Two views of a Japanese peony

paddler4

Have been doing only flowers this year, no bugs yet. This one was taken from our garden yesterday. Both stacked with Zerene, DMap. The closer-up is 10 images, while the other is 13. Shot with a EF 100mm L and an EF-S 60mm, respectively. C&C welcome, as always.

RonChris

well done! nice details!

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RonChris
http://www.flickr.com/photos/monong/

Lord Vetinari

Lovely stacks
Brian v.

paddler4

thanks!

Snowgirl

Love them! I'm just learning - did you use a tripod or handhold?

paddler4

Hi Snowgirl,

I do most of my flowers indoors, on a tripod. This gives me control over lighting and position. It also frees me from wind, which makes it very hard to align several flower images well enough to stack them for greater depth of field.

I happened to take an iPhone shot of the setup as I was doing one of these two. I'll post it below. The flower is held by a Wimberly plamp, which Lord V recommended to me a few years ago. Often I will just leave them in a vase. (That's why there is a piled up trumpet case, toner box, and paperback: I used them to get a vase to a handy height and did not get around to removing them.) I prefer ambient light (which requires a slow shutter) because it allows me to get a rough idea of what the lighting looks like before I shoot. I used halogen floods (standard bulbs from a hardware store) for this one. regular incandescent lamps work fine, as long as you can aim them. I used our living room reading lamps for years. The ones below are a recent splurge: two minibooms (also called hair lights). They run about $80, I think. The one in back is the B&H store brand, which has the advantage of being able to hold an umbrella (this one is a $15 smith victor). The one without an umbrella is a Smith Victor, which seems slightly more solid but does not have provision for an umbrella. The umbrella and the diffuser in front of the second light is to make the light less harsh (not quite enough diffusion for the closer of the two, I think).

You may notice that the tripod has a very large head on it. It is a Manfrotto geared head, which someone else on this site recommended to me a few years ago. They are expensive and heavy, but if you are going to do a lot of tripod macro work, they are worth the cost and weight.

Dan

Snowgirl

Hi Dan. Thank you so much for the very detailed description and educational photo. That's a huge help. I have a solid Manfrotto tripod and good head, so I'm ok there for sure. Shooting indoors does have a lot of advantages that's for sure. I tried handholding outdoors and between the weight of the gear and the wind blowing delicate flowers, the outcome was less than successful. I got my macro gear for Christmas last year so played with it indoors during the winter but am so anxious to be outside during what, in eastern Canada, is a brief summer season. I'm definitely bookmarking this post though. Thanks again.

Ceci

paddler4 wrote: »

Hi Snowgirl,

I do most of my flowers indoors, on a tripod. This gives me control over lighting and position. It also frees me from wind, which makes it very hard to align several flower images well enough to stack them for greater depth of field.

I happened to take an iPhone shot of the setup as I was doing one of these two. I'll post it below. The flower is held by a Wimberly plamp, which Lord V recommended to me a few years ago. Often I will just leave them in a vase. (That's why there is a piled up trumpet case, toner box, and paperback: I used them to get a vase to a handy height and did not get around to removing them.) I prefer ambient light (which requires a slow shutter) because it allows me to get a rough idea of what the lighting looks like before I shoot. I used halogen floods (standard bulbs from a hardware store) for this one. regular incandescent lamps work fine, as long as you can aim them. I used our living room reading lamps for years. The ones below are a recent splurge: two minibooms (also called hair lights). They run about $80, I think. The one in back is the B&H store brand, which has the advantage of being able to hold an umbrella (this one is a $15 smith victor). The one without an umbrella is a Smith Victor, which seems slightly more solid but does not have provision for an umbrella. The umbrella and the diffuser in front of the second light is to make the light less harsh (not quite enough diffusion for the closer of the two, I think).

You may notice that the tripod has a very large head on it. It is a Manfrotto geared head, which someone else on this site recommended to me a few years ago. They are expensive and heavy, but if you are going to do a lot of tripod macro work, they are worth the cost and weight.

Dan