Sweet William, pink, shallow DoF
Even though I left this one shallow, it still took 8 layers of focus stack to get the sharp segment in the middle; but I like the soft edges which kind of make ...
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Even though I left this one shallow, it still took 8 layers of focus stack to get the sharp segment in the middle; but I like the soft edges which kind of make it feel like it was done in a single shot.
50mm 1.4 lens with 68mm extension tube.
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50mm 1.4 lens with 68mm extension tube.
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May, 2018Views
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Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
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Behind The Lens
Location
This, along with most of my posed still-life & macro is just taken in my living room. My backdrops are an assortment of scarves, towels, sheets etc, clipped over a large horizontal boom stand, like some bizarre washing line. Everything is placed so far back from the subject that any joins or patterns simply blur into indistinct colour-washes. I normally focus-stack so my subject is sharp from front to back, but for this one I just liked how allowing it to have that apparent single-exposure look really worked for it. That depth of field, of course, would be almost impossible to achieve in a single shot. This still took 8 layers to get the centre sharp. I had the aperture down at f/16, which I've subsequently learned was probably too small & perhaps ought to have used even closer layers [read up on 'diffraction limit' as to why I should have probably left it more open.] I'm pretty happy with the result, though ;)Time
Doesn't matter, really, I'm indoors.Lighting
For lighting I have 2 Godox speedlights & 2 LED 'video' panels. For these macro shots I actually use the video lights on the subject & use the speedlights to light the backdrop. This gives me control over the lighting on the subject & background separately. The subject being lit by constant video lighting means I can really see what I'm doing far better than working with the natural light through the window. It means I don't need full-blown studio lights with modelling lights in them. I can see my lighting through the lens without having to take too many test shots to get the foreground exposure right. Once I've got my foreground lighting set up - which is what I measure my exposure times to - I then dial up the speedlights a bit at a time until I like the result. Sometimes, that means re-adjusting my overall exposure, but often I can stick with my original settings based on the subject lighting.Equipment
I shoot a Nikon D5500. on a tripod [of course, for stacking] & a cheap macro rail, though sometimes I just manually pull focus for each layer.This pic was taken on my nifty fifty, a 50mm f/1.4, with all my extension tubes attached, 68mm. That actually makes my min-max focus somewhere inside 10mm to actually touching the lens. I found a weird phenomenon if you use a shorter lens - the focus point ends up actually **inside** the lens… not too useful ;) & you keep pushing your flower away with the front of the lens until you finally realise this.Inspiration
This was one of a year-long series of macro experiments. I kept shooting, I kept learning. I've moved away from quite so many macro sessions more recently; I'm investigating more of a 'walkabout' technique.Editing
This has gone through my usual post pro for this type of subject… Focus-stacking, using Zerene Stacker. Resulting stack into Photoshop, where I will heal out any glaring blemishes. Then I make two high-pass layers of differing fineness & adjust my overall sharpness by changing their relative opacities. I then manually paint out the areas in the in the high passes I don't want any sharpening on. Done. I generally don't do much in the way of lighting or colour mod for macros once I'm in Photoshop. I try to have it all there already. Often I shoot in Vivid for flowers - exporting via ViewNX-i [Nikon's free photo editor] preserves that profile correctly before I go over to Photoshop.In my camera bag
If I'm leaving the house for 'opportunistic' photos, then all I take is my camera with Nikon 18-300 super zoom. Yup. Just that. No filters, no tripod, no lights, no strap… just what I can carry in one hand.Feedback
Macro is a great learning curve - unlike, for example, trying to learn landscapes while your family want to move on… ;) Macro doesn't get bored, so you can take as long as you like.
