DBK
LIFE MEMBER
I have taken the plunge and ordered a macro lens for my camera and it arrives tomorrow.
So before I start boring you all with close ups of fly's bottoms I thought I would have a play with one of the techniques sometimes used in macro photography - focus stacking.
Here is a photograph taken with a "normal" lens of a metal screwdriver thingy.
As expected only part of the object is in focus. Of course there will be times when this is the effect you want but if for example I was trying to sell this screwdriver thingy on eBay a slightly better picture which showed the whole object would be needed.
This is where focus stacking comes in. The trick is to take the first photograph with the front of the image in focus then move the focus ring a tad and take another shot with the in-focus bit slightly further back.
I took nine photographs in total which I then processed in Photoshop CC using the automated functions it has for blending all the images together while selecting only the bits which are in focus.
This is the final image it spewed out after a few minutes of thinking to itself and a bit of button pressing by me.
No skill on my part whatsoever, Photoshop did all the work and I just followed the instructions I found here: http://photography.tutsplus.com/articles/focus-stacking-made-easy-with-photoshop--photo-12621
There are options to correct distortion in Photoshop which I didn't use and I took the photos quite quickly and I think I should have bracketed the focusing a bit more - the far end of the screwdriver isn't quite in focus I think, but I'm happy with it for a first effort.
I guess I now need to issue a warning that not only will I now be boring you with images of fly's bottoms - they are going to show the whole of the bottom in focus!
So before I start boring you all with close ups of fly's bottoms I thought I would have a play with one of the techniques sometimes used in macro photography - focus stacking.
Here is a photograph taken with a "normal" lens of a metal screwdriver thingy.
As expected only part of the object is in focus. Of course there will be times when this is the effect you want but if for example I was trying to sell this screwdriver thingy on eBay a slightly better picture which showed the whole object would be needed.
This is where focus stacking comes in. The trick is to take the first photograph with the front of the image in focus then move the focus ring a tad and take another shot with the in-focus bit slightly further back.
I took nine photographs in total which I then processed in Photoshop CC using the automated functions it has for blending all the images together while selecting only the bits which are in focus.
This is the final image it spewed out after a few minutes of thinking to itself and a bit of button pressing by me.
No skill on my part whatsoever, Photoshop did all the work and I just followed the instructions I found here: http://photography.tutsplus.com/articles/focus-stacking-made-easy-with-photoshop--photo-12621
There are options to correct distortion in Photoshop which I didn't use and I took the photos quite quickly and I think I should have bracketed the focusing a bit more - the far end of the screwdriver isn't quite in focus I think, but I'm happy with it for a first effort.
I guess I now need to issue a warning that not only will I now be boring you with images of fly's bottoms - they are going to show the whole of the bottom in focus!