Got home from work this afternoon and our Jane Magnolia is full of blooms. Most of them are too high to shoot but this one was at eye level and there was practically no wind so I tried my hand at stacking again.
Type of Critique Requested
Aesthetic: Feedback on the overall visual appeal of the image, including its color, lighting, cropping, and composition.
Technical: Feedback on the technical aspects of the image, such as exposure, color, focus and reproduction of colors and details, post-processing, and print quality.
Specific Feedback and Self-Critique
I selected the flower and then blacked out the BG except for a slight vestige of the stem its growing on. To my somewhat untrained eye the stack looks OK but would love those who are expert to comment.
Technical Details
Sony A7RIII
Minolta 200mm macro
ISO 400, 1/125 sec @ f8, 4 shot stack
What a beauty. The petals look like they’re made of paper. The way they curve and bend is graceful indeed. You may need to take more shots for stacks this deep. I see bits of single petals that are OOF and bits that are sharp. Whenever I choose focus points manually I usually miss something and end up using just part of the series or none depending on what I didn’t get in focus. I don’t think your camera does bracketing, so the only way to do this more methodically is to use a focusing rail, take a lot more photos than you think you need and review the series in camera before you finish up.
The light is really great for these. So much contour. It adds such depth to the color as well. Am a bit jealous of your flowers right now. I listened to the river ice bend and boom during the night.
Hi Bill, I like this photo as is, being no expert in focus stacking. I agree that there is some softness of focus in some areas of the petals, but I like that look in flowers. The darkened BG is dramatic
This is a great shot, Bill. I know next to nothing about focus stacking so I cannot help you with any tips. I think @Kris_Smith advice sounds pretty solid.
Glad I found this while trying to catch up after being too busy. But had to stop in and admire it more closely.
I think stacking was a good way to go here, but for a flower this size, shot this close (unless it’s a huge crop which gives more DOF), I’d be shooting 15 or more frames, each just a tiny focus step farther. Then let the software do the work.
I haven’t been finding time to shoot or keep up here, and am finally getting my head above water again. Need to go check out some local trees but I think ours got beaten to death in recent winds and rain.
Bill, the flower stands out beautifully with great details in the center and lovely colors. It does look like you either adjusted focus manually or you used Photoshop to make the stack. There are multiple spots where a single petal goes from sharp to soft and back to sharp, in particular the two petals pointing towards the camera and the one that nearly vertical with a magenta edge towards the camera. The presentation looks great against the black background and I like the “hint” of stem coming in.
