lord VetinariLord Vetinari Registered Users Posts: 15,901 Major grins
    edited May 4, 2011
    Wonderful stack - love the light and detail
    Brian v.
    Brian V.
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/lordv/
    http://www.lordv.smugmug.com/
  • DeVilDeVil Registered Users Posts: 1,037 Major grins
    edited May 4, 2011
    Beautiful image, nice colors!
    Predrag Petkovic

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/devil_macro
  • Paul IddonPaul Iddon Registered Users Posts: 5,129 Major grins
    edited May 4, 2011
    This is excellent Rob, and the images on your homepage of your website are too.

    Paul.


    Link to my personal website: http://www.pauliddon.co.uk





  • rob marshallrob marshall Registered Users Posts: 224 Major grins
    edited May 4, 2011
    Paul Iddon wrote: »
    This is excellent Rob, and the images on your homepage of your website are too.

    Paul.


    Thanks, Paul. My wife says I spend too much time on photography, so I have to produce something half-decent occasionally!
  • rob marshallrob marshall Registered Users Posts: 224 Major grins
    edited May 4, 2011
    RustyJB wrote: »
    beautiful, well done!
    i like placing my images on a black background also, really sets this off, i just ordered the Helicon focus pro software to do focus stacking myself, looking forward to the practice

    Rusty

    Thanks for the comments. The black screen behind the flower is a Lastolite fold-out portrait screen - a bit of overkill for a small flower, but it works very well as it absorbs all light including the studio flash. The white card under the flower is a sheet of glossy white photographic paper to bounce some of the light up from the single light. It helps illuminate the underside of the flower. Simple really.

    I used to use Helicon, but mine was on a repeating annual licence which I had to pay every year. I discovered that CS5 (and I think CS4) does just as good a job for nothing (assuming you already have it). Here is what I do in CS5.

    1. Load your RAW files to CS RAW edit (ACR) and make RAW edit changes.
    2. Select them all, and hit 'synchronize' then open the images in CS
    3. Don't need to save them, just go to FILE > SCRIPTS > LOAD FILES INTO STACK
    4. When the dialogue box appears make sure you check the 'Attempt to automatically Align Source Images' box... and then continue.
    5. Go to the layers palette and select all the layers (Press CTRL and click each layer or Select=>All layers) then go to Edit/Auto-Blend Layers (tick the box that says 'stack images').
    6. Save your blended image, then cancel all of the RAWs you imported into CS (the actual RAW files will be saved with the changes you applied to them).
    7. Finish editing the blended shot in CS.

    shot set-up.
    5686575928_18dc2830c7_b.jpg
  • 1scrappychic1scrappychic Registered Users Posts: 53 Big grins
    edited May 14, 2011
    great shot, thanks for the pullback :)
Sign In or Register to comment.