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Flowers and macro

nicolas claris

OPF Co-founder/Administrator
As I don'y want to spoil and hijack Dr Klaus thread, I post here one of my todays attempts…
I do not try to compete with Klaus' beautiful images, I just try to enhance my poor skills in macro…

So here we are, shot with… a Pentax 645 Z and a Pentax smc PENTAX-FA645 MACRO 120mm F4 (35*mm*equivalent to 94 mm).
ƒ16 - 1/125 - ISO 400

_NCZ1229-2.jpg


_NCZ1229.jpg

Crop at 100%​
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Nicolas,

I love the beautifully detailed structure. Tell us when you start to stack images!!

Asher
 

Andy brown

Well-known member
Nicolas, gorgeous light and stunning colours.
I certainly hope you get some time to devote to your new macro work.
It's a fascinating world where the normal photographic conventions seem to go out the window and an artistic flow comes to the fore.

Have fun with that beautiful setup you have.
 

nicolas claris

OPF Co-founder/Administrator
Nicolas,

I love the beautifully detailed structure. Tell us when you start to stack images!!

Asher

Hi Asher
I've started already but there's always a slight breeze here which is not convenient at all!
Also, Helicon has a nice feature to "drive" the camera with the right different focus but it's only for Canon and Nikon :(
Now, with the latest version of Helicon, you can stack raw files and get a DNG to work with your favorite raw developper. Cool. And it works with Pentax PEF's files, super cool!
 

nicolas claris

OPF Co-founder/Administrator
Nicolas, gorgeous light and stunning colours.
I certainly hope you get some time to devote to your new macro work.
It's a fascinating world where the normal photographic conventions seem to go out the window and an artistic flow comes to the fore.

Have fun with that beautiful setup you have.

Thank you Andy!
For now, it's more a "vacation" work! but who knows… :)
I do like with macro when you get close to abstraction…
 

nicolas claris

OPF Co-founder/Administrator
Thank you Klaus, coming from you…

To please Asher her is a stack of 8 frames.
Shot outside with a tripod and still a light breeze (that help to support the heat of sun beams on my back!) but makes the flower moving!
Still same gear, 1/320 s; f/8; ISO 400

_NCZ1242.jpg

The flowers are about 1/2 inch diameter…

_NCZ1242-2.jpg

Crop @ 100%​
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Thank you Klaus, coming from you…

To please Asher her is a stack of 8 frames.
Shot outside with a tripod and still a light breeze (that help to support the heat of sun beams on my back!) but makes the flower moving!
Still same gear, 1/320 s; f/8; ISO 400

_NCZ1242.jpg

The flowers are about 1/2 inch diameter…

_NCZ1242-2.jpg

Crop @ 100%​

Stunning, especially as who would have imagined doing this in a breeze. At least the camera is reasonably heavy and on a tripod. I am so impressed. So what increments in focus distance do you think you used?

I would have though you must need to take with you a piece of card to protect the flower from the wind! Impressive that the align feature works so well.

Thanks, Nicolas!

Asher

BTW, what aperture did you choose? Using an open aperture would have the advantage of throwing the bang OOF so it would not distract. How did you decide?
 

nicolas claris

OPF Co-founder/Administrator
Stunning, especially as who would have imagined doing this in a breeze. At least the camera is reasonably heavy and on a tripod. I am so impressed. So what increments in focus distance do you think you used?

I would have though you must need to take with you a piece of card to protect the flower from the wind! Impressive that the align feature works so well.

Thanks, Nicolas!

Asher

BTW, what aperture did you choose? Using an open aperture would have the advantage of throwing the bang OOF so it would not distract. How did you decide?

Thank you for your comments Asher

Still same gear, 1/320 s; f/8; ISO 400

It was a light breeze, however the flowers did move between each shots…
I had to wait that they stopped moving.

I decided ƒ8 as I did not want the need of dozen shots…

I think the overall DOF here is about or 5 mm…

The increments were done manually, I should have done at least 4 more…

There are a lot of error when looking at the full size image, However I could diminish them a lot thanks to the possibility to work on (smart) layers in Helicon Focus
 
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Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
You're a brave adventurer, Nicolas, but I think you have made yourself a lot of new work. Now when in a vineyard you will isolate a grape and make it into a work of art! You cannot unlearn this new experience.

You might even get a modest Canon Rebel and the brilliant and inexpensive 50 mm 2.5 Macro that can be controlled automatically by Helicon Focus to do this efficiently.

I really think it's important for us to push boundaries and get to do things tomorrow that we could not do yesterday!

Asher
 

Robert Watcher

Well-known member
I have a camera with this all built in ---- but have never given it a try. My Olympus EM-1 has both Focus Bracket (up to 999 frames combined outside camera in Helicon) and Focus Stacking (up to 8 frames combined in camera). Also The inexpensive and superb EM-10 MarkII.

I just checked and the features only work with the Pro lenses and 60mm Macro (120mm equiv.), so I guess I'll have to wait until one of those comes along. I did it manually one time a few years ago. Was interesting.
 

Dr Klaus Schmitt

Well-known member
Very well done NIcolas, if you want to do this automatically, there is "StackShot" as slider and controller system which allows to do all this on its own, works well, have it here.
 

nicolas claris

OPF Co-founder/Administrator

nicolas claris

OPF Co-founder/Administrator
You're a brave adventurer, Nicolas, but I think you have made yourself a lot of new work. Now when in a vineyard you will isolate a grape and make it into a work of art! You cannot unlearn this new experience.
Hi Asher
all my personal works and researches are made to find some new fields, improve my creativity and so far so good my technical skills…

I really think it's important for us to push boundaries and get to do things tomorrow that we could not do yesterday!
Of course otherwise we're just old beast!
Not to forget that the young guys are all wishing to take our place ! ;))

You might even get a modest Canon Rebel and the brilliant and inexpensive 50 mm 2.5 Macro that can be controlled automatically by Helicon Focus to do this efficiently. Asher

I still have a 5D (my back-up when I shot with the 1Ds III) but it is still a big pain when I compare the file with those of the 645 (Z and even D) so this is not the way I wish to follow :)


Also, this is my real first attempt for stack photography, but not really for short close-ups and even "short" macro, below are some sample taken from my lats exhibition this late spring:

_NCZ1124©Nicolas-Claris.jpg

vine stock in Pessac Léognan

_NCL2921©Nicolas-Claris.jpg

Dessert from starred chef Sébastien Bertin

_NCZ9568©Nicolas-Claris.jpg

Dessert from starred chef Sébastien Bertin

More on this exhibition here and there
 
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nicolas claris

OPF Co-founder/Administrator
Very well done NIcolas, if you want to do this automatically, there is "StackShot" as slider and controller system which allows to do all this on its own, works well, have it here.

Seems a good thing to add to the wish list!
I checked with them and it can control the 645Z directly (not thru Helicon or ZereneStacker).
Which track length do you use? 100 or 2OO mm ?

Thanks
 

Dr Klaus Schmitt

Well-known member
I have the 100mm version, as I also have it since they started selling them, the 200mm version came later, but for macro one usually doesn't need that long travel.
 
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