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Here's my first effort at focus stacking with a conventional macro rail. The subject is an old Elgin wristwatch that I sold on eBay. I thought it important to show the internals on such an old collectible, thus the effort.
Please comment if you like this photo, or if you have any questions.
The image was made by placing the watch on a simple wooden stand inside my photo tent. I have some Protostar flocked light trap material on the wooden stand, to greatly reduce reflections and provide a nearly black background.
My Nikon D600 camera was on a tripod by the front of the photo tent, with an inexpensive macro rail between the tripod and camera. The front flap on the tent was down, draped over the camera, to fill in the on-axis nooks and crannies.
Lighting was from two off-camera Nikon flashes, one on each side of the tent, triggered by radio remote and optical slave. The tent softens the light from the flashes, giving it more of a wrap-around effect, and reducing hard reflections from highlights on the subject. Flash power (1/8, I think) and camera exposure were manual. Aperture was f/8 for best resolution. Camera ISO was at its base of 100 for maximum image quality.
Once set up and framed, I used the macro rail to step the relative position of the camera and subject, triggering the shutter remotely at each step. This means the plane of perfect focus moved through the shallow subject in 23 steps, each spaced by moving the macro rail knob “a smidgen”.
I used Zerene Stacker (trial version) to combine the 23 images into one sharp, full resolution photo, which was further tweaked with Nikon ViewNX 2.
I have other photos of this watch on Flickr, so check out the images in this set.
Nikon D600
Holga HPL-N pinhole lens
40mm focal length
f/160 (.25mm aperture)
ISO 100
The Holga vignettes substantially on the D600's full-frame FX sensor, but I rather like the effect.
I've found that in full daylight at high ISO (6400 to 25,600), the D600 can do handheld shots at 1/30 sec., quite a fun thing to play with!
The current owner Willie Shepherd, who is well into his eighties, originally traded two sacks of potatoes for this sweet (at the time) ride.
The item on the driver's seat appears to be a powder horn.
This is photo was made with my old Nikkor-S 50mm f/1.4 lens. It was made in 1972 or 1973. It is quite scratched, dusty and maybe even has a little fungus growing, along with damaged coatings.
Nonetheless, it is fun to play with. I performed a crude AI-modification to the aperture ring (I used a file). The lens now works perfectly with my Nikon D600 (full metering and focus confirmation).
3/14/2018 Mike Orazzi | Staff
Bristol police while blocking the entrance to members of the media as Bristol Eastern High School students walked out of school Wednesday to mark the one month anniversary of the Parkland school shooting. Students planned to stay outside for 17 minutes, one minute for each victim, they also want more gun control.
Rusty 1955 Steelcraft school bus, built with a Carpenter body model D on what I believe is a 1954 GMC chassis. Date of delivery 11/54.
This 7-window (28 adult passengers or 42 wee ones).
The transmission is a four-speed manual. Brakes are power assisted drums, but steering is manual (unassisted).
The inline six-cylinder gasoline (petrol) engine develops all of a wimpy 115 horsepower (86 kilowatts).
Displacement is 270 cubic inch (4.4 liter).
GVWR is 14,500 pounds (6,577 Kilograms).
Driving it over the mountains will be a chore, to be sure (I think I can!, I think I can!).
A previous owner converted it into a motorhome / RV, complete with propane cylinders, refrigerator, sink, toilet, etc.
It is for sale, at the right price. We'll just have to see how attached to it we've become, depending on offers.
Or, we may get it running some day and drive it 170 miles over the hill to Burning Man, where it will be well suited as a camper / party bus.
$20 500mm T-mount lens, plus a $10 2X teleconverter (1500mm equivalent with the 1.5X crop factor of my D50)
Home-made filter holder, and a home-made filter made with Baader AstroSolar film.
$8 Lightweight GEM (German Equatorial Mount) to allow tracking as the Sun moved.
Multiple exposures, stacked to enhance detail.
This photo was made with my old Nikkor-S 50mm f/1.4 lens. It was made in 1972 or 1973. It is quite scratched, dusty and maybe even has a little fungus growing, along with damaged coatings.
Nonetheless, it is fun to play with. I performed a crude AI-modification to the aperture ring (I used a file). The lens now works perfectly with my Nikon D600 (full metering and focus confirmation).
I was making this long night exposure, and not watching the sky while the shutter on my D50 was open for several minutes. When I looked at the photo on my PC, I noticed the streak in the upper right corner. It looked like an Iridium flare to me, so I checked on the Heavens Above site. Sure enough, I had accidentally caught a perfect exposure of a magnitude -7 (bright!) flare from Iridium 19!
Woohoo!
Bubby was not harmed. His owner is very kind to him.
Nikon SB-600 Speedlight on camera, with a LumiQuest 80-20 on the light
This is a control dial on my Kearney & Trecker horizontal milling machine. It was made during World War II, and was presumably used to produce parts for the war effort.
It has been sitting in my yard for quite a few years, and is missing some parts, some of which were sold to bring new life to other old K&T mills.
It will soon be scrapped, unless some intrepid parts scroungers save at least some relics from the aging derelict.
I love the VR (Vibration Reduction) in my little Nikon J1's 10-30mm lens- this was a 1/5th sec. exposure after dusk, sharp and clear.
At a yard party in Reno, Nevada with some homebrew aficionados.
Downtown Reno, on the night of July 4th, 2012
Shot at night, seven exposures at different values, then combined into this tone-mapped HDR image.
I think this is the first astrophoto I've made where I wasn't shooting the moon, or growing star trails or just randomly pointing the camera at a patch of sky. As I recall, for this one I actually selected a subject that seemed interesting, though at the time I didn't know what I was looking at.
Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 lens on Nikon D50. A single frame, shot wide open at ISO200 for 30 seconds. I messed with levels and curves in Nikon Capture NX.
30 seconds was too long, as you can see substantial trailing.
The Rule of 600 suggests that 8 seconds is maximum for a 75mm focal length (75mm because my camera has a 1.5X "crop factor"). That seems to agree with the results here.
I'll also need to secure the camera better. On my flimsy tripod I get a distinct j-shape to each star trail, due to mirror slap. My camera can't do mirror pre-lock, so perhaps the old hat trick is the best option (hold a hat over the lens, open the shutter, wait for the camera to stop jiggling, then move the hat away from the lens, and let the exposure progress normally until the shutter closes).
Next time, I'll shoot with the Rule in mind, and at ISO800, and multiple light and dark frames for noise reduction.
The Witch Head Nebula, in the large note box above, is totally invisible in my short exposure. It's quite an awesome sight when exposed in detail. Check it out!