Lavender Flower

[stephencamptonjones]

Two shots of a part of a lavender flower
Nikon D80 Nikon 50mm f1.4 @ f8 1.3 sec - 1st 2.5 sec second image ISO 100, PB6 Bellows with a 161mm extension for the second image.
I used Zerene Stacker to stack 11 for the first 12 for the second.

Thanks for looking.
Stephen

[Bobobird]

Good try but I am afraid the stacks did not work. The white flower should be the center of attention but even stacked that does not show up as sharp. Actually the surroundings in #1 come out sharper then the flower itself. In #2 apart from the edges and the adjacent bit that are sharp, the depth of the flower is soft.

[Andrew76]

Stephen, I'm at a bit of a quandry with these shots. I've re-visited the thread 5 times now, and I appreciate the effort that went into them, and even more so admire the use of the bellows, but the final product has failed to keep my attention.

It may be for the reasons that Bobo mentions above, but it's just not 'there' for me. Please take my observations with a grain of salt, I'm probably the newest one to macro photography around here, and even more so to stacking, so please don't take any offence, I'm just trying to learn.

I have next to nil experience with this type of shooting outdoors - everything I've tried myself to date, has been in a makeshift basement studio. However, I have been reading that the pros in this field still bring their lighting setups with them (whether attached to camera via brackets, or lightstands), when doing 'au-natural' outdoor shots. And, this may be why to me, the two don't work. There's no real 'eye catching' (I couldn't think of an appropriate adjective to insert there) lighting on the main subject to make it the focus.

I hope you don't mind me saying so? And moreso, I hope you don't mind that everytime you post one of your stacked, macro shots, I've tried to replicate it! Not so much with the subject matter, but with the technique - I've learned quite a bit from your last few posts!

[revi]

On the first one I have to agree with Bobo. In addition, it looks like there's some dust or so on the buds.
Otoh, I'm not so sure that the inside of the flower is particularly softer than the outside. There is a lot
less contrast there (normal, white on white in very diffuse light), and I think that might give the
impression of softness (after all, we call diffuse light also soft light )

[stephencamptonjones]

I am also learning.
I haven't worried about lighting. Focus is my main objective at the moment - trying to turn a handle the tiniest bit is not easy.