As soon as I get the diy ring flash finished (hopefully this evening) I'm going to be playing around with a lot of macros. I came across the pics by Thomas Shahan and I want to try my hand at photo stacking while I'm taking shots. Was wondering if any of you guys have done stacking before and what method/program you use.

Thanks!

Links:
http://www.wonderfulphotos.com/articles/ma...focus_stacking/
http://www.drkrishi.com/adobe-photoshop-cs...-focus-tutorial
http://www.flickr.com/groups/macroviewers/discuss/163367/

no one cares.














jk...this should be really cool.

Wow those are some amazing shots he has.

Where does it talk about his photo stacking?

He usually includes brief stacking info in the description of the photo:


Not all of his photos have the info though.

From this interview, he says he does the stacking manually in PS.

Hrm, here's a pretty good guide.. and software...
http://www.wonderfulphotos.com/articles/ma...focus_stacking/

Some photographers are using that technique to mix pictures with different exposures as well, they turn out way better than anything Photomatix can produce. I can't even imagine what his set up must look like with a big macro lens and extension tubes on it (and probably a flash too, right?)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/opoterser/2545298333/

Oh hippies

Haha, yeah, he totally looks like a hippy.




Been snooping around and apparently the Auto-blend feature in CS4 works pretty well.... hmmm.. might test that tonight. http://www.drkrishi.com/adobe-photoshop-cs...-focus-tutorial

Another tut w/software: http://www.flickr.com/groups/macroviewers/discuss/163367/

Here's someone who tried it with corals ---> http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1562991

I'm not sure I understand what he was trying to accomplish? He took 14 different pictures all with different focal points and then blended them together? How is that different than just using a smaller aperture?

With the spider macros I understand that the photographer is using a wide open aperture to get a shallow DOF and then blends pictures with different focal points for artistic value, but the guy on RC was using F11, which should have been plenty small enough to get the entire coral in focus on the first shot. What benefit is there in all the extra work?

His shots are fantastic, but everyone else who tried it in that thread show pics that are out of focus altogether, and even the OP's pics aren't anything that I haven't seen done with a single shot before. Maybe I'm just too much of an amateur to see the difference?

I used a piece of equipment/software to do something like this in college for the professor I worked with, except my subject was rocks. The equipment I used was an adjustable microscope with a camera attached to it that was operated by a program called Photo Montage. Basically you set the limits on either side of the focus area and then told it how many steps/pictures you wanted it to take in this area. After it took the pictures it would stitch them together. I can't find any expamples of my work, but I think I may have a few at home.

Check out this thread Vic and read through all of it. Brian V. is probably one of the best macro photographers on the planet and most of his shots are focus stacked. When shooting at higher magnifications its nearly impossible to get the entire subject in focus even if your shooting at F16(which you wouldnt want to do anyway because then you will suffer the effects of diffraction) So by shooting different parts of the subject and then blending those shots together it gives the appearance the entire subject is in sharp focus.

@Vic - Did you see this one? Look at all those splotches in the background.




Coolies, thanks.


Gracias! I've seen quite a lot of his work as 'LordV'.

Mark Plonsky and Frank Phillips are great macro photographers too.
But I wanna grow up to be just like Igor Siwanowicz

Ah ok, I see. So it really is just me being too much of an amateur Thanks for the link, now I've got something to keep me occupied till work ends



Is it really that difficult to get an entire coral in focus with a macro lens? I haven't tried it, but I've seen some amazing coral macros and I have a hard time believing they were all focus stacked.

Most of the shots in the RC thread aren't actual macros (lifesize or greater magnification).. they're just close-ups, so the focus stacking is pretty pointless. An f-stop of 11 would accomplish the same thing.

Oh wow, that thread has an awesome comparison shot to show the difference.

I remember looking at his work a few years ago. His work is absolutely amazing. I have no idea how he gets his subjects to pose the way they do



When its done correctly theres a big difference

I'm just glad that I wasn't missing anything with the coral shots. I have no experience with macro shots so I'll excuse my own ignorance for not knowing how hard it was to get that effect with them

Igor? Inorite? And he uses pretty basic equipment, like the Canon 100mm (I say basic because it's only 1:1) and a couple of diffused flashes. I adore the mantises.

