Two more Wildflowers

[FlyingSquirrel]

Greetings friends! Here are a couple more wildflower shots from summer of this year. Basically the same tools and techniques were used for this as the two shots in my previous thread. Shot 1 was from a vacation where I went into the Mount Baker - Snoqualmie National Forest, and hiked out into the mountains. In fact, it was taken at the same location as the Pika photos that I shared a few months ago. Shot 2 was taken at a nearby park. Please view full size, C&C appreciated, hope you enjoy.

1. Lilium columbianum - Columbia Lily / Tiger Lily



2. Centaurea sp. (possibly C. nigra)

[chauncey]

Aah...two more that are very nice. Have you considered adding water droplets from a spray bottle?

[deetheturk]

Well captured Matt,another two lovely images!

David

[Geoff F]

Works well; you even have some spider webbing on the second flower.

[FlyingSquirrel]

Thanks all. I have heard of the spray bottle trick, but have yet to use it.

[DanK]

Matt,

Very nice images. I am curious how you consistently get such separation between the flower and the background. The length of your macro lens, helps, but even so, you have more separation than I usually see. The flowers do not look like single wide-aperture shots. Are you stacking wide-aperture shots? Or are you blurring the background in post?

Thanks for any tips.

Dan

[Bobobird]

2 absolutely great shots.

[FlyingSquirrel]

Dan. Thanks for the comment. I'll address your questions:

The flowers do not look like single wide-aperture shots. Are you stacking wide-aperture shots? Or are you blurring the background in post?

I'm not stacking shots, nor blurring the bg. The first shot is f9, the second is f11. I try to balance the bg and the DOF to get acceptable results in both. In the lily shot, I could have used more DOF but I don't like to stop down too much, since I like less structure in the bg. I felt that having the closest edges of the petals, and the farthest, out of focus, was OK, since the majority of the central plane of the bloom is within the DOF. Keep in mind, when the full size shots are sized smaller for web, the apparent DOF increases.

A thought on focus stacking: I have personally found that taking focus stack shots in the field is very difficult especially with macro. I am unable to turn the focus ring precisely enough, and in small enough increments, to reliably get all of the shots I need, with no OOF gaps. Also, the more I did it, the less I liked doing the processing portion. The complete opposite is true of my "poor man's studio" shots that I do at home with seashells and fossils. There, I use Helicon Remote to automatically take the photos and blend them together (and then I clean it up in PS)

I am curious how you consistently get such separation between the flower and the background. The length of your macro lens, helps, but even so, you have more separation than I usually see.

True, the 150mm macro is very helpful. The "secrets" are:

- I spend a lot of time looking at many flowers. I look for blooms which very obviously have a distant background, from at least one angle (I work the angles alot). I can generally tell at a glance, upon coming to a new bloom, if the bg is too close. If I'm not sure, I'll test with the DOF preview button.

- I am willing to pass up a shot if the bg is messy or too close. If I can't get the clean bg I want, I simply won't take the photo.

- I am willing to sacrifice a little DOF in order to avoid stopping down too much, which would add too much structure to the bg

- I will sometimes take many shots, at different apertures, so I can choose the fstop that produces the best balance between DOF and bg softness

Long story, short, I put a lot of time and effort into making sure I shoot subjects with distant and clean backgrounds. It means I get less shots, but the ones I do get are more satisfactory to me. Lastly, I delete the many terrible shots that I take

I hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any other questions or comments. Thanks

[DanK]

Matt,

Thanks very much for taking the time to write such a detailed reply. Very helpful.

Like you, I don't generally stack outdoor shots but do stack most of my indoor shots. I find that outdoors, the slightest breeze is enough to make stacking problematic. I have only a few outdoor stacked shots on my website, and if you look closely enough, you can find flaws from movement. I will post one below.

For stacking, I don't use a rail and instead just change the focusing manually. This generally works fine for me, although the focusing on my older macro lens is getting a bit stiff, which makes it harder. I use a shorter lens outdoors (100mm), which makes BGs busier, but it is easier to lug around. I use Zerene for stacking, which I like a great deal. I find that having two different stacking algorithms is a big help, and the retouching tool is often critical.

Dan

[FlyingSquirrel]

Dan, glad I could help. Nice photo!