The closer you photograph an object, the smaller the field of view. This means that there is only a narrow line of the photograph that is actually in focus, with the rest being an out of focus blur. This can be used to great effect with the photographer being able to highlight an area. In the photo below there is a reasonable field in focus, mainly showing some of the disc florets, the majority of the ray florets (petals) are out of focus.
However, for me at the moment, I want to see everything in focus to give a detailed view of the whole object - object here means plant or part of. I've tried 2 very different plant parts so far: the seed pod of the plane tree, and a lily flower. Here are the outcomes of my initial endeavours using the Helicon Focus software.
Plane tree seed ball
What I liked about this seed ball is that there are so many edges. Because it's a couple of inches across, close up photography will always have a small area in focus. Using focus stacking, the software was able to take the photos I taken and make everything in focus! Here are the 6 original photographs, all taken with a different part of the ball in focus.
Lily Flower
I hadn't actually taken these photographs with the intention of stacking them. I was just messing around with the focus to see what looked best. It's really easy to see that some of the flower is in focus, with other parts blurry.
An interesting post, Tim! I can really see the difference with the Lily (not so much with the seed ball). It's fun to play around with photography, isn't it? I need to do some more indoor experiments. It's still too cold outside for me to enjoy being out there much. ;-)
ReplyDeleteThanks :) I know what you mean, it is easier to see the difference with the lily. Perhaps it's because the seed ball is a solid mass with very few colours?
DeleteI enjoy playing around with photography. I've been playing around a bit with HDR too.
Hope you manage to get some indoor projects under way :)
This looks wonderful, and the results are good.
ReplyDeleteAmanda xx
Thanks Amanda :)
ReplyDeleteNeat, Tim. You didn't say much about the software ... easy to use?
ReplyDeleteHi Hollis, I didn't say much about it because I'd only just tried it out. It's incredibly easy to use and has 3 methods of merging the stacks (which I didn't know at the time I wrote the post!). I might write about it when I get better acquainted with it. :)
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