Red - Holly Berries
While I was working with the holly berries I noticed that the theme for Crazy Tuesdays was "Red" and that got me thinking of a shot that really emphasized the red color of the berries. I tried a few different things but with each series of shots I moved further down the rabbit hole in my study of making larger and larger focus stacks. This grouping of berries measures about 1.75 in. wide X 1.5 in. tall, but has about 1 in. of depth and the leaf is on the diagonal making for a tricky focus stack. I tried a few different techniques but finally decided to bite the bullet and try something I've been thinking about. Instead of marking the front and back focus on the lens and then turning the focus ring a bit for each exposure I would take shots wherever I wanted fine detail in the final image. The technique involved shooting every detail and edge for each berry and leaf and led to way more individual shots (31 in total). I was surprised that it worked out pretty well with fewer areas to fix in post. This shot is the result after aligning, stacking and processing in Photoshop.
Nikon 55mm f/2.8 NIKKOR Micro, 31 image stack at f/8
Red - Holly Berries
While I was working with the holly berries I noticed that the theme for Crazy Tuesdays was "Red" and that got me thinking of a shot that really emphasized the red color of the berries. I tried a few different things but with each series of shots I moved further down the rabbit hole in my study of making larger and larger focus stacks. This grouping of berries measures about 1.75 in. wide X 1.5 in. tall, but has about 1 in. of depth and the leaf is on the diagonal making for a tricky focus stack. I tried a few different techniques but finally decided to bite the bullet and try something I've been thinking about. Instead of marking the front and back focus on the lens and then turning the focus ring a bit for each exposure I would take shots wherever I wanted fine detail in the final image. The technique involved shooting every detail and edge for each berry and leaf and led to way more individual shots (31 in total). I was surprised that it worked out pretty well with fewer areas to fix in post. This shot is the result after aligning, stacking and processing in Photoshop.
Nikon 55mm f/2.8 NIKKOR Micro, 31 image stack at f/8