Z8 Journey. Officially PIC HEAVY

[bulldurham]

Definitely don't need a macro lens in your garden!. Is it OK to copy the image and scare the hell out of a couple of pals?

I had an attempt at Focus Stacking. It was hilariously bad. Too embarrassed to post. Tomorrow is another day.

Thanks Jeff.

Not exactly sure how you screwed up a focus stack with the Z8...it does all the work for you.

Focus Shift

 

[407370]

Not exactly sure how you screwed up a focus stack with the Z8...it does all the work for you.

Focus Shift

Well let me explain......

This is the subject matter:

Ignore the horrible lighting.

The lip of the cup confuses the autofocus. Z8 could not focus on the pure white area, so the stack worked flawlessly except that bit. Even if I went manual.
First frame + last frame:

I experimented with the green shiny bit above the camels head and it also confused the AF but eventually worked.

Setting the start point nearer the camera and setting the end point (infinity) I found a wee bit confusing. Guess I need more practice.

CHEERS
JBO

 

[bulldurham]

Did you set the initial focus on the front lip? And, how many steps did you set in the stack. What I would try is to set the focus point bottom middle and give it the option of 100 steps, relatively narrow. Perhaps move the camera back just a bit to give some additional depth for the steps to work.

 

[407370]

Did you set the initial focus on the front lip? And, how many steps did you set in the stack. What I would try is to set the focus point bottom middle and give it the option of 100 steps, relatively narrow. Perhaps move the camera back just a bit to give some additional depth for the steps to work.

I tried several starting points. The best result I got was when the start point was on the table, closer to the camera. Tried a few combinations of number of shots and focal distance and best outcome came from 111 pics with a separation of 1.

I fully intend to try stacking again with different objects just to see if the white shiny issue is an actual limitation.

I did a bit of pixel peeping. The focus did not catch the lip of the cup cleanly:

see the ghosting / fringing??

Must investigate more.


CHEERS
JBO

 

[bulldurham]

Perhaps dimming the light ever so slightly might provide a more defined edge to the lip of the mug.

 

[407370]

Perhaps dimming the light ever so slightly might provide a more defined edge to the lip of the mug.

You are probably correct. Will try with more diffused light.
CHEERS
JBO

 

[VidThreeNorth]

Good set!

 

[407370]

I spent a whole day with Husdon Henry setting up Z8 Menu system.
Got to be honest and say the complexity is utterly bewildering. I have Z8 all set for Macro, Landscape, Sports and general.
All i got to do now is practice .

CHEERS
JBO

 

[407370]

Just thought i would mention John Greengo on Youtube has 3 superb video's on setting up the Z8 here is a link to the first one.

 

[407370]

I set up a scientifically calibrated test shoot to try various settings for capturing a moving object. Camel fridge magnet and a brush swinging from a handle of a sweeper.

28 - 75mm F2.8 @ 40mm @ F8 in Manual mode.

I wanted to see what settings would be required to catch various stages of blurriness and get a static moving object. if you feel like looking the EXIF data on each pic is intact.

First thing I noticed the focus would not stay on the camel. Focus kept shifting to background. Changed to a single point AF and the focus stuck solidly on the camel.

Even when messing wit ISO 5600 and 1/33 shutter speed, the AF performed flawlessly:

All in all a learning experience. The single point AF is very useful in this test and i was able to use a finger to activate the shutter without transferring any visible vibration. The various blurry images were eventually predictable but i could not catch a static brush, Test will be repeated with flash next.

EDIT: I noticed the filenames are FUJI. I use an app to rename/ resise the files and its still set for my old FUJI.

CHEERS
JBO

 

[407370]

Life has conspired to keep me away from photography but i had a day to myself and i chose Flash lighting practice.
I have Godox MF12 Macro flash system and V1 round flash.
Using V1 as master and the MF12 units off camera:

I picked up some artificial flowers as a test subject.

The smaller flash heads are not proportionally dimmer than the V1 when they are this close to the subject so I spent the first hour just getting used to the intensity of light from the three sources and trying to balance them in a controlled manner.

Results:

Main flash only

Light on stand coming from left of picture + main flash

All three flashes

All three flashes moved back just a few inches.

Lesson learned here is that it is really flexible to have three light sources but seriously complicated to balance. I have no idea how I could use a setup this complex on anything other than a totally static subject. Would anyone actually use this kind of setup for portraits??

Great fun

CHEERS
JBO

 

[407370]

I have actually moved back to UK now so my little flag icon will stop jumping around so much.
Product photography is something I want to develop. One of the skills important to this sphere is the ability to control shiny surfaces, particularly curved shiny surfaces.
I set up a table top shoot of a lens and tried a boatload of lighting techniques i found on Youtube or forums. For the most part they were all pretty useless to me. I will never own a 44 inch softbox or AD600 (unless a lot of business comes my way). So I did my best to replicate the process with what I got on hand.

The setup is that I have MC105 / Z8 around 1m (3Ft) away from a lens. Godox V1 + 2 X MF12 Flashes and a selection of light modifiers.

The modifier kit that I purchased separately from the V1 is awesome and eventually came in very handy for this purpose.

This is my first attempt and it shows exactly what I am trying to avoid. See that hotspot running in a straight line top to bottom. Also notice that the control rings look really white when they should be black.


This is where I ended up:

Now all I can notice is the colour cast from the table.
Take 2 with white tissue paper under the lens:

See that little hotspot under the white dot it bugs me so much that I cant control the lighting to the extent of not generating it in the first place. I know its easy to remove but it still bugs me like toothache.

I tried to get creative with the smaller MF12 flashes:

That bit of plastic is supposed to be a diffuser. It actually has the effect of focussing the output in a line. Worse than useless. See below my solution:

Handheld the flash and tissue diffuser slightly above the subject and it was OK but not as good as :

The best result I got was from just a bounce card.

I guess the moral of the story is Keep it Simple Stupid.

CHEERS
JBO

 

[407370]

A wee update after getting a lot of use of the Z8.

Lightweight tripods for a Z8 with Godox V1 flash are utterly pointless. Anything over waist height will wobble. Even if I use the 5 second timer it still makes focus stacking very hit and miss. Hopefully Santa will bring a much heavier support.

The 14 - 30MM F4 is quite difficult to use. I cant seem to get my head around how close the lens needs to be to a foreground element. A lot more practice is required.

I am getting much better at dealing with the 45Mb files. My preferred choice of software includes Luminar NEO and I was having a real problem getting it to load the compressed RAW files. By pure chance I found out that it only works with the uncompressed RAW, knowing this changed my workflow. I am much happier with the final results.

I joined a photographic club and I am learning so much from the members. I am even preparing for my first ever photo competition entry. I have a few pics of leaves that I have prepared to follow the competition rules but have no idea if experienced judges will see them in a positive light. I need the feedback as I have a bucket list entry to place or win an actual properly judged photo competition.

My wife's tolerance of me building macro setups on the dining room table is beyond sainthood. As the UK seems to be going through it's own monsoon season I have pretty much moved indoors for my photo fix. I dont mind getting wet and cold but I dont want to be testing the limits of the weather sealing on the Z8 / Godox kit.

Here is a wee example of Home Macro:

CHEERS
JBO