The good thing about coral shots is your usually far enough away that you have a greater depth of field(Especially at F11). So no need for focus stacking. No worries Vic i didnt realize how difficult it was either until i gave it a shot. Its extremely difficult when you have a subject that can move at any second. Im still not sure how he manages to get so many shots before the insects moves especially considering how shallow the dof is.... I guess that what makes him a professional




Yep him. I dont think theres anyone out there that can get the same dramatic poses he gets out of those mantises. Its pretty amazing....Hes like a mantis whisperer..

More examples. Holy. ####.
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=781017

Is Vic thinking about buying a macro lens now?
Buy me a MP-E and I'll GIVE you my 100mm, k?
When I first became interested in photography, bug macros were where I started, lol.

Whats even more impressive about those shots were they were shot and focus stacked at 5X! The dof at 5X magnification is ridiculously shallow and he managed to get enough shots to focus stack.





I think hes just been inspired. Bugs were where i started as well.

Pfft, I've always wanted a macro lens, there's just always been other lenses that I needed/wanted more. Even now I'd be hard pressed to buy the SIgma 150 I want instead of a Canon 28-135 that I need.

nice find lalani, gonna try it sometime this week

Really cool.

I wish I had better macro capabilities!

man, I never though I'd spend 30 minutes just looking at pictures of bugs...

very neat subject though, i think it's something definitely worth trying

off topic, but this was pretty cool, from that site:

http://www.drkrishi.com/fatal-attraction

@ LordV's photos. That's some cool stuff. I will have to try that when I can afford Photoshop. I wonder if GIMP has an auto stack feature.

he always post up stuff here
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=38

Unless he changed his gear..he shoots with the MPE65 and the Sigma 105mm..not the Canon 100.

That's usually the response that bug 'portraits' receive.
You don't notice those little things unless you're really looking for them.


Poor flutterbies can't procreate in peace.

Ring flash is pretty much finished... will add the final touches this evening then test it out.
It's kind of ugly, because I could not find the proper size vent reducer. Had to cut one shorter so the end is misshapen... which made it difficult to cut the diffuser. So, later on, I may build another one!

there are multiple different "photo stacking" techniques. in addition to focus stacking, you can also stack a series of long exposures to increase the signal to noise ratio (extremely useful in astrophotography). i'm working on some astro stacking right now on shots of the milky way i got last night while i was shooting the leonids.

Nice, post pics.

super quickie here: http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showpo...mp;postcount=10

have tons more work to do to get a decent image, but i think i've got the potential for a pretty slick shot once i'm able to stack everything

Whoa, that's amazing. I can't believe that's at ISO 1000 and for that long and already has that little noise.

Cool.

Lani, ring flash?

Oh, it's finished! I just d/led the 90 or so test pics I took with it.
Me likey, and can't wait to find some bugs or whatnot. It's definitely not as nice as it could be, so I'll probably work on a second one... I'll just take more time with it. I'll post pics of it in the DIY thread and examples in my random thread.. if any are decent shots.

Wow. Thats really beyond cool. I really need to learn my camera more! I picked up a Panasonic Lumix dmc fz28, and have really no clue how to use it. Thinking about taking some classes locally. You all have inspired me! Those are my kinds of shots!

There's no need to spend money to learn how to use a camera. You have access to google and it's manual, there's tons of articles explaining how they're used out there.

This is true, its just sooo overwhelming! I've only had simple cameras before, but am really excited to get more into macro shots. I love everything right up close Thanks for the encouragement!

Ugh, I downloaded ImageJ (it was the only software that I could find for macs) and I've been spending the past hour and a half trying to figure out how it works. Can't find any sort of online tutorial or anything. I finally figured out how to stack images, but it's not aligning them automatically. There is supposed to be an alignment feature, but I can't find it. Can anyone with experience with this software help me out, or refer me to a more user-friendly software that will work on macs?

thanks.

Yeah, get a pc.

ba dum ching!

My friend who knows java is coming over, maybe he can explain it to me. Or reprogram it so it works better. I'll get back to you on that.