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Capture macro photos of teeny tiny flowers in detail
Just because a flower is small doesn’t mean there isn’t beauty to unlock and share. These yellow flowers, some may call them weeds, are smaller than my pinky fingernail. Macro to the rescue to show what is not visible to the naked eye. Gear For my scouring ditches I take minimal gear to stay nimble. The camera is the OM-1 from OM Systems. Lens is a 60mm f/2.8 Macro lens for maximum detail. Focus bracketing is the order of the day to attain enough depth of field. If the camera isn’t steady deep focus bracketing is not possible. Camera is mounted on the Platypod Ergo ball head and eXtreme base. I also use a 3 Legged Thing universal L-bracket to easily rotate the camera from horizontal to vertical compositions. There are camera specific brackets which are easier to use but more expensive. For light control and wind blocker a Wescott 20 inch scrim/reflector is employed. Focus When macro focusing, try to get a point just in front of where you would like focus to start. If you focus right on the front edge of your subject it will end up just a bit soft. When focus bracketing I suggest you start your focus at the front and have it move away from the camera. See your camera menus for the proper settings Another thing that will mess with your focus is camera movement. I recommend using either a remote trigger or at least adding a two second delay to your shutter. Teeny tiny flower Focus stacking needs to be stacked. You can do this in Adobe Photoshop. If you plan to do its of macro capture or are stacking over 20 images, I recommend getting Helicon Focus from Helicon Soft. It makes short work with better results when you have lots of images. The stack with which I’m working is 129 images. That would choke my computer using Photoshop layers and it is a breeze with Helicon. If you decide after using the trial you can buy a one year license, that is upgradable to a lifetime license with no penalty. Single exposure This was a frame from a a single exposure as I wanted to feature the spikes in the center of the flower allowing the foreground and background to be slightly out of focus. Just because you photographed a stack of images doesn’t mean you need to show them all in focus. This adds possibilities to how you process your photos. Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
Just because a flower is small doesn’t mean there isn’t beauty to unlock and share. These yellow flowers, some may call them weeds, are smaller than my pinky fingernail. Macro to the rescue to show what is not visible to the naked eye.
Gear
For my scouring ditches I take minimal gear to stay nimble. The camera is the OM-1 from OM Systems. Lens is a 60mm f/2.8 Macro lens for maximum detail. Focus bracketing is the order of the day to attain enough depth of field. If the camera isn’t steady deep focus bracketing is not possible. Camera is mounted on the Platypod Ergo ball head and eXtreme base. I also use a 3 Legged Thing universal L-bracket to easily rotate the camera from horizontal to vertical compositions. There are camera specific brackets which are easier to use but more expensive. For light control and wind blocker a Wescott 20 inch scrim/reflector is employed.
Focus
When macro focusing, try to get a point just in front of where you would like focus to start. If you focus right on the front edge of your subject it will end up just a bit soft. When focus bracketing I suggest you start your focus at the front and have it move away from the camera. See your camera menus for the proper settings
Another thing that will mess with your focus is camera movement. I recommend using either a remote trigger or at least adding a two second delay to your shutter.
Teeny tiny flower
Focus stacking needs to be stacked. You can do this in Adobe Photoshop. If you plan to do its of macro capture or are stacking over 20 images, I recommend getting Helicon Focus from Helicon Soft. It makes short work with better results when you have lots of images. The stack with which I’m working is 129 images. That would choke my computer using Photoshop layers and it is a breeze with Helicon. If you decide after using the trial you can buy a one year license, that is upgradable to a lifetime license with no penalty.
Single exposure
This was a frame from a a single exposure as I wanted to feature the spikes in the center of the flower allowing the foreground and background to be slightly out of focus. Just because you photographed a stack of images doesn’t mean you need to show them all in focus. This adds possibilities to how you process your photos.
Yours in Creative Photography,
Bob
