Flower Pistil - Feedback Please!

mjhoward · Jun 10, 2012

This is a photo of a Rose of Sharon Pistil. I would like some feedback on this photo please! It was handheld and I'm not very familiar with focus stacking yet so the DOF is what I could get away with at this magnification and since the lens is reversed, the magnification is what it is as well. This is actually a 'stitching' of 2 photos and I didnt have the idea to stitch 2 together for a very wide high res photo while taking it. That means that the photos weren't exactly matching in color, angle, etc. when I pulled them off the camera. Needless to say, I got quite a bit of much needed photoshop practice tonight. I'm looking for feedback on the photo in general as well as the stitching (things like noticeably touched areas,etc.). Full res ended up being 6500 x 3254.

mjhoward · Jun 11, 2012

Aw nothing?

480sparky · Jun 11, 2012

I really like the pastel colors. I can't tell where you merged the two, but that may be due to the lo-res image you posted here.

A focus stack would have made the right side of the image much better.

sm4him · Jun 11, 2012

LOVE the colors. Can't tell where they are stitched together, but with my vision issues that's really no surprise.

I wish the ends of the pistils were more in focus; I think I would have preferred to see the ends in focus even at the expense of focus on the middle part.

Like sparky, I'm sure focus stacking would have improved your results, but I've never focus stacking, so what do I know?

480sparky · Jun 11, 2012

Focus stacking is incredibly easy.

sm4him · Jun 11, 2012

480sparky said:
Focus stacking is incredibly easy.

I'd love to give it a try; is there an online tutorial you'd recommend?
I'm hoping this isn't really hijacking the OP's thread, since focus stacking would help here. mjhoward, say the word and I'll just start a new thread on focus stacking help...

mjhoward · Jun 11, 2012

Hey thanks for the comments. The main stitch was where the tip of the pistil meets the pollen looking part. The hard part was that at the time I was just using available light and auto WB so the colors were different and for some reason the amount of noise was also different. The stitch wasn't vertical either since the angle of shot was slightly different. I had to paste in the part I wanted to keep and rotate it a good 10-15deg and add fill in the parts at the top right and bottom right that were missing as a result. I probably should have just said forget it and reshot what I wanted but I needed some PS practice. :lol:

BTW, the DOF isn't as deep as I would like either. When I took the two photos I was kindof just playing around with the reversed lens for the first time and wasn't really intending to use any of the photos. When I loaded them onto the computer, I saw a bit of potential between these two photos (but neither by themselves) so I thought I'd see what I could come up with. I may try and re-shoot this when the weather clears up with the INTENT of stitching and stacking. Or I may try and take it at lower magnification when I get the adapter for my EL-Nikkor 50.

sm4him, I wouldn't mind a nice lengthy thread on focus stacking. Particularly when using handheld and flash. I have a bellows with a focus rail but it's more fun for me to take photos outdoors of moving subjects, which usually means no time for setting all that up. Plus there's wind and all that. I mention flash because I would imagine to do a focus stack at greater than 1:1 you'd have to fire them off very quickly since breathing is enough move the focus point and with flash you have to keep recycle times in mind.

Thanks for all the feedback. It is much appreciated and I'll try and put it to good use :thumbup:

EDIT: You know what, I may just post the two images I stitched together and make it easier.

480sparky · Jun 11, 2012

mjhoward said:
.........sm4him, I wouldn't mind a nice lengthy thread on focus stacking. Particularly when using handheld and flash. I have a bellows with a focus rail but it's more fun for me to take photos outdoors of moving subjects, which usually means no time for setting all that up. Plus there's wind and all that. I mention flash because I would imagine to do a focus stack at greater than 1:1 you'd have to fire them off very quickly since breathing is enough move the focus point and with flash you have to keep recycle times in mind........

I cannot image trying a focus stack using hand-held frames. Not saying it wouldn't work, but I think it would fail far more often.