Focus stacked orchid

Hi all,

I am not much of a plant person but I seem to be able to keep orchids. I saw this orchid this weekend at a local market and I thought the colors were really cool looking. Never seen on quite like this before, so I bought it. Taken with a Fuji X-T1 and 60mm macro at f4, iso640. 11 shots focus stacked using Zerene Stacker. The iso setting was because the light was fading as the sun set and the aperture was to blur the background.

Alan

Fuji X-T1 60mm macro f4 iso640, focus stack of 11 images

Beautiful!

How did you determine each focus setting for the stack?

Would you post a single non-stacked image for comparison?

Viewed at 100% it's a stunning image for anyone who loves orchids. It is sharp but in a comfortable, not too edgy way that retains the texture of the peals as they should be and the reproduction of nature's subtle gradation of colours is superb!

I recently bought myself the 60mm f2.4 plus 10+16mm ext tubes, a light tent, twin adjustable power LED lamps and a focus rail. This is enough to push me the extra step and to attempt something similar.

Nicely done.

Macro wrote:

Beautiful!

How did you determine each focus setting for the stack?

Would you post a single non-stacked image for comparison?

Thank you everyone for the comments, I really do appreciate it.

Macro: I started out with it in manual focus, and zoomed into the center of one of the flower and had focus peaking on, focused on the closest part of the flower to me. Took the shot and then moved the focus ring a little further away while watching the focus peaking areas and made sure there was some overlap, and kept repeating that process until all the images were taken and I had covered the range of focus.  The distance from the tip of the flower to the back of the petals and since all the flowers are a little staggered, the distance was about 2 inches. The camera dof, is very small especially at f4 the dof is only about 0.13 inches so with some overlap and to cover the depth of the flowers it took about 11 shots. It is mostly trial and error and with a little practice you can get a feel for what works. I will post a single frame later today. Like I had mentioned the light was soft and going fast so I used f4 to get a fairly low ISO and and still blur the background. Used a tripod, of course. You also have to watch for breezes, it does not take much to get the flowers moving, I usually have to close the windows in the area.

Vic - thanks a lot and give it a try.

Alan

Apsphoto wrote:

Macro wrote:

Beautiful!

How did you determine each focus setting for the stack?

Would you post a single non-stacked image for comparison?

Thank you everyone for the comments, I really do appreciate it.

Macro: I started out with it in manual focus, and zoomed into the center of one of the flower and had focus peaking on, focused on the closest part of the flower to me. Took the shot and then moved the focus ring a little further away while watching the focus peaking areas and made sure there was some overlap, and kept repeating that process until all the images were taken and I had covered the range of focus. The distance from the tip of the flower to the back of the petals and since all the flowers are a little staggered, the distance was about 2 inches. The camera dof, is very small especially at f4 the dof is only about 0.13 inches so with some overlap and to cover the depth of the flowers it took about 11 shots. It is mostly trial and error and with a little practice you can get a feel for what works. I will post a single frame later today. Like I had mentioned the light was soft and going fast so I used f4 to get a fairly low ISO and and still blur the background. Used a tripod, of course. You also have to watch for breezes, it does not take much to get the flowers moving, I usually have to close the windows in the area.

I shoot outside where any air movement makes it more challenging. Did you use depth-of-field preview while focusing?

I use McClamps to reduce swaying. (FM photography photo)

Nice setup.

I just used regular live view on the lcd with focus peaking enabled. Which shows you what is in focus and what is not, that works well with stacking with close tolerances.

Alan

toomanycanons wrote:

Yes, extremely sharp from front to back of that beautiful orchid.

Is the purpose of focus stacking to render the subject completely focused from front to back but have the background OOF? IOW, would using a real small aperture maybe accomplish the focusing part but the background would be too much in focus?

Depth of field is absolutely tiny at these close distances and great magnifications, so getting an out of focus background is no problem - indeed the problem is getting enough DoF to get the whole of the subject sharp. Apertures of around f8-f11 are often used to avoid the problem of diffraction which can become a problem at smaller apertures (diffraction loses resolution). The focus stacking method consists of a tripod mounted camera often with a focus rail attached to enable the taking of a carefully focused image followed by a minute change of focus further away (or nearer) and another and another etc. Each time a very slight change of focus distance until you have a series of images which are then brought together as one complete and fully sharp image in stacking software. Later editions of Photoshop offer focus stacking but there are several specialist applications too - Zerene stacker is one but expensive.

If you have a special interest in Macro and would like some inspiration may I direct you to   http://1x.com/photos/latest/macro   where you'll find macro images not only technically perfect but also artistic and beautiful.

Vic