Stacking Fungi

[gregj1763]

Had a go at focus stacking with some Fungi today, reasonably happy for a first time.






Cheers, Greg

[deetheturk]

Looks good to me Greg!

[IzzieK]

Greg! Where have you been mate? Long time no post...Anyway, I like #2 -- they look like Japanese umbrellas without the artwork. Excellent shots...

[gregj1763]

Thanks Izzie, #2 is my favorite as well.
Been working flat out since our Bali trip in February to catch up so not a lot of photography time

[FootLoose]

I love the 2nd, too, Greg. Keep it up, mate.

[gregj1763]

Thanks Greg, I enjoyed getting out there again, all work and no play is not fun

[bnnrcn]

Hi Greg IMO you did it very well, I like both of them. I find the composition better in #2.

[JohnRostron]

I like them both. They each have their individual attractions.

John

[Wavelength]

first one very good; second is excellent

[gregj1763]

Thank you all for your positive comments, nice to be contributing again

[FrankMi]

I particularly like the second one Greg. Nice separation between what is in focus and what is not. Precise control over the DoF in a focus stack can really bring out the beauty and detail of a subject.

[Shadowman]

Nice captures.

[Barbara Ponder]

I am a fan of both but especially #2

[James G]

Greg, these are absolutely excellent. I've spent autumn for the last few years tracking fungi and invariably using stacking.

As a matter of interest what software do you use for capture and for the stack?

[gregj1763]

As a matter of interest what software do you use for capture and for the stack?

Thanks James, the entire process is done in Photoshop CC and I was delighted to discover that after my 12 month introductory offer of $10.00 a month expired recently my subscription cost has remained the same even though it was supposed to go to $30.00
I used live-view on my camera, zooming in to make sure I had the focus correct and found that moving the focal point gradually from bottom to top of screen gave me some good results, most of the images I stacked were 8-12 separate photo's. It certainly gives good results and is very addictive
Cheers, Greg

[James G]

Greg, I was wondering... I use Photoshop too. But I found that I wanted to have fine control over stepping the focus, I now use an android app on my Nexus tablet .... the workflow is summarised below...

1) Camera mounted on steady tripod (pretty obvious I know)
2) Camera (EOS 7D) with 100mm macro
3) Nexus 7 tablet, loaded with Helicon Remote (Android app), tethered and controlling focus stepping on the camera.
4) Photoshop CS6 for the image stack.

I also have used Combine ZP (a free image stacking program) as an alternative to CS6 and had good results with it.

The Helicon Remote app comes in a number of flavours. I use the Android version because a tethered tablet is much easier to use in the wild. (The camera can be lowered to within inches of the ground and liveview is then via the tablet) The Android app can be downloaded independent of the Helicon Focus stacking software package. .
The unlicenced app is free but only allows JPEG image capture. Licencing costs $48 and allows Raw captures. I found that stacking jpegs gave good results, though in the end I did licence my version.

[pnodrog]

Not hearing from you I thought you had fallen off your bike or frozen in your shorts and jandals..

I particularly like the second photo and the stacking technique has worked very well.

[gregj1763]

Not hearing from you I thought you had fallen off your bike or frozen in your shorts and jandals..

I particularly like the second photo and the stacking technique has worked very well.

Cheers Paul, just had a lot going on keeping me away from photography back at it now though and still in shorts mate

[gregj1763]

Sounds like a geat setup James, though I had a quick look and Sony cameras are not supported by Helicon