I have been learning focus stacking thanks to Jane Pittenger @jgpittenger but had not tried it with a macro/closeup yet. Only had tried with landscapes while in Tennessee. Today I set up to photograph what I thought was an interesting lily, offering several focal planes. In the 6 minutes between sets of shots, another leaf popped open, so I couldn't try the same one from different angles. The first image was with 5 images - same aperture, but changing focal point using spot metering and focus; the second was from 6 shots since it has so many different focal planes. Neither is as crisp as I'd hoped, but I've already put too much time into this for today and all in all, it these weren't that compelling as a subject. Good learning experience!
@lambda In photoshop, using Align and Merge under edits. It works well -- I'm finding the hardest is figuring out where to focus in the individual images and being careful to guard against camera movement when I switch focal areas.
Thanks for sharing your experience with stacking. I tried it today and found it rather difficult. Beautiful shots, so neat you had that other petal open up!
Beautiful picture. Macro for me can be frustrating and rewarding all in the same day. I discovered this summer my 105mm can capture some outstanding landscape images. Just saying :)
It is tricky with a flower and all the different planes! I have to laugh re the dilemma of another petal opening. And I complain about wind. I'm going to try focus stacking at a creek tomorrow provided the recent rain has provided enough water
Two beautiful images Taffy! I laughed at the leaf popping open! What are the chances? I still feel that if you do a macro with your camera set at F 22 you would have focus front to back of your shot. Not sure how much focus you gain for all that processing? Perhaps if I could do the focus stacking and compare with my normal macro I might see the difference. I also think I moved my camera when I was changing the focal length - it's the only way I got the shadow in yesterday's failed attempt.
A great example of focus staking, it's only when you compare it to one of the unstacked images at a low aperture that you can appreciate the benefits. I've seen some great results with a programme called CombineZP but sadly it does not currently seem to have a reliable download.
@shepherdmanswife I was shocked, actually. I was photographing, walked a little away to get something, came back set up the shot and then did a double-take with the extra petal suddenly there!
Hi Taffy, I recently purchased Helicon remote and Helicon focus (heliconsoft.com). I connected my 6D to the laptop using a USB cable and set the closest and farthest focus points in the software. Then I click 1 button and the software steps the focus from one end to the other and takes a series of images. Then I combine them in the Focus software for a final finished image with wide DOF but with a macro lens shooting at f/5.6 for example. Check out some of the images I took with this technique recently and let me know. I found it much easier than manually taking a bunch of images...